Using Assignment Minder: a guide for academic staff

Unit Coordinator Form

• Ensure that you fill out the ‘Unit Coordinator Form’ with adequate warning for the Assignment Minder staff before the assessment date.
• We have simplified the ‘Unit Coordinator Form’ so there are less mandatory fields
• When we receive assignments for a subject with no ‘Unit Coordinator Form’ or instructions, we batch and deliver the assignments to the Unit Coordinator by default.
• Clear and succinct batching and delivery instructions assist us in getting the assignments to you quicker.
• For some subjects there are a large number of tutor-markers for one assessment piece. We have found that a small sign listing the tutorial time, tutorial group and tutors’ names on the Assignment Minder desk aids students in putting the correct details on their coversheet, thereby assisting Assignment Minder staff in batching assignments correctly.

Deliveries

• If you are often away from your office, you may wish to nominate a different room or secure location to deliver assignments to.
• If you are only on campus certain days, you may wish to nominate a day and time for us deliver assignments to your room.
• If you organise a date/time for us to deliver assignments to a given room, please ensure that you are present or the room is unlocked at the specified time.
• Please note that because of heavy loads during peak periods of semester, delivery of assignments on the due date is not usually possible. We strive to get the first load of assignments to you within 2 days of the due date.

Accepted Assingment Formats

• All A4 sized assignments should be submitted in a cardboard document wallet. This allows easy handling by Assignment Minder staff and ensures that assignments are protected against loss and damage.
• Assignments in a format larger than A4 are best submitted in large plastic folio folders. Once again, this protects against damage and loss of assignment parts.
• Document wallets and appropriate folio folders are available for purchase at the QUT Printing Services desk (GP) as well as the QUT Bookshop. Folio folders are also available at a variety of newsagents and art suppliers in the CBD.
• Please do not encourage students to submit assessment pieces in homemade cardboard folders as this makes delivery, handling and storage extremely awkward for Assignment Minder staff.
• We do not recommend that models or other fragile assessment pieces be submitted through Assignment Minder.
• Some markers have a policy that they deduct marks from students who submit assignments in an incorrect format.

Return of Assignments

• Upon completion of the marking process, please contact the Assignment Minder coordinator on your campus. We will arrange for collection of your assignments. You can also choose to drop the assignments off at the Assignment Minder desk on your campus.
• It is important that assignments registered with Assignment Minder are not returned directly to students by the marker. Please ensure all assignments are returned via Assignment Minder.
• Once assignments are returned to the Assignment Minder desk, each assignment is scanned into the system again and an e-mail is automatically generated and sent to the student, notifying them that the assignment is ready for collection.
• In busy periods it can take a few hours for us to process your batch of returned assignments. For this reason, we recommend that you do not contact students with instructions to collect their assignments.
• Please ensure that all criteria/marking sheets and assignments are securely packed into the associated document wallet and not hanging out or loose. This causes loss of assignment parts or a great deal of unnecessary work for Assignment Minder staff.

Incorrectly Delivered Assignments

• If an assignment not connected to your subject is incorrectly delivered to you, please contact Assignment Minder immediately. We will arrange for the stray assignment to be collected and re-delivered to the correct marker.
• Please do not just pass the assignment on to the correct marker. This is important because to track assignments accurately we need to have the whereabouts of the assignment recorded in our computer system and delivery logs.
• If you would like to redirect the assignment to the correct marker yourself this is possible however it is essential that you contact Assignment Minder so we can record the movements of the assignment.
• Assignments are a vital part of students study and success at university. If you receive incorrectly delivered/batched assignments, please return them as soon as possible. Do not wait until you have finished marking your assignments.

Other Information

• There are documents available online (WEBSITE) and (WEBSITE) to help you understand the Assignment Minder process and how to read batch sheets. The latter is important as we have found there are some common misconceptions or misunderstandings on reading these sheets and determining submission dates.
• Assignment Minder is run as one service across four campuses. This means that markers or students can drop assignments at the desk most convenient for them. Assignment Minder will then transfer the assignments to the campus they need to be at.