Set the Category for Assignments

You can set the category for an assignment to one of the default categories — Homework, Quiz, Test, Lab, Exam, and In Class — or you can create and use your own categories.

Although the category is principally used by the WebAssign GradeBook to weight assignments for calculation of your students' final grades, it is important to correctly set the category for every assignment for other reasons, as well:

  • When you use an automatic extension policy in your class, you can specify different extension policies for different categories of assignments.
  • When creating reports or downloads of WebAssign scores, you can use the category to identify how assignments should be weighted in a gradebook external to WebAssign.
  • Your students see the category identification of every assignment and will have different expectations, for example, of homework assignments and quizzes.
Note: When you duplicate or edit an assignment created by another instructor, the assignment might specify a custom category created by the assignment author. If this occurs, you can use that category in GradeBook and extension settings for classes to which you schedule the assignment, but you cannot create new assignments using that category.

To set the category:

  1. Edit the assignment or assignment template settings.
    To do this Do this
    Change the assignment template In the Assignment Templates Manager, click Edit for the template.
    Change the current assignment only

    In the Assignment Editor, click Edit Settings.

    If the assignment used a template, the settings from the selected template become editable in the Assignment Editor and the template is no longer used.

  2. If needed, expand the GradeBook settings.
  3. For Category, select the category you want to use.
  4. Click Save to apply your changes.
Parent topic: Create and Edit Assignments