The Assignment Builder is your time-saving tool for creating tailored assignments aligned with your curriculum. Easily search across multiple subjects and standards and preview assignments before finalizing.
Getting Started
To open the Assignment Builder, click the Assignments tab in the top toolbar, then select + New Assignment. You can also click + New Assignment from the top left once you're inside the Assignments tab. You’ll be taken directly to the Create tab in the Assignment Builder.
From here, you can name your assignment in the top left corner where it says Unnamed Assignment or skip directly to finding aligned questions.
Click Add Questions + to start searching and exploring aligned questions.
Finding Questions
Use the Filters on the left sidebar to find questions for your students.
Standards:
Click the Add + button next to Standards to search by standards.
When you select to search by standards, your preferred standard sets will be shown by default. You can make adjustments to your Content Preferences at any time.
To turn off your standard preferences while building an assignment, select Your Standards and toggle to All Standards. Then, type in the standard set you want.
You can search for standards by name (e.g., KC-1.1.I.A), category (e.g., CCSS), or description by inputting text into the search bar at the top.
Once you've found relevant standards, check the boxes next to the ones you want to filter by. You can select multiple standards.
Click Apply in the bottom right corner when you're ready to see questions.
Subject & Topics:
Under Your Subjects, you'll see all of your Class Subjects listed first on the lefthand side followed by a list of relevant subjects based on your Content Preferences.
You can click the Your Subjects button to switch to browse All Subjects if you'd like.
Use the search bar on the left or click on a subject name to select one or multiple subjects and topics to filter by.
After selecting a subject, you’ll be able to select a theme, a topic, or select multiple topics within that subject by clicking on the corresponding checkboxes.
You can browse topics by clicking on the > icon to expose the topics associated with a particular theme or subject.
You can also Search by topic name or description using the search bar at the top. The left side will update to show subjects with results.
When ready, click Apply in the bottom right corner.
[Pro-tips]:
By default, you’ll see topics and themes corresponding to the Practice guide. For many of our subjects, we also include an Assessment and FRQ questions that you can explore by clicking the header tabs.
Hide Assessment Questions:
Toggle on Hide Assessment Questions if you’d like to ensure there are no questions from our pre-made assessments. This is perfect if you want to use only Practice questions for this assignment and want to use the Topic Quizzes or Full-Length Practice exams to check for understanding later.
Hide Previously Assigned:
Toggle on Hide Previously Assigned to exclude questions you've already assigned to your students in past assignments, ensuring they get new and unique questions each time.
Question Difficulty:
Select and filter by Easy, Moderate, or Difficult questions or a combination of difficulty levels.
Question Types:
Select the question types you want to include in your assignment. You can choose to filter by one or multiple question types at once.
After applying filters, click Show [X] Results to view the questions that match your criteria:
Adding Questions to Your Assignment
To add specific questions, click Add next to the question title.
You can automatically add 10 randomized questions by clicking Add 10. To adjust the number of questions added, click the down arrow and adjust the increment.
[Pro-tip]: As you add questions to your assignment, you can keep track of the number of questions added at the top left of your screen.
To preview a question, simply click on any question title. The right half of your screen will show the question, explanation, answer breakdown, and all the aligned standards and tags.
To add, remove, or edit filters, click on the blue filtering icon in the top left corner. This will expose the filtering panel on the left-hand side.
When you’re ready to review the questions you’ve added to the assignment, click Done Adding.
Review your assignment:
After adding questions to your assignment, you can click the info icon at the top of the question list to see a summary of your assignment, including the number of questions from each topic, standard, question difficulty, and question type.
Click on the Custom Order dropdown to re-order questions by difficulty level or alphabetically by question name. Alternatively, you can manually adjust the order of the questions in your assignment by clicking on the arrow icon for the question that you’d like to move.
Go back to add additional questions by selecting Add More +.
Remove questions by clicking on the trash bin icon or clicking the three dots (...) and selecting Remove all.
Assigning Your Assignment
Once you’re ready to assign, click on the Assign tab at the top center of the screen.
Save to a Folder
Alternatively, choose to save your assignment to a folder by clicking the 3 dots in the top right corner and selecting Convert To Folder. You can find your folders in the left-hand sidebar of the Assignments tab in the main toolbar.
If you haven't yet named your assignment, you can do so now in the top left corner.
Click on the Add Class + button on the left Recipients panel to select which of your classes to send this assignment to.
When a class is selected, all students in that class will be selected by default.
To select a specific list of students who should receive the assignment:
Click on the arrow to the left of the student’s class.
Use Include All or Remove All, or toggle individual students on or off to choose who should receive the assignment.
If students are not yet enrolled in your class, the default will be to send this assignment to all future enrollees.
Assignment Settings
Next, modify any of the Default Recipient Settings on the right panel. These settings will affect all classes, but can be customized at the class and student level later on:
Start Date/Time: By default, the assignment is set to start Immediately, meaning students will have access as soon as you click Assign. To choose a different start date or time, click the Immediately dropdown and select your preferred start time.
Due Date/Time: You must select a due date before assigning it to students. Click on the Choose... dropdown to set a due date.
Set time limit: By default, assignments don’t have time limits. If you want to set a time limit for your students, click on the textbox and input a time limit (in minutes). This would define how long your students have to complete the assignment after opening it for the first time.
Allow late submissions: Choose whether or not to allow students to submit (complete) the assignment after the due date/time. By default, late submissions are not allowed.
Randomize question order: Choose to randomize the order of the questions in the assignment. By default, questions will appear in the same order for every student.
Show correct answers and explanations: Teachers have the following options for the behavior of explanations in the assignment:
After each question (least restrictive):
Show the answer and explanation as students answer questions.
The sooner the students receive feedback the better. This option allows students to immediately apply the feedback to the next question.
After assignment completion (moderately restrictive):
Hide answers and explanations until after the entire assignment is complete.
You might use this option when you want students to be aware of their pacing while practicing.
After due date has passed (most restrictive):
Hide answers and explanations until after the due date passes to prevent students from viewing them early.
This is especially useful if multiple classes are completing the same assignment or if it’s being used as a take-home grade.
Message: Input a message that students will see when they open the assignment. This message is optional. When a message is included, students view it before actually starting to answer assignment questions.
After defining default settings, if you want to customize these settings for specific classes or students:
To customize a class setting:
Click the Customize button next to the class title.
Adjusts the settings as needed. All students in this class will receive the custom setting.
Click the Done button next to the class name.
To customize a student setting:
Click on the arrow next to the student’s class.
Click the Customize button next to the student's name.
Modify their settings as needed. The student will receive their custom settings instead of the class or default settings.
Click the Done button next to the student’s name.
Assigning and Sharing
Once you have finished editing your assignment settings, click Assign in the top right of the screen. You'll then be in the Share tab.
After assigning, students will be able to see the assignments in their Classes tab based on the start date you selected. You can also share your assignment in a variety of ways:
Student Links: copy the Student Link and share the link with students in an LMS.
Post to Google Classroom: If you’ve previously synced with Google Classroom, you’ll automatically see the option to Post to Google. If you have not synced before, you can do so at this time.
Post to an LMS: If you’ve previously synced with an LMS, you’ll automatically see the option to sync your assignment.
Assignments you create via the Assignment Builder flow are the same as other assignments you create on Albert. They can be accessed, edited, or viewed later.