This article talks about a BETA version of the tool. If you're not a part of an institution that participates in the testing, please refer to the other article.

Introduction

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

If you'd like more information on how this tool works, check out these articles:

• Discussion on Work: For Teachers (Active Assignment)

• Discussion on Work: Overview

• Discussion on Work: For Students

Tool In Action

How this article is structured

Setting up an activity now follows three stages, shown in the bar at the top of the activity whenever you're in edit mode:

1. Build activity — get an overview of your activity and add or remove steps.

2. Edit steps — configure each step one at a time (instructions, hand-in, self-assessment criteria, anonymity, visibility, and how students hand in on that step).

3. Set up activity — set what applies to the whole activity: deadlines, grade weighting, and groups.

This article follows that same order. Everything below describes what you can configure before the activity is published — students cannot access the activity at this stage. You can still edit some settings after publishing; however, once students start making progress, certain options lock to protect their work and data. Wherever that applies, we'll note it.

Note: When you open a published activity, you'll land on the Active Assignment view by default. To return to setup, click Edit in the upper-left corner. See the Active Assignment article.

Accessibility

We're devoted to making our tools as accessible as possible for all learners. Read more in Accessibility: Within FeedbackFruits Tools.

Stage 1 — Build activity

This is your starting point. Here you see every step in the activity in order and can shape the activity before configuring the detail.

By default, a Discussion on Work activity is built from these steps, in order:

1. Instructions

2. Submissions

3. Peer Discussion

4. Open Discussion (optional)

5. Valuable Contributions (optional)

6. Reflections (optional)

Adding steps - Use the learning-steps panel to add optional steps. Click a step to add it, or drag it into the activity. When your steps are in place, move to Edit steps to configure each one.

Stage 2 — Edit steps

Here you set up the activity step by step. Each step shows its own settings and a Student preview so you can see what learners will see.

Step 1: Instructions

Write the instructions students see when they open the activity. Type directly into the instructions field; the student preview updates alongside. You can also add items — for example, a file or recording audio/video — using Add items.

Step 2: Hand In

Configure how students hand in their work.

• Hand-in collaboration — choose whether students hand in individually or as a group. This is the hand-in half of the activity's collaboration setup - the discuss half is set on the Peer Discussion step. See Collaboration options reference for how the two combine.

• Required number of files — set how many files students must hand in: Minimum, Between, or Exactly a chosen number.

• Allowed file formats — enable the file types students may upload: Document, Video, Website, Image, Audio, Other. Students can't upload types you disable. See supported file types. 
  Note: embedded audio/video inside documents and slideshows can't be played in FeedbackFruits.

• Submitter anonymity — when on, student contributions are anonymous to each other; teachers can always see who is who.

Advanced settings (Hand In)

Click Advanced settings under Submitter anonymity to configure additional settings.

• Plagiarism check — if your institution has opted into the Turnitin integration, toggle the check here. See the Turnitin FAQ.

• Visibility of hand-ins — control who can see submissions, e.g. Only the allocated reviewer(s).

• Optional instructions for this step — add specific hand-in guidance (e.g. desired font, line spacing, or file naming: "Please include your student number in the file name.").

Step 3: Discuss With Your Peer

Discuss collaboration - choose how students are assigned to discuss submissions:

1. Individually. Each student is individually assigned to anyone.

2. Within groups. Each student is individually assigned someone within their own group. (Disabled if hand-in is set to "as a group.")

3. Outside of their group. Each student is individually assigned someone not in their group. (Disabled if hand-in is set to "as a group.")

4. Individually, same work per group member. Each member of a group is assigned to review the same group's submission, and reviews it individually. (Disabled if hand-in is set to "individually.")

This is the discuss half of the activity's collaboration setup — the hand-in half is set on the Submissions step. See Collaboration options reference for how the two combine, and note that collaboration must be set before students start; it locks once a student makes progress.

Required number of peers — set how many peer submissions each student must discuss.

Peer grade — enable this option if you want participants to grade their assigned peers' work on a 10-point scale.

Step 4: Open Discussion (optional)

Lets students optionally contribute beyond the required discussions. As with the other steps, you can set a deadline (in Setup activity → Deadlines) and add guiding instructions if needed.

Step 5: Select Most Valuable Contributions (optional)

In this step students select what they consider the most valuable peer contributions, for you to grade as the teacher. Students can only select comments made by peers — not their own. Set the number of contributions students can submit as an exact number, a minimum, or a maximum.

Step 6: Reflections (optional)

In this step students can write their reflections. You can add optional instructions and set the required length of the written reflection, from a minimum of 1 word to a maximum of 5,000 words.

Advanced settings

Click Advanced settings under Optional instructions to configure additional settings.

• Reflection Coach, under Guiding Students — gives students AI-powered, real-time feedback to help them improve their reflections.

Stage 3 — Finalize activity

In Finalize activity, you can configure settings that apply across the activity, including deadlines and grade weighting.

Deadlines

Turn on Deadlines to add end dates to the learning steps in your activity. Once enabled, you can set an end date for each applicable step directly from the activity overview.

Grade weighting

Turn on Grade weighting to assign a percentage to each graded component of the activity. The total grade weighting must add up to 100%.

Additional grading options in Advanced settings:

• Grade type — publish the grade as a Percentage or Pass/fail.

• Require participation to receive a grade — if enabled, only students who open the learning activity receive a grade.

• Schedule grade publish — automatically publish grades at a selected date, or auto-publish after completing graded steps (publishes a student's overall grade once they complete all graded steps).

For more on the configurable grading module, see this article. 

Groups

Select the group set for this activity and choose which groups/sections participate. Where your LMS supports it, sync sections and groups directly. For configuring groups inside Blackboard, Brightspace, or Canvas, see this article; to create groups on the platform, see this article.

Reminder: collaboration options (hand-in and review) must be set before students participate. Once a student makes progress, those configurations can't be changed.

When everything looks right, you can Save and publish the activity.

Good to know

The 10-point peer grading enabled on the Peer Discussion step is separate from the points you assign in Setup activity → Grade weighting — the first is students rating each other's work, the second is how much each step counts toward the activity grade.