How do I add a new item (e.g., an assignment, a paper, an project, etc.) to my online gradebook? What is the difference between having my students submit an assignment via Blackboards assignment feature and not having them submit an assignment via the assignment feature? Blackboards assignment feature allows students an easy way to submit assignments online. Assignments that are set up using Blackboards assignment feature are automatically entered as items into the gradebook for the course, just like quizzes and tests. Instructors grade assignments from within the gradebook and are able to offer individual feedback easily. How do I set up an assignment using Blackboards assignment feature? Do I have to have my students submit assignments via attached documents if I use Blackboards assignment feature? Can’t they just type their answers into a textbox instead of uploading a separate document? Blackboards assignment feature is designed for assignments to be submitted via attached documents. Although it is true that when students click to complete an assignment, they are presented with a small textbox field in which they could, conceivably, type out their assignment answers, this textbox field is not designed to be used in that manner. It only accepts so many characters (roughly 3000), and so it is designed for short notes and comments. Long responses, therefore, need to be submitted via a file attachment. Also, Blackboard allows you to download all the uploaded files for an Assignment as a zip file, rather than downloading them individually. How do I view and grade assignments that are set up using Blackboards assignment feature? You have to go to the online gradebook to view and grade these kinds of assignments. Here are the general steps involved (some details may be different depending on how you set up your assignment): Is there a way that I can mass download all the linked documents that my students submit for a particular assignment? Yes. Linked documents may be downloaded all at once by doing the following: Is there a way that I can mass delete all the linked documents that my students submit for a particular assignment? Yes, but there's really no reason for you to. In other words, unlike Blackboard's digital drop box where old files had to be removed because all files for every assignment dumped into the same place, the assignment feature keeps documents associated with each task separate from each other. If you want to mass delete all linked documents associated with an assignment, however, you can do so by doing the following: Once a student submits an assignment, that student will not be able to go back and make changes to his/her submission without the instructor wiping out the old attempt first. To wipe out that old attempt, Where did these questions come from? Some questions & answers were taken from the University of Alaska http://technology.uaa.alaska.edu/kb/Computer/Blackboard/Blackboard_Instructor_FAQ.cfm