Assignment Links allow teachers to assign content to any student within their school. Students are not required to be rostered in a teacher's class to participate in the assignment. When students click on the link, they are enrolled in the assignment and complete like normal.
Note: If you’re interested in learning more about assigning content to specific students or classes within DE, please reference Classroom Assignments. To assign content via your LMS, please reference your specific LMS via the Learning Management Systems section here.
Overview of Assignment Link
Create and distribute Discovery Education assignments directly to students via email, Google Classrooms, Learning Management Systems, and more. By removing assignment set up requirements, you now have more flexibility and freedom - making it as easy as Copy and Paste.
Generate an Assignment Link for an Individual Resource
You can assign all individual resources to students via Assignment Link, such as Assessments, Quizzes, Studio Boards, videos, images, and more.
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Select the Assign option. The resource location determines if you’ll see an ellipsis (…) where the Assign button is located, or an Assign button.
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Locate the Assign with an Assignment Link option and click Assign with a Link.
- Copy your Assignment Link.
Pro Tips:
- Teachers and Admins, distribute this link anywhere you please! When a student clicks on the link, they are automatically enrolled in the assignment.
- Lost your link? No problem! You can recopy the link from your Assignments page.
Generate an Assignment Link for a Folder of Content
You can actively share and assign curated content from your My Content folder. Actively sharing a folder of content can complement a unit of study or provide project resources. Use this option to distribute substitute teacher plans, high-flier activities, independent research projects, and more. For additional information, see Add Content to My Content.
To generate an Assignment Link for a folder of content, follow these steps:
- Select My Content from the Discovery Education navigation.
- Navigate to the Actions dropdown and select Assign. Then, follow the instructions listed above to Generate Link.
Editing an Assignment Link
You can edit Assignment Link assignments by the Start and Due Date, through Unassign, and through Close Assignment. Select Assignments from the Discovery Education navigation and locate the Assignment you want to edit from your list.
Start and Due Date
Assignment Link does not automatically include a start or due date. To adjust the dates of the assignment, select Edit Date, use the Edit Due Date modal to adjust dates, and then select Save.
If a student clicks the link before the Start Date, they cannot begin the assignment. If the student completes the assignment after the Due Date, they can submit but the submission will be marked "Late".
Unassign
If you unassign, Assignment submissions are discarded, and student progress is no longer accessible. Select Unassign only when you are ready to wipe all results.
Close Assignment
When you select Close Assignment, Students can no longer join the Assignment via the link. However, all students who have begun the assignment are able to complete it. When you are ready, select Close Assignment and then Confirm.
What Students Experience
When an Assignment Link is generated, the student does not immediately see the Assignment reflected in their Assignments list. To enroll in the Assignment, the student must click the link and choose Start Assignment.
Once the student begins the Assignment, it is visible in their Assignments list.
Before any students join the Assignment, the number of assigned students is shown as “0”. The assigning Teacher or Admin can see the number of students enrolled in the Assignment increase as students join the Assignment.
Examples of How to Use Assignment Links
- I am collecting checks for understanding in real time, and bucketing students into groups for differentiation. I can flexibly distribute an Assignment Link, without needing to pre-set which students see which differentiated activity.
- My roster is changing due to students being moved between classes. I can share an Assignment Link to any student in my school, and they’ll still be able to complete it and submit their results to me.
- I do all my class communication in Google Classroom. I can distribute completable assignments by pasting an Assignment Link into my Google Classroom posts.
- I do all my classroom management in an external system, like an LMS. I don’t care to organize a Classroom in Discovery, and now I don’t need to.
- I am a substitute teacher or instructional coach, and I do not have my assigned students rostered under my name. I can still create and distribute assignments to them with an Assignment Link.