Skip to main content

Brightspace Support

Brightspace Support

Using the Annotation Tool

Brightspace allows you to annotate students’ Assignment file submissions in the web browser. This can be more efficient than downloading files and annotating them in MS Word or a similar off-line process. The Annotation tool is used in the View Submissions area of an assignment, where you enter grades for your students’ file submissions. It offers most tools that you would associate with grading, such as highlighting, commenting, and a free writing tool as well as a search option to locate certain words within a document.

This guide highlights all the features available to you in the Annotation tool.

 

Updated Spring 2024

Access the grading window

  1. In the Assignment tool, click the down arrow next to the assignment name and then click View Submissions.
  2. Click on a student submission.
  3. This will open the grading pane, with the annotation toolbar at the top of the pane.

 

Annotation Tools

  1. In the toolbar above the document, clicking on the icon on the far left will toggle a frame that gives a preview of the pages in the document.
  2. To navigate from one page to the next, you have the option of using page selection buttons in the toolbar.
  3. When the hand icon is selected, you can click on the document and drag it up or down to navigate between pages.
  4. The magnifying glass icons will allow you to zoom in and out on the document
  5. The Fit Width/Fit Page button is a zoom function that toggles the paper view from fitting the whole page into the frame, or fitting it to the width of the fra
  6. The Drawing, Highlighter, and Eraser selections allow you to edit free-hand on the document with your mouse.  When these are selected, a toolbar with additional settings will appear.  Simply click and drag to write on the document.
  7. The Note button allows you to place a marker on the document that will then show the student an instructor note when the student hovers over the marker.  Once the Note button is selected, a toolbar containing color, and marker icon settings will appear.
  8. The Text button allows you to add typed text anywhere on the document.  Once the Text button is selected, a toolbar containing color, transparency, font type, font size and text alignment settings will appear.
  9. The Line button allows you to add a line anywhere on the document.  Once the Line button is selected, a toolbar containing color, transparency, thickness, and line type settings will appear.
  10. You can print the document by clicking the Print button.
  11. To search the text of the document, click the Magnifying Glass on the right side of the toolbar.
  12. To download the document, click Download

 

 If you need assistance with how to grade assignments, you can find those instructions here.

How do I grade an Assignment

 

If you have any questions about this tool, please contact Brightspace Support at brightspace@vanderbilt.edu.