Assignment Release Criteria in SPARK

When you create an assignment, you can choose to release it to your students individually or in groups, depending on your needs. You can also release an assignment to all students, but send additional instructions to a specific group. You will have access to the release options on the Create/Edit Assignment screen until a student submits an attempt for the assignment.

After you have created an assignment, however, you can still set release criteria that go beyond students or groups of students.

Add Release Criteria to an Assignment

1. On the Build tab, in the Course Tools menu, click Assignments. The Assignments screen will open.
2. In the Assignments screen, next to the title of the assignment you wish to release, click the ActionLinks button (gray icon with four lines). The ActionLinks menu will open.
3. From the ActionLinks menu, click Set Release Criteria. The Set Release Criteria screen will open.
4. The Set Release Criteria screen lets you create and set up the release criteria for your assignment:

   

   • Add Date Criteria: Set the time window during which an assignment will be available.
   • Add Member Criteria: Release an assignment to individual students in your course.
   • Add Group Criteria: Release an assignment to all the members of a student group.
   • Add Grade Book Criteria: Release assignments to students based on their grades in previous assignments, assessments or the course.
5. Once you are finished setting up the release criteria for your assignment, click Save (at bottom) to apply the changes. If you do not, you will lose your work.

Edit or Delete Release Criteria

To edit a release criterion you have already created:

1. Click the ActionLinks button (gray icon with lines) next to the criterion you wish to modify, and select Edit from the ActionLinks drop-down menu.
2. Proceed as shown in Add Release Criteria.
3. To permanently remove release criteria, from the ActionLinks drop-down menu next to the criterion you wish to erase, select Delete.

Set Up Advanced Release Criteria

In the Set Release Criteria screen, you can narrow down the release criteria for an assignment by creating more criteria and subordinating them. This creates an expression that regulates the application of your criteria.

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To see an example of advanced release criteria being applied:

You can also access this topic through the Help Contents navigation (left pane) by expanding Using Blackboard Learning System Features and Tools > Selective Release > Setting Release Criteria for Items.

1. Open the online Help in SPARK (at top, right).
2. In the Search field on the Learning System Online Help screen, enter release criteria and press Enter.
3. In the search results, select the topic Setting Release Criteria for Items. This topic contains basic examples for each type (e.g. Date Criteria, Grade Book criteria, etc.).
4. At bottom, there is a link to a topic titled Example of Setting Advanced Release Criteria for an Item. Select that topic to see an example of how to combine multiple release criteria for an item.