Have a question? Check out our comprehensive FAQ below. If you still can’t find the answer you are looking for, create a customer support case and a WebAssign team member will be in touch with you shortly.
I chose the wrong textbook. How do I correct it?
There is no way for you to personally update your textbook once the class is created. However, if you contact us at 800.354.9706, or create a support case, we would be happy to make this change for you.
Please note, if the textbook chosen is a different price from the textbook you initially selected, and students have already registered (bought access) they will be refunded and will have to repurchase at the applicable price.
Can I extend the grace period for my course?
The grace period is determined by the initial start date set when the course is created. Even if the start date is later changed after the creation of the course, the grace period will always remain based off the date set at course creation.
If you need to extend the grace period, please contact Cengage Support.
How can I tell if my students have purchased access to my course?
Under the class tools menu for your particular class, click on the 'Roster' link.
On the mid-upper left hand side of the page you will see a blue 'Who's Registered?' link.
Clicking on this link will show you a pop up of who is on the roster for your course, and if and when they purchased access.
For more information, see View a Roster in our Instructor Help.
I'm not using WebAssign, but my students purchased access through a bundled textbook. How can I help them access WebAssign resources?
Often times a student purchases a WebAssign access code with a bundled textbook package or a Lifetime of Edition access code, but the instructor has chosen not to enable WebAssign for the course. However, you can easily give your student access to a WebAssign Resource Course so they can utilize features such as the eBook, lecture videos, and question tutorials. Just follow one of these steps:
- Set up a course and enroll any interested students,
- Contact WebAssign to have us set up a class key for you.
More information is available on our Resource Course page.
What is the Assignment List in the new scheduling tool?
Under the class tools menu for your particular class, click on the 'Roster' link.
When you are on the Scheduling page, the left column shows all of the assignments you have created. The assignments are listed in alphabetical order, then by the 'Last Save' date.
You can do a search by name, assignment ID number, or category to narrow the search.
For more information, see Schedule Assignments in our Instructor Help.
How can I tell when a student first opened an assignment?
To see when a student first opened an assignment, follow these steps:
- Go to the ClassView page for your class. Click ClassView, and select your class (if necessary).
- Click the Scoreview link located in the Class Tools Box to the left side of the assignments. This will show you the entire class and all assignments scheduled to the class.
- Find the student you want to review and click on his/her name. This will return a list of all the assignments for that student.
- Next to the assignment you want to review, click Log Info. The log will tell you what date/time the assignment was downloaded (opened) and the IP Address that it was opened from. It will also tell you which questions were saved or submitted.
In order to figure out if a student has saved or submitted an assignment you should first check the Scores page for that assignment.
On this page you can see a few things about what actions the student has taken.
ND = We have no record of the student opening the assignment
NS = We have no record of the student submitting the assignment for a grade.
However, they may have saved the assignment instead of submitting it. Saved answers can be recovered, but the student never submitted them for grading. Note: these responses are not viewable as an instructor or customer support.
Any number grade: The student has at least submitted one question on the assignment. If the number grade is a zero then the student did submit but did not match the key on any questions.
For a more detailed breakdown of what the student did on the assignment you can click on the student's name and then it will bring up their Responses page. On this page you can see what the student put in the answer boxes.
If you would like to see how many times a student submitted a single question you can click the green plus sign next to that question number. It will display a menu showing you how many submissions the student used. This option may change if the assignment is set to entire assignment submission.
If you want to see all the submissions they made on a single question you can click on the "Previous Answers" button to bring up all of their past submissions for that question.
Finally, if you want a complete breakdown of what questions the student saved or submitted, when they submitted them, the IP address the student submitted from, and other actions that were taken on the assignment such as printing or extensions, then you can click the "log info" button on the top. This will display what happened to the student's assignment in the order it happened and have exact time stamps of when they made changes. In this view you can see what questions, if any, the student saved and when.
For more information, see View Student Access Logs in our Instructor Help.
Why do some questions have '.defective' appended to the question name?
If one of the question names on an assignment has '.defective' appended to the question name, this means that an issue was found with that question and a fixed version of the question is now available. A fixed version was created to implement a required change in the questions code.
If the assignment that contains the defective question is not currently scheduled, then you do not need to take any special action. The new version will automatically replace the defective version when you next schedule the assignment.
If the name of the question ends with ‘.defective’ and the assignment is currently scheduled, then you may need to take special action so students do not see the defective version of the question. Consider the following options:
- Use the Assignment Editor to set the point value of the defective question to zero and rescore the assignment. The defective question will remain in the assignment, but will not count against the student. The new version of the question will automatically replace the defective version when you next schedule the assignment. You may wish to inform your students that they do not need to attempt to answer the defective question. If the defective question is in a pool, then you can set the point value of the pool to zero and rescore. Do not use this option if your assignment contains only a single pool.
- Use the Assignment Editor to remove the defective question and rescore the assignment. The new version of the question will not be added automatically to your assignment. Consider adding the new version of the question to the assignment just before scheduling the assignment again. However, removing the question is not an appropriate solution if the defective question is in a pool. You can remove the entire pool if the assignment contains questions outside the pool.
- WebAssign questions often use random components so that each student has a slightly different question to solve. Defective questions are sometimes defective because a portion of the possible random components in the question do not work correctly. Find the individual students who are affected by the defective question and use individual overrides to adjust their scores. This option is appropriate for a pool of questions.
If you are unable to use one of the outlined solutions, if you need further assistance with carrying out a solution, or if you believe your particular assignment settings warrant further consideration of the defective question, then please contact customer support.
What should I do if I see an incorrect answer key on the 'Responses' page for a question?
Check that you're correctly identifying both the student responses and the answer keys. Information on the Responses page is given, left to right, as follows:
- The student's actual response (in the gray box)
- The green check or red x, indicating correct or incorrect
- The answer key (in the green box)
If you are confident the student's responses are correct, please submit a Support Case and include the following information:
- Your WebAssign username
- Your full name
- The course name and section of the course
- The assignment name
- The question numbers on the assignment that are graded incorrectly
- Student name
We will research the problem and get back to you with a resolution.
My course is over and my students' scores have disappeared, can I still retrieve them?
Once a course passes the End Date, the students are considered dropped, but none of the Grades are actually lost/deleted.
Instead, there will be a filter that says "Dropped | Current Students | All" on the page. Clicking 'All' will display your students’ scores.
This filter is available on most pages that have scores, such as ScoreView, GradeBook, and the Scores page for an assignment.
Why am I being asked to link to or create a Cengage account?
The new process requires you and your students to transition their WebAssign account to a more modern and secure Cengage account.
After I've linked accounts, where do I sign in?
Once you've completed the one-time process of linking your WebAssign account to a Cengage account, you will sign in with your email address and password on the right side of the Sign In page.
Are there guides to walk me through the new sign-in process?
You can access personalized guides and training videos here.
WebAssign is telling me I already have a Cengage account, but I don't know the password.
Cengage accounts are used to access your Cengage Instructor Resource Center, as well as other Cengage products including MindTap, OWLv2 and more. If you have used any of these platforms before, it's possible you already have a Cengage account. It's also possible a Cengage Learning Consultant has created an account for you in the past.
I will be using WebAssign for the first time. Do I still need to link accounts?
As part of the instructor sign-up process, when new accounts are requested for instructors, the customer support team will link accounts for your and give you the only set of credentials you'll need. You can request an account with instructor access using the instructor Sign Up button on the WebAssign site. After submitting the form, the customer support team will provide you with your new Cengage account credentials you can use to access the WebAssign platform.
I use a Learning Management System. Do I still need to link an account?
If you are using an LMS such as Blackboard, Canvas or Moodle, you will not need to link your account. As soon as you log in through your LMS, WebAssign creates and links an SSO account for you on the back end. You can continue logging in through your LMS without ever having to go through the linking process.
My school uses a custom login page. Do I still need to link an account?
If your school will be using a custom login page with WebAssign, you will not need to link your account. As soon as you log in, WebAssign creates and links an SSO account for you on the back end. You can continue logging in through your school's login page without ever having to go through the linking process.
I use an LMS but I am locked out of signing into WebAssign directly. What's going on?
When you login through your LMS, WebAssign automatically creates and links an account for you. If you typically log in through your LMS, but want to login to WebAssign directly, please work with Cengage Customer Service or your Cengage Customer Success Manager.
How will the Roster Upload process be affected by the new sign-in process?
Courses using the Roster Upload method now have an additional step the first time students sign into WebAssign. After entering the WebAssign username, institution code and password that you have provided to them, students will need to upgrade to a Cengage account.
During the account upgrade process, students will be presented with a form to create and link their new Cengage account. This form will be prepopulated with the full name and email address you specified on your roster. While students will have the ability to update this information, they will need to take the step of intentionally deleting this information to replace it with new information.
While students always had the ability to optionally change their email address in WebAssign, the ability to change their full name is new. The WebAssign team is working to address the issue so that the information you included with the roster upload is still available when the student migrates their account. If you require the student's name to exactly match the name on your uploaded roster, it is recommended that you inform students to not change their full name when signing into WebAssign.
I have multiple WebAssign accounts and need to link them to a single Cengage account.
Currently, you can link only one WebAssign account to one Cengage account. If you have multiple accounts, please create new Cengage accounts for the additional ones. The Cengage username must use proper email formatting, but it does not need to be a valid email address. We recommend you use the same password for all newly created Cengage accounts for simplicity.
I've successfully linked accounts. How do I change my account information?
Now that you’ve created or linked to a Cengage account, you will log in with your Cengage credentials. If you’d like to change this account information, follow the below process.
- Go to com/Login
- Click your name in the top right
- Click “My Profile”
- Click “Edit” on the right
- Change your e-mail, password, security question on this screen.
- Save Changes.
Now log in with your updated credentials at https://www.webassign.net/wa-auth/login on the right-hand side.
I have switched schools and want to change my institution code in WebAssign. How do I do this?
There is no way to change the institution code if you have switched schools. If this is needed you will need to create a new account. To sign up for a new account please visit the Instructor Sign Up page.
The easiest way to have your assignments copied to the new account is to add it as Additional Access to your old course and propagate the assignments to your course at the new school.
Read more about Adding Additional Access to your Course in our Instructor Help.
Read more about Copying a Course in our Instructor Help.