Documentation:WeBWorK/How to create WeBWorK assignments and properly assign them to students

From UBC Wiki

How to create homework sets or quizzes from publicly available problems

One way to create a homework set is to pull in problems from WeBWorK's Open Problem Library (OPL), which contains over 35,000 reviewed and tested problems that are browsable by discipline. Questions in the OPL have been contributed by faculty from institutions that use WeBWorK as well as some textbook publishers.

Note: To add more problems to the homework set or quiz later on, follow the same steps as below, but in step 2, instead of entering a name and clicking Create a New Set in This Course, select your existing homework set or quiz from the drop-down menu next to Add problems to Target Set.

  1. In your WeBWorK course, click Library Browser in the navigation menu.
  2. In the Create a New Set in This Course field, enter a name for the homework set or quiz, and click Create a New Set in This Course.
    LibBrow12.png
    • Note: When creating names, spaces are not allowed in the name. To substitute, you can use "_" instead.
  3. You can filter which problems to look for by using the drop-down menu next to Subject, Chapter, and Section. Click View Problems when you are ready to see the available problems based on your filtering.
    LibBrow3.png
  4. Some problems have hints or solutions included within the problem. You can preview the hints or solutions to these problems on the Library Browser page by checking the "Hints" or "Solutions" option before clicking the View Problems. If a problem has hint or solution, you should see a blue text link labeled Hint or Solution at the bottom of the problem.
  5. You can randomize, edit, and try any problem by clicking the corresponding icon above each question on the right side.
  6. To add a problem to selected homework set or quiz, click Add next to the problem - if you want to add all the problems that are currently displayed on the page, click Add All.
  7. To review all the problems you added and finish the setup of your homework set or quiz, click Edit Target Set at the top.
    LibBrow47.png
  8. On the edit page, set the due dates and description
  9. By default, the assignment is a homework set. If you want to create a gateway quiz, change the Assignment type to "Test" or "Proctored Test."
  10. Click Save Changes.

How to create homework sets or quizzes using custom problems

Making homework sets with custom problems requires editing code files for each problem. You will first add blank problems to a homework set that will create standard code templates for you to edit.

Note: To add more problems to the problem set later on, you can follow the same steps as below, but skip steps 2 and 3.

  1. In your WeBWorK course, click Hmwk Sets Editor in the navigation menu.
  2. Click the Create tab.
  3. Enter a name for the set, and click Create underneath the entered fields.
    CustomProb3.png
    • Note: When creating names, spaces are not allowed in the name. To substitute, you can use "_" instead.
  4. Click the number under the Edit Problems column next to the set.
  5. By default, the assignment is a homework set. If you want to create a gateway quiz, change the Assignment type to "Test" or "Proctored Test."
  6. Scroll down to the bottom, check box next to Add, and enter the number of custom problems you want to add.
  7. Click Save Changes.
  8. Scroll down to the Problems area to see your blank problems. Click the pencil icon to edit a problem.
    CustomProb8.png
  9. When making a custom problem, you must follow the standard structure of WeBWorK problems in the template. There are five sections to a WeBWorK problem:
    • Tagging and description section: describes the problem.
    • Initialization section: loads required macros for the problem.
    • Problem set-up section: sets variables specific to the problem.
    • Text section: displays the text that is shown to the student.
    • Answer and solution section: specifies how the answer(s) to the problem is/are marked for correctness, and gives a solution that may be shown to the student after the problem set is complete.
  1. When you have completed your edits, click the Save As tab, rename the file, and click Take Action to save. By default, blank problem will have the name "blankProblem.pg." You will need to change the name to a different one (For example. "newCustomProblem1.pg").
    CustomProb10.png

How to create an empty assignment

You can also create an empty homework set or gateway quiz, to which you can add problems later from the Library Browser or add your own custom problems.

  1. In your WeBWorK course, click Hmwk Sets Editor in the navigation menu.
  2. Click the Create tab.
  3. Enter a name for the set, and click Create underneath the completed fields.
    EmptyAssignment3.png
    • Note: When creating names, spaces are not allowed in the name. To substitute, you can use "_" instead.
  4. Click the number under the Edit Problems column next to the set.
  5. Under the General Information section, change the Assignment type to "Homework," "Test," or "Proctored test."
  6. Set the due dates, description, and any other parameters, then click Save Changes.
    Empty6.png

Note: To add problems to your empty set later on, follow the instructions in the above sections for either adding existing problems from Library Browser or create custom problems. Make sure to read the Note at the beginning of the instructions regarding adding problems to existing problem sets.

How to properly assign your students to a WeBWorK assignment

When a student clicks on the WeBWorK link, they will be automatically assigned to all visible problem sets. If you would like to disable this feature,  

  1. Go to the Course Configuration tab
  2. Click on the LTI tab
  3. Set “Automatically assign users to sets” to FALSE.

Once this feature is disabled, you will have to manually assign each problem set to your students. Before assigning problem sets to your students, please make them visible first. If you did not make the problem sets visible while you are assigning them to your students, any new students that join the course while you are making this change will not get assigned to the problem sets.

  1. In the Hmwk Sets Editor, click the pencil icon next to the assignment's name to edit it.
  2. Click the problem set's name to navigate to the problem set details.
  3. Make sure that Visible is check-marked. Click Save Edit
  4. Underneath Edit Assigned Users, click the fraction. Then select which students you would like to assign the problem set to or click Assign to All Current Users to assign all students.
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