Gone are the days where students used to carry their bags full of books for homework to be submitted the following day. During these times, teachers from various subjects would assign students homework from a text book and the student will have to carry the homework to do it at home. Now if you are doing eight subjects and each teacher from each subject decided to give homework on their subject, you can imagine the amount of books one has to carry home. Although the advancement in technology has been helpful, not all schools have been able to benefit from the burden of carrying a load of homework home. There are however various schools that have incorporated the use of webassign to help in promoting academic honesty in the schools. Webassign is a powerful instructional tool for both teachers and students. In previous times, taking homework to do it at home did not seem like such a good method to determine the weaknesses and strengths of the students as someone could easily do it for them. So how does webassign work?
Instructors in each school which is subscribed to webassign can log into the site and create unique assignments online. They are then able to post and publish them publicly for their students to access them. The students are required to submit their answers online too. The good thing about webassign is that it automatically grades the assignments and the students are able to get immediate feedback on how they performed in their assignments. It is however not just a grading system. The site has a wide range of subjects from sciences, statistic, and mathematics.
So how do you start using webassign?
1. You will need an account
In order to create assignments and post them, as an instructor you will need an account and access code. The same goes for students. Webassign is not a free platform. There are different packages on offer depending on your needs as well as the amount of money you are willing to spend. Once you have acquired the account, you will need to log in using your username which is normally your school email and a password which is commonly your student ID. It is important to note that passwords cannot be shared and each student is only allowed one account. This eliminates cases of academic dishonesty such as impersonation and cheating in assignments.
2. Java and flash
Another thing you are required to have has Java and flash enabled on your computer. This will enable you to view the graphs in some subjects like maths. Failure to this will have you miss out on some pencil tools and number lines among other important mathematical tools. If you are unable to have them enabled, try using a different browser such as opera or Firefox.
3. Timelines
One thing about webassign is that it has strict deadlines on the submission of assignments. The conventional assignment setting allows students to hand in assignments when the teacher requests for them or under prior arrangements. Webassign normally has a given deadline for certain assignments. For instance, no assignment will be graded past 14 days. If you wish to submit your assignment later, you must request an extension on the same site.
