Managing AI Integrated Assignments

AI Integrated Assignments are a family of Packback activity types where students work directly with an AI to build and demonstrate specific skills. In Teach the AI, for example, students explain a concept to an AI that pushes back with questions; in Argument Lab, they develop and defend an argument. Additional types, including Claim-Source Verification and Co-Authored Essay, are coming soon.

This article explains how AI Integrated Assignments are organized, so you can build activities once and reuse them across your courses. For step-by-step setup and grading of a specific type, see that type's own article, such as Creating and Grading a Teach the AI Assignment.

• How Activities and Assignments Work Together
• The Activity Library
• Reusing an Existing Activity
• Editing an Activity
• The Gradebook
• Setting Up Gradebook Sync for AI Integrated Assignments
• How to Post Grades for AI Integrated Assignments

How Activities and Assignments Work Together

AI Integrated Assignments are built from two connected pieces:

• An Activity is the reusable definition of the work: its topic, learning objectives, supporting materials, and rubric. Activities live in your Activity Library and aren't tied to any one course or date.
• An Assignment is a scheduled instance of an activity, tied to a course and given start and due dates. An assignment is where your students actually complete the activity.

Separating the two means you can design an activity once and assign it many times, across sections, courses, and terms, without rebuilding it each time.

The Activity Library

The Activity Library is where all of your reusable activities are stored. From here you can:

• Create a new activity by clicking Add, choosing New Activity, and selecting an assignment type.
• Open and edit an existing activity.
• Reuse an activity by adding it to a new assignment.

Building or saving an activity in the Library does not schedule it for students. It simply keeps the definition ready to use whenever you want to assign it.

Reusing an Existing Activity

You don't have to rebuild an activity every time you want to assign it. When creating a new assignment, choose Existing Activity to pull an already-built activity from your Library and add it straight to the assignment, skipping the builder.

This is the fastest way to run the same activity in another section or course, or to reuse a well-tested activity in a new term.

Editing an Activity

If you edit an activity that has already been published, you'll see this notice:

This is a read-only version of the activity. Editing will create a new version of this activity. It will not impact any existing assignments that are live.

Editing a published activity is safe. Packback creates a new version rather than changing the one your students are currently working in, so live assignments are never disrupted. Your edits apply to future assignments that use the new version.

The Gradebook

Within AI Integrated Assignments, the Gradebook sub-tab gives you a single rollup view across all of your AI assignments in the community. It shows a matrix of every student against every AI assignment type, with each student's score in each assignment (or a dash, "—", where work is ungraded).

To jump into a specific assignment, click its column header to go straight to that assignment's Submissions list, where you can grade individual student work.

Setting Up Gradebook Sync for AI Integrated Assignments

Gradebook Sync is now available for AI Integrated Assignments. Instructors can enable Gradebook Sync, create gradebook columns, and manually post grades to Packback and their Learning Management System (LMS).

How to Set Up Gradebook Sync

1. Navigate to the Gradebook Sync page in Packback.
2. Enable Gradebook Sync for your AI Integrated Assignment.
3. Create the necessary gradebook columns for your assignment.

4. Once grades are ready, navigate to the assignment’s Submissions table to post them.

When Gradebook Sync is enabled, a Sync Status column appears in the Submissions table next to the Visibility column. This column helps you track the sync status of student grades.

How to Post Grades for AI Integrated Assignments

Students cannot see their AI Integrated Assignment grades until you explicitly post them. To make grades available, navigate to the assignment’s Submissions table and click Post Grades.

The Post Grades modal guides you through the available options:

• Post grades to Packback and your LMS: Make grades available to students in Packback and sync them to your LMS.
• Post grades to Packback only: Make grades visible to students in Packback without syncing them to your LMS.

If Gradebook Sync is enabled, you can also create or edit the LMS gradebook column and select which course sections should receive the synced grades.

Review your selections carefully before confirming that you want to post grades.

Important Things to Know About Posting Grades

• Grades remain visible once posted. After you post grades, students can access them. You cannot hide the posted grades again.
• Students do not receive an automatic notification. Students are not notified when grades are posted, so you may want to notify them separately when their grades are available.
• Posting grades is a manual step. Enabling Gradebook Sync and creating gradebook columns does not automatically make grades visible to students. You must click Post Grades from the Submissions table.

Have questions?

If you need technical assistance or have questions about managing your AI Integrated Assignments, please reach out to our Support Team at help@packback.co.