You can send email reminders to any students who have not yet submitted to a particular assignment.
There are different workflows depending on the assessment tool being used, and whether it is set as Named or Anonymous.
Please Note: The “send reminder” function in the Gradebook will not work if there is a Release Condition set, which is why these workflows are necessary.
- Turnitin assignment – Named or Anonymous
- Blackboard assignment – Named
- Blackboard assignment – Anonymous
- Blackboard Group assignment
- Non-submission reminder message – default text
Turnitin assignment – Named or Anonymous
You can send non-submission reminders by using Progress Tracking. The same procedure applies regardless of whether anonymity is switched in.
- Locate the Turnitin assignment in the Assessment content area.
- Click on the three dots, then Student Progress.
- Now set the ‘Progress Status’ filter to ‘Unopened’.
- Select all students or a subset, then click on Message.
- You can then type a customised message.
You will normally want to use the text of the standard Non-submission reminder message.
Remember to- Include the name of the assignment in your message – Blackboard will not insert this automatically
- tick ‘Send an email copy to recipients’ before pressing Send.
- Now repeat this process for students with the status ‘Started’.
Started: student has clicked on the Turnitin link to open the assignment but has not submitted
Unopened: student hasn’t even opened the assignment
Blackboard assignment – Named
Please note: This option is only available when at least 1 submission has been made to the assignment
- From the Assignment Submissions page, select No Submission from the Student Status dropdown
- This lists all students who have not submitted to this assessment. You can select them all, or individual students.
- Then click Send Message.
- The New Message screen opens
- You can then type a customised message.
You will normally want to use the text of the standard Non-submission reminder message.
Remember to- Include the name of the assignment in your message – Blackboard will not insert this automatically
- tick ‘Send an email copy to recipients’ before pressing Send.
- The message and email copy will be sent to all the selected students.
- Then repeat the process for any students with the status ‘Draft Saved’.
Please note: you will see a ‘Send Reminder’ option in various places in the Gradebook. We recommend that you do not use this option: it does not offer the same flexibility; it does not work on any assignments which have Release Conditions applied; and, crucially, the reminder is sent only as a Message, not as an email.
Blackboard assignment – Anonymous
- With anonymous Blackboard assignments you have to use the ‘Send Reminder’ feature in the Gradebook. Before you can use this function, you need to remove any Release Conditions on the assignment.
All Blackboard assignments created by the EMA Integration have a ‘Show After’ or ‘Access from’ date applied (4 weeks before the due date), and therefore have Release Conditions applied. Removing the Start Date does not have any negative consequences – by the time non-submission reminders are being sent, by definition the Start Date will already have passed. - To remove Release Conditions for the assignment, change ‘Release Conditions’ to ‘Visible to Students’.
- Then open the Assignment and navigate to the Submissions tab; click Send Reminder.
- Or locate the assignment in the Gradebook; click Send Reminder.
- You are asked to confirm
- The standard University non-submission message will be sent to these users; you are not able to customise the message that is sent.
- The reminder will always be sent to students as an email, a copy is not saved in Messages.
Blackboard Group assignment
There is no option in the Gradebook to send a Message for Group assignments, and if you use the Send Reminder feature students will receive this only as a Blackboard message, not as an email.
In order to send a non-submission reminder, use this workaround:
- Go to the Gradebook and identify any Groups which have not submitted; make a note of which Groups you need to contact.
- Go to Messages and send a message to the non-submitting groups.
Non-submission reminder message – default text
The email will be sent with the subject ‘<course_id>: Reminder to complete activity’, and will display the following text:
<course_id>
<course name>
You have not yet made a submission for this assignment: <assignment title>.
Please ignore this email if you have an agreed extension for this assessment, or you are not formally assessed on this module.
Due date: <due date>
- If you receive this email before the deadline please submit your assessment as soon as possible.
- If you receive this email after the deadline you are still able to submit your work but a late penalty will apply.
You are advised to submit work in an unfinished state, rather than fail to submit any work.
If you are awaiting the outcome of an exceptional circumstances request, please refer to the Guidance for students who are awaiting the outcome of an exceptional circumstance request for an assessment.
**Please note that this does not apply to Henley Business School or ISLI students – please contact your Programme administration team**
**Please note that the point of contact for UoRM students is your Student Support Coordinator**
You should continue to work on your assessment after submission, pending the outcome of your exceptional circumstances request.
Please do not reply to this email.
Getting help
If you have any queries about your assessment submission please contact your Support Centre as soon as possible.
If you’re a Henley Business School student, please contact your programme administrators in the Admin Decks in the HBS or ICMA buildings.
If you’re an ISLI student, please contact your programme administrators in the ISLI Admin Office in the Edith Morley building.
If you’re a UoRM student, please contact your Student Support Coordinator at ssc.uorm@reading.edu.my.
Late Penalties
If your assignment is submitted late a penalty will be applied to your work. Please view the University policy below:
Penalties for late submission for Postgraduate Flexible programmes (except REP)
Apply for an exceptional circumstances request
If you have encountered problems that are outside your control which have meant that you have been unable to submit your work, I encourage you to submit an exceptional circumstances request.
Students must normally submit any exceptional circumstances request before the deadline for submission of the coursework; late exceptional circumstances requests will be considered only if there is a valid, evidenced reason (hospitalisation, incarceration or equivalent physical or mental incapacity).
Further information about the process can be found on the Essentials website.
Guide last updated on October 4, 2024
