Online Assessments Series Part II

Good day, Canvas community -

This is the second article series on quality online assessments. Now that we are over the hurdle of triage mode and our classes are going online this summer, we are starting to pivot to quality online course design and part of that is focusing on assessment design. Most of the advice we have given you about moving your courses online has been practical and straightforward, but that advice was just on triage urgency in response to a national emergency and not about student engagement or learning. Our focus is now in the second phase which is a deep understanding of how our assessments directly impact student learning. In addition, how do our assessments engage the learners? Keep in mind that there are three ways to engage students 1) Student to Student 2) Student to content and 3) Student to instructor. Each of these ways should be embodied in your modules, each module, consistently. A recent article by Steven Minz (2020) indicates that implementing activities and assignments that are easy to implement, do not boost your workload, and do-able by students with limited access to technology. Some of those recommendations include:

1. Engage Students with Survey's, Polls & Quizzes
2. Use the Discussion Board as more than a space to share opinions
3. Ask students to identify, describe and evaluate an online resource relevant to the class 

In traditional assessments, such as quizzes and tests, students select responses from the options provided and usually receive automated scores. In alternative assessments, students demonstrate proficiency though hands-on application of course concepts, and grading criteria is provided. (Dejonghe, 2018)

Some hands-on assessments possible in Canvas:

ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT	TECHNOLOGY
Journals	Collaborations  Office 365 - OneDrive or OneNote  Discussions assigned to individual students  Groups assigned to individual students  OneNote Class Notebook
Papers Canvas Discussion or Zoom webinar to share and critique papers	Google Docs Office 365 - Word
Video Responses, Demonstrations and Interviews  Canvas Discussion or Zoom webinar to share and critique videos	Record video within Discussion Upload video to Discussion or post URL Mobile video uploaded to Discussion Flipgrid - links to Canvas gradebook Screencast-O-matic  Microsoft PowerPoint saved as video or as an interactive online video using Office Mix VoiceThread Adobe Spark Social media and other video submissions
Presentations Canvas Discussion or Zoom webinar to share and critique presentations	Microsoft PowerPoint - Office 365 Google Slides Office Sway
Visuals (Posters, Infographics, Web Pages)  Canvas Discussion or Zoom webinar to share and critique visuals	Visme Piktochart Easel.ly Infogram Thinglink Spark
Drawing, Charting, Graphing	Sketchpad PencilApp A Web Whiteboard (AWW) Plot.ly Geogebra Creately Lucidchart
Audio Responses and Feedback  Canvas Discussion or Zoom webinar to provide audio responses and feedback	Record audio within Discussion Upload any audio file to Discussion (example: from phone, audacity) Live audio responses using Zoom
Collaborative Writing and Notetaking	Collaborations in Canvas Google Docs Office 365 - OneDrive or OneNote Discussions assigned to Groups of students Screensharing using Zoom OneNote Class Notebook Perusall - links to Canvas gradebook
Discussions	Canvas Discussions VoiceThread Flipgrid - links to Canvas gradebook Canvas Chat Live Discussions using Zoom
Live (Sychronous) Presentations, Demonstrations, Meetings	Zoom Conferences
Games   Canvas Discussion or Zoom webinar to share and critique student-created games	Nearpod PollEverywhere Socrative Kahoot Quizizz
Interactive Tutorials	Techsmith Relay (Video) Quiz - links to Canvas gradebook Camtasia (Video) Quiz - links to Canvas gradebook Khan Academy EdPuzzle Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative
Discussions & Reflections	Canvas Discussions Canvas Chat Canvas Conferences Flipgrid - links to Canvas gradebook VoiceThread Dropthought - links to Canvas gradebook
Peer Reviews	Canvas Peer Review Assignment  Canvas Peer Review Discussion

Measuring student achievement of course outcomes through a variety of assessments commodates diverse learners, promotes critical thinking and encourages academic honest (and helps meet QM Standard 3.4). 

For more information and help with creating quality assessments, please reach out to Lisa Cole, Stephanie Turner, Stephanie Kratz or myself. 

~Anna

REFERENCES:

https://community.canvaslms.com/people/dejonghed07@macomb.edu/blog/2018/09/10/alternative-assessments-in-canvas