Overview
Why should you do Individual Assignments in Harmonize? Because students have more digital tools than ever, and while some are helpful, others are a little too helpful. Harmonize gives you the power to design assignments that get students thinking, reflecting, and creating (for real!). From video feedback to multimodal submissions to built-in AI assistance that actually supports learning (rather than replacing it), here are ten ways Harmonize helps you level up your assessment game.
1. Build AI Resilient Assessments with Non-Text Submissions
Feel like you’re grading the work of robots? Want to give writing assignments where students actually do the writing? Worried your STEM students have outsourced their homework to AI assistants?
While no assessment is “AI proof,” some are more AI resilient than others. In particular, AI resilient assignments often incorporate non-text elements, such as audio, video, or images.
💡 Practical Ideas
- Video reflections: Ask students to record video reflections and/or do screen recordings over their essays where they talk about their process, ask questions, and consider future revisions. See Recording Video in Harmonize and Screen Recording in Harmonize.
- Flip it: Have students create multimedia projects (such as presentations) as their main product, and then ask them to write written reflections about the process.
- AI Critique: Ask students to explicitly incorporate AI into their workflow but to critique and correct it. Students can screen record their AI sessions and/or submit ChatGPT transcripts so you know exactly how it was used.
- Accessible, open-ended assignments: Instead of requiring a specific non-text submission type (e.g., a screen recording), consider offering students a range of options, including digital poster creation, audio recordings, and/or a "choose-your-own" option. Students can pick the mode that is accessible to them.
2. Allow Students to Submit Multiple Pieces of Work in a Single Submission
Okay, we're cheating a little, because this is closely related to reason 1, but we have to point out that your students can submit practically any number and combination of items in a Harmonize individual assignment. This makes Harmonize ideal for a range of activities that would be difficult to do in a typical LMS assignment.
💡 Practical Ideas
- Revision assignments: Ask students to upload their original draft, any feedback they received, and a final. You can even ask them to record a video reflection about the process.
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Portfolios: Instead of laboriously compiling documents, images, and other items into a single file, students can upload all the components of their portfolio in one place.
- Tip: The arrows in the upper right corner of any "row" can be used to move the item up or down, giving students more control over how their portfolio is ordered.
- Multimodal/mixed media composition: Usually students just submit a single "box" of text, but students can create as many of those boxes as they want and can intersperse them with other content such as video or audio recordings, YouTube videos, and images. In essence, students can create multimodal "essays." See Uploading Media and Files.
3. Record Video Feedback for Students
Students love receiving video feedback from instructors! And sometimes it's just easier to verbally explain something (like how to use a semi-colon correctly!) rather than taking the time to write it out. You can likely record video feedback in your LMS, but if you use Harmonize, then those videos won't count toward your LMS storage limit. You can even screen share your students' work as you discuss it, making it easier to highlight strengths and weaknesses at particular moments.
💡 Practical Ideas
- Take notes first: Consider using Harmonize's critique tools (see Reason 5: Use Advanced Critique Tools) to make notes as you read. Then, you can go through your notes point-by-point in your video.
- Try screen recording: From the grading area, create a reply to the student, initiate screen recording, choose your current screen, and then navigate to the student's work (video, document, slides, etc.). You can record your feedback while actively showing the students work and reviewing any notes you took on it.
- Worried they won't listen? You can set an extra milestone for a comment and ask them to respond to your feedback (see Reason 7: Ensure Students Receive Feedback).
4. Get an AI "TA" Built into Your Workflow
Want AI assistance? You've got it! Not interested in using AI? No problem, are AI tools are always optional. Our AI TA can help with:
Prompt Generation. Not sure what you want students to do? Harmonize Brainstorm can help. Just tell us what your students are learning, select a complexity level (with higher levels available for more advanced work), and optionally enter learning outcomes. Regenerate the prompt for a different option or make suggestions for improvement. Once you're happy, we will drop the prompt into the text editor complete with accessible, readable formatting.
Rubric Generation. Tired of writing something in 16 boxes for ever single assignment? Use Harmonize Rubrics to create rubrics quickly. You have full control of the rubric outcome with the ability to edit at every step. If you're a Canvas user, any rubrics you create will automatically pass back to Canvas and be useable in the Speedgrader.
AI Coaching for Students. Want to offer students real-time, AI-generated writing feedback? Our AI Coach gives students the feedback they need to reflect and revise. Note: Our AI Coach does not give specific critiques or make suggestions. Instead, it's just a barometer to help students identify which parts of the rubric they may be struggling with.
💡 Practical Ideas
- Experiment with prompt generation. Try generating prompts at different complexity levels. If you already have a clear idea for your assignment, try using the "Suggest Improvements" box to steer things in a new direction: tell the AI to forget everything and do X instead, where X is a brief description of what you really want.
- Use Harmonize as a rubric generator. Canvas users have the option to generate rubrics in Harmonize and then use them anywhere in Canvas that a rubric can be added. That means you can use Harmonize rubrics even if you're not interested in Harmonize Individual Assignments.
- Explicitly assign AI Coaching. AI Coaching doesn't have to be afterthought: direct your students to use the coach to make revisions and then reflect on the process. You can then view version history to see what they changed.
5. Use Advanced Critique Tools
Harmonize provides robust critique tools that make it easier to offer clear, contextual feedback on all kinds of media. You can leave timestamped comments on student videos, draw directly on images, and annotate documents in detail, all in one place. Instead of downloading files, opening them in separate programs, and juggling your screens like a circus performer, you can simply click, comment, and continue.
With these tools, feedback becomes more visual, more specific, and more actionable, and that means students might actually (hopefully!) use it.
💡 Practical Ideas
Video critiques: Leave a note exactly where something happens in a student’s video. No more “At 1:32, you say…." See Respond within Video.
Image markups: Art and design instructors can circle, highlight, or draw right on student work. Math and Science instructors can ask students to submit pictures of handwritten work and then easily comment on it. See Creating Image Annotations.
Document annotation: Mark grammar issues, organize content suggestions, and drop encouragement throughout essays or reports. See Document Critique.
Combo feedback: Mix notes and video feedback (from Reason 3: Record Video Feedback for Students!) to give students multiple ways to understand revisions.
6. Create Clearer, More Engaging Assignment Instructions
Let’s be honest: students don’t always read assignment instructions. (Okay, they rarely do.) But instructions that include short videos, polls, and mixed-media examples are much harder to ignore. Harmonize makes it easy to embed multimedia directly into your prompts, so students are more likely to read and understand.
You can model exactly what good work looks like, check for understanding before students begin, or record video guides and walkthroughs.
💡 Practical Ideas
Record a quick assignment walkthrough: Explain expectations verbally, show a sample, or clarify tricky steps. See Recording Video in Harmonize.
Use a poll: Ask students to how they're feeling about an assignment or check their comprehension about requirements. See Adding a Poll to Your Post.
Attach real (or AI generated) examples and use the document critique tools to comment on them: Students can visually compare strong vs. weak submissions. See Annotating Media and Files as You Upload.
Use the prompt generator to make readable instructions: The prompt generator (also called Harmonize Brainstorm) can help you come up with assignment ideas, but it can also reformat your existing instructions to be clearer, easier to read, and more accessible. In the "make suggestions" box, just ask it to forget its own prompt idea and reformat your instructions instead.
7. Ensure Students Receive Feedback
You spent time giving thoughtful feedback… and then it disappears into the void. Did they read it? Who knows! But Harmonize lets you require students to acknowledge and respond to feedback through comment milestones. You’ll know when they saw it, and they’ll have to engage with it, either by asking questions, sharing revision plans, or simply reflecting. See Milestones.
Feedback doesn’t just become a grade justification. It becomes part of the learning cycle.
💡 Practical Ideas
Make a revision plan: Have students comment back with at least one thing they will change for future assignments.
Feedback check: Ask students to summarize your top two pieces of feedback.
Video reflection: Ask students to record a video response to your feedback.
8. Leverage Multiple Due Dates
Some assignments aren’t one-and-done. Multi-step projects, skill-building activities, and journals all deserve structured pacing. Instead of setting up three separate assignments (and playing “Which submission is which?” later), Harmonize allows multiple due dates within one assignment.
Students can submit drafts, revisions, and reflections in a single workflow, allowing you to track progress without extra bookkeeping. See Milestones.
💡 Practical Ideas
Draft → Peer Review → Final: Create clear checkpoints for writing assignments or creative projects.
Weekly journaling: One assignment, multiple entries. The assignment is easy for students and well organized for you.
Project portfolios: Let students build throughout the term instead of submitting everything at once.
9. Promote Self-Reflection and Revision
Students improve the most when they slow down and think about their choices. With Harmonize, students have all the same critique tools you do, so they can mark up their own drafts, leave timestamped notes on their own videos, and reflect directly in their submission.
By making revision visible, you help students build real metacognitive skills (not just chase a grade).
💡 Practical Ideas
Self-markup: Ask students to highlight areas they revised and explain why.
Video reflection: Students record a quick walkthrough of what changed between drafts.
Critique checklist: Provide prompts: “Where did you improve? What still needs work?”
Version history as evidence: Make revision effort part of the score. You can even ask students to use AI Coaching for one or more rounds of revision.
Students can do these things in a single submission. Or, if you would like them to submit work and then reflect on it at a later date, see Reason 8: Leverage Multiple Due Dates.
10. Use Engagement Insights to Promote Student Success
Ever wish you had superpowers for seeing which students are quietly falling behind? Engagement Insights gives you a real-time dashboard of student interaction: who’s posting (whether it's a discussion or an assignment), who’s viewing materials, who’s ghosting assignments until the deadline, etc. See Engagement Insights.
With visibility into engagement patterns, you can intervene before students disappear into the “I didn’t know I was still in this course” zone.
💡 Practical Ideas
- Personalized support: Notice changes in engagement and check in to prevent drop-offs.
Conclusion
Harmonize offers a single, streamlined space where engagement, feedback, and reflection all come together. With flexible submission types, powerful critique tools, guided AI workflows, and insightful analytics, you can design assessments that truly center student learning. Whether you’re trying to boost academic integrity, simplify drafts and revisions, or help students become more thoughtful and confident in their work, Harmonize Individual Assignments can help.