Assignments: setting work for learners and marking it
The place where homework is given out, collected, marked and returned to the class.
Assignments are the written work you set for a class and collect back: homework, exercises, a written test or a project brief. Every assignment belongs to one course, carries a maximum score, has a due date, and can be tied to one component of your assessment so the marks it earns count towards the learner’s final grade.
Two people normally work here. The teacher who teaches the course sets the work and marks what comes back. The secretary or the head of school opens the same list to check that a class was actually given work and that it was marked, and to see at a glance how many copies are still waiting.
The list is deliberately short: one row per assignment, with the number of copies received and the number already graded sitting side by side. That pair of figures is the honest answer to the question every department meeting asks — was the work set, and did it get marked?
Set, collect, mark, return
Four steps, and the result to expect at the end of each.
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Step 1
Open Assignments and click New
Assignments has its own entry in the sidebar. Click New and a form opens with the fields that decide how the work is marked: Title, Course, Max Score, Description, Due At and Published.
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Step 2
Pick the course and the component it feeds
Course is required. Time Unit places the work inside a term or a sequence, and Assessment Component names the part of the course mark this homework will update. If the component list is empty, attach an assessment template to the course first.
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Step 3
Publish it, then wait for the copies
Leave Published off while you are still typing and the work stays private to staff. Switch it on and learners see the assignment inside their course; the Submissions column fills as answers arrive.
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Step 4
Open the submissions and grade
From the row’s actions open the submissions list. Download a scanned sheet or a photographed answer, type the mark, add a remark and save. The Graded column counts up, and the mark is ready to move into its assessment component.
What each field on an assignment decides
Six fields, and not one of them is decoration.
The course decides who receives the work
Course is the only field you cannot leave blank, because it is what makes the assignment appear in the right learners’ course. Pick it before you worry about anything else: if the wrong course is chosen, the class you wanted simply never sees the homework.
Time Unit places the work in the term or the sequence it belongs to. This matters at report time rather than at marking time: a broadsheet that reads “Third term” needs to know which term each assignment sat in.
Max Score and Due At set the expectations
Max Score is a plain number out of whatever your school grades on — 10, 20 or 100. Write it as the number learners will see, because it is printed next to their mark. Due At is a date and time; late work is not blocked by the platform, so decide your own rule and write it into the Description.
Description is where the instructions live
Give the full brief here: what to answer, how many questions, how long they have, whether a photograph of the exercise book is acceptable. Learners read this text in their own portal, so write it in both languages if your class works in both.
Published is the switch between draft and class
While Published is off, the assignment exists for staff only and no learner can submit. Turn it on when the brief is final. It is an ordinary column, so you can flip it on one assignment in a table without opening anything.
How marking works and where the marks land
Marking an assignment and feeding the gradebook are two different acts.
Marking one copy at a time
From the assignment’s actions, open its submissions. Each learner’s work is listed with what they submitted and when; download the file or download a single answer and grade it. Type the mark, add a remark in plain words the learner can act on, and save. The row then shows as graded, and the Graded column on the assignment counts it.
Grades are scaled to your assessment component
A grade written here is a proportion, not a final mark. Ekati takes your mark divided by the assignment’s maximum score, and multiplies it by the maximum of the component you targeted — so an assignment marked out of 20 feeding a component marked out of 100 lands in the right place without you converting anything by hand. Totals on the assessment are recomputed as the marks arrive.
Moving several assignments into one component
When you have marked several assignments of the same course and want them in the gradebook together, use Transfer assignments to a grade component. Select the graded assignments, choose the academic time unit and the target component, and each learner’s mean proportion across those assignments is scaled to that component’s maximum and written in one go. The action is refused — with a reason — if the course has no assessment template attached.
Checked against the rest of the gradebook
Assignment marks are one input among several. Once they are in an assessment component, the totals they feed are the same totals printed on the class broadsheet and on the learner’s report slip, so a homework mark you never transferred simply never shows up there.
Where assignment work is collected
The screen that gathers work from quizzes and exams too.
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Collect
Submissions
One queue of everything learners have completed — assignments as well as quiz and exam lessons — oldest first, ready to grade and to publish corrections from.
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Set up
Assessment templates
Split a course mark into the components your homework will fill, so every assignment has somewhere to land.
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Check
Class broadsheets
See the term totals your transferred homework produced, class by class and subject by subject.
Assignment questions
Asked by teachers setting work and by heads checking it was marked.
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Why can’t I save an assignment without a course?
Because the course is what makes the assignment appear in the right learners’ course and what tells the assessment screen which component the mark belongs to. An assignment with no course would sit in the list and reach nobody. Choose the course first; the Time Unit and the Assessment Component then narrow it down.
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My assignment is marked out of 20 but my component is out of 100. Do I convert the marks myself?
No. Type the mark out of your assignment’s own Max Score and let Ekati scale it: the proportion is multiplied by the component’s maximum. A learner who scores 16 out of 20 on an assignment feeding a component marked out of 100 contributes 80 out of 100. The same happens automatically when you use Transfer assignments to a grade component for a whole set of assignments.
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Why is the Assessment Component list empty?
Because the course has no assessment template attached, and components only exist inside a template. Open the course, choose the assessment template that carries your components, then reopen the assignment and pick the component you want. Until then, the assignment still works — you can set it, collect the copies and grade them — but the marks have nowhere to be stored.
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A learner says they never saw the assignment. What should I check?
Check three things in this order. First, the Published column on the row: while it is off, no learner can see the work. Second, the Course: the assignment only appears in the course you selected. Third, the Submissions count: a copy that is already there means the learner saw it and submitted, whatever they now say.
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Can I reuse last term’s homework?
Yes, and it is the faster route: from the table’s bulk actions, duplicate the row, then edit the copy’s title, due date and any wording that referenced last term’s lessons. Duplicate the assignment rather than editing the original — the marks already collected against it must stay attached to the work they were given for.