Brightspace Assignment Grader for Android

How Brightspace Assignment Grader works

Brightspace Assignment Grader is a mobile application that you can use to download and evaluate assignment submissions from your Brightspace Learning Environment course offering assignments. You can view submissions and add grades and feedback while connected to the Internet or offline. While connected to the Internet, the application automatically synchronizes grades and feedback with your Brightspace Learning Environment assignments, but you have the option to release the information to learners at a later time. You can apply feedback in a variety of formats including text, audio, or video. You can access rubrics and make inline comments and annotations directly to submissions to provide contextualized feedback to learners.

Supported devices and platform versions

The following are the minimum requirements to use Brightspace Assignment Grader:

  • Brightspace platform 10.3 or higher
  • Android 4.1 or later

Note: Brightspace Assignment Grader for Android is only optimized for Android tablets and is not available on Android phones.

Log in using your Brightspace Learning Environment account

Log in to Brightspace Assignment Grader using the same credentials you use for your organization's Brightspace Learning Environment account. (Brightspace Learning Environment appears as D2L Online Courses in Brightspace Assignment Grader).

  1. On the log in screen, in the Enter your D2L Courses web address field, enter the URL of your organization's Brightspace Learning Environment site.
  2. Deselect the Use https to connect with the strongest possible security configurations check box, if required (by default, it is selected).
  3. Tap Log into D2L Online Courses.
  4. On the Brightspace welcome screen, enter your Brightspace Learning Environment account credentials.
  5. Tap Log In. The assignment information within Brightspace Learning Environment automatically synchronizes with and displays in Brightspace Assignment Grader.
Get the URL of your Brightspace Learning Environment instance
  1. Open a web browser on your Android device.
  2. Navigate to your organization's Brightspace Learning Environment site.
  3. Log in using your Brightspace Learning Environment credentials.
  4. Copy the URL.
  5. Under Manage Linked Accounts, in the Link your account to your online courses dialog box, paste the web address in the Enter Web Address field.
Change your display settings
  1. On the Brightspace Assignment Grader course tiles page, tap the settings_icon_ag for android Settings icon.
  2. In the Display section, do any of the following:
    • To hide assignments that you have already fully graded, select Hide Graded Assignments.
    • To hide courses whose end dates have passed, select Hide Courses Past Their End Date.
    • To hide courses without assignments, select Hide Courses with no Assignments.
About synchronizing your Brightspace Learning Environment account with Brightspace Assignment Grader

When you first log in to Brightspace Assignment Grader, assignment information in your Brightspace Learning Environment courses automatically synchronizes with the app. When you evaluate a submission by applying feedback or assigning a grade using Brightspace Assignment Grader, the grading status of the submission is set to In Draft. Grades and feedback for submissions with an In Draft status are periodically and automatically synchronized with Brightspace Learning Environment but are not released to learners. You must explicitly release the evaluation information to learners by tapping Publish All in the submission list view or Publish in the individual submission view. When the grades and feedback you have applied are released to learners, the grading status of the submissions changes to Published.

To refresh the assignment information in Brightspace Assignment Grader, you can pull from top to bottom in any list view. Upon refresh, if there are any submissions with an In Draft grading status, the information does not get released to learners in Brightspace Learning Environment; the app just receives any updates from Brightspace Learning Environment and In Draft grades and feedback are maintained within Brightspace Assignment Grader.

Note: Automatic synchronization of In Draft feedback with Brightspace Learning Environment and forced refresh to receive updates from Brightspace Learning Environment can only take place when the mobile device is connected to the Internet. If the device is not connected to the Internet, the changes are queued and stored within the application until a connection is made, and at that time an automatic synchronization or the receiving of updates can occur.

Sort assignments

To change how your assignments display, in the assignment list view within a course, tap the sort by_icon_ag for android Sort by icon and then do one of the following:

  • To view assignments by due date, select Due Date.
  • To view assignments by the number of ungraded submissions, select Not graded.
  • To view assignments by name, select Name.
Sort submissions within an assignment

To change how learner submissions display within a given assignment, tap the sort by_icon_ag for android Sort by icon and then do one of the following:

  • To view submissions based on those that are not graded, select Not graded.
  • To view submissions by learner name, select Name.
  • To view submissions by date submitted, select Date.
  • To view submissions by grade, select Grade.
Annotate an assignment submission

You can provide feedback directly in submitted assignments using annotation tools.

  1. From the course Assignments page, tap the assignment you want to evaluate.
  2. Inside the assignment, tap a submission to open it.
  3. For text files, if you long press a location where there is no text, do any of the following:
    • Tap Note. Enter your text. Tap Save.
    • Tap Drawing. Draw with your finger. With the drawing selected, tap Style to change the properties of the pencil.
    • Tap Eraser to erase existing annotations.
  4. For text files, if you long press a location where there is text, do any of the following:
    • Tap Copy to copy the text to your clipboard.
    • Tap Highlight. With the annotated text selected, select any of the corresponding options to attach a note, change the style, copy to clipboard, change the type of annotation or delete.
    • Tap Strikeout. With the annotated text selected, select any of the corresponding options to attach a note, change the style, copy to clipboard, change the type of annotation or delete.
    • Tap Underline. With the annotated text selected, select any of the corresponding options to attach a note, change the style, copy to clipboard, change the type of annotation or delete.

In image documents, the only annotation actions available are Note, Drawing, and Eraser.

Grade an assignment submission

Before grading assignment submissions, ensure you synchronize Brightspace Assignment Grader with the assignments in your Brightspace Learning Environment course(s) to get the most up-to-date information. To do this, you can pull from top to bottom in any list view.

  1. Tap a course tile.
  2. Inside the course, tap an assignment.
  3. Inside the folder, all of the learner (or group) submissions display in a list. Each submission displays the date and time it was submitted and the amount of time it was late by, if applicable. To open a submission, tap it.
  4. To open the Evaluate panel on the right of the screen, tap it. Then do any of the following:
    • To set a final score for the submission, in the Total section, enter a score.
    • To use an associated rubric, in the Rubric section, tap the rubric. Select the appropriate performance level for each criterion. Set the number of points each criterion is worth, or set the Overall Score manually, by entering it in the corresponding field in the Score column. Add feedback to a specific rubric section by tapping +Feedback. If you want the score of the rubric to display in the Total section for the submission and generate text feedback from the feedback in the rubric, tap Save and Record. If you want to enter a total score and text feedback manually, tap Save.
    • To give written feedback, in the Overall Feedback section, enter your feedback. Format your feedback using the options in the text box.
    • To give audio feedback, tap the AG_Android_audio_feedback icon. In the dialog window, tap the red circle. Speak your feedback. When you are done recording, tap the blue square. Tap Attach Feedback to include as submission feedback.
    • To give video feedback, tap the AG_Android_video_feedback icon. In the recording view, tap the red circle. Present your feedback. To end the recording, tap the red circle again. Tap the check mark to include it as submission feedback.
    • To annotate the file with feedback in context, long press the location on the submission where you want to annotate. See Annotate an assignment submission for more information.
  5. To publish the grades and feedback to Brightspace Learning Environment, do any of the following:
    • To release just that submission's grade and feedback to the learner in Brightspace Learning Environment, in the individual submission view, tap Publish and then OK in the confirmation dialog box.
    • To release all In Draft grades and feedback in an assignment to learners in Brightspace Learning Environment, navigate to the assignments list view, tap Publish All, and then OK in the confirmation dialog box.
Update or retract published grades and feedback

After you release grades and feedback to learners, you can change the information by doing any of the following:

  • In a submission view with a grading status of Published, tap Retract to remove the grade and feedback from the learner's view in Brightspace Learning Environment. The status changes to In Draft and the grade and feedback are maintained for the submission but are only visible to you.
  • In a submission view with a grading status of Published, modify the grade or feedback and the status in the submission list view changes to Published! to indicate that there are changes that have not yet been released to learners. Release the changes to the learner by opening the submission and tapping Update.
  • In an assignment with multiple submissions with a status of Published!, tap Publish All to release all of the updates in that folder to learners in Brightspace Learning Environment.
Download assignment submissions

You can download assignments and the submissions within them directly to your Android device to work offline.

  1. On the Brightspace Assignment Grader course tile page, select a course.
  2. On the course assignments page, tap the download_icon_ag for android Download icon beside any assignment. A checkmark_icon_ag for android displays beside any folder that is downloaded.
Troubleshooting Brightspace Assignment Grader

I cannot connect my account or sync my assignments

If you receive an error while attempting to connect your Brightspace Learning Environment account, then your account may not have the proper permissions to access Brightspace Assignment Grader.

This could also mean that an option to support Brightspace Assignment Grader is not enabled within your organization's instance. Contact your organization's Brightspace Learning Environment administrator to enable the support, or for the necessary permissions.

I cannot see all of my courses or assignments

If you cannot see some of your courses or assignments, then they may be hidden by the display settings. Ensure that you have selected the appropriate display settings for the information you want to see. If you have confirmed your display settings but still cannot see all of your courses and assignments, contact your organization’s Brightspace Learning Environment administrator.