Qwickly Jot is a free assignment creation tool that you can find as part of your assessment options in Blackboard. This assignment creation tool will allow you to create assignments with diagrams, charts, maps and more that students can write on directly from inside of Blackboard. This assignment type will allow you to create more interesting assignments for your students and increase their engagement with content and assessments. Want to know more? Read below to find out how to set up a Qwickly Jot assignment for your course!
Step 1: Find Your Assignment Image
In order to be able to create a Qwickly Jot assignment, you will need to locate an image to base the assignment around. Qwickly Jot assignments are meant to have students writing/annotating/drawing directly on top of whatever image you select for them. Here are some examples just to give you an idea of the kinds of images/assignments you can create:
- Use the image of a blank united states map and ask students to identify all the Confederate and Union states during the Civil War.
- Use the image of a blank piece of sheet music and ask students to create a B-flat scale
- Use the image of a blank piece of grid paper and ask students to graph 5y = 2x + 3
- Use the image of a written sentence and ask students to diagram the sentence
- Use the image of a written chemical compound and ask students to draw the compound
- Use the image of a camera and ask students to label the different parts of a camera
- etc.
Use google image search to help you find appropriate images that you can use. If you are having trouble finding images to use for an assignment you want to create, please reach out to us and we’d be happy to help you find something that works!
For the example I will be demonstrating below, I am going to be using a blank outline map of the United States.
Step 2: Create Your Assignment in Blackboard
Creating a Qwickly Jot assignment is incredibly easy! Log into Blackboard and go to the course that you want to add the assignment to. Make sure that Edit Mode (upper-right corner of your Blackboard screen) in the course is ON.
Navigate to a content area in the course (like Coursework) where you would like the assignment to be located. Mouse over the ASSESSMENTS menu button and select Qwickly Jot Assignment from the list of options.
Give your assignment a Name and provide instructions on what you would like for your students to do to complete the assignment. Make sure to be very clear in your instructions in what you would like students to do to the image (the more detailed you can make your instructions, the better your submission results will be!).
Below the assignment instructions there is an area called Assignment File. Click on the icon provided there.
You will get a button called “Choose File.” Clicking on this button will open up a browsing window to allow you to browse your computer. Locate the image file you want to use, click on it, and select the OPEN button to attach the image to the assignment.
If you attached the image file successfully, you will see the name of the file appear next to the “Choose File” button.
Scroll down to see the remaining three sections of the assignment creation page. These areas are very similar to the areas that you see on normal Blackboard assignments. The Due Dates area is an optional area. If you’d like to set a due date for the assignment, you can. In the Evaluation section, the only thing that is required is the “Points Possible” field for the assignment. Make sure you fill this in! The last section, Availability, can be left alone. The options that are set by default are just fine. Click SUBMIT after you’ve set your “Points Possible” for the assignment.
And now your assignment is created!
What Your Students See
When a student accesses as Jot assignment, they will see the points possible for the assignment at the top of the page, followed by the instructions that you created for the assignment. They will then see the drawing platform area with the image that you provided for the assignment. There are drawing tool bars across the top and left sides of the image platform. Students will use the various functions in these tool bars to carry out the instructions of the assignment.
If your students have ever used MS Paint or any kind of other simple drawing program before, they should find using the drawing toolbars fairly intuitive. The toolbar across the top controls the thickness of lines that are used by the drawing tools. Colors can be changed from the toolbar on the left side (stroke/fill/background). Students will be able to draw simple shapes on images (lines, circles, rectangles, etc) and will be able to add text if they need to (for exercises that require labeling). There is a comment box below the image where students can provide additional comments or clarifications about their assignment if they’d like to. Once a student is done with the assignment, they will click on SUBMIT.
Grading a Qwickly Jot Assignment
Grading a Qwickly Jot assignment works exactly the same way as grading a normal Blackboard assignment. To grade a Qwickly Jot assignment, you would go to Control Panel –> Grade Center –> Full Grade Center and locate the submitted assignment. Click on the editing chevron for the submitted assignment and select the submitted attempt.
Blackboard’s inline viewing platform will allow the work to render as an image directly within the browser (you won’t have to download it to grade it). And user comments, if any, will always appear in the bottom-right area.
If you have any questions about how to set up or use a Qwickly Jot assignment for your courses, please let us know and we’d be happy to help!