Creating Assessments

Delivering assessments remotely does not just have to be limited to multiple choice quizzes or traditional research papers; Canvas has the capability to accommodate a wide range of assessment types. When deciding on how you would like to deliver and collect course assessments it is important to consider:

What are the assignment expectations?
- Provide clear and explicit directions and expectations. What is the end product students are submitting? Do they need to use particular software or applications?

How will you provide feedback?
- You can attach rubrics to assignments and discussions to make expectations clear to students and make grading easier and faster
- You can frontload feedback on quizzes to help explain

Will your assessment require proctoring?
- Automated and remote proctoring can be enabled with Respondus

On this page, we will discuss three ways that you can create assessments in Canvas: Discussions, Assignments, and Quizzes.

Discussions

As a graded activity, discussions can be one means of students applying problem-solving and critical thinking skills. One of the advantages of using discussions is that students can share their responses with their peers, allowing for rich exchanges of text, audio, and video. In Communication Tools, we discussed how to create a discussion, but what are some considerations when deciding to use a discussion as a means of assessing student learning? Open and close the tabs below to learn more.

Checking For Alignment

When creating discussions, first return to your course learning objectives; how are discussions serving the course goals? What benefit does a discussion format have?

Instruction & Rubrics

You can assist your students in the development of their discussion replies and posts by setting clear expectations. How many times are students to post and reply to classmates? When are these actions due? What are you looking for in regards to content and sourcing? Providing an example post might help illustrate the quality of contribution you desire. You can further set discussion expectations by creating a discussion board rubric.

More Than Text

Students also have access to Rich Content Editor tools, allowing them to post images, links, audio, and video. Using the Record/Upload Media tool, students can post short video posts and/or replies. Encourage students to consider creative ways to contribute to the conversation.

Large Classes

If you have a large class size or want to encourage more intimate conversation, you can set a discussion up as a group discussion; this will create an identical discussion topic in each group.

Assignments

Assignments in Canvas can be used to challenge students' understanding and help assess competency by using a variety of media. Students can submit files, images, videos, URLs, and plain text.

How do I create an assignment?

How do I add a rubric to an assignment?

How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?

How do I create rules for an assignment group?

How do I create a Plagiarism Framework assignment using Turnitin?

Quizzes

The quiz tool can be used to challenge student understanding and assess comprehension of course material. Canvas provides four types of quizzes:

Graded Quiz - Most common, rewards students points based on their quiz responses
Practice Quiz - Ungraded learning tool to see how well users understand course material
Graded Survey - Rewards students with points for completion; grading is not based on right or wrong answers
Ungraded Survey - Obtains opinions or other information without providing a grade

How do I create a quiz with individual questions?

How do I create a question bank in a course?

How do I publish or unpublish a quiz as an instructor?