Get Started
From the navbar, click Communication and select Discussions
Assessing a Discussion Topic
Click the dropdown arrow next to the title of the discussion topic. Then click on "Assess Topic."
A list of your students will display with a hyperlink blue text below their name. If you don't use a rubric, the text will say "Topic Score."
If you have a rubric attached to the discussion, your may see both "Topic Score" and the name of your rubric. Clicking on either option will work.
Click on the blue hyperlink under a student's name to open up the assessment window for that student.
Left Side
On the left side of the assessment window, you will see the student's posts and replies. This allows you to see all their participation in this discussion in one place. Notice that the topic and reply titles are blue hyperlinks. If you need more context, you can click on the title of the post. It will open the post in a new window so that you can get an idea of the context in which the post was made.
Right Side
Rubrics
You can interact with the rubric in a streamlined/simplified version in the right-hand window, or expand the rubric into a whole page by clicking on this icon.
Grade each criterion by clicking on the description that matches the student's work. As you select a level for each criterion, you will see a checkmark and the total score will automatically tally. If you use a rubric, you can provide feedback on each criterion as well as overall feedback.
Overall Grade
With Rubric:
If you've used a rubric, the selected criterion scores will total automatically to generate an overall grade.
Without Rubric:
If you didn't use a rubric, manually enter the student's score in the Overall Grade field.
Overall Feedback
Enter overall feedback in the textbox provided. Notice that you have a full text editor in this box. You can add text, videos, and quick links to course materials as a way to reinforce student learning.
Publish
When you are done scoring and providing feedback, click publish. Or if you want to release all of the grades at once, you can save it as a draft and release the grades to all students on the previous screen.