Add your own assignment categories

Updated 19 Feb 2024

Each new course contains the Homework, Quiz, and Test categories. As an instructor or a section instructor with the Gradebook privilege you can add your own categories, which you can then apply to assignments in the same course. Like the provided categories, each new category gives you a way to:

  • Store a set of grading, presentation, and security settings to use for selected assignments
  • Filter the Gradebook to view results from only certain kinds of assignments
  • Weight different kinds of assignments differently when students' total scores are calculated

Watch a video: Create a new assignment category and a timed quiz

The following names are not allowed for new categories because they are reserved:

 Adaptive category for Adaptive Follow-Up assignments
 Dynamic Study Module category for Dynamic Study Module assignments
"" Interactive Lab category
 Learning Catalytics category for Learning Catalytics sessions

  1. Do one of the following.

    • As you create or edit an assignment: On the 1 Settings page select  Add/Edit Categories under Category.
    • From the Gradebook: Select "" Gradebook Settings then Categories and Weighting.
  2. Enter a name for the new category, select a category with similar settings, and then select Add. (Reserved category names can't be added.)

    Select Edit Default Settings next to the name of any category to view its settings in a new window.

    Notice the Show Weighting or Hide Weighting link in the upper left. If you have many assignments, you may want to Hide Weighting, to more easily see all categories. Select the link to switch between Show and Hide modes.

  3. Select Edit Default Settings next to the new category to make your changes to the default settings for the new category.
  4. When you finish editing the new default settings, select Save.
  • Any category you create becomes available immediately as a menu pick for the Category field. You can then apply this additional category to any standard assignment within the course.
  • Category settings do not travel with copied assignments. When you copy a standard assignment to or from another course, a category is applied as follows.
    • If a category with the same name as the original category doesn't exist in the new course, the first category in the alphabetic list from the new course is automatically applied. You should confirm that the applied category's settings are what you want to use for the copied assignment.
    • If a category with the same name does exist in the new course, that category is applied. Be aware, however, that the category settings might be different.
    • If needed, you can create a new category in the new course for this assignment, or you can customize the settings for the assignment.
  • The category associated with an assignment is preserved when you copy a course. This is true for all categories whether default, edited, or your own.

See also: Assignment settings applied with a category | Customize settings for a particular assignment | Weight assignments by category