Prepare your assignments

Updated 01 Feb 2024

Your course comes with a test bank of questions organized by the sections in your textbook. You can create online assignments from scratch or assign sample assignments that come with your course.

Questions in homework assignments offer tutorial help that students can use if needed. For example, step-by-step guides to solving a problem, videos, animations, and an online textbook.

Create and manage assignments using the Assignment Manager. Some courses offer preloaded assignments that you can customize for your course.

Using an LMS? Create direct links to MyLab assignments from your learning management system if you work in Blackboard, Canvas, D2L Brightspace, Moodle, Sakai, or Schoology.

All assignments have a Gradebook category:

  • Online categories: Online assignments can be homework, test, or quiz. Results are automatically entered into your Gradebook. Tests and quizzes are different categories for convenience only and there is no functional difference.
  • Offline categories: A built-in category called Other is available for work students do offline. For example, you can use the Other category to track class projects or attendance. You also create additional offline categories. Results for offline assignments must be entered manually.
  • Custom categories: You can create custom categories to give special treatment to some assignments. For example, you can change the weighting of certain assignments or omit some assignments from results.

You can customize relative weighting of individual Gradebook categories or weight individual assignments. See Change assignment weighting.

All courses include the online MyLab Player, a tool that opens in a new window where students do their assignments. Results are recorded in your MyLab Gradebook. The player is optimized to accept answers specific to your discipline, such as mathematical notation and financial statements.

The player has three assignment modes:

  • Practice - for homework and Study Plan work. Students can check their answers and practice similar questions up to the due date. Unless you restrict their availability, different types of question help are available.
  • Test - for tests and quizzes. Students do not see whether their answers are correct until after they've submitted the assignment. Students working in test mode cannot open the player in other modes. You also can require the Pearson LockDown Browser to prevent students from opening other browser windows during tests or quizzes.
  • Review - for students to compare their answers to the correct answer. Students access review mode for any assignment from their Results page. They also can review homework from the Do Homework page.

Instructions to use the player are available in the student online help.

Pearson provides an accessible version of the MyLab player that can be used with the JAWS screenreader on PCs and laptops. Some capabilities are not available on tablets.

JAWS can be used to answer multiple-choice questions and free-response questions. Students use keyboard shortcuts and the command-line language to enter special characters and symbols. See the student online help for details on using the player with JAWS.

Students select Accessibility > On from the settings menu in the player work in JAWS. Free-response questions become simple input fields that accept answers in the command-line language.

The Pearson LockDown Browser does not work with the JAWS screenreader. See Use the Pearson LockDown Browser for information on workarounds.

In some cases, you or your students might be prompted to run the Browser Check before doing assignments in the MyLab Player. The Browser Check helps you install any additional components needed to do an assignment. For example, you might be prompted to install the Pearson LockDown Browser.

If the Browser Check requires you to install missing components:

  • You must have administrator rights to the computer.
  • Your browser must allow pop-ups and cookies from Pearson.

Some courses incorporate advanced capabilities that do not use the MyLab Player, such as Dynamic Study Modules, Mini Sims, Freehand Grader, and MediaShare. These assignments might be done in a browser window or in a different type of player. See Assignments done outside of the MyLab player.

Some courses offer interactive homework, where content from your textbook is interleaved with questions on that content. These assignments might include interactive videos, animations, or tutorials. Students read a little, watch a little, and work a little as they do the homework.

Homework assignments in interactive courses are preassigned, but you can add questions or remove objectives.

 

See also: Edit assignments