Creating assignments

A student can always independently add work to their portfolio, allowing them to preserve valuable products or reflections. If you, as a teacher, want to structure that process, you can use Simulise assignments. These assignments can be used:

  • To allow students to place products/work in their portfolios.
  • To encourage students to reflect on the skills they employed during a specific assignment or task. They think about the process, facilitated by a rubric linked to the assignment. The score from the rubric will also appear in their Skills diagram.
  • To provide feedback on the work from the teacher or from others invited by a student.

Assignments can only be created by Assignment authors. If you cannot add assignments, it means you do not have this additional role and can only distribute assignments created by other authors.

A Simulise administrator can assign this extra role to a teacher. By default, teachers cannot develop assignments themselves.


Watch the shortened video or read below for the steps:

Navigate to the Assignments module in the left menu. Click on it, and you will arrive at the Assignments Library. Here, you can view all the assignments created by your school. Additionally, you can add new assignments yourself.


Add assignments

Select the + New Assignment option. You will go through a series of steps to develop the assignment.

Basic info, metadata and display

  1. Give the assignment a title (required). The title makes it easy to recognize the assignment.
  2. Choose from Text, File, or Link to further explain the assignment. The choice you make will be displayed as the description of the assignment.
  3. Under Settings, you can do the following:
    1. Activate the assignment using the toggle switch. If an assignment is active, it can be included in a lesson plan and distributed to students.
    2. Add a location (required): This module is only available if it is enabled for your school.
  4. Under View More Settings, you can do the following:
    1. Provide the assignment with metadata using Labels.
    2. Add feedback questions: If there are feedback questions linked to the assignment, students can ask questions to the evaluator(s).
    3. Duration: Add a duration for the assignment.
    4. Optionally, add an (additional) author to the assignment. Authors can edit the assignment.
  5. Choose an image: The image will be displayed as a banner above the assignment. This allows you to style the assignment. Additionally, the banner will be visible to the student on the dashboard under the assignments widget.
  6. Then select Finish & Next to proceed to linking Rubrics.

Adding rubrics to an assignment

Rubrics are used to assess students' skills. When the assignment status is marked as completed, the competency diagram will be updated with the achieved scores.

  1. Select the + Add option to attach a rubric to the assignment. You can now search for the desired rubric. Use the filtering options to make searching easier. If no filters are used, all rubrics will be displayed.
    1. The rubric can be marked as optional. This means that it is not mandatory for the student to fill out the rubric. If the student chooses not to complete the rubric, the evaluator is also not allowed to do so.
    2. Click on the rubric after it has been selected to view it. The rubric will open in a new tab.
  2. Under Student Reflection, you can indicate the following:
    1. Directly upon submitting (default): This requires the student to have completed the rubric when submitting the assignment (unless the rubric is optional).
    2. Optionally after submitting: In this case, the student has the option not to fill out the rubric during submission but can do so afterward. The evaluator will only have the opportunity to reflect once the student has done so.
  3. Under Reflection Invitation, you can indicate the following:
    1. None (default): There is no option for the student to invite another user for reflection.
    2. Optional: The student may invite another user for reflection.
    3. Required: The student must invite someone for reflection. Here, you must specify how many users the student must invite at a minimum and a maximum.
  4. Then select Finish & Next to proceed to linking submissions.

It is not required to put rubrics into an assignment. The assignment can be made without any rubrics.


Add deliverables to an assignment

For deliverables, it is specified what the student needs to submit in order to complete the assignment. The following options are available:

It is not required to link deliverables to an assignment. An assignment can also exist without any required submissions.


Portfolio item

A portfolio item is considered an individual document within the student’s portfolio. These can be found under the Work tab in the student’s portfolio.

  • Provide a title for the deliverable (mandatory): The title of the deliverable will be visible to the student.
  • Provide a short description, if desired: The student will see this description with the deliverable.
  • Allowed types: Indicate which file types are permitted for submission within the assignment.
    • If Blog is selected as an allowed type, the Blog Settings option will appear. Here, you can specify the minimum and maximum word count a blog must have before it can be submitted.
  • Deliverables is optional: Indicate whether the submission is optional. If so, the student is not required to submit a deliverable.
  • Multiple items can be deliverd: Indicate whether the student can select multiple items from their portfolio for this submission. You can then set the minimum and maximum number of portfolio items.

Pages

A page is considered a page within the portfolio. Pages are displayed under Pages in the student's portfolio.

  • Provide a title for the deliverable (mandatory): The title of the deliverable will be visible to the student.
  • Provide a short description, if desired: The student will see this description with the deliverable.
  • Page is optional: Indicate whether the submission is optional. If so, the student is not required to submit a deliverable.

Page Template

A page template created in the Templates module can be linked as a submission to an assignment. It is not necessary to distribute the template to the group through the Templates module. The link is then established via the assignment.

  • Provide a title for the deliverable (mandatory): The title of the deliverable will be visible to the student.
  • Provide a short description, if desired: The student will see this description with the deliverable.
  • Select a template (mandatory): Select one of the templates created in the Templates module.
  • Release page after reviewing: If a template is linked to an assignment, the page will, by default, not be editable after it is submitted (even after assessment). By enabling this toggle, the student will be able to edit the page even after the template has been submitted and assessed.
    • When this setting is disabled (default), the student will not be allowed to edit or delete the template.

Adding sources to an assignment

Sources linked to the assignment are displayed below the assignment description and are visible to the student. These sources can serve as background information for the assignment.

  • Files: Add files to the assignment description. Students can open and/or download the files.
  • Videos: Link videos, such as from YouTube, to the assignment. Students can then watch the videos.
  • Links: Attach a link to the assignment. The student can open it by clicking on the link.

Activate Assignment

Have all the above steps been completed? Then the assignment can be activated and subsequently distributed to the students. Activated assignments are by default made visible in the assignments library and can be used by other teachers.

If you do not want to activate the assignment yet, simply select Finish. This means the assignment will not immediately appear in the assignments library, but will need to be filtered as inactive in the module. Then, choose Activate via the blue square to make the assignment active.


Copying an Existing Assignment

You might want to modify an assignment, for example, if you'd like to use an existing assignment created by another author and customize it to your needs. Alternatively, if students have already started working on the assignment, it may no longer be editable. For these reasons, you can easily copy assignments and then make any desired changes.

  1. Navigate to the assignment you wish to copy in the Library.
  2. Click on the arrow next to the assignment and select Copy. The assignment will be automatically duplicated, with "copied" added to the title.
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