Student Comments

"Add Comments Tool" will insert a tool that permits students to make comments. Once a student has added a comment, they may change or delete it for 30 minutes. After that, only an instructor may change or delete it.

Edit

The Edit button will allow you to change certain details about the comment tool. This includes the following:

• Keep Comments Anonymous - The author will be shown as Anonymous followed by a number, except that instructors will still be able to see the real author. The number is used so that students can see which comments were added by the same person. If there are several comments blocks, the numbers are not consistent across the blocks.
• Don't Release Item Until All Prerequisites are Completed - Select this option if you would like comments tobe accessible only after previously 'Required' items have been completed/accessed.
• Require This Item - Select this option to make this item a 'Required' item for later on in the Lesson Builder plan. The requirement will be satified once someone has added a comment.
• Edit the groups for which this item should be shown - If you have groups or sections in the site, allows you to make the comments block visible only to some groups. Students who are not in one of the checked sections of groups will not see this item on their page at all.

To save your changes, click Update Item.

The Delete option may be used to delete the comments block from the page. Note that the comments themselves remain in the database, although only an administrator will be able to retrieve them.

Grading

• Creating Gradebook entries: If you want to grade student comments, select the option Create gradebook entries for these in Edit. You will need to specify the maximum number of points.
• Entering point scores: The simplest way to grade is to enter points into the Points box which appears at the top right of every comment. Hit the "Return" or "Enter" key to submit the value. A green checkmark will appear to confirm that it was entered into the gradebook. (A red X will indicate that submission failed.)

The points you enter apply to all comments by that student in that comment section. So if they have made multiple comments, any new score you enter will show next to every comment by that student.

• Summary grading view: There is also a separate Grading Pane, which lets you review or enter grades in a summary format. The button to enter the Grading Pane appears above the comments block, to the right.

In the Grading Pane you'll see a button Toggle Comments to the right of each student. That will show or hide a listing of all the comments entered by that student. Show Context will show you the whole page, with that student's comments highlighted.

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