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Creating a Homework Assignment in Gradescope - Staff Guide | Original Minerva


This guide is for Gradescope in Minerva Original (for modules 2021/22 and earlier). If you are looking for the Ultra Course View guide, see Creating a Homework Assignment in Gradescope Ultra Course View.


The Homework assignment type within Gradescope can be used to create an assessment that supports the submission of an entirely handwritten response. You can also add a time limit.

From Submit My Work in the module menu, select Add Content > Gradescope Assignment.

Select Gradescope assignment

Gradescope will open in a new tab. You will be presented with an option to link to an assignment. Select a new Gradescope Assignment, then Link Assignment.

Linking an assignment

Next you will see 5 options for the type of assignment. Select Homework/Problem Set, then Next.

Give the assignment a clear title, tick to enable Anonymous Marking and set a Release Date and Due Date. Students will be able to resubmit their paper at any time until the due date. Add a late due date if you would like students to be able to submit after the due date (these will be flagged as late when marking). If necessary, you can enforce a time limit that will give students a set time to complete and submit their paper.

Homework settings

Keep the submission type as Variable Length. The Template section requires you to upload the question sheet that you intend on giving to students to work from. This must be saved and uploaded as a PDF file. Tick Template Visibility at the bottom if you'd like students to be able to download this question sheet from within Gradescope.

Homework settings

Click Create Assignment.

Once you have filled in the information above, select Create Assignment. You will then see the following message appear.

Successfully added an assignment

Close the tab, and return to Minerva where you should refresh the page. You should then see the assignment link has been added in your module.

Assignment link in Minerva

A Grade Centre column will have been automatically created for you. Note that this column will be visible to students by default.

Editing the Outline

You can now start building your assignment outline. Click on the assignment link in Minerva. This will launch Gradescope in an overlay, where you will see the Edit Outline interface.

The outline will create the structure for the assignment and will enable students to tell Gradescope which questions their answers belong to when they submit. It will group submitted answers together for each question.

Outline for Homework

Use the grey + icon to create each question according to your template (question sheet provided to students), and assign a points value. You can also add sub-questions (e.g. if your questions have several parts) using the green + icon.

Click Save Outline once you’ve finished. Students can now start submitting their work if the release date has passed.

How do students submit their work?

For students to access the assessment, they will need to select the Gradescope assignment link added to the Minerva module. This will open Gradescope in a new overlay.

Using either a scan or photos, students will need to upload their handwritten response and tell Gradescope on which page they have answered each question. Once they’ve uploaded their file(s), they will load in a new page. Here, the students will match the question numbers to their answers. Once they are finished, they click to submit their paper at the bottom of the screen.

It is advised that students use a recommended scanning app on their device to create a PDF file to submit, see Scanning work on a mobile device on Gradescope's website.

Students will be able to resubmit their answers until the deadline.