how to mark assignments on teams

How to Use Assignments in Microsoft Teams: Quick 12-Minute Tutorial for Teachers

Sara Wanasek

Using Microsoft Teams in the classroom gained popularity during the pandemic. However, it can, and is, being used in both online and physical classrooms today. As a learning management tool, Teams works seamlessly with other Microsoft products like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint which are classic favorites for students and teachers alike.

This multi-functional tool allows you to stay in touch with your students not only through video calls, but with chats, files, and assignments in Microsoft Teams. Teams can seem daunting when you first begin to use it, but it really is quite simple and easy to use. To make it seem less intimidating, we have broken down and explained some main features of Teams separately. Here are links to our other guides on features of Microsoft Teams:

• Microsoft Teams for Online Teaching – A Guide for Teachers
• Using Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams  
• Assignments in Teams
• Class Notebook in Microsoft Teams
• 15 of the Best Teams Tips and Tricks .

Below is a quick, everything-you-need-to-know guide on assignments in Microsoft Teams. Let’s get started!

Create an Assignment in Microsoft Teams

To begin creating assignments in Microsoft Teams, you first need to be sure of two things:

• You are logged in with a Microsoft EDU account
• The Team you have created is a Class Team type

If both of those things are complete you will be able to see the Assignments tab on the side ribbon and on the top ribbon in the General channel. If you need help getting to know the interface and basics of Teams, check out our Teams Guide for Teachers.

Start a New Assignment

Now, to create your assignment, click on the Assignments tab from the top ribbon under your General Channel. Click Create , and then Assignment , to begin your first assignment. You can explore creating a quiz with the help of Microsoft Forms and creating an assignment based on a pre-existing assignment another time.

Add Assignment Details

In your new assignment, add a title and a description to let your students know what to do to complete the assignment.

If you prefer to attach the instructions as a document, or have supporting materials to the assignment, you can attach them under the Add Resources link. Teams allows you to attach files in many different ways: through your OneDrive, ClassNoteBook, from a link, by creating a new file, or from uploading a document from your computer.

When you attach a resource, you have the option to allow students to edit it or not. By default, they cannot edit; however, if you prefer to change this, just click on the three dots at the end of the resource and click, Students edit their own copy. Now, when students edit this file, a new copy will be made for them, and it is automatically attached to this assignment for an easy turn-in.

Set Points and a Rubric

To easily grade this assignment in Teams, assign the number of points it is worth, or add a rubric . Similar to creating assignments, you can use a pre-existing rubric, upload one, or create a new one.

Creating a new rubric is very customizable so you are able to add all the information your students need to complete the assignment. Just add a title , and a description , then fill in the rest of the rubric. If you need more categories , just click the plus button at the end of the columns, or after the bottom row. In addition, you can assign points to each category of the rubric.

Choose Students to Assign the Work to

The next step in creating an assignment is to assign it to your students. You can assign it to all of them, or a certain student(s) for more individualized work. Just click Assign to All, or go through the list and click the students you would like to assign this to.

Give a Due Date & Close Date

In Teams, there are two different categories of dates for when the assignment is due.

Due Date: This is when the assignment is due, however, students are still able to turn in the assignment late, after the due date has passed.

Close Date: This is when the assignment closes and no more submissions are allowed.

To set both of these, and schedule this assignment for the future, click Edit under the Due Date section. To set a Close Date , click the checkbox on the side and set the date.

When all of your setups are complete, back at the top of the page, click assign, or save for later if it still needs a bit more work.

How Students Can Turn in Assignments

After you assign an assignment, students will receive a notification. They are able to view the assignment in the General Channel or on the Assignment tabs.

The student’s view of the assignment is very similar to the teacher’s view. They will see the Due Date and Close Date, the instructions, any files you have attached, and a rubric if there is one.

Students can begin their assignments right away in Teams if you have attached a document for them to work on. In the example below, students would be using PowerPoint on their desktops simultaneously with ClassPoint to make their presentations more interactive. As they work, their changes will be saved automatically. If you don’t have a document attached, students can upload and attach their work instead.

When they have completed their work, they just need to click Turn In. They will see a fun animation appear indicating the turn-in is successful.

How to Grade Assignments

Once students have turned in their work, you will receive a notification. Now, you can easily look over and grade their work. Click into an assignment to view how many students have turned in their work, how many need grading, and how many you have already graded.

To grade an assignment, click on the Turned in status. Here, you are able to view their work alongside a tab for you to give them feedback. If you have a rubric , it will open for you to assign the points for each category. Scrolling down, you can leave feedback to let them know what they excelled at and what needs more work.

When the grading is completed, you can return it to the student. They can view your feedback, make changes, and turn it in again if necessary.

To easily jump between students for a continuous grading experience, click the arrows on the side of the student’s name, or click on the student’s name for a drop-down menu of your other students.

Export Grade Data

In Teams, it is really easy to export data, especially for assignments. You can export data for certain assignments, in addition to exporting all assignments and student grade data. This can be done from the Grades pivot on the top toolbar. You will see a complete list of your students, and of each assignment on this tab that you have assigned throughout the year.

Frequently Asked Questions

And that completes this tutorial on Assignments in Microsoft Teams! There is plenty you can do with this feature on Teams to make it suitable for your students and classroom. Enjoy using it to its fullest potential.

We have put together some frequently asked questions in case you still have some lingering questions before you get started!

What if I don’t see the Assignments tab?

If you don’t see the Assignment tab on the top ribbon in your General channel, or on the side ribbon, you are not logged in with a Microsoft EDU account. Create your own, or get in touch with your IT department for your login.

What is the difference between the Due Date and the Close Date?

Students can still turn in Assignments after the Due Date has passed, but once the Close Date has passed, no more submissions are allowed.

If I return the assignment to my student does that mean I want them to redo it?

Not necessarily. You can return all assignments to the students so that they can see your feedback. If you want a student to redo the assignment, you should let them know in your feedback.

Can I attach a PDF for my students to edit to the assignment?

You can do this through your Class Notebook! Insert the PDF to a Class Notebook page and set it as the background. Then, you can assign this page to your students.

Watch this for a visual guide on how to insert a PDF to a Class Notebook page.

Can I assign an assignment to a certain channel?

Unfortunately, no. You can only assign to the General Channel, which is all your students, or assign to individual students when setting up the assignment.

About Sara Wanasek

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Organize classwork with four new Assignments features from Teams

September 09, 2021.

By Microsoft Education Team

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Whether you’re preparing for a new school year or are already in the thick of one, there is no better time than now to recommit to classroom organization with the help of Microsoft Teams. Assignments in Teams has just what the educator ordered—simplified ways to streamline, distribute, manage, and access assignments for classes this year and beyond. 

Here are some of the latest and greatest features Assignments has to offer:

1. Filter assignments by class

Sometimes keeping track of assignments can almost feel like a greater task than reviewing them. Educators can now rest easy and stay organized by filtering student assignments by the classes they teach for a convenient and visual list view.

2. Return an assignment for student revision

Assignments are sometimes a work in progress, requiring ongoing updates, reviews, and edits. After reviewing an assignment, educators can now  return the assignment for revision . The returned assignment will appear in the student’s “active work” list, where they can then turn the work in after making edits. To return an assignment, educators just need to select Return for revision .

3. Assign group work

Collaborative learning just got easier with the new group assignment feature. Educators can give projects to a team of students and have them collaborate on, and submit, one piece of work for their whole group. Once the assignment has been submitted, educators can choose to submit comments and grades to individual students, or the entire group.

4. Manage assignments on a mobile device

Learning can happen from anywhere, and many educators and students rely on a mobile device to check and work on assignments. For their convenience, an upgraded version of Assignments with simplified navigation is now available on Android and iOS mobile devices and tablet devices.

When you’re ready to take advantage of these new features, don’t forget to also sprinkle in some fun and use the latest emojis in Microsoft Teams! With more than 800 emojis that are customizable (including by skin tone now), your students can freely express themselves, feel represented, and bring their full personalities to the classroom. Download Teams today to get started for free.

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Education has evolved significantly over the past three years, and so have the needs of educators, students, and institutions. Educators need time-saving workflows, students need access to classroom content wherever they are, and institutions need the seamless integration of these LMS experiences.

Top tips to get the most out of Microsoft classroom tools

As teachers continue to embrace the lesson plans and teaching methods of education’s digital age, finding new ways to make the most of technology can help simplify workflows, engage students, and improve outcomes in all learning environments, whether in person, remote, or hybrid. We created our new YouTube series, How to with Microsoft EDU, with this purpose in mind.

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Set and mark assignments in Microsoft Teams

Teams is an O365 app for collaborative working and also serves as a course platform. The Teams platform called TUNI Groups Education includes a tab where you can set and mark assignments. You can also utilize previously created assignments.

What do I need?

You need a Teams Class teams. See this tip on how to create one.

What do I need to do?

Create Class team area and add the teachers, materials and students to the group.

The Assignments tab is found at the top of your Class team. Select Assignments > Create >New assignment. When you are creating a new assignment, you can set a due date for submitting the assignment and define whether late submissions will be accepted.  In addition to instructions for completing the assignment, you can add assessment guidelines or the grading scale. Please note! You can also create a new assignment based on one of your existing assignments.

Assignments can be assigned to the entire class or individual students. This feature is useful, for example, when an individual student needs to complete extra assignments to make up for missed classes.

When the assignment is ready and assigned to your students, your students will be notified of the new assignment, and the notification linking to this assignment will be posted to the Teams space of the class.

To mark the assignment, go to the Assignments tab. The page will also show the students who have and have not submitted the assignment (Ei palautettu in Finnish).

What should I take into account?

You can attach different resources to your assignment (such as files, links or videos) by selecting Add resources. You can attach, for example, materials or templates that students must fill in and submit. Unlike in the image below, the resources can also be read-only so students cannot edit them. In this image, the teacher has attached a PowerPoint presentation to be edited by students (Opiskelijat muokkaavat omia kopioitaan in Finnish).

You can also browse Microsoft’s instructions  for setting assignments in Teams and synchronizing assignments with Turnitin. Enjoy working effectively with Teams!

Updated 1/2024

• Learning activities and assessment
• Pre-planning and teaching methods

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Organize content, create assignments, and assess learners’ understanding in Teams

Learn how to use Classwork to organize content, Grades to streamline assignments, Microsoft Forms to simplify assessments, and Insights to track academic and SEL trends.

Learning objectives

Upon completion of this module, you will be able to:

Create and organize class resources and assignments efficiently with Classwork

Create, distribute, collect, and grade assignments in Microsoft Teams

Create and embed polls, quizzes, and surveys with Microsoft Forms

Analyze data collected with Insights

Prerequisites

• Introduction min
• Organize class resources and assignments with Classwork min
• Customize Assignments to support learning goals and foster engagement and collaboration min
• Check for understanding with Forms in Teams min
• Create assignments in Teams min
• Support efficiency with the Grades app min
• Maximize flexibility with the Grades app min
• Improve learner outcomes with the feedback cycle min
• Teams provides Insights min
• Save time and connect with guardians with Parent Connection min
• Empower guardians to engage, support, and monitor learners with School Connection min
• Knowledge check min
• Summary min

Contribute to the Microsoft Teams forum! Click  HERE  to learn more  💡

March 14, 2024

Contribute to the Microsoft Teams forum!

Click  HERE  to learn more  💡

Top Contributors in Microsoft Teams: EmilyS_726   ✅

March 11, 2024

Top Contributors in Microsoft Teams:

EmilyS_726   ✅

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Marking an Assignment inactive

What does it actually mean to mark an assignment inactive?

Students will be unable to turn in, but will they still be able to access the materials attached?

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Replies (8) .

• Independent Advisor

Hello I’m Adeyemi and I’d be happy to help you with your question. Marking an assignment as inactive in Microsoft Teams for Education means that the assignment has no further action items for teachers and students. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/educationassignment-deactivate?view=graph-rest-beta. This can be useful for optional assignments that don't require a submission or aren't required for every student. By marking these assignments as inactive, you can clear up the assignments list, allowing students to focus on what's most critical. When an assignment is marked as inactive, students will not be able to turn it in. However, they should still be able to access the materials attached to the assignment. This allows them to review the content and use it as a reference, even if they are not able to submit any work for the assignment. https://educationblog.microsoft.com/en-us/2023/04/new-teams-for-education-features-in-april-2023-boost-efficiency-with-viva-connections-integration-and-more. Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.' I hope this helps! Give back to the Community. Help the next person who has this issue by indicating if this reply solved your problem. Click Yes or No below Regards Adeyemi

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Thanks for your feedback.

Do you know if there is a function on teams where you can temporarily disable an assignment but then reactivate it? In the case of some controlled assessments they can only work on it when they are in school being supervised and are not allowed to do the work at home.

Thanks in advance!

2 people found this reply helpful

very good question - a solution to this would be very helpful - could there be a temporary 'lock' facility?

I don't know that's why I am asking?

Maybe marking as inactive might work?

ok i'll have a try - i am school teacher myself trying to find a solution to this. i think with 'inactive' they can still adjust their work. we need a lock facility.

maybe somebody at microsoft could give a solution?

This is helpful.

I came here wondering if I can give feedback in an "inactive" assignment (which was a test) and have them still see the feedback while it is inactive.

I understand that they still have access to their work from an "inactive" assignment.

A LOCK function is actually quite a good idea! Ought to log that in as feedback!!

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Customer facing team leads often need to make adjustments to their call queue and auto attendant settings more often than their IT admins can handle. Admins can delegate certain people as authorized users and give them the ability to change settings like hours of operation, call routing, queue membership, and pre-recorded greetings for their respective call queues and auto attendants without leaving Teams.

To create authorized team supervisors, IT admins will first need to create a voice applications policy. To learn more, see Plan for auto attendant and Call queue authorized users .

Queues app is available in Teams Premium, an add-on license that provides additional features to make Teams meetings more personalized, intelligent, and secure. To get access to Teams Premium, contact your IT admin.

Queues app in Teams is available as part of the public preview program and might undergo further changes before being released publicly. To get access to this and other upcoming features, switch to Teams public preview .

In this article

Configure call queue settings.

            Allow people to opt out of taking calls

            Conference mode

            Manage users and groups

            Choose a routing method

            Change greeting settings

            Modify exception handling

Configure auto attendant settings

            Change auto attendant greetings

            Manage business hours

            Manage call flow

            Manage menu options

Allow people to opt out of taking calls

Go to Settings > Calls > Call handling and routing

Switch Allow people to opt out of taking calls on or off depending on your needs.

Conference mode

Conference mode  reduces the amount of time it takes for you to connect with a caller after you accept the call.

Switch conference mode on or off depending on your needs.

Manage users and groups

Add or remove team members from call queues and Microsoft 365 Groups. You can change their order for serial call routing , which will ring each person in the order they're listed.

Go to Settings > Calls

Select the call tab you'd like to make changes to along the top of the screen.

Select Manage users and groups for call answering.

Select Edit to change who is in the call queue.

Select Add users and groups .

Add a user or group by typing their name and selecting the correct person or group from the dropdown.

Click and drag users or groups to rearrange your list order.

To remove a user or group from the list, select the trash next to their name.

Note:  You can add up to 20 users to a call queue. If you need to add more users (up to 200), you must add them to a distribution list or Microsoft 365 group.

Choose a routing method

Routing methods determine the order in which agents receive calls from the queue. There are four types of routing methods:

Attendant routing rings all agents in the queue at the same time. The first agent to pick up the call gets the call.

Serial routing rings all agents one by one in the order specified in the people list. If an agent dismisses or doesn’t pick up a call, the call will ring the next agent. This cycle repeats until the call is answered, times out, or the caller hangs up.

Round robin balances the routing of incoming calls so that each agent gets the same number of calls from the queue.

Longest idle routes each call the agent who's idled the longest time. An agent is considered idle if their status shows Available . Agentss who aren’t available don’t receive calls until they change their status to Available .

How to choose a routing method:

Go to Settings > Calls > Call handling and routing.

Scroll down to Choose a routing method.

Select your preferred routing method.

When using Longest idle and when there are less calls in the queue than available agents, only the first two longest idle agents will be presented with calls from the queue.

When using Longest idle, there might be times when an agent receives a call from the queue shortly after becoming unavailable, or a short delay in receiving a call from the queue after becoming available.

Call Queue call presentation to agents may conflict with Location Based Routing restrictions. In this case, the agent will receive a call notification but can't answer the call. This condition will continue until another agent is available to answer the call, the caller hangs up, or the call queue timeout condition occurs.

Change greeting settings

Select No greeting , Add a greeting message , or Play an audio file from the greeting dropdown menu.

Select  Save .

Modify exception handling

Choose how you want to handle disconnected calls, calls that exceed the maximum wait time, and other call routing options dependent on certain circumstances.

Scroll down to Exception handling

Choose a call routing option for when the maximum number of calls is reached. Choose from:

Disconnect : disconnects the call.

Redirect to person in organization : Direct the call to a specific person.

Redirect to voice app : Redirect to an auto attendant or Call queue.

Redirect to external phone number : Set external phone number to redirect to.

Redirect to voicemail : choose a personal voicemail to redirect to.

Redirect to voicemails (shared) : choose a shared voicemail to redirect to.

Note:  When redirecting calls to a person in the organization, that person must be voice enabled. For details on enabling voice, see Assign Teams add-on licenses to users .

Auto attendants let people call your organization and navigate a menu system to speak to the right department, Call queue, person, or operator.

Change auto attendant greetings 

Choose the auto attendant line to which you want to make changes.

If Play an audio file is selected, upload the audio file with accepted formats

If Add a greeting message is selected, type a message.

Select Save .

Manage business hours

Identify when your call queues are open to receiving calls.

Go to Settings > Calls > Manage business and after hours .

You’ll see a list of tabs at the top of your screen. Choose the  you want to manage.

Using the toggles, set which days of the week your business is open or closed.

Select your business hours using the dropdown menus for each day.

Manage call flow

Change the greeting and routing options for calls received during and after business hours.

Call flow during business hours:

Go to Settings > Calls > Call flow for business hours .

You’ll see a list of tabs at the top of your screen. Choose the queues tab you want to manage.

Choose a call routing option for business hours. Choose from:

Redirect to a person in organization : Direct the call to a specific person.

Redirect to external phone number : Choose an external phone number.

Redirect to voicemail : Redirect to a shared voicemail.

Play menu options : Choose a greeting option for menu options. For more information, see Set up Auto attendants: Play menu options .

Call flow after business hours

Go to Settings > Calls > Call flow for after hours .

Choose a greeting option for after hours.

Choose a call routing option for after hours.

Call flow for holidays

Go to Settings > Calls > Call flow for after hours > Manage holidays call flow

Edit the observed holidays for your organization by selecting Edit next to each listed holiday.

Choose a greeting option for each holiday.

Choose a call routing option for each holiday.

Note:  Team members won’t be able to change the dates of a holiday unless they are authorized to make changes to every auto attendant that references the holiday schedule.

Manage menu options

Set the call flow for each number on the dialpad to redirect calls accordingly. You can choose to have calls routed to auto attendants, call queues, external numbers, a specific person, or go to voicemail.

Go to Settings > Calls > Auto attendant

You’ll see a list of tabs at the top of your screen. Choose the queues tab to manage.

Select Manage menu options to change the setting for each dialpad number.

Select Add new option to create new routing choices.

Note:  Team members and leads can't change voice commands or operator settings. These can only be modified by your IT admin.

Related topics

Manage your support queue in Teams 

Check your voicemail in Teams 

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