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2020-21 COVID-19 Guide to Hybrid & Online Teaching at JMU

Assessment, Exams, and Integrity

Note: This guide was updated until June 30, 2021. Some of the content may be outdated starting in July 2021. Some pages in this guide will redirect you to more current/updated content on the JMU Libraries website. Visit our new Guide to Online Teaching. 

As you consider student assessment and exams in an online or hybrid environment, academic integrity concerns may be front of mind. Andreas Broscheid and Emily O. Gravett of CFI have provided outstanding pedagogical guidance on these issues. We encourage you to read their Teaching Toolbox on the subject and consider these important perspectives as you develop your online teaching student assessment processes.

For more information:

On this page:

 

Follow the links below for detailed descriptions, guides, and screenshots about additional pedagogical considerations and instructional technology for student assessment and academic integrity:

Other important exam/quiz information in this guide:

Request a consultation

 

If you are considering a redesign of a learning assessment, we offer our expertise through personal consultations. You may also want to consult with our colleagues at CFI. 

Considerations when assessing student work online

 

Alternative formats: When assessing student work in an online environment, you will need to provide more detailed instructions to ensure that expectations are clear. Alternative formats for assessment, with a focus on core goals, may ameliorate the barriers caused by the lack of face-to-face assessment environments and interaction with students. These alternative summative (graded) methods can include assessment of online discussion, assessment of student summative, synthetic, and reflective presentations (Sambell & McDowell, 1998), peer assessment of student group work (Freeman, 1995), and constructed responses assessment (Stanger-Hall, 2012).

Student guides: To help your students navigate new ways of learning, we have created student guides for group work, presentations, and professional and personal development for online learning.

Accessibility: There are many low-tech and asynchronous assessment options to consider. For instance, students can complete assignments using the following options:

  • email
  • Canvas Discussions
  • Canvas Chat
  • asynchronous group work in Canvas
  • Google Hangouts
  • Google Voice 

Rubrics: Consider using rubrics to help students understand how they will be assessed. A complete sample rubric can be found at this Canvas course we've created for JMU instructors (join by signing in with JMU e-ID and password).

Synchronous and asynchronous tests

 

An asynchronous test is a quiz, exam, or graded item set in Canvas that can be completed within a range of time instead of at a specific time.

A synchronous test is one that requires the teacher and students to log in to the system at the same time. An example would be using Canvas Quizzes. Once a quiz is published in Canvas Quizzes, an instructor can moderate the quiz. If technology permits, an instructor can also use Zoom to proctor the exam.

When you're deciding whether to use synchronous or asynchronous exams, you may want to consider these key factors:

  • the technology capabilities for the teacher and students (does the technology make simultaneous connection and moderation possible?)
  • the nature of the quiz (are credentials required? Is it related to aural and/or video input?)
  • how the quiz relates to the course learning objectives
  • test anxiety and how monitoring may increase anxiety and thus negatively impact student performance 

Tests and quizzes in Canvas

 

Resources for learning how to structure quizzes and exams in Canvas:

Create question banks

 

Question banks can enable randomized question selection for students and can ensure students don’t all have the same set of questions. This is one way to help increase test security and academic integrity. View this LinkedIn Learning video for more information. 

Note: To access JMU LinkedIn Learning, please log in with yourJMU e-ID/password and DUO:
 

screenshot of Duo login prompt

Set appropriate time and access to quiz responses

 

Please consider carefully the need for any test time limitations before putting them in place. Students with limited connection speed or slower technology may require more time for pages to load thus effectively reducing their test time. 

Providing adequate response time for test or quiz questions can help replicate face to face testing. Note: the ticking clock built into timed assessments may increase student test anxiety. The average time for multiple-choice types of questions is one minute or so per question.

To limit answer sharing and provide you with the opportunity to discuss an assessment with students, check “Let Students See The Correct Answers” by selecting a specific date after the quiz or exam has been completed by everyone in the class.  We recommend having a dialogue with your students after the quiz or exam. 

screenshot showing settings for allowing students to see answers

 

Use "Generate Possible Solutions" with formula questions in Canvas

 

Using the "Generate Possible Solutions" option can build sufficient variation versions so that students can practice as learning. See screenshots below:

Formula Question in Canvas

screenshot of settings highlighting "Generate Possible Solutions"

 

Use Turnitin Review to scan for plagiarism

 

Below is a screenshot showing how to turn on Turnitin Review in Canvas Assignments using the "upload files" submission type. Visit this Turnitin Review Guide for more information.

 

screenshot showing how to turn on Turnitin Review in Canvas Assignments using the "upload files" submission type.

Statistics for quizzes

 

You can view statistics for quizzes that have been published and have at least one submission. You can also download comma separate value (CSV) files to view Student Analysis or Item Analysis for each quiz question. More details can be found in the quiz statistics guide within Canvas Community.

View student participation and progress

 

In your Canvas course on the Moderate Quiz page, you can view the progress of student submissions and the quiz attempts. You can also grant students extra attempts, grant extra time for timed quizzes (of particular importance for students with accommodations), and manually unlock quiz attempts. Here is a detailed guide on using the Moderate Quiz page from the Canvas Community. Using these features can help provide testing accommodations to students who receive accommodations through ODS or students who experience technical problems.

Use course access analytics in Canvas to inform online learning assessment. In the "People" menu, the three vertical dots associated with an individual student name provides a summary of student access to the course content. 

 

screenshot showing how to click 3 dots for people menu, then select User Details, then select Access Report

 

Use the Student Tab within Course statistics in Course settings to understand whether an individual student has visited canvas.jmu.edu in general, not a specific course, to keep connected.

 

screenshot showing Students tab and list of Recently Logged In Users

Find more topics in this guide on the A-Z Page List or in the menu.

Note: This guide was updated until June 30, 2021. Some of the content may be outdated starting in July 2021. Some pages in this guide will redirect you to more current/updated content on the JMU Libraries website. Visit our new Guide to Online Teaching. 

Find more topics in this guide on the A-Z Page List or in the menu.