Because students are more likely to learn from (and less likely to be tempted to cheat on) assessments that provide authentic experiences or reflection on learning, think broadly and creatively about how best to assess student learning online. Below are resources to help you do so.
Pre-Assessments
Pre-assessments are a great way to gain information at the beginning of the course about what your students know, who they are, their expectations or challenges, and can inform how you will approach student learning.
- Pre-Assessment Strategies (Teaching@Tufts)
- Getting to Know Your Students (Teaching@Tufts)
- Example Pre-Survey in Qualtrics (Tufts faculty member example)
Assignments & Other Assessments
Integrating many small milestones, scaffolding larger assignments, and planning out regular feedback opportunities become particularly important in remote teaching contexts. Provide multiple opportunities to monitor and encourage their progress and promote better learning.
- Integrating Inclusive and Sustainable Assessments in your Online Teaching from Beginning to End (Teaching@Tufts Blog)
- Alternative to Exams for Remote Teaching (Teaching@Tufts Blog)
- ePortfolios for Teaching and Learning (Teaching@Tufts Blog)
- Creating Epic Finales or Limping Across the Finish Line (Teaching@Tufts Blog)
Quizzes and Exams
Wherever possible, avoid high-stakes, closed-book exams in online courses. On a practical level, it is difficult to monitor academic integrity on an online exam. Moreover, it’s often harder for students to regulate their own learning as they move through an online course. To take a more impactful approach, offer smaller, more frequent opportunities for feedback on learning with low-stakes quizzes and/or opportunities to tackle challenging problems in open-book tests.
- Adapting Exams to Teaching Remotely (Teaching@Tufts Blog)
- Writing and Revising Multiple Choice Questions (Teaching@Tufts Blog)
- How can we get students to learn more from tests? (Teaching@Tufts Blog)
Tools to Help You Create Online Assessments
- Create and publish a Canvas assignment (ETS)
- Manage the gradebook in Canvas (ETS)
- Create and publish a quiz or exam in Canvas (ETS)