Desire2Learn > D2L Essentials > Assignment Folders

Assignment Folders

Creating Assignment Folders

Assignment folders allow students to submit work to you in D2L. Instructors typically set up Assignment folders when students need to turn in one or more files (papers in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint presentations, etc.) as part of an assignment. Using Assignment folders to manage student file submissions provides several benefits:

You can download all student files at once instead of downloading attachments one by one via email or an online discussion topic.
You can edit/comment on student files and re-upload them to the Assignment folder so students can see your feedback.
You will always have a record of exactly who submitted each file and when it was uploaded.
You can associate a specific item in your gradebook with an Assignment folder so that grades you post in the folder automatically appear in the grades area of D2L.

Best Practices

Create one Assignment folder for each assignment.

Think of this like collecting hard copies of student work: You would likely put all student papers for one assignment in one folder.

Link to Assignment folders from the content area.

This will make it easier for students to access a particular Submission folder and submit an assignment at the appropriate time. If you've organized your content by type, you might add links to your Assignment folders in an "Assignments" module. If you are organizing chronologically, you can link to your Assignment folders in the weeks that the assignments are due.

Make sure your Assignment folder link is published.

When adding an Assignment folder to the Content area of your course, be sure that it is set to Visible so that students can see the link to the folder.

Include essential technical requirements.

Your assignment instructions should include the following technical guidelines:

submission file format, such as .doc, .docx, .rtf, .ppt, or .pdf
computer skills and specialized software necessary to complete the assignment (if any)

Include a precise deadline.

All Assignment folders should include a final deadline with an exact date and time. Avoid using 12:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. in your deadlines, as students will often confuse the two. Instead, use 11:59 p.m. or another time that is less likely to cause confusion.

Offer a low-stakes practice assignment that requires a file submission.

Providing a non-graded practice assignment that requires a file submission can provide an ideal "trial run" for ironing out technical issues early in the term. Giving students a chance to test out uploading files to the folders while the stakes are low can help avoid arguments later on when students are more likely to blame technology for missing key deadlines.

Enable originality checking to assist with plagiarism detection.

When setting up or editing an Assignment folder, checking the box under the "Originality Check" heading will ensure that all files submitted to that folder are run through Turnitin, a plagiarism-detection tool. Turnitin will generate an originality report to help identify parts of a document that are not the author's own words. Whether you want to use Turnitin as a teaching tool to help students better understand proper citiation and paraphrasing or as a way to help you detect possible academic integrity violations, be sure to enable originality checking on your Submission folders.

Guides and Tutorials

The following guides explain how to create an Assignment folder and evaluate student submissions.

Creating a new Assignment folder in D2L
Evaluating all files submitted to an Assignment folder in D2L
Grading Assignments
Creating links in the content area in D2L - Scroll down to the section titled "Adding Links to other D2L Tools." The steps in this section can be followed to add a variety of activities to your content area, including Assignments.

Hands-on Practice: Assignment Folders (Optional)

After reading through the topics in this unit, it's your turn to practice in your course. Keep in mind that no one will be evaluating the content of what you create in your course, and you can always revise these items later. The goal of the assignments in this course is only to ensure you’re comfortable using each tool.

To satisfy the requirements of this unit, complete the following tasks in your course:

Go to the Assignments area and create a new Assignment folder for an assignment.