Online assessment planning and design

The following list of recommendations can help guide you in this process:  

• Include different types of assessments: formative practice opportunities and summative assessments that allow students to provide evidence that they can demonstrate the knowledge, skills and abilities outlined in the course’s learning outcomes.  
• Choose from many kinds of assessment options available (keeping in mind that you might have a different combination of assignments than in an in-person context). 
  • The opportunities for multimodal assessments and/or giving students a choice of deliverable are inclusive practices that are in line with Universal Design for Learning Guidelines. 
  • Learn more and see a host of examples in Explore alternative assignments to exams. For alternative assignment formats, see Online assessment implementation strategies and practices.
• Determine if you will include opportunities for collaboration and social engagement. 
  • Students in online environments benefit from social interaction, as well as a sense of belonging and community, so consider this as you plan (keeping in mind that scheduling conflicts can hinder synchronous collaboration). Read more about designing and grading group work. 
• Establish which assessments will be completed synchronously and which asynchronously, which will completed online (e.g., Moodle quizzes) and which completed “offline” and submitted and graded online, such as authentic assessments that integrate experiential learning. 
  • Note: Online courses at Concordia generally do not have in-person assessments but there may be some exceptions. Be sure to check with your department.  
•  Consider weighting and timing.
  • Find tips on weighting and timing of assessments in Develop a balanced assessment plan. Giving too much weight to a single assessment comes with its own challenges in any course, but in an online course it can be especially challenging. Other online considerations to keep in mind are that you’ll likely need to give students more regular feedback, and there is a time gap between when students ask questions, and you answer.  
• Plan for regular check-ins with students and informal practice opportunities. In online environments, students benefit from these together with dedicated milestones (e.g., draft submission). You will too, especially in online asynchronous courses where there are no cues to alert you to whether students are learning or struggling and need more guidance.   
• Leverage the more streamlined feedback process available through Moodle to shorten the time in the feedback loop so that students can implement changes based on the feedback received. Planning how much feedback to give and when and how you will offer it will help manage workload concerns. 
• Plan how you will share the assignment instructions, your specific expectations and grading criteria with students (e.g., rubrics on Moodle). 
  • TILT offers a model for transparent grading protocols that you can adapt to your context. 
  • Consider implementing flexible deadlines and adaptable strategies should students face connection/tech issues. 
• Have students engage meaningfully and take responsibility for their learning:
  • Students’ individual control of time and space can allow them to reflect and engage in meaningful discourse with metacognitive awareness and take responsibility to manage and monitor their learning (Garrison, 2003).
    To help your students engage more fully in metacognitive tasks, explore the Fusion Concordia Skill-Development Curriculum modules (log in with Concordia credentials).

The following list of recommendations can help guide you in this process: 

• Capture students’ interest 
  • Students engage more with and are generally more motivated by assessments that matter to them. Personalized learning can also encourage responsibility and ownership of learning (Hattingh & Northcote 2023). 
  • Design in opportunities for students to include personal elements that connect to their everyday lives as a way to value their backgrounds and interests or have them complete an authentic assessment from disciplinary or professional contexts. 
• Give students choices
  • Allowing students to have a say in the assignment format (e.g., paper, infographic, video presentation) or weighting is a way to recognize varied students’ needs (Wiliam 2011) and can help keep them motivated.
  • Offer students the option to choose different formats, drop a lowest grade, or choose what elements they want to receive feedback on.
• Increase potential for interaction 
  • The importance of connections online, especially in asynchronous environments, can’t be overstated as students can’t ask you or their classmates questions as they would in in-person contexts. Integrating interaction in your assessments can help keep students engaged and on track.  
  • Have students work in groups, carry out peer assessments or view each other’s work and give feedback on Moodle. Alert students early in the term about any groupwork so that they can plan accordingly. 
• Scaffold larger assignments and/or provide practice opportunities 
  • Students benefit from ample opportunities to practice with assessment types and Moodle or other tech. Also conducive to learning online are shorter but more frequent assessments (e.g., four quizzes to replace one exam) (Simon Fraser). Scaffolding or breaking larger assessments into smaller components helps keep students on track and has the benefit of engaging students at varied stages in the assessment cycle (Boud and Associates 2010). 
  • Give students two or three occasions to practice assessment types or with the technology. Divide a large summative assessment into components (e.g., divide an essay into a proposal or outline, one or two drafts with peer review and a final submission).   
  • Be sure when increasing the number of assessments to distribute the workload more evenly throughout the duration of the course as opposed to increasing it (i.e., it should not mean more work for students). If students are not used to this approach, it may seem at the outset that it is more work, so it is important to explain course workload expectations at the beginning of the course.  
  • NOTE: If you adjust your assessment plan, be sure to calculate course activity in order to avoid increasing the workload for students. 
• Design feedback in 
  • Actionable, timely feedback is most helpful for learning. In online environments, personalized feedback that students can immediately integrate into their work encourages them to continuously monitor their own learning and to feel more connected to you and to the course. 
  • As part of the assessment design, develop a feedback loop that will allow students to address any gaps in their learning.  
• Design GenAI in or out 
  • It’s at the assessment design stage that you’ll need to determine whether students are allowed, encouraged or prohibited to engage with GenAI based on how it impacts their learning. This resource is intended to help you navigate assessment design and GenAI. 
  • As part of your informed, learning-guided decisions around GenAI use in an assessment, ask students to reflect on how they’ve used it. Reflective work is a way to personalize online learning while at the same time encouraging transparency around GenAI use and practicing judgment of its outputs. 
• Communicate instructions clearly and thoroughly 
  • Alerting students on Moodle to submission requirements, deadlines, rubrics or assessment criteria and workload expectations is generally a good inclusive practice that is especially important in online settings as students have fewer opportunities to ask clarification questions (Simon Fraser). 
  • Consider building rubrics and share them with students with the assignment instructions to help them meet your expectations. Thinking about how you will grade assessments at the design stage can help you identify a design problem (e.g., a course’s learning outcome that isn’t assessed). 

Encourage and model transparency and disclosure 

• Ask students to self-disclose any work that is not their own.  
• Be transparent and model good practices around intellectual property and your GenAI usage to build academic integrity literacy and trust through transparency. 

Consider it at the assessment design stage 

• Since online proctoring may or may not be available, it may be preferable to design an alternative to a proctored exam such as a synchronous or recorded oral presentation, open-book/take-home exam, project-based assignment, case study, or reflective portfolio.
  • Learn more about alternatives to exams and how to gauge whether it allows students to meet the course or module’s learning outcomes.  
• Explore types of exams based on the learning you’d like students to demonstrate, integrate and/or apply.  Consult with a member of the Centre for Teaching and Learning to help you find a feasible alternative to proctored online exams. 

Take advantage of Moodle  

• Create multiple (unique) versions of the test: Moodle’s Question bank allows you to create multiple questions for each question that tests the same content area and learning outcome and organize them into categories. When you create your test, you can set the system to randomly draw questions from each category. Moodle can also randomize the order of all questions and answer choices within each question, so students will receive a different version of the test even though you do not prepare extra questions for each topic.
• You can set a time limit and starting time for a high-stakes exam with Moodle Quiz so that all students are taking the exam at the same time. For more details on final exams, see Online assessment practices and strategies.