When you create a Comprehension assignment, you are met with the following screen. All of our tools are easily set up by following the predefined steps. Comprehension supports all multimedia, such as documents, videos, images and audio.
Step 1: Instructions
Here you can write the customized instructions for the task you are planning (i.e., what you want your students to do and how - an example is provided). In case you need to change anything, this can also be re-edited later.
In Step 1 it is possible to control which other student contributions the students can see. Either those of all other students participating in the activity, or contributions of those within their group.
Choosing 'see contributions within groups' allows larger amounts of students to participate in the same activity, without overcrowding the assignment. Using the group functionality also allows the teacher to filter the annotations per group, making it easier to track student progress.
When choosing the group functionality, the teacher can select groups directly synced from their LMS, or, if this is not available, add the groups manually.
Step 2: Comprehension
In the Comprehension section, you can either upload a file stored on your computer (i.e., via drag-and-drop or by clicking Choose Multimedia and browsing for it) or add one from an online source (i.e., by pasting a valid link in the Paste link box and clicking Submit). Here, you can also add topics you want your students to pay attention to. Click Configure and then Add Topic, and the following screen will appear.
Here, you can fill in the short title (i.e., the core concept/topic you want your students to attend to), as well as a short description to further clarify your expectations. All topics will automatically get a color assigned to them to differentiate topics. By clicking the three dots, you can change this color. The Require a minimum number of annotations of box sets the minimum number of in-text selections your students will have to perform for this topic. The Require a summary of the annotations box will ask students to summarize their made annotations.
Once this is filled in, you can either click on Done, which will save the topic you filled in, allowing you to continue to the next step, or on Add Topic, in case you want to add another one. If this is the case, you need to scroll down and repeat the steps you just followed for the first topic (i.e., fill in all 4 boxes) for as many times as you deem fit. Besides changing topic-colors, the order of the topics can also be adjusted.
Note that the minimum number of annotations will reset to 1 for each new addition.
Once you click Done, all topics you have entered will be saved. You will then see a preview of the first page. Click on View Annotations to view it in full. If your file failed to upload, make sure that the file or link is not corrupted.
Settings:
Scheduling deadlines
It is possible to have a start and/or end date by which the students are able to make contributions to the assignment. This is available under the Scheduling deadlines option. For more information on how to set this up, and how this affects the assignment, click here.
Visibility
You will have the option to Allow students to view annotations and summaries by their peers (i.e., make this either an individual or a collaborative assignment). Note that the default setting will create an individual assignment.
Copyright protection
This is enabled by default, but you have the option to turn off copyright protection, in case you don't want students downloading the file. You can do this by setting the switch to the left, disabling the download option.
Grading
The grading module has been activated by default, making it possible to attribute a grade to students who successfully completed the assignment. In case this is not desired, this module can be deleted by pressing the cross in the upper right corner (x). Here it is also an option to publish a pass/fail grade instead of a percentage, by enabling this option in the grading options.
Add module
Click on the purple '+' at the bottom of the assignment to add a module
Reflect on the activity
Writing a reflection is a valuable step to end an assignment with. The student can for instance write a reflection on how the whole process. In the image below, you can see that it can have a deadline, as well as a required length of words. There is also a description field in which you can specify what you want students to reflect on regarding the assignment
Finally, you can publish the assignment by clicking Save in the upper right corner. To see this example continued (i.e., the tool in action and how you can use it), another article is available in our Help Center showing the teacher's perspective.
This concludes the Setting up Comprehension tutorial.
If you have any questions or experience a technical issue, please contact our friendly support team by clicking on the blue chat button (Note: support is available 24h every weekday & unavailable on the weekend).