Remote delivery brings new challenges to assessment and evaluation. While many assessments in face-to-face classes can work online, some may need to be reimagined to work best in the online environment. Before developing your assessment plan, reflect on your course learning outcomes and consider the different ways the outcomes could be assessed. The University of Guelph has a variety of educational tools that can support remote student assessment.
Written assignments , both individual and group, can include a variety of options including reflective writing, written or photo essays, research reports, critiques, or scenarios . Regardless of the format chosen , CourseLink’s Dropbox tool allows for collection, evaluation and return of a variety of assessment types. Rubrics can also be attached to a Dropbox to provide students with clarity on the expectations and help you to evaluate consistently and provide timely feedback.
In-class assessment s , like performances , lab finals and presentations, can present a challenge for remote delivery. Presentations can still happen live in a web conferencing tool or be moved to an asynchronous format using CourseLink Video Assignments. The tool can be used by students to record or upload video-based assignments, including group assignments. The assignments can be graded with a rubric and the grades are automatically transferred to the CourseLink Grades tool. The Video Assignments tool can also be used by students to meet and plan group work to be submitted online. There is a full virtual classroom system embedded in the Video Assignments tool that students can use to meet virtually.
Regular, low-stakes testing can be beneficial in a remote delivery setting whe n providing students with clear assessment expectations can be more difficult.
If you take a higher stakes assessment , like a midterm or final exam online, you may want to use the Respondus LockDown Browser and Monitor to invigilate the exam. LockDown Browser is a locked browser for taking quizzes in CourseLink . It prevents learners from printing, copying, going to external URLs, or accessing other applications during an assessment. If a CourseLink quiz requires that LockDown Browser be used, you will not be able to take the quiz with a standard web browser . Respondus LockDown Browser has its own system requirements and is only available on the most recent versions of Windows, MacOS and iOS: 11.0+ ( iPad only ).
Invigilated assessments are an integral piece of many remote courses. When selecting a tool for remote invigilation, you should consider the type of assessment, size of the class, requirements for additional invigilators, and student considerations.
Regardless of the chosen method of invigilation, it is strongly recommended that you provide students with an opportunity to do a practice assessment using the invigilation option selected. This will allow students to test for any technical issues and potentially reduce any stress and anxiety that might be associated with remote testing and invigilation.
Setting up your grade book and regularly providing students with updates helps students to know how they are doing in the course. Many of CourseLink’s assessment tools, such as Discussions and Quizzes , can be set up to automatically send grade information to the Gradebook.
