Introduction

In this article we will walk you through how to set up Discussion on Work from the perspective of a teacher.

If you’d like more information on how this tool works, you can check out other articles here:

• Discussion on Work: For Teachers (Active Assignment)

• Discussion on Work: Overview

• Discussion on Work: For Students

Tool In Action

How this article is structured 

This article walks you through the steps of a Discussion on Work activity, following the same flow as the tool itself. It will describe the process of setting up the assignment. This refers to what you can configure before the assignment is published, such as instructions, settings, deadlines, grouping, and grading rules. Students cannot access the activity at this stage. You can still edit some settings after publishing; however, once students start making progress, certain options may be locked to protect their work and data. Wherever this applies, the article will clearly note it.
Note: When you open a published activity, you’ll land on the Active Assignment view by default. To return to the setup view after publishing, click Edit in the upper-left corner of the activity.
You can see the article about the Active Assignment view of this tool here.

Accessibility

We're devoted to making our tools as accessible as possible for all learners - to read more about accessibility in FeedbackFruits tools, check this article: Accessibility: Within FeedbackFruits Tools.

Step 1: Instructions

Here, you can write the instructions you want to provide to your students. If you'd like to include an audio, video, screen recording, or attach a file, simply click the add items icon to do so.

Collaboration Options

Directly underneath the instructions, you can select options for student collaboration.

Options for hand in:

1. Individually

2. As a group

Options for students discuss:

1. Individually. Students will individually get assigned to anyone.

2. Within groups. Students individually get assigned someone within their group. (Disabled if ‘as a group’ option for hand in is chosen).

3. Outside of their group. Students individually get assigned to someone, not in their group. (Disabled if ‘as a group’ option for hand in is chosen).

4. Individually, same work per group member. Each member of a group gets assigned to review the same group. Reviews are made individually. (Disabled if ‘individually’ option for hand in is chosen).

This will allow for the following combinations:

1. Hand in work individually, discuss individually
   Use this option if you want students to individually hand in their work and then be assigned to discuss the submissions of one or more random peers who have also handed in their work.

   1. Use case: In a class of 20 students, each student is required to hand in 2 pieces of work. Each student is then assigned 2 submissions from other students to discuss.

       

2. Hand in work individually, discuss within groups
   Use this option if you want students to individually submit their work and then participate in smaller group discussions to engage with their peers' submissions.

   1. Use case: In a class of 20 students divided into 5 groups, each group is assigned a specific topic. Each student in the group individually submits their work. When discussing, each student engages with submissions within their group.

       

3. Hand in work individually, discuss outside of their groups
   Use this option if you want students to individually submit their work and then be assigned to discuss the submissions of peers outside their group.

   1. Use case: In a class of 4 groups with 5 students each, each group is assigned a specific topic. Each student creates and submits their own work individually. When discussing, each student is assigned submissions from students in different groups.

       

4. Hand in work as a group, discuss individually
   Use this option if you want students to collaborate on a single group submission but participate individually in discussions with submissions from other groups.

   1. Use case: Students work in 5 groups of 4 to collaboratively create and submit one group assignment. Each of the 20 students is then assigned to discuss submissions from other groups.

       

5. Hand in work as a group, discuss individually, same work per member

   Use this option if you want the group to submit their work collectively, while each member individually reviews and discusses the same group's submission.

   1. Use case: In a class of 5 groups with 4 students each, the group collaborates on one submission and hands it in. When discussing, each member of a group is assigned the same group's submission to review and discuss individually.

For more information on configuring groups when using FeedbackFruits within Blackboard, Brightspace or Canvas, click here. If it's not possible to sync the groups within your LMS or if you are using the platform, you can find more information about how to create groups here.

Step 2: Submissions

When creating your assignment, you can configure submission options for your students.

Required number of files to hand in: Set the amount of files that students are required to hand in. Note that students will not be assigned to a peer for review if they submit fewer files than required. The submission requirement can be set at exactly, minimum or between your chosen amount. Students can always hand in more files than required.

Scheduling deadlines: Set the hand-in deadline by which students must upload their work. Once this deadline passes, students will be assigned to peer discussions. If no deadline is set, peer discussions will be assigned once 2 students have submitted their work. Click here for an explanation of how peers are assigned. Keep in mind that not setting a deadline may result in uneven distribution of assignments, so it is recommended to avoid setting a deadline for live feedback sessions.

If a deadline for submission has been set for the students, you have the option to allow for students to hand in after the submission deadline has passed. Simply enable this option (as shown on the screenshot below), and students will be able to hand in after the submission deadline as well. Keep in mind that enabling this option will not affect the student analytics - you will still be able to see if students have submitted on time or not.

If a closing date is specified, you can also grant students an extension to make a post after the deadline. By selecting this option, you can specify which students will regain access to this step and assign them a new deadline of your choosing.

Additionally, you can also allow students to participate in the review process even if they haven’t submitted their own work by enabling this option. However, this would mean that some students will receive more reviews than others.

File requirements: Check the box next to the file type you want your students to hand in. Students will not be able to upload file types to you deselect. For an overview of which formats are supported for each file type, click here.

Note: Embedded audio and video in documents and slideshows cannot be played in FeedbackFruits.

Plagiarism check: If your institution has opted into our Turnitin integration, you can select here whether the check should be toggled on or off.

You can read more information here: Turnitin FAQ

Guiding students (optional): If you have specific hand-in instructions for your students (such as the desired font, line spacing, naming the file, etc.) fill them in here. Example: Please name your student number in the file-name. Upload both your essay and the slides you will use when presenting about your essay.

Step 3: Peer Discussion

Here, you can set the required number of peer submissions that students need to discuss.

Grading Options: Enable this feature if you want participants to grade their assigned peers' submitted work using a 10-point scale.

Step 4: Open Discussion (optional)

In this step, you can allow students to optionally contribute beyond the required discussions. Similar to the previous steps, you can also set a deadline and provide special instructions to guide students if needed.

However, please note that this step is optional. If you decide that student reflections are unnecessary, you can remove this step by clicking the X button in the top right corner.

Step 5: Valuable Contributions (optional)

In this step, you can choose whether or not students should select the most valuable contribution. To add a valuable contributions step, scroll to the bottom of the assignment in edit mode and click the plus (+) button in the green circle to view the available learning steps to add.

Then you can click add to the learning step you wish to add to your assignment.

In the valuable contributions step, students can select what they consider the most valuable contributions to be graded by you as the teacher. Please note that they can only select comments made by their peers, not their own. You can specify the number of contributions students can submit by setting it to an exact number, a minimum, or a maximum based on your chosen amounts.

Step 6: Reflections (optional)

When setting up the reflections step, you can specify the required length of the written reflection, with a minimum of 1 word and a maximum of 5000 words. You can also set a deadline for when students must complete their reflection and enable features like the Reflection Coach, which provides AI-powered, real-time feedback to help students improve their reflections. This option is available under the Guiding Students section.

However, please note that this step is also optional. If you decide that student reflections are unnecessary, you can remove this step by clicking the X button in the top right corner.

Grading

Here, You can configure how many points you want to give to each process of the assignment and whether the grade should be published as a percentage or pass/fail.

By clicking configure, you can customize your grading criteria and toggle certain parameters on or off depending on the needs of the particular assignment you're setting up:

If you added the most valuable contributions step, you can click Configure next to it to set the point allocation for this step.