Personal Assignments
Student extensions: Working with students who need an assignment extended.
Last updated
Student extensions: Working with students who need an assignment extended.
Last updated
Inevitably, at some point in the semester, a student will need an extension or have a scheduling issue. It is important to have flexibility within a system to account for issues as they arise. In SIMnet, Instructors can create Personal Assignments for students to account for scheduling problems, personal issues, or technology hiccups. Personal Assignments can be entirely new content but typically they are pre-existing course assignments that are reassigned to individual students with new Start and End Dates and some additional criteria at the instructor's discretion.
Personal assignments can be created directly from Course Assignments in the Student's Edit/Assign page. Search for the desired student in the Students section then select Edit/Assign from the drop-down action menu. Navigate to the Student Assignments tab. On the left side of the Student Assignments page are all assignments in courses that student is assigned to. Select the desired Class and Assignment Type. Select the desired course assignments in the left side and then click the Add button to add that assignment as a Personal Assignment for the student. Select the desired Assignment Preferences and click Save the same way that you would when assigning any other learning object. The Transfer student results to: box will automatically be set to the course in the Classes drop-down.
You can also assign other learning objects from this view by selecting the Not In Class View Assignments radio button. All assignments that have currently been created will be available in this view. If the chosen assignment in this view is assigned to the course it will still be set to Transfer student results to: the assigned course by default. Otherwise the assigment will not transfer to a course and the transfer will be None.
All currently assigned Personal Assignments will be displayed on the Right side of the view. You can edit them with using the Edit button to change the assignment settings.
Personal assignments are assigned as regular course assignments with one key difference - instead of using the Class Assignments tab to assign content, use the Student Assignments tab.
Select the desired student or students from the Available Students on the left and click the Add button. The Assignment Details window opens just as a typical assignment does. There is one additional option in the Personal Assignment Assignment Details window: the Gradebook Options section.
In the Gradebook Options section, any assignment that is in a course that the students are enrolled in will be displayed in the Transfer student results to drop down list. If that option is set to the students' current course, the Personal Assignment will be linked to the Course grade. The grade that the students receive for their personal assignments will automatically replace the students' grades for that assignment for the Course Assignment.
If the students do not have that assignment in their course the Transfer student results to option will be None. If you would like to assign a Personal Assignment to students without having the result transfer to the gradebook select None from the Transfer student results to drop-down menu.
Linked Personal Assignments, by default, have the same number of attempts that the Course Assignment has. If students have used all of their Course Attempts at an assignment before the creation of the Linked Personal Assignment, they will not be able to add new attempts. To add new attempts, change the number of allowed attempts in the Personal Assignment to the desired total.
If using a Personal Assignment is not an effective method there are other options available to instructors. Instructors can:
add additional attempts for all students in a course
move the End Date or Due Date for an assignment
provide additional attempts or time but also password protect the assignment to prevent additional student access
delete previous attempts from the gradebook or student report
manually change the student's grade in the gradebook
offer extra credit assignments for the course
When Personal Assignments automatically transfer to course assignments upon completion of specific steps based on assignment type.
Once the Personal Assignment has been assigned with Course Assignment attempts remaining, the student will be able to complete the assignment as they normally would. Once they have completed the assignment attempt, the attempt will automatically be transferred to the Course Assignment and to the gradebook and the Personal Assignment will no longer be available after all Course Assignment attempts have been submitted.
Lessons and SIMbook Course Assignments are not dependent upon attempts. They typically allow the student to access the assignment as many times as they would like. The student will get credit for anything that they complete at any time during the duration of the Course Assignment. The same is true of Personal Assignments for Lessons and SIMbooks.
Lesson and SIMbook Personal Assignments are transferred to the Course Assignment in one of two circumstances. First, the student completes all of the available skills in the assignment and gains all available points. Once this occurs the student will no longer be able to access their Personal Assignment and that assignment will be closed. The second time a Personal Assignment grade can transfer is once the Personal Assignment has reached its End Date.
If a Personal Assignment is linked to a Course Assignment after the student has completed tasks, and either the end date of the course assignment has passed, or all tasks have been completed, the personal assignment will immediately transfer to the course.
SIMpaths are effectively two Exam assignments in conjunction with a Lesson. As such, they are not transferred from the Personal Assignment to the Class assignment until the entire SIMpath has been completed. In some instances this will require students to duplicate part of the work they have previously completed in the Course Assignment. For example, if the student had completed their Pre-test and Lesson in the Course Assignment but did not attempt the Post-test the student would have to redo the Pre-test and Lesson on their Personal Assignment. The SIMpath grade(s) are transferred to the Course Assignment once the Personal Assignment SIMpath has been completed or the Personal Assignment End Date has passed.
All results related to the Course Assignment will be removed and replaced with results from the Personal Assignment upon transfer.
SIMpath Personal Assignments only allow 1 Post-Test attempt before the transfer to the Course Assignment. Any additional Post-Test attempts may be taken in the Course Assignment, if available.
To view a list of a student's Personal Assignments, Search for Students until you find the desired student. Click the Actions menu drop-down and select Edit/Assign. Click the Student Assignments tab. On this tab all Personal Assignments for that student will be displayed.
Project and Exam assignments are all dependent on attempts. Each assignment type requires additional attempts remaining in the Course Assignment for the Personal Assignment to transfer. For example, if the Course Assignment has 2 attempts allowed and the student has taken both of those attempts, the student’s Personal Assignment attempt cannot be transferred to the Course Assignment grade in the gradebook. In the event that a student has used all of the available attempts at the Course Assignment, the instructor should add additional attempts when assigning the Personal Assignment. If the total number of attempts in the Personal Assignment is greater than the number of attempts in the Course Assignment, the additional Personal Assignment attempts will transfer to the course grade. For example if the Course Assignment had 2 attempts and the student completed them, and the Personal Assignment is set to 3 attempts, the student will be able to take 1 Personal Assignment attempt and automatically transfer that attempt to the course grade. Additional Personal Assignment attempts will not transfer. In the event that a student has used all of the available attempts at the Course Assignment and the additional attempts provided by the Personal Assignment, the instructor should either be Deleting Attempts from the Course Assignmentor add attempts to the Course Assignment like they do when they Edit/Assign Projects.
