Assessing Online

Overview

There are multiple considerations when it comes to assessing online. Please take a look at the options below and choose the one(s) that best fit your courses. Remember that assessments can be done synchronously (in real-time or happening at the same time) or asynchronously (due by a deadline and not happening at the same time).

Assessment Type Face-to-face (F2F) Online
Assignments Given F2F and may be turned in manually or online
  • Created in Canvas using Assignments and can be collected with different submission types
    • No submission (for things that students complete but do not turn in something)
    • Online (text entry, URLs, media recordings, file uploads, and TurnItIn submissions for plagiarism detection)
    • On paper (these can be scanned and submitted)
    • External tool
  • Assignments can be assigned to the whole class, to a group, or to an individual. Assignments can be graded or ungraded.
  • Assignments can also be completed using authored tools like SoftChalk or EdPuzzle where questions are embedded in the content. Students could also be asked to complete online simulations, tutorials, reflective journals, case studies, inventories, and projects within this tool.
Discussions Students have a real-time discussion in class
  • Canvas Discussions are where faculty can create one or more discussion boards to drive student discussions and engagements. Faculty can have general discussion boards (for answering course questions such as when something is due), boards related to specific content (e.g., discussion for the content in Module 2, discussion for a specific article, etc), and an introductory discussion board where students can learn about each other and their instructor.
Presentations Students present in class
  • Students can present live using a tool (Microsoft Teams, Zoom), upload videos (Canvas Record/Upload media button within discussion boards, upload URL from YouTube, etc), and upload presentations with or without sound using different tools (PowerPoint, Prezi, etc).
Tests Given F2F in class
  • Can be given online using Canvas Quizzes. Faculty should think about whether they want to use low-stakes (students take quizzes without proctoring and typically to master the content) or high-stakes (students need to be proctored online using technology).
  • There are multiple question types available within Quizzes (multiple choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, fill-in-multiple-blanks, multiple answers, multiple drop-down, matching, numerical answer, formulas, essays, and file uploads).
  • Faculty could also use a real-time technology such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or BigBlueButton Conferences in Canvas to perform quizzing or to see students perform specific skills (fine arts performances, debates, speaking in a different language, etc).
  • The Quizzes tool within Canvas can also act as a survey. Instructors can have graded or ungraded surveys and quizzes.
  • Quiz question banks are suggested for those who use Quizzes often and want to create a set of questions from which to draw.

Although they are not assessments themselves, it is a good idea to learn how to create groups and rubrics in Canvas. These can make your workload easier while you streamline assignments and grading.

Assessment does not have to be a solitary activity. Multiple instructors can work together to create assessments and rubrics.