How do I assign a lab in Gateway?

Gateway via SSO: 

If you are using an SSO connection to the Carolina Science Online (CSO) platform to provide each lab manual to your students, you will create assignments in CSO. These assignments will then appear in your course automatically. 

Part 1: Prepare the course in your LMS 

• Log in to your course in your learning management system (LMS). 
• Go to the “Assignments” section of your course. 

• It is recommended that you create a Lab category, if you don’t already have one, and drag it to the top of the Assignments page. This is because the assignments you create in CSO using the single sign-on connection automatically appear in the assignment category at the top of your Assignments page. 

Part 2: Create the Assignment in CSO 

• Click on the Carolina Science Online tool from the list of content available to you in the left side menu. This will open a new tab that takes you to your home page on the CSO website. 
  • If this tool is not visible, go to “Settings” then the “Navigation” tab and make the tool visible on your teacher dashboard. 
  • Your LMS administrator may have named the tool something other than what is given in these directions. 

• The first time you access CSO through your course, it will ask you to log in with your LMS credentials. You will not need to take this step in subsequent sessions. 
• From your CSO home page, click the product that contains the lab manual you wish to assign. 
• Each product contains multiple resources. On the resource you wish to assign, check the box to “Add to assignment”. A pop-up will appear in the bottom portion of your browser with the added resource. 
  • If a resource does not have the “Add to assignment” check box, it means that the resource is meant for instructors only and is not for student use. 
  • If there are many resources in the product, such as in the Virtual and Dry Lab Library, use the Search bar at the top of the window to find resources by title. 

• You can assign multiple resources to a single assignment by repeating Step 5. The newly added resources will appear in the pop-up next to the initial resource. Within the pop-up you can add external resources, such as files or web links, to further customize your assignment. 
• When your assignment contains all the desired resources, click “Create Assignment” at the top right of the pop-up. 
• A new pop-up will appear to finalize the details of your assignment. 
  • The first tab asks you to verify the resources in the assignment are correct. If you need to remove a resource, you can do so from this tab. If you need to add a resource, close the pop-up and add resources before attempting to create the assignment again. 
  • The second tab asks you for the details of the assignment, such as the assignment’s name, instructions, availability dates, and grade type. You must fill in the required fields (marked with *) before continuing. 
    • When filling in the instructions field, note that any special formatting (such as line breaks, bold, italics, numbered/bulleted lists, etc.) will not be saved when the assignment appears in your LMS. It is recommended that you type placeholder text in the instructions field in CSO and then edit the assignment in your LMS to write/paste in your formatted instructions. 
    • When filling in the start and end dates, it is recommended that you use the dates of the first and last day of your course. This provides you with flexibility to edit the assignment in either CSO or your LMS for the duration of the course. You can change the due date of the assignments from within your LMS later. 
    • Choose the “File” option so students can upload their completed lab notebook files when they submit the assignment through the LMS. This is not required for you to view students’ completed lab work, but grading the lab notebook PDFs through your LMS allows you to leverage the grading features of your particular LMS. 
  • The third tab asks you to assign the assignment to students. You must assign an assignment to at least one student for the assignment to be generated.  
    • From the list of courses on the left side, select your course. All the students registered for the course will then appear in the larger list on the right.  
    • Click “Select all” to select all the students in the course.
  • Click the blue “Assign” button in the bottom right of the pop-up to create the assignment.  

Part 3: Edit the Assignment in your LMS 

• Return to the course in your LMS. 

• Go to your “Assignments” section. 
• Find the assignment you created in CSO. It will have the same name. 
  • The assignments you create in CSO using the single sign-on connection automatically appear in the assignment category at the top of your Assignments page. 

• Open the assignment. 
• Edit certain settings: 
  • You may wish to add formatted instructional text in the Instructions field. 
  • It is recommended that the due date be updated to the actual due date for the assignment rather than the last day of the course as set up in CSO. Updating the due date in the LMS assignment does not impact the due date in CSO. 
    • You may also wish to delete the Until date if it is filled in. 
  • Make sure the assignment is assigned to “Everyone else” so student users who are not rostered in CSO, such as test students, will have access to the assignment. 
    • Make sure the due date fields that appear for these users matches the main due date fields for the assignment. 

• Once your desired changes have been made, save the assignment. 
• You can verify the connection between the assignment and CSO is working by accessing the Student View feature in your dashboard and opening the assignment. 
  • Click on the CSO hyperlink in the assignment instructions. 
  • CSO will open in a new window if the connection is working. Because this Student View is not formally assigned the assignment in CSO, the link will not take you to the actual assignment, but rather it will open the assignment dashboard in your Teacher account in CSO. Seeing this dashboard still verifies that when a student clicks on this same link in their assignment, they will be taken to the CSO assignment and its resources. 

If you intend to give one grade per lab assignment (such as a lab notebook grade), then the assignment process ends here. You can repeat the steps above to create an assignment for each of the Carolina Distance Learning investigations in your course. 

You have the option to evaluate not only the lab notebook but also the pre-lab assessment for each investigation. If you intend to give two grades per lab assignment (a pre-assessment grade and a notebook grade), continue following the subsequent steps to duplicate each assignment. 

• In your course, find the assignment you wish to duplicate. 
• Open the options menu for the assignment. This will show options such as Edit or Move. 
• Click “Duplicate”. 
  • Each assignment will have a link to CSO. Students can use the link in either assignment to access the same assignment in CSO. Their work will be saved regardless of the link used to enter the CSO environment. 

• Open each assignment to modify its settings to suit the type of assignment. 
  • For an assignment to record pre-lab assessment scores, the Submission Type should be changed to not accept submissions. 
  • For an assignment to record lab notebook scores, the Submission Type should be changed to accept uploaded files.