Summative Assessments

Summative assessments occur at the end of a course or at the end of a series of learning modules and typically result in a score or a grade. Summative assessments evaluate the student’s achievement of the desired learning outcome at the completion of the course or learning module. Summative assessments are higher stakes, and often consists of performance evaluations, authentic writing assignments or projects, or exams.

Remote Summative Assessments can be administered in various formats:

Take-Home Exam or Assignment

A take-home exam or assignment can be completed outside of the classroom at the student’s pace, then submitted online via Canvas or other integrated tool such as Gradescope .

Create an Assignment in Canvas

Online Exam

An online exam is a set of questions in a quiz format delivered through Canvas. The question type for online exams range from multiple choice to short answer. Online exams are typically timed and recommended for proctoring.

Create a Canvas Quiz

Project-Based Assignment

Projects can range from group work, portfolios, presentations, reports, creative work, that are completed outside of class and can be submitted in a file format via Canvas.

Create an Assignment in Canvas

Designing appropriate assessments

In a physical classroom, you may administer an exam and create a closed environment for testing student knowledge and comprehension. However, in the remote environment, it is quite different and expectations may need to shift from the circumstances of a physical space and simultaneous time provide.

Take this opportunity to focus on the authenticity and expression of learning goals in your course. Carefully consider your expectations of what students should be able to demonstrate, know, and value by the end of the course. The summative assessment you design should allow you to evaluate if students have met those expectations.

Identify the learning objectives - the skills, knowledge, and values that students will have gained by completing the course, and the order of thinking required to achieve the learning objectives.
Determine the criteria and characteristics of successfully achieving those learning objectives.
Design the assessment that will allow students to best demonstrate their gained skills, knowledge, and values.

Learning Objective/ Order of Thinking	Definition of Order of thinking	Assessments that align with order of thinking
REMEMBER	Retrieve information such as terms, facts, and concepts from memory	Multiple choice, Matching, Fill-in-the-blank, True/False, Self-Check, Label, Identify terminology and facts
UNDERSTAND	Construct meaning from instructional messages and content	Short Answer, Compare-and-Contrast, Identify examples or principles True/False, Multiple Choice, Problem Sets, Categorize Reading Summary, Paraphrase, Short Essay
APPLY	Carry out or use a procedure in a given situation	Demonstrate a process, Complete a new task, Prototype, Simulation, Reflection, Presentation, Problem Sets
ANALYZE	Break into parts and determine how parts relate or contribute to a structure or purpose	Case Studies, Labs, Reports, Essays, Projects, Argumentation, Evidence Debates, Argumentation, Perspective
EVALUATE	Make constructive judgements based on criteria and standards	Critique, Product Review, Research Paper, Peer Review, Self Assessment Problem sets
CREATE	Put elements together to form a coherent or functional whole, a new pattern, or structure	Research Study, Composition, Performance, Essay, Business/Organization Plan, Web or Product Design, Proposition or hypothesis, Find a solution, Portfolio

Key	Tool
	Canvas Quiz
	Canvas Discussion
	Canvas Assignment

Create a Quiz / Exam in Canvas

The Canvas Quiz tool allows you to create a test or a quiz that consists of various question types including Multiple Choice, True/False, Matching, Fill-in-the-Blank, Numerical, Short Answer/Essay, and more.

See the Canvas Quiz Guides.

1. Write Questions

Prepare questions (and multiple versions) to incorporate in the online exam.

Determine dates:

Due Date
Submission Window
Available From
Available Until

2. Add to Canvas

Create a Canvas Quiz

Add questions

Multiple versions of the same question
Academic integrity pledge

Configure settings

3. Publish the Quiz

Publish the quiz, configure score release, then let students know they can submit the final online.

Tip: You can use the “View as a student” from the Canvas homepage to access a preview of the online exam and test the submission process.

4. Review & Score

When you are ready to score the submissions, open SpeedGrader or student results to review materials, provide feedback, and enter a score.

Accessibility reminders:

Create accessible exam instructions, to ensure all students can understand the information:

Images: Provide alternate text for images or scanned graphs
Captions: Ensure all videos have captions
Colors: Do not use color alone to convey meaning, and select colors with high contrast ratios

Accommodations:

Give individual students extra time, if appropriate based on accommodation letter from the Office of Students with Disabilities.

In Course Navigation, click the Quizzes link.
Click the name of the quiz.
Click the Moderate This Quiz link.
Locate the student and click the Edit icon.
Type the number of extra minutes in the Extra Time on Every Attempt field.

Resources:

Carnegie Mellon: Align Assessments and Objectives

Vanderbilt: Bloom's Taxonomy