Assignment categories and settings

Updated 19 Feb 2024

Each assignment is associated with a category, from which it inherits a set of saved assignment settings. The default category for any new standard assignment is Homework. Compare the Homework, Quiz, and Test categories

Categories help you to do the following:

• Apply default grading and presentation settings for new assignments. For example, you might want to apply the Quiz or Test category to a standard Mastering assignment so that students see correct answers only after the assignment is completed (Quiz) or due (Test).
• Weight certain assignments differently to control students' final grades in the Mastering Gradebook and on the Scores page that students see. For example, you might want all Homework assignments to be worth 25% of the grade, all Quiz scores to account for 45%, all Tests to be worth 25%, and all Learning Catalytics sessions to be worth 5%.
• Filter your view of the course Gradebook by kinds of assignment. For example, you might want to selectively view Test scores for students, without seeing their Quiz or Homework scores.
• See scores by category on a student's Scores page. On each student's Scores page, all assignments are grouped by category. This can help you see patterns at a glance. For example, whether this student is scoring well on homework, but poorly on quizzes or tests.

As you get used to working with assignments and their categories, you may want to try out the following.