Using Momentum’s Annotation Tool

Annotations in D2L allow instructors to give feedback to students in work submitted as a document. To facilitate using the Annotation tool, students must submit WORD docs, PDF files, EXCEL spreadsheets, or images to Dropbox assignments.

The Annotations tool allows you to add comments, and other markups right on the file with no downloading. This tool is especially handy for short assignments where commenting is minimal (rather than using the feedback box and referring back to the document). For longer assignments, we would still recommend you download them and provide feedback using track changes and commenting.

Here’s how it works:

1. 1. Go to the Assessments tool, and click on Dropbox.
      Remember: To use the annotation tool, the assignment must be a File submission type (i.e., not a straight Text submission. File types: Word doc or PDFs, or images).
   2. Click on a document you would like to assess to open the Evaluate Submission. Then the document will open with the annotation tool (black tool bar) at the top of the screen. 

      The annotation tools from left to right:
      

      (a) Document view: Thumbnails (the default), Outline (opens a table of contents for multi-page documents), Bookmarks (allows you to bookmark pages so you can quickly navigate back to them), Page forward and back (if you have a multi-page document to grade)
      
      (b) Page Layout: Page Mode (Single page, Double page, Automatic); Page Transition (Continuous – gives you a scroll bar, Jump – move from page to page using the table of contents); Page Rotation (Rotate Right, Rotate Left) – play around and choose the layout that works best for you.
      
      (c) Pan Mode – allows you to drag the page up and down

      (d) Zoom Out and Zoom In – enlarges your document view or decreases it
      
      (e) Fit Page – fits the document page to the annotation tool window

      (f) Pen, Highlighter, reverse Highlighter, Eraser (toggle menu appears when clicked.)

      (g) Note tool (add comments to locations in the document)

      (h) Text box tool

      (i) Line, Arrow, Rectangle (underline and point things out in the document)

      (j) Print

      (k) Search Document

      (l) Download (Note: downloads are packaged as PDF files)

   3.  As you add annotation to the document (e.g., using arrows, text boxes, notes, etc.) they will appear on the document.
   4. Click Save Draft if you need to go back to finish annotations (or if you will be marking several students and want to publish all feedback at once).
   5. Finish grading the assignment as you normally would, adding the Score, or using a Rubric, then click Publish to publish the annotated feedback to students.

Student View

To view the annotated document, students click View Inline Feedback after clicking on the file in their Dropbox. Students can view the feedback, Print and/or Download it (NOTE: file will save as a PDF file).

Things to Remember

We advise that you not use the annotation tool for submissions by students who require screen reader technology to access their online course content. The images placed on documents (i.e. arrows, drawings, etc.) using the annotation tool are NOT tagged, therefore screen readers DO NOT read them.

Video How-To