Creating a Handwritten Assignment

This guide is for instructors who use the Paper to Digital add-on. It walks through how to create an assignment, change the settings, upload a template, and edit questions.

In this guide:

• Accessing assignment creation
• Assignment settings
• Uploading the assignment template
• The questions editor

Accessing assignment creation

The way you access Handwritten Assignments differs depending on the workflow you are using. If you use an LMS workflow, type in the search bar at the top of the page to find the Handwritten Assignment creation guide for your workflow.

Instructions for accessing Handwritten Assignments using the Turnitin Website are as follows:

1. Access the class that you would like to add the new assignment to.
2. Select the green Add Assignment button at the top right of the page.
   
3. On the Turnitin assignment creation page, select the Handwritten Assignments tile. This will launch the Paper to Digital app.
   

Assignment settings

The assignment settings are configured at assignment creation. You can return to the settings after assignment creation by selecting the Settings gear. For LMS users, all date fields and the Assignment title field must be edited within your LMS assignment settings.

1. Enter an Assignment Title.
2. If you would like students to be able to upload their own submissions, select Allow students to upload submissions. You will still be able to upload submissions on behalf of a student, even when this setting is enabled. After enabling this setting, a few more options appear below it.
   
   
   
   1. Set a Start date and Time for the assignment. After setting a date, the time will automatically be set to 12:00AM but this can be changed by selecting a new time.
   2. Set a Due date and Time for the assignment. Like the start date, the due date will automatically be set to 11:59PM but can be changed.
   3. Optionally, check the box beside Allow late submissions. This will allow students to make one submission after the due date if they have not yet submitted.
   4. Optionally, check the box beside Allow resubmissions until due date. This will allow students to resubmit any number of times until the due date.
3. Choose a Grading method for reviewing and grading student responses:
   • Individual: grade student answers one by one
     • This option allows you to grade each student's answer one by one. This is best for assignments with an open response question type
   • Answer groups: group similar answers
     • This option allows you to grade a group of similar student answers at once. This is best for assignments that have multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank question types. Note: Paper to Digital’s AI can automatically group similar student answers. You can also group them yourself to create answer sets for faster grading. This allows you to grade multiple answers at one time.
   • Combination: individual or answer groups
     • This option allows you to choose which grading method, either answer groups or individual answers, to use for each question. This is best for assignments that have a variety of question types where you need flexible grading. For example, question #1 is a multiple-choice question and has answers that can be grouped easily for grading, and is best for answer group grading. While question #2 is an open response question and has answers that will need to be reviewed one-at-a-time, and is best for individual grading.
4. Choose your Student Visibility setting to decide which scoring criteria students will see when they review their graded work:
   • Show only applied scoring criteria - Students will see only the criteria that were used to grade their submission for each question, no matter the scoring type.
   • Show all scoring criteria - Students will see every criterion used for grading, even if some were not applied to their submission.
   • None disallows students from viewing any scoring criteria used for grading.
5. Select Create Assignment, and then select Continue from the confirmation modal to return to the assignment list.

Uploading the assignment template

On the Template page, you’ll upload a blank copy of the assignment that you are handing out to students. For assignment formatting best practices, view our Formatting the Assignment Template article.

1. To upload the assignment template, select Upload PDF or drag the PDF file onto the page. 
2. To preview the uploaded assignment, use the page navigator and ensure every page is there and the template is uploaded correctly. 
3. To delete the template and no longer use it for the assignment, select Delete Template.

4. Select the Go to Questions button to move on to the next step.

The questions editor

In this step, you’ll digitally add the questions and their student answer regions (areas) of the assignment. Adding questions and regions is required for detecting each question for grading later on. For more information, check out our Region Formatting tips guide.

The uploaded assignment template displays on the left, and the questions editor on the right side panel. Use the Save button at the bottom right of the screen to save your progress. When you are ready to move forward, use the Save and Continue button to proceed.

To set up the questions for the assignment, complete the following steps:

1. To add the student's name, select Add Name Region and use the mouse to drag the box over the designated name area.
2. Optionally, to add the student ID, select Add ID Region and use the mouse to drag the box over the designated ID area.

3. To edit the name or ID regions, you can drag and resize the name and ID boxes over the desired area of the page.
   
   For better submission and roster matching accuracy, make sure the name and
   ID regions do not overlap. See an example below of the recommended region
   sizing for the student name and ID (if you want to include the ID).
   
   
4. To add a question from the side panel, select the + Add Question button. Alternatively, you can create a question region by clicking and dragging a box around the question, including the area where students will write their answers.

   When grading, the document viewer uses regions to find and highlight student answers. We recommend drawing each question region so it includes the question text and enough space for students to write their answers. We also recommend making it slightly larger than the actual area you expect students to use. See the example below for the recommended region sizing for each question.

In the sidebar, fill out additional details about the questions.

• For Title, enter a question title. This step is optional, but adding a title helps you quickly identify each question during grading.
• For Points, enter the number of total points possible for the question.

  As you add questions and their points to the editor, the Total Points for the assignment are calculated automatically at the top of the side panel.

• To grade answer groups for a question, keep the Grade answer groups checkbox selected and then select the question Type.
  
  The following question types currently support answer group grading: Multiple choice, Math fill-in-the-blank, and Text fill-in-the-blank. For more information, go to the Question types section below.
• If you don’t want to grade answer groups for a question, uncheck the Grade answer groups checkbox. Depending on what was selected in the assignment settings, this box may or may not be selected by default. To create a subquestion, select the teal plus sign icon (to the right of the red “x” delete icon) or drag a question into another one. You can also drag a subquestion outward with the drag icon to transform it into a question.

• Repeat the steps above to add as many questions as needed. 
• To reorder the questions in the side panel, drag any question or subquestion to the place you want it with the drag icon.
• To delete a question or subquestion, select delete or the red X icon.
• To collapse or expand the Questions Editor side panel as needed, select the expand and collapse arrow icon.
  

If you need to upload student work, select the Go to Scans button to proceed. View our Submitting Handwritten Assignment on behalf of a student guide for more information. Otherwise, you can wait for students to make submissions to the assignment.

After students submit, you can view their submission details on the Scans page. To start reviewing submissions, select Submissions from the stepper at the top of the page.