UMass Boston

Assessment Activities

assessment activities icon

Making the Most of Canvas
The functionality of Canvas provides many different ways for students to show knowledge.

 

 

 

 

Examples of Assessments

In addition to timed tests and quizzes, in Canvas, there are many other ways to create learning activities that allow for graded written assignments, collaborative exercises, case studies, and interactive discussions and presentations.

Timed Tests

  • Low-stakes or self-scoring quizzes can be created with Canvas New Quizzes. Quizzes are useful to help students check their understanding of each instructional topic. There are a variety of question types to choose from. 
  • Questions can also be imported in bulk from a document using the Respondus 4.0 tool available to UMass Boston faculty.

Activities to Develop Thinking, Writing, and Speaking Skills

  • Composition writing assignments, such as essays, research papers, literature reviews, and reflection papers, help evaluate complex knowledge, higher-order skills, and creativity. In Canvas, set up periodic Assignments for students to submit their written work. Or use the Essay question type in Quizzes for timed responses.
  • Use VoiceThread assignments for paper reviews and individual and group student presentations.
  • Use Gradescope for assessments that require solving equations by hand, drawing diagrams, or heavily annotating answers.
  • Ask students to create a presentation to share what they have learned. Students can present in real time using screen-sharing in Zoom, or pre-record for asynchronous review and interactive feedback using VoiceThread.
  • Use Weekly Discussions prompts, where students can reflect on a question you pose and respond with additional sources, and engage in discourse with peers.

Academic Integrity

Learning Activities

Peer Assessment

  • Google Forms allow your students to learn about their peers‘ projects and give feedback. You can create a form with some established criteria that students can follow to evaluate their peers‘ assignments.

Tips & Tricks

  • Use Turnitin, a plagiarism prevention tool. Turnitin is available at UMass Boston to educate students about plagiarism and proper citation practices.
  • Use Rubrics to facilitate grading for discussions and assignments.
  • Set all activities as “gradable” in Canvas so that a column is created in the Gradebook.
  • While grading, remember to add feedback and suggestions or share and/or review the correct answers with students.