How to approach your assignments
Approaching your assignments
The assignment for a module will become unlocked once you have scored over 50% in that module's quiz. When you are ready to complete the assignment, we would recommend that you have enough time to complete it in one sitting. There are no assignments in this course that need to be taken under test conditions. Your assignments are designed to continue your learning and so you can refer to your course book and other sources in order to complete your assignments. Please handwrite your assignment in black ink.
Reflection and feedback
Before you start your next assignment, we ask you to reflect on the feedback you received from your tutor on your previous assignment. Being able to reflect on your progress and take on board your tutor’s feedback is a key part of the Wolsey Hall course.
If you have scored a very high mark, we ask you to reflect on how you achieved that, so that you develop an awareness of your own skills and study habits. Perhaps you showed all your working in that assignment, perhaps you made notes as you watched the video tutorials and that really helped; whatever you did that enabled you to succeed, we want you to be aware of that and be able to make use of it in the future.
Assignment guidance
At the beginning of every assignment, we give you guidance on how to approach that particular assignment. We outline how to approach the assignment, how to submit it, what resources you will need (for instance, whether or not you can use a calculator) and how long you should take. Please do bear in mind that the time parameters given (for instance, we may say that we expect you to take between 30 and 45 minutes on this assignment) are given as a rough guide and should not prevent you from taking longer if you need to do so.
For any question worth more than one mark, please show your workings to make your method clear. You will maximise your mark by showing step by step how you approached the problem.
The amount of workings you need to write out will depend upon whether the assignment is to be answered with, or without, the use of a calculator. For example, if the question was “Find the area of a rectangle of base 13cm and height 15cm”, then the answer for a calculator based paper would be 13 x 15 = 195 cm2, where writing “13 x 15 =” would be all that is needed to make your method clear. For a non-calculator paper, however, you would need to show how you would work out the answer to 13 x 15 using a non-calculator method.
Uploading your assignment and receiving feedback
You should upload your assignment to Canvas, as a single file, that is less than 20MB and A4 or Letter size. Please read this Guide to Canvas page on Submitting PDFs to find out how.
Within 3–5 working days, you will receive a notification to let you know that your assignment has been marked. When you look at your assignment feedback as well as the general comments your tutor has given you (these may be written and/or an audio/video message). Occasionally a tutor will annotate your work using a pdf editor rather than Speedgrader. If they do this, they will attach an annotated pdf file alongside their assignment general comments. Be sure to look for the annotations on this pdf file, and if you cannot see any please contact your tutor.
Please do take time to reflect on your tutor’s feedback and take it on board in future assignments. This is a key part of the Wolsey Hall Oxford course as the feedback will be personal and tailored entirely to you. The feedback is designed to help you further both your knowledge and your skills in the subject.
Can I send in several assignments at the same time?
We ask that you do not submit multiple assignments at the same time. It is very important that you reflect on your tutor’s feedback before beginning each new assignment, so that you can incorporate their tips for improvement into each new piece of work.
Can I resubmit an assignment if I feel I didn’t do very well?
We encourage you to work carefully on each assignment and submit it when you are happy with your finished piece of work. Do ensure that you read the assignment guidance carefully and follow the instructions given. Once your tutor has marked an assignment and added your grade to Canvas, that module is complete. If there is something that you feel you could improve on, that’s positive and all part of learning. Rather than going back to a completed assignment, we suggest that you take on board that feedback and put it into practice in your future assignments.