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The Assignment Builder: A Step-by-Step Guide
The Assignment Builder: A Step-by-Step Guide

Guide to creating custom assignments with the Assignment Builder, aligning to the standards and subjects you teach.

Sarah Ruiz-Baranov avatar
Written by Sarah Ruiz-Baranov
Updated over a month ago

The Assignment Builder is your time-saving tool for creating tailored assignments aligned with your curriculum. Easily search across subjects and standards in our extensive library and preview assignments before finalizing. With thousands of questions at your fingertips, the assignment builder enhances your lesson planning efficiency and ensures your assignments meet curriculum goals.

Getting Started

  1. Click Launch Assignment Builder at the top of the screen.

    • Note: this button will only be available for approved educators at schools with an active license. Please reach out to success@albert.io if you are interested in purchasing Albert access.

  2. You can name your assignment in the top left corner where it says Unnamed Assignment or skip directly to finding aligned questions.

  3. Click Add Assignment Questions + to start searching and exploring aligned questions.

Finding Aligned Questions

Use the Filters on the left sidebar to find questions for your students.

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.

  • You can turn off your standard preferences when building assignments by selecting Your Standards and then toggling to All Standards. You can then type in your preferred standard set.

  • 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 right.

  • Once you find standards that align with the content you are teaching, click on the checkboxes for the standard sets you wish to filter by. You can select as many standards as you want.

  • Click Apply Filters in the bottom right corner when you're ready to see questions.

Subject & Topics:

  • Click the Choose Subjects dropdown in the top left corner, then search for a subject. You can then select one or multiple subjects to filter by.

    • For teachers who have already used Albert subjects with their students this year, you’ll see a shortlist of Recent Searches. You can click on a subject name to quickly apply that subject.

  • After selecting one or more subjects, you’ll be able to select an entire subject, a theme, or a topic within that subject by clicking on the corresponding checkbox.

    • 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 in the top-right-hand corner.

  • When ready, click Apply in the bottom right corner.

  • [Pro-tips]:

    • You can see the description of each topic by hovering over the “i” on the far right side.

    • 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 if you want to ensure that you provide your students with new and unique questions every time you craft an assignment.

Question Difficulty:

Click on the < icon, then select and filter by Easy, Moderate, or Difficult questions or a combination of difficulty levels.

Question Types:

Click on the < icon, then select the specific 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, you’ll click Show Results to browse questions aligned to your filters.

Adding Questions to Your Assignment

Once you select your desired filters and click Show Results, you can add questions to your assignment.

  • To add specific questions, click Add next to the question title or click Add to Assignment button at the top of the detailed question view.

  • You can automatically add 10 questions by clicking Add 10 For Me. 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, correct answer breakdown, and all the aligned standards and tags.

  • To add, remove, or edit filters, click on the 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 on the Order By 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.

  • Add additional questions by selecting Add More +.

  • Remove questions by clicking on the trash bin icon or clicking Remove all.

Assigning Your Assignment

Once you’re ready to assign, click on the Assign button in the top right corner. Alternatively, you can also choose to save your assignment to a folder by clicking the Options dropdown. This would allow you to save the assignment for future use, revising, or to share with other teachers.

  1. If you haven't yet named your assignment, you can do so now.

  2. Click on the Add Class button on the left panel to select which of your classrooms to send this assignment to.

    • To edit the list of classrooms, select the Add Class button and select the classes that you’d like to add or remove.

    • When a classroom is selected, all students will be selected by default.

      1. To manually select a specific list of students who should receive the assignment:

        1. Click on the arrow next to the student’s class.

        2. Add/remove the checkmark from students who should/shouldn’t receive the assignment.

      2. If students are not yet enrolled in your class, the default will be to send this assignment to all future enrollees.

  3. Next, you can modify any of the default settings. These settings will affect all classes, but can be further customized at the class and student level later on:

    1. Start Date/Time: By default, an assignment’s start date is set to “immediately”, meaning that students will have access to the assignment as soon as you click Assign. To select a different start date and/or start time, simply click on the dropdown Immediately and select the intended start date/time.

    2. Due Date/Time:You must select a due date before assigning it to students. Click on the dropdown Choose… to set a default due date. Note that you will be able to customize this for each class momentarily.

    1. Set time limit: If you want to set a time limit for your students, you can click on the checkbox 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. By default, assignments don’t have time limits.

    2. Allow late submissions: You can choose whether or not to allow students to submit (complete) the assignment after the due date/time. By default, late submissions are not allowed.

    3. Randomize question order: You can choose to randomize the order of the questions in the assignment. By default, questions will appear in the same order for every student.

    4. 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.

        • This is a good option when more than one class is completing the assignment, or you are using a take-home assignment for a grade.

    5. Message: You can also 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.

  4. After defining default settings, if you want to customize these settings for specific classes or students:

    1. To customize a class setting:

      1. Click the Customize button next to the class title.

      2. Adjusts the settings as needed. All students in this class will receive the custom setting.

      3. Click the Done button next to the class name.

    2. To customize a student setting:

      1. Click on the arrow next to the student’s class.

      2. Click the Customize button next to the student's name.

      3. Modify their settings as needed. The student will receive their custom settings instead of the class or default settings.

      4. Click the Done button next to the student’s name.

  5. Once you have finished editing your assignment preferences, click Send Assignment.

  6. After assigning, students will be able to see the assignments on their Classes tab based on the start date you selected. You can also share your assignment in a variety of ways:

    1. Student Links: copy the URL link and share the link with students in an LMS

    2. 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.

    3. Post to an LMS: If you’ve previously synced with an LMS, you’ll automatically see the option to sync your assignment. If you have not synced before, you can do so at this time.

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 via the Assignments tab of your classroom(s).

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