The following tutorial covers how to annotate student work using the Vantage Reader on ManageBac.
Teacher View of Student Work
Annotating student work can be done directly on ManageBac for .pdf, .doc, and .docx files. If you have enabled Dropbox for an assignment, students can submit their work directly to the system. Please note that if the work includes any graphs or tables, uploading as a PDF is recommended for best results in the annotation tool.
Teachers can lock and unlock submissions for Tasks and Deadlines either for individual students (via the lock icon next to the students' names) or for all students in the class/year group using the Lock All Submissions. Locking submissions will not allow students to upload any additional files or delete already uploaded files.
Click the View File (Pencil) icon shown for every student to annotate work. Once the work has been annotated, it will turn orange (if multiple files were uploaded and at least one is annotated) or green (if all uploaded files are annotated) to indicate content has been added. A clipboard icon will appear for each annotated file showing which user annotated the file. The i icon next to the file name will indicate the precise timestamp at the work was uploaded.
The file will automatically load in the split screen gradebook view.
You can add the following type of annotations:
- Sticky notes - allows you to leave comments.
- Text box - type notes directly on the document.
- Area highlights - add comments to a highlighted area.
- Ink - draw directly on the document.
- Text highlights - highlight & unhighlight text.
- Stamps and Images - include outside images and stamp the document
- Signature - add your signature to the annotations
- Shapes - draw lines and other shapes on the page
For students with multiple files submitted, teachers can switch between these files in the Tasks Details panel by selecting the different file titles.
On narrow screens, we would recommend to deactivate the Pages panel and turn off the Task Details temporarily to see a sidebar and add threaded comments for each annotation.
You can add comments by typing them in the text box and clicking Comment. Annotations can be deleted by clicking the trash can icon.
Note that highlights and other non-comment annotations must all be removed by clicking the annotation, and then clicking the trash can icon at the top of the page.
Annotations can be made by multiple users at the same time to the same document. Annotations and Comments will save and be visible to all users annotating the document.
Moving annotations & Viewing general comments
Text box, Area & Ink annotations can be moved around on the document. Hover over these types of annotations until you see a Move cursor, click and drag them to another position on the document.
Downloading Annotated PDFs
Click on the Download button at the top of the page. Select Download Annotated as your download option to download all annotations into a PDF file.
Anonymised downloads are available by navigating to the students Portfolio. You can search for the Task or upload, click Annotated File, and then Generate PDF for the anonymised version.
Grading in split-screen Gradebooks
Teachers can view the assessment criteria descriptors and assess the Task by using the Rubric View. This will sync the entered grades directly to the Task Gradebook.
Switching between students in the split-screen view is possible by selecting the student's name from the student list on the left-side menu.
Student View of Annotations
Students will also have access to the annotations and can reply to your annotations or add their own new annotations by clicking Tasks > Task name > View Teacher Feedback.
Note that students will not have access to change grades, but any grades or assessment comments will be visible to the student in the student task view. See the student guide on Tracking your Academic Progress for further details.