Online Campus - Assignments: About

About the Assignments Tool

The Assignments tool allows you to submitted items electronically in Assignment folders within Online Campus. Doing so makes it easier for you to receive grades and feedback on your work. You will also receive an email as proof that you have submitted your assignment. It is recommended that you do not delete this email.

Note: Always follow your instructors file submission requirements. If you are not sure of the required file submission type, ask for clarification. (Example: Not all instructors can open a Pages, Numbers, and Keynote files that are created using Apple's office suite software. Also, some of the formatting may look different if they do try to convert those file types to a Microsoft Office application.) Submitting a file in a format other than what was stated may result in a point penalty or receiving a score of 0 on the assignment.

Assignment Folder Availability, Restrictions, and Assessment

Your instructor has the option to apply the following setting to individual assignment folders:

• Due Date and Time: If a due date is applied, you will see the required submission date in the Due Date column.
• Availability Date and Time: If a start date is applied, you will see the allocated folder, but you will not be able to see any information or files to be downloaded, if applicable. You will not be able to submit files until the due date and time arrives.
• Availability End Date and Time: If an end date is applied, the folder will no longer accept files to be submitted.
• Release Conditions: Release conditions allow your instructor to create a custom learning path through the materials in your course. When a release condition is attached to an item, you will not be able to see that item until you meet the associated condition.  For Example, your instructor may not allow you to see a particular assignment folder until you create a post in a particular discussion topic a total of two times.
• Special Access: Special access permissions are applied to an individual student and not the entire class.  For example, a student may need an extended deadline if they are registered and approved through Disability Resources and require remedial help or need additional time to submit work beyond the original scope of the assignment. If the instructor does not receive confirmation through Disability Resources, they are not required to add special access.
• Files Allowed Per Submission: Assignment folders can be set to allow unlimited file submissions or one file per submission.
• File Submissions to be Kept: Assignment folders can be set to keep all files submitted, only the most recent submission is kept, or only one submission allowed.

File Names

When naming a file you plan to upload to the Assignment folder, Discussion tool, or email tool, there are certain characters that should never be used. The presence of just one of these characters in your file name causes errors and unexpected problems in Online Campus! Even if your computer will allow you to use these illegal characters, don't do it.  Here  are the  illegal characters :

\     /     :     *     ?     "     <     >     |     ~     #     %     &     +     {     } - 

Also, do not use extra periods in your file name. For example, my.assignment.for.comp.class.doc would be an incorrect file name. There should only be one period in a file name.  For example myassignmentforcomp.docx if a perfectly good filename.

Online Campus Document Viewer Warning

The following information applies to all users in Online Campus.

The Online Campus Assignment tool contains a document viewer. The purpose of the document viewer is to provide the user with a screenshot of the document being viewed, without having to download the document.  However, not all documents and/or browsers work correctly with the document viewer, and when attempting to view documents in Online Campus, the document does not render correctly. For example, document formatting may be removed from the document and/or not all of the pages in the document will load.

Other issues may arise when an unsupported document is uploaded. For example, if you are taking a class that requires you to use a specific type of software that is not widely used, the document viewer may cause the browser to freeze while it is trying to decipher the format. You should also be aware that some file types are not allowed to be uploaded.

Online Campus Incompatible File Types

The following file extensions are restricted in Online Campus:

 ASP, ASPX, ASHX, ASMX, EXE, BAT, DLL, COM, ASA, CS, STM, AXD, CDX, CER, CONFIG, IDC,  SOAP, ASAX, JSL, LICX, REM, RESOURCES, RESX, SHTM, SHTML, ASCX, CSPROJ, VB, VBPROJ,  VJSPROJ, VSDISCO, WEBINFO, INI

Work Around for the Assignment Document Viewer Issue

Download the document and view it on your local machine rather than through the Document Viewer in Online Campus.