ENGR 101 | University of Michigan

Guide to Using PrairieLearn

Overview

We will use the online platform PrairieLearn for a lot of our work in ENGR 101 this semester. The first time you go to PrairieLearn, use the link in Canvas:

In the PrairieLearn login screen, scroll down to University of Michigan:

When you access PrairieLearn, you will see a screen that looks something like this image but with dates appropriate for this term:

Click on the name of an assignment to get started on that assignment.

Types of ENGR 101 Assignments on PrairieLearn

All assignments on PrairieLearn are called “assessments”. Which is fine because all of our assignments are really just there to help you assess your own understanding of course content. Only some of what you’ll do on PrairieLearn is a true “assessment” in the sense of being a quiz or exam.

We will use PrairieLearn for a variety of assignments:

Lessons, lecture reflections, and labs will work differently from quizzes and exams, so read on to learn more. Or, you can just go to PrairieLearn and start clicking on stuff! It should be pretty self-explanatory.

Lessons, Lecture Reflections, Labs, and Project Spec Reviews

Lessons, lecture reflections, labs, and project spec reviews have no time limit. The “Assessment Overview” (remember, all assignments are called “assessments” on PrairieLearn!) will show you the points for the assignment, the available credit, and the questions for the assignment:

PrairieLearn will automatically apply the grade caps for late submissions, so if you complete an assignment after its original due date, you will see something like: Available credit: 95% until 23:59, <Day>, <Date>.

The lessons, lecture reflections, labs, and project spec reviews are meant for learning, so we’ve given you unlimited attempts for each question:

If you get an answer wrong, scroll down to the “Submitted answer” box for some help, advice, and ideas about what to look for to correct your answer:

After you have answered the questions correctly, check out the “Correct answer” box for more advice, feedback, and copies of programs for you to download and add to your set of ENGR 101 example code. A lot of what you will do in the lessons and lecture reflections will be directly helpful in lab and on projects!

We recommend doing the questions in order for a given lesson or lecture reflection, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. You can navigate through the assessment using the right hand side bar:

The labs are done as a group and are structured assuming you are doing each question in order.

That’s pretty much it for lessons, lecture reflections, and labs! If you run into any problems, come to office hours or post on Piazza.

Quizzes and Exams

Quizzes and exams will be timed, and you can learn more about how to take quizzes and exams in the Quiz & Exam Logistics document.

Fall 2026 students: We are currently reworking how our assessments are structured. We will update this section with more information as soon as we finalize how we want to do quizzes and exams for this semester.