Skyward – Creating and Administering Online Assignments
There are two ways to create online assignments in Skyward. The first we will discuss is applicable for a one-time use assignment. This way would be good for short assignments or quizzes that you know all students will be able to access online (and that you won’t need a hard copy of the assignment).
The second way we will look at is ideal for assignments you plan to use again, and for assignments that you may need to print a hard copy for a student that is absent or cannot access Skyward (for whatever reason).
METHOD 1
1. Log in to Skyward and click on the My Gradebook link under Teacher Access.
2. Click on the Gradebook link for the class you wish to create the online assignment for.
3. Hover over the Assignments tab and select Add Assignment (just like you would to enter any new assignment in your gradebook).
4. Fill out all the relevant information, just as you would for any other assignment (Description, dates, classes to add assignment to, etc.).
5. Once you have all the basic information filled in, hover over the Options button and select Create Online Assignment.
6. In the window that opens, fill out any other relevant information such as Description (I use this box for assignment directions), Randomize Questions, Start and Stop Date/Time, Questions per Page, Auto Score and Post, and Show Correct Answers.
Description: type directions for overall assignment
Randomize Questions: used to mix up the questions for each student
Start and Stop Date/Time: used to open and close online access to the assignment Questions per Page: how many questions you want the student to see on each page Auto Score and Post: will automatically score the assignment and put the scores in your
gradebook (only works for Multiple Choice, T/F, and Matching questions) Show Correct Answers: will show the correct answers to the student after the
assignment is completed
7. Once you have your settings configured, you are ready to start adding questions. Click the Save and Add Questions button.
8. Select the Question Type (drop-down menu), write the Question, fill in any Extra Content you might want to include (not normally necessary), record how many Points you want the questions to be worth, and record the possible Answers (don’t forget to check the box for the Correct answer!). You can also attach files to the
question and/or answers if you wish (such as a formula chart, etc.) by clicking the Attach button. Once you have completed this question, click the Save and Add Another button.
9. Continue this process until you have finished adding all the questions to your assignment. Once you have added the last question, click the Save and Back button.
10. You will be returned to the Make Assignment Available Online window where you can now see the questions you added at the bottom of the window. If you need to edit any of the questions, you can select the question and click the Edit button, or you can also delete questions by selecting them and clicking the Delete button. If you need to add questions, click the Add button. Once you have verified the online assignment, click the Save and Back button.
Questions appear here
11. You will be returned to the Assignment Maintenance window. You should now see buttons specific to the online assignment (Edit Online Assignment and Remove Online Assignment). If you need to edit the assignment or wish to delete the online portion of the assignment, click the appropriate button.
12. When you are finished creating or editing the assignment, click the Save and Back button.
The assignment has now been added to your gradebook, and students will be able to access the assignment when they log in to Skyward (once the Start Date and Time have passed, until the Stop Date and Time pass). Instructions for how students access online assignments are at the end of this document.
METHOD 2
Now that you’ve learned how to create an online assignment, the second method should be fairly easy. This is the method I recommend, just for the fact that if you ever need to print an offline version of the assignment, it’s very easy to do (and also something you CAN’T do when using the first method). You can also share your online assignments with other teachers using this method.
Creating the Template
1. Log in to Skyward and click on the My Gradebook link under Teacher Access.
2. Click on the Gradebook link for any of your classes. This method actually saves the assignment as a template that can be used in any class, so it doesn’t matter which class you choose at this point.
3. Hover over the Other Access tab and select Online Assignment Templates at the bottom of the menu.
4. You will see a list of all Online Assignment Templates you’ve created (if any). From here, you can Add, Edit, Delete, and Clone online assignments, as well as Clone an assignment from Another Teacher, simply by clicking the appropriate button. We will create one from scratch, so click the Add button.
5. The Online Assignment Template Maintenance window appears, and you can create your online assignment exactly as you did in steps #6-10 in the first method above. The only differences are that you don’t have options for Start and Stop Times/Dates (these will be set when you add the online assignment template to an
assignment later). Create the assignment template just as you did in steps #6-10 in method 1. When you have finished creating the assignment template, click the Save and Back button.
6. You should now see your assignment template listed in your online templates window. The list of available assignment templates will grow as you create more.
Templates appear here after you have created them
Using the Template for an Assignment
1. Click on the Gradebook link for the class you wish to create the online assignment for.
2. Hover over the Assignments tab and select Add Assignment (just like you would to enter any new assignment in your gradebook).
3. Fill out all the relevant information, just as you would for any other assignment (Description, dates, classes to add assignment to, etc.).
4. Once you have all the basic information filled in, hover over the Options button and select Copy from My Online Assignment Template.
5. The Clone Online Assignment Template window opens. Select the template you want to use and click the Clone to Assignment button.
NOTE: If you want to see the contents of a template, click the triangle next to the name of the template and it will show you the questions/answers.
6. Once you click the Clone to Assignment button, the Make Assignment Available Online window will open, with all the information for the assignment already placed in the correct places. You will need to select a Start and Stop Date/Time.
7. If you want to make any changes to the online assignment (will not edit the template, just this specific
assignment), you can do that here by clicking the Save and Add Questions button. Clicking this button will open the Question Maintenance window. Even if you don’t want to add questions, and you just want to edit or delete existing questions, you have to do this and then click the Back button so that the Add, Edit, and Delete buttons become active. If you don’t want to make changes, click the Save and Back button.
Click this triangle to see questions
Click this button to apply the online assignment and return to the assignment creation window
Click this button to make changes to the questions (after clicking it, click the Back button in the next window to get access to the Edit and Delete buttons)
8. After clicking the Save and Back button, you’ll now see the extra online assignment buttons in the Assignment Maintenance window (Edit Online Assignment and Remove Online Assignment).
9. If you don’t want to make any other changes to the assignment, click the Save and Back button to finalize the assignment.
You’ve now created an online assignment using a template, and you’ll see the assignment listed in your gradebook. If you set the assignment to auto-grade and post, you will see the grades appear once the students have completed the assignment.
You can re-use this template for future assignments (i.e. next year’s classes), as well as share the assignment with other teachers (they would use the Clone Online Assignment from Other Teacher option instead of the Copy from My Online Assignment Template option).
STUDENT INSTRUCTIONS TO ACCESS TO ONLINE ASSIGNMENTS
1. Log in to Skyward
2. In the links on the left, click on the Current Assignments link, under the Online Assignments heading
3. To start the online assignment, click the Answer Questions link to the right of the assignment.
4. While completing the assignment, use the Next Page button to go to the next page, the Save and Complete Later button to save your progress and complete the assignment later, and the Save and Complete Assignment button to submit your assignment for grading (make sure you’ve answered all the questions!).
5. Once you’ve submitted your assignment for grading, you can check the status of it by clicking the Past Assignments link on your Skyward homepage.
6. To see more detailed results, click the View Results link to the right of the assignment.
