Please note that this article is only about using Brightspace's Annotation Tools.
Table of Contents
- How to enable Annotation Tools for assessment?
- How to assess with inline feedback?
- Which annotation tools are available for inline feedback?
- How to make the inline feedback visible for students?
- When should I use Annotation Tools for an assessment?
- Video on using annotations for inline feedback in the Assignments tool
Brightspace offers built-in Annotations Tools in Assignment to assess submission with inline feedback with free hand drawing, highlighting, text and note annotation. This allows you to assess submissions directly in Assignments.
NB: it is NOT possible to download inline feedback using the Annotations Tools in bulk.
1. How to enable Annotation Tools for assessment?
When creating/editing an assignment enable the Annotation Tools in the Evaluation & Feedback tab.
2. How to assess with inline feedback?
Watch the video on using annotations for inline feedback in the Assignments tool on the bottom of this page.
- Navigate to Course Tools in the navbar of your course.
- Click on Assignments.
- Click on the desired assignment.
- Click on a submission file to open the screen below.
- Go back to Submissions in case you want to stop assessment.
- Navigate between submissions of this specific assignment.
- Please see here for more information on Evaluation and Feedback.
- This is the annotation toolbar for inline feedback.
- Click to open the Sidebar to display page thumbnails or outlines.
- Navigate to a certain page.
- Click to adjust page mode, transition and rotation.
- Click to select pan mode.
- Click to zoom in, zoom out or to fit page to screen.
- These are all the annotation tools. Please see next section for more details.
- Click to print submission file.
- Click to Search in Document.
- Click to download submission file.
- Click to enter Full Screen mode.
Before this update, it was possible to add "Bookmarks".
This feature is no longer available.
3. Which annotation tools are available for inline feedback?
The following tools are provided in the annotation toolbar:
- Select the text you want to mark up.
- You can now highlight, strikethrough or underline the statement.
By right clicking the mark up you are now able to change the color, opacity and the blend mode.
Using the pen tool, you can draw anywhere on a document, move, resize, and change colour, thickness, and opacity.
You can add text anywhere in a document. This text can then be moved and resized. You can also change the font and colour.
You can add longer comments, which can be collapsed or expanded, to a document. Change appearance with a variety of shapes and colors.
4. How to make the inline feedback visible for students?
After you are done with inline feedback you can either save the feedback as draft or publish it right away. Just like you would publish the grade + short feedback.
Annotations remain editable until the feedback is published by you. If you want to add additional feedback after publishing, you can update the annotations and re-publish them.
4.1. Where can students see the inline feedback on their submissions?
Inline feedback is visible for students in the submission file via Course Tools > Assignments after you have published the feedback.
Feedback given in the right toolbar is visible for students in both Assignments & Grades.
When should I use Annotation Tools for an assessment?
You can use Annotation Tools instead of the Brightspace feedback field on the right side of the screen. Please do make sure to let the students know in which tool they can expect to find their feedback.
5. Video on using annotations for inline feedback in the Assignments tool
This video is made by Brightspace supplier D2L. Some screens might have a different look and feel to the THUAS Brightspace environment.