Many assessments in face-to-face classes will work online, but in-class assessments, like performances, labs, presentations, and invigilated tests and exams need to be re-considered.
1. Use alternative assessments
When developing your assessment plan, consider your course learning outcomes and identify different ways these outcomes can be assessed. Review your list and re-evaluate any assessments that you aren’t sure how to facilitate remotely.
Tools
Resources
- Use this chart to help you determine what assessments can look like in a remote environment.
- Look at our comprehensive YorkU Guide for Remote Teaching for more on alternative assessments
- Use online polling, quizzes, other evaluation tools developed using H5P by eCampus Ontario
- Choosing Assessments for an Online Course
- Teaching Commons Webinar: Designing and Scaffolding an Online-Based Student-Led Project (Professor Olga Makinina)
Best practices
- Consider assessments that require higher-order skills like application, analysis, evaluation, and/or original thought
- Consider ways to make assessments more individualized by allowing students to choose their own topics or problems to solve, applying concepts to their own experiences, incorporating self-reflection (e.g. students identify what they learned from the assessment), etc
- Consider using low stakes assignments that allow you and students to evaluate performance without a big impact on final grade. You can explore examples of low stakes assignments HERE.
2. Use eClass for creating assignments
To keep everything in one place, which is helpful for both the teaching team and students, create assessments and their submissions in eClass.
Tools
Assignment Tools in eClass
Assignment Submission Tools in eClass
Use Turnitin in eClass for text-matching (to help combat academic dishonesty), grading, and feedback
Resources
- Creating and Grading Assignments Webinar
- Teaching Commons Webinar: Assessment Structures in eClass: How to use assessment and other eClass tools to guide your students through online learning (Professor Mary-Helen Armour)
- Teaching Commons Webinar: Moving labs online: strategies and lessons learned from a large lab-based anatomy class (Professor Nicolette Richardson)
Best practices
- Be sure to add graders to your eClass course, and to the appropriate grading tools (e.g. eClass Assignments, Turnitin, and Crowdmak) so your graders have access to assess and provide feedback to students.
3. Prepare students for assignments
Consider how you will communicate your assessments, that is their instructions, expectations and guidelines, to students. Also consider how you will help them develop the skills students need to complete the assessments.
Tools
- Course Announcements for communicating assessments and rubrics with students, including deadline reminders.
- Upload instructions and guidelines, including rubrics, in eClass Assignments and Crowdmark or alongside Turnitin.
- Zoom or Microsoft Teams for real-time skill development in tutorials, office hours, or to offer review sessions.
- eClass Discussion Forums, Quizzes, or Wikis for skill development or review sessions
- peerScholar and Workshop in eClass for peer assessment.
Best practices
- Share with students expectations for assignments (e.g. rubrics, word limits, expected time for completion) and how they relate to your course at the same time the assignments are given to students.
- Remind students of assignment deadlines using Course Announcements.
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