> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.pawtograder.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Welcome to Pawtograder

> Course staff guide for managing assignments, grading, discussions, and student engagement in Pawtograder

# Welcome to Pawtograder - Course Staff Guide

This guide will help you set up and manage Pawtograder for your course. Learn how to create assignments, manage submissions, and provide effective feedback to your students.

Pawtograder has these key features for course staff:

* **Instructor Dashboard**: Overview of assignment metrics, grading progress, and student engagement
* **Assignments**: Distributing and grading programming assignments, with complex rubrics and bulk grading assignments
* **Discussion Board**: For students and staff to discuss course content and ask questions
* **Office Hours**: For realtime Q\&A by text or video
* **Polls**: Quick in-class polling for comprehension checks and engagement
* **Surveys**: Detailed feedback collection with customizable questions
* **Gradebook**: For tracking student performance and managing grades
* **Emailer**: For sending emails to students

## Course Configuration

### Time Zone Settings

Pawtograder supports configurable time zones for your course. Instructors can set the course time zone in the course settings, which affects how dates and times are displayed throughout the platform, including:

* Assignment due dates
* Survey deadlines
* Poll schedules
* Office hours
* Gradebook timestamps

The default time zone is America/New\_York (Eastern Time), but you can change this to match your course's location or preferred time zone. See [Course Settings](/staff/course-settings#time-zone-configuration) for configuration details.

## Instructor Dashboard

The instructor dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of your course:

* **Assignment metrics**: Track submission rates, grading progress, and completion status
* **Grading progress**: See incomplete reviews and assignments needing attention
* **Regrade requests**: Monitor open and resolved regrade requests
* **Student engagement**: View response rates and participation across assignments
* **Autograder health**: Track autograder pass rates and common issues
* **Office hours utilization**: Monitor help request activity and staff workload

The dashboard organizes assignments into three sections:

* **Upcoming**: Assignments with future due dates
* **Past due**: Assignments with due dates that have passed
* **Undated**: Assignments without specified due dates

Click on any metric to navigate directly to the relevant assignment page or grading interface.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Assignments" icon="code" href="/staff/assignments/intro">
    Create, distribute, and grade programming assignments with autograders and rubrics.
  </Card>

  <Card title="AI Assistance" icon="robot" href="/staff/ai-assistance">
    Use AI tools to help diagnose student errors and draft responses for office hours.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Polls" icon="square-poll-vertical" href="/staff/polls/intro">
    Conduct live in-class polling to check understanding and engage students.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Surveys" icon="clipboard-list" href="/staff/surveys">
    Collect detailed feedback with customizable survey forms.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Gradebook" icon="table" href="/staff/gradebook">
    Track grades with powerful expression-based calculations.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>