Overview

Assignments are asynchronous activities your learners can complete at their own pace and at their own time with optional due dates.  They come with many useful features that let you tailor the experience for your learners and can optionally be associated with a Course.

Creating an Assignment

You can create a new Assignment either from within your Library or from within a Course.  Assignments created from your library will not need to be associated with a Course, but Assignments created from within a Course will be associated with that Course automatically.

All Assignments will need:

1. A name
2. A Poll Deck for learners to interact with

Learners who have been granted access to your Assignment will be able interact and complete the Assignment beginning on its start date. It doesn't matter when they interact with the Assignment after that date so long as it is before the Assignment due date or before you close the Assignment, if you choose to close it manually.  Once complete, you'll be able view the Results of your Assignment. 

You can either create an Assignment from an existing Poll Deck or you can create a new Poll Deck after starting your Assignment.  We'll go over the options you have when creating Assignments later, but first, let's show the different ways you can create an Assignment.

Creating an Assignment from an Existing Poll Deck in Your Library

A Poll Deck can be used to create multiple Assignments directly from your Library.  Simply:

1. Log into EchoPoll using your Instructor account.
2. Navigate to the My Library tab (see image below).
3. Select the Poll Decks tab within your Library (see image below).

4. From here, click the Assign button on  your desired Poll Deck:

5. This will bring up the New Assignment window:

6. You can select a Start Date and Due Date (both in the future), and then create your Assignment by clicking the Assign button. Leaving the Start Date blank will make the Assignment available immediately, and leaving the Due Date blank will keep the Assignment open until you end it manually.

There several ways to fine-tune your Assignment, and we'll review them later in this article.  You can use the navigation on the right to check them out at any time. 

Creating an Assignment from Scratch

You don't need to start with an existing Poll Deck if you don't have any.  You can create the Poll Deck as part of your Assignment creation process if you wish.

1. Log into EchoPoll with your Instructor account.
2. Click the Create button at the top right of your screen and select Assignment.

3. This will bring up the New Assignment screen displaying all the options for creating  your Assignment.  Again, you'll need to provide a name for the Assignment.
4. You will also now have the option to create a new Poll Deck (see below).

Now you can create your new Poll Deck and continue creating your new Assignment. 

There several ways to fine-tune your Assignment, and we'll review them later in this article.  You can use the navigation on the right to check them out at any time. 

Creating an Assignment from a Course

Creating an Assignment from within an existing Course in EchoPoll is an easy way to associate your new Assignment with that Course.  Assignments associated with Courses can have their access restricted to the course Roster and you can easily find your Assignment Results within the Course Results tab. 

To create a new Assignment from within a course:

1. Log into EchoPoll with your Instructor account.
2. Navigate to the My Courses tab and select the Course you want to use.

3. This will bring up your Course page.  Click on the Assignments tab and click New Assignment.

This will bring up the Assignment creation page, allowing you to create a new Assignment from an existing Poll Deck in your library or from scratch.

Your new Assignment will need, at minimum, a name and a Poll Deck.

There several ways to fine-tune your Assignment, and we'll review them later in this article.  You can use the navigation on the right to check them out at any time. 

Assignment Options

Every new Assignment comes with several options to let you define how your learners will interact with it.

Let's look at the New Assignment modal accessed by clicking the Assign button on an existing Poll Deck in your Library.

Here's what every field/attribute does:

• Assignment Name: (required) Every new Assignment needs a name.  Some workflows will pre-populate a name for you, but you can always edit it before saving. 
• Start Date / Start Time: (optional) This is the date and time your learners will get access to the Assignment and needs to be in the future. If you leave it blank, your Assignment will be available to learners immediately.
• Due Date / Due Time: (optional) This is the date and time learners must submit their responses by.  After this date and time, the Assignment will be closed automatically. If you leave this blank, your Assignment will be available until you close it manually.
• Course Record: (optional) If you want to associate your Assignment with a Course, you can.  This will let you limit the learners who have access to your Assignment to those in your Course Roster, will allow the Learners to navigate to the Assignment within the Course, and will allow you to view  your Assignment Results within the Course Results tab.
• Participant Settings: (required) This determines which learners have access to your Assignment.  The options you can use will depend on your EchoPoll licensing.   
  • Course Roster: If your Assignment is associated with a Course, you can choose to limit access to leaners in your Course Roster. This is also the default participation setting when your Assignment is part of a course.
  • Entire Organization: Anyone who is a member of your EchoPoll organization will have access to your Assignment. This is the default participation setting with your Assignment is not linked to a course.
  • Guest (sign-in): Any logged in EchoPoll user can access your Assignment if you provide them with a link to it. This means you will know who has completed your Assignment, but they don't necessarily need to be part of your Roster or organization. 
  • Guests (public): Anyone can join your Assignment if you provide them with a link to it, and they don't need to log in first.  This option allows for anonymous Assignment completion, which may be a requirement for you. 
• Attempts: (required) This determines the number of times your learners can re-try your Assignment. Learners will have 1 attempt by default, but you can give them up to 10 attempts, or unlimited.
• Show solutions: You can choose to let your learners see the correct answer for questions as they complete the Assignment.  This is disabled by default.
• Show results: You can choose to let your learners see what questions they answered correct or incorrect after submitting their answer.  This is enabled by default.
• Show score: This lets your learners see their final score on the Assignment.  This is enabled by default. 
• Randomize answers: This changes the orders of your answers for multiple choice and multiple select questions.  We'll keep track of which answer you marked correct.  This is disabled by default. 

While a Poll Deck is always required for an Assignment, we don't see the option here because this Assignment was created directly from an existing Poll Deck in our Library.