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Assignments | What file type can I submit to an assignment?

In this article you will find information about requirements on file type, size and name when making a submission to an assignment in your course in Brightspace.

Assignment submission requirements

File type

In the table below you can find an overview of which file types are supported as a submission to an assignment in Brightspace:

File type File extension Notes
Text document
  • DOC, DOCX
  • PPT, PPTX, PPS
  • PDF
  • XLS, XLSX 
  • RTF, TXT, WPD, XML
Note that if Turnitin is turned on you will have to check the table below for further details.
Image
  • JPG, JPEG, PNG, 
  • GIF
  • TIF, TIFF
  • BMP

Media
  • MP3, MP4
  • MPG, MPEG
  • MOV, M4V
  • ASF, AVI, RA, RAM, RM, SWF, WAV
The extensions MP4, M4V, and M4A allow users to drag entire albums, video podcasts, and movies from iTunes.
Web document HTML, HTM, MHT, MHTML Brightspace Learning Environment strips the <title> tag and text within the tag from user created web documents.
Compressed files ZIP, RAR, 7ZIP

File size

  • maximum 1 GB
  • if your file uses images: reduce the image size or resolution to decrease the overall file size

File name

To prevent issues while submitting your work to Brightspace assignment be aware of the following:

  • Do not use special characters such as \ / : * ? " < > | ~ # % & + { }
  • Use max 45 characters
  • Delete any leading or trailing spaces
  • Do not use two dots before the file extension (example: ..docx)

Turnitin® submission requirements

File type

If your assignment is a Turnitin® assignment, there are some further details you will have to keep in mind about the file type you are going to submit for the Similarity Report to be generated.

File type Note
  • Microsoft Word® (.doc/.docx)
  • OpenOffice Text (.odt)
  • WordPerfect® (.wpd)
  • PostScript (.ps)
  • HTML
  • Hangul Word Processor file (.hwp)
  • Rich text format (.rtf)
  • Plain text (.txt)

  • Adobe® PDF
Turnitin® will not accept PDF image files, forms, or portfolios, files that do not contain highlightable text (e.g. a scanned file - usually an image), documents containing multiple files or files created with software other than Adobe Acrobat®. (Source: Turnitin)
  • Microsoft PowerPoint® (.pptx, .ppt, .ppsx, and .pps)
It is possible to submit PowerPoint® files through Turnitin.com, TurnitinUK.com, Turnitin Basic integrations, newer versions of the Turnitin Direct integrations, and LTI compliant integrations only. Turnitin converts the PowerPoint® slide deck into a static PDF, leaving all text and images in their original format but leaving out features such as presenter notes, embedded video, and animations. Text with visual effects is not supported, and it is recommended that any visual effects such as shadows and 3D be removed prior to submitting to Turnitin. (Source: Turnitin)
  • Microsoft Excel® (.xls and .xlsx)
The version of the file that can be viewed in the Document Viewer will look the same as it would if the Excel file had been saved as a PDF and submitted to Turnitin. We highly recommend that users pay attention to the image preview provided in the single file submission to verify that the file is presented in an acceptable manner. Users can adjust the way the file looks by editing the page setup and print area settings for the file prior to saving it and submitting it to Turnitin. (Source: Turnitin)
  • Password protected files
  • Microsoft® Works (.wps) files
  • Microsoft Word 2007 macros-enabled .docm files
  • OpenOffice Text (.odt) files created and downloaded from Google Docs online
  • Document (.doc) files created using OpenOffice, as they are not 100% Microsoft Word equivalent
  • Apple Pages
  • Spreadsheets created outside of Microsoft Excel (i.e. .ods)
  • Text with visual effects
Turnitin will not accept these to generate Similarity Reports

File size

  • less than 100MB (max 2MB if the file only contains text)
  • has a minimum of 20 words; and
  • is less than 800 pages.

(Source: Turnitin)