Assessment is a complex topic, and one that is vital for all educators to consider carefully as they design and deliver instruction, so before you learn how to create and manage the various forms of assessment available in Canvas, it’s important to have a plan that aligns with the available options.

Note that even if you don’t plan to have online assessments, you will still need to know how to create assignments if you want to provide grade information via the Canvas Gradebook.

Plan Effective Assessments

Assessments online?

Any good assessment plan should help you align your course objectives with your assessments, and it should help you logically align the point values for each assignment with your overall grading approach in the course. As you apply your assessment plan to create assignments, quizzes, etc. in Canvas, you will need a few specific pieces of information on hand.

Answers to Know Before You Begin

• What is your course grading scheme (i.e. “grading scale”)?
• What are the types/categories of assessments you plan to use in your course (e.g. weekly journal entries, exams, unit quizzes, essays, etc.)?
• If you plan to weight the grades in your course, how should each assignment type/category be weighted?
• What is the total point value of your course, and how many points should each graded activity be worth?

Learn Options for Canvas Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions

In Canvas, there are multiple ways to assess student learning, including the assignments feature. However, the term “Assignment” is used in more than one way in Canvas, and this can be confusing, especially when you are building your course for the first time. See below for more information to help you break down the options and terminology:

Assignments Index Page

In your Canvas course, you will notice a link called “Assignments” in your course menu. It points to an area of your course that will automatically display several forms of assessment in one location. The items automatically displayed in the

Assignments area include:

• Any graded & ungraded assignments you create (i.e. Assignment type=assignment)
• Any graded quizzes or graded discussions you create, even if you create those items in other parts of your course (e.g. from the calendar, quizzes tab, or discussions tab).

Choose the best type of assignment for your needs

Use the decision tree below to choose which type of assignment to create based on your purpose:

Sometimes it’s hard to know which is the right tool to use. The interactive module below is designed to provide some guidance. Give it a try!