Creating and Publishing Assignments

To begin creating a new assignment, click the Assignments tab on the PowerTeacher Gradebook main window.

On the Assignments tab, you can see a list of all the assignments you have created so far.

By default, the list of assignments is sorted by due date. However, if you want to sort the list by one of the other column headings, such as Name or Category, click the column heading.

You can enter assignments one at a time as they are due, or you can enter all assignments before the term starts. Unrecorded scores do not count in students’ final grade calculations, so you can add all of your assignments ahead of time without worrying about affecting students’ final grades.

The next assignment to enter in the gradebook is a pop quiz you plan to administer in a few weeks.

To add the new assignment, click the + sign beneath the list of assignments.

When the New Assignment pane opens in the lower half of the Assignments tab, enter the name of the assignment.

Next, select a category for the assignment. Choose Quiz.

Then, to record students’ scores using points, use the default selection of Points from the Score Type menu.

You want the quiz to be worth 15 points, but you also want to include 5 extra credit points. So, enter 15 in the Points Possible field and 5 in the Extra Points field.

Notice that the Max field now shows that students can earn a maximum of 20 points on the assignment. This means they can earn the 15 points possible, plus the 5 extra points.

Each assignment is given a weight that determines its value in the final grade calculation. The default weight value for all of the pre-defined assignment categories is 1. The system will multiply the scores for this assignment by 1 when calculating the final grade. To set up the assignment to be worth up to the maximum number of points, use the default value of 1.

Next, enter the due date for the assignment. The default due date is today’s date. Click the Calendar icon and select the due date.

To include the quiz in students’ final grades, make sure Include in Final Grade is checked.

Next, enter a description for the assignment.

To add a website link to the description, click + link.

To add one of your own links, click My Content.

On the My Content window, select the name of the link you wish to add, then click OK.

You can see that the website link is added to your assignment description. When students and parents view the assignment in the Student and Parent Portals, they can click the link to learn more about the assignment topic.

Next, decide when you want to publish the assignment to the Student and Parent Portals. If you wanted to publish the assignment now, you would click Save without navigating to the Publish pane.

However, you want to delay the publication of this assignment because it is a pop quiz and you don’t want students to know about it ahead of time. So, click the Publish tab.

Open the Publish Assignment menu, and select On Specific Date.

Then enter the date you want the assignment published. Click the Calendar icon and select the day after the due date.

Scores for the Quiz category are published automatically to the Student and Parent Portals. Since you want students and parents to be able to view the scores for this quiz, make sure the Publish Scores check box is selected.

Click Save once the assignment information is complete.

Once saved, the new assignment appears in the list of assignments, but how can you tell if the publication date is delayed without checking the information under the Publish tab? The answer is on the Scoresheet.

Click the Scoresheet tab.

Notice the gray hourglass icon in the quiz assignment heading on the Scoresheet. This icon indicates that the assignment is not published yet.

When the video ends, click Next below to learn how to edit an assignment.