Module 3: Designing Assignments & Assessments for Online (Light)

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Shortly after COVID-19 hit, an image that was created in 2018 (below) circulated the internet, and it describes the journey of teaching in 2020. It comes as a timely reminder that the task ahead is one that is not easy, nor will it be one of perfection. Most of all, it is a reminder that you are not alone:

(as cited in McCollum, 2020).

Before we get started, it is imperative that you remind yourself that the transition to online teaching and learning is a journey.

So far, you’ve explored the integral components of building a bullet-proof online course, which includes; creating a course syllabus and structure for online teaching, working with the online learner, facilitating teaching and learning online, and building community and student engagement online. Now, you are going to be introduced to how assignments and assessment work in an online environment.

Throughout this section, you will be introduced to some concepts and ideas to explore. This section does not provide a cookie-cutter approach to what to do with your assignments and assessment practices because every course is unique. Take a look at what others have done and some recommendations you can use as you begin the journey of re-designing your course(s). Read through what you need, and don’t be afraid to explore further! There is plenty of supportive research and help posted online from teachers around the world and you don’t have to re-create the wheel.

This section of the Bootcamp is intended to help you keep it simple and build on what you already have created for your current course delivery, but make it more accessible for online learning. In this section, you will be able to explore:

• Alternative Assignment ideas you can use to tweak, re-create, or design new assignments for your online course(s);
• Types of Scoring Criteria you can use to help your students successfully complete assignments and navigate your course(s);
• Tips for Designing Alternative Assignments & Assessments to help you tweak your current modes of delivery without completely overhauling what you already have;
• So, Now What?, which will help you piece together these sections for exactly what you need to do as you prepare for your course; and,
• an FAQ Section that links to some useful templates, guides, and questions to help you (re)design your course.

Think of this as your toolbox for (re)creating your course in an online environment. You can re-visit these sections as you need throughout the foreseeable future.

Don’t forget to build on your strengths, passions, and the moments you find magical in your classrooms.

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Alternative Assignments

Teaching in an online environment takes a little bit of creativity when it comes to assignments. Quite often, the core of your assignments will be able to ‘weather the storm’ and you will find you don’t have to completely redesign your course(s) for online delivery. As you consider what types of assignments you want your students to be engaged in, remember your learning outcomes for the course and what it is you really need your students to do. It becomes very tempting in an online environment to stack a lot of work that requires weekly, bi-weekly, and sometimes even daily check-ins by your students.

Before you jump in to look at how you can change your assignments for online learning, here is a great TEDx Talk about ‘The Era of Online Learning’ (2017):

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Below, you will find a list of types of assignments commonly used in classrooms. You can click on the option(s) that are relevant to your upcoming course(s) to read more information about possible alternatives and considerations for changes you can make to your assessments for online learning.

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TIP: The SIMPLER you design your course the BETTER it will be for you and your students!

You may want to ask yourself, what do I absolutely need to keep as graded (and ungraded) assignments for my course(s)? Do I need to make any changes to the way students complete the assignment and hand-in the assignment? Is it possible for students to be confused about the expectations and requirements for the assignment?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above questions, you will most likely need to make small changes to your assignments to make them accessible for your students.

In online learning environments, students lose out on the extra time they have with classmates to discuss assignments and requirements needed to complete course activities properly. Checklists are a great tool you can use to help your students navigate course requirements. Consider creating a checklist for students to use to navigate your entire class, including weekly requirements. This can include:

• Outlining more specific guidelines for how to complete the project well with some do’s and don’ts
• Providing extra links, documents, worksheets, help pages (especially for technologies), etc.
• Check out the example in the FAQ Section.

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Types of Scoring Criteria

If you are creating a new assignment or re-designing a current assignment, you may want to create a new way, or revise your current way, to grade your students. For assignments that are not exams, we typically use three types of scoring criteria: checklists, analytic rubrics, and holistic rubrics.

  If you are looking to learn more about rubrics, read through the first two portions of Jennifer Gonzalez’s breakdown of holistic and analytic rubrics here.  (10-25 minute read)

TIP: Checklists and Holistic Rubrics are faster and easier to create. However, they view content and competencies as a ‘have’ or ‘have not.’ Analytic Rubrics are more complex, but they provide a stronger evaluation process for grading and student performance.

These approaches to grading your students are going to be vital for their experience, as well as yours, throughout the term. With less access to face-to-face time with their professors (that’s you!), students often become muddled, confused, and even overwhelmed with expectations. Creating strong scoring criteria can help your students be more successful in their assignments. It also frees up your time to help students who are struggling with learning because it frees up the time it takes you to walk your students through the expectations of your assignments. You can clearly illustrate what you want students to complete and to what degree of detail students need to complete those tasks.

You can envision your scoring criteria to be like a blueprint for your students. It provides a detailed plan that outlines the necessary components needed to complete the task successfully, as well as specific measurements used to determine success. By using your scoring criteria to both grade students and as a guide for completing the assignment, you are creating a dual-purpose document that you AND your students can use.

If you are putting your exam online, you can follow the infographic below to help you determine how to best change your exam for online learning: 

Forsythe, G. [@guiliaforsythe]. (2020, March 15). “so… you need to put your course online” flowchart… now generic and explicitly CCBY. [Tweet; Image]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/giuliaforsythe/status/1239371142206496770

TIP: When you design an assessment tool, it is helpful if you design it from the perspective of your students’ learning.

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Tips for Designing Alternative Assignments & Assessments

By now, you hopefully have an idea of what changes you need to make to your course(s) and you know some practical ways to make these changes to your assignments and scoring criteria. Whether you are creating a virtual project or an online exam, it is highly likely you will have some things you need to consider.

It is always important to remember the student experience when it comes to moving to an online learning environment. A recent YouTube by Jack Edwards (2020) illustrates a student’s perspective of transitioning to online learning. As you watch this video, consider the emotions Edwards (2020) illustrates and the impact it had on his experience of his class:

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Below, you will find some help on (re-)designing discussion forums, take-home exams, online exams, hands-on projects, and presentations for an online environment.

Discussion Forums

Here are some general pointers to help you determine if discussion forums are right for your course(s).

If you want to create discussion forums for your course(s), we recommend you follow these 4 steps: 

Here are some Tips for Creating Discussion Forum Prompts in the FAQ Section.

Here are some examples of how different instructors use discussion forums in their courses:

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If you are hosting your discussion forums in Moodle, you can easily integrate your grading through the Gradebook. Here is a tutorial of how to set up discussion forums in Moodle.

Discussion Forums are a great way to create community and encourage student engagement in your online course(s). If you are basing the majority of student work on discussion forums, you may want to consider some of these creative strategies to using forums:

Take-Home Exams

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Here are some general considerations and common practices when it comes to take-home exams:

If you are planning to create a take-home exam for your course(s), you can follow these steps:

Online Exams (Synchronous)

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If you must keep a synchronous, online exam, we recommend you consider adopting three techniques:

1. Consider making your online exams more low-stakes. Students are more apt to cheat on an assignment or exam when the weight is extremely high. While this method may not be the easiest to adopt, it can be a consideration as you build your exam.
2. If you are sticking with a final exam, you may want to consider how you can reduce the weight of the exam. This has been a tool elicited by teachers who transition to online learning for the first time to help alleviate the stress of students and encourage learning throughout the term rather than cramming for a heavy exam at the end of the term.
3. Include an honour statement for your students to sign for the course or a particular assessment piece. We have created a sample template for you in the FAQ Section.

To help with building good online, synchronous exams, we have some things for you to consider:

• Have randomly generated questions for each student. This means you need a large question set.
• Limit the duration of the exam and the number of attempts a student has for any question;
• Consider how the questions are delivered to the student;
• Limit the availability period of the exam. Keep in mind students’ accessibility to the internet and a computer, as well as time zones.
• Withhold feedback and grades until the exam has closed;
• Consider using calculated questions with random values that are automatically generated for each variable in the question;
• Increase the number of open-ended and essay-style questions;
• Increase the frequency and suddenness of ‘pop’ quizzes. This practice is not feasible for at-home parents and will greatly heighten anxiety in your class.
• Track and monitor when students access your course materials. If you are uncertain if a student is engaging with materials, check Moodle to help your investigation.
• Clearly define what cheating means in your class and share this with your students;
• Share your learning outcomes with your students; and,
• Provide detailed grading criteria.

(Indiana University, _EDC co-curated COVID-19 resources, n.d.)

Online Projects

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Hands-on projects are still an excellent learning experience in an online environment. You will need to make a few tweaks to your current projects to make them more accessible and compatible for online learning.  Here are some considerations:

In general, you may want to consider chunking your projects into smaller tasks and then ask your students to put all of the pieces together at the end of the assignment. This approach to larger projects is extremely helpful in online environments because it creates more touchpoints between you and your learners. This encourages students to properly pace themselves, reducing the number of students who do the all-nighter blitz before the assignment is due. It will also help you course-correct those students who might be missing valuable knowledge and learning points to successfully complete their tasks.

Here is a quick breakdown of how project-based learning can work in your class:

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REMINDER: More than 70% of our student population does not live in Lethbridge and would not be able to drop off an assignment at a location. Instead, consider how they can share their products virtually. This can be done through a virtual demonstration or photos/scans submitted online. This also means that many students may be tuning in from a different timezone for classtime and group projects.

TIP: You may be hard-pressed to create authentic learning situations for hands-on tasks. However, you can have students critique, analyze, and evaluate curated data or samples of work that have already been created. Remember, you can only work within your constraints.

Online Presentations

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Presentations are core to many courses. With small changes to the mode of delivery, you can easily keep the interactivity, engagement, and experience of presenting in front of people in your course(s). Here are some considerations:

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So, Now What?

Ultimately, it is up to you what you want your course to look like, and you know your students and content best! Moving to an online environment can often feel overwhelming because you have almost endless options to re-design your course. Try to keep your changes as simple as possible and don’t be afraid to experiment.

Hear from other instructors about their top tips when you think about online learning and teaching:

If there is another way you envision your assignments and assessments working in your classroom, try it out.

We are still here to help you get going and give you support/feedback as you need.

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Looking for More?

We have created an FAQ Section to help you with some specific questions that we have come across in our own research and in discussions with educators moving to online environments. Here they are:

Here is a video that shares the 3 mistakes an instructor made when he first started teaching online:

Lastly, have fun, get messy, be creative, and take chances!

At-Home Activity (Optional)

If you are wondering how you can use this information to help you work on your course, we recommend that you build or revise specific course material(s) for upcoming course(s).

You are very welcome to share your ideas for changes to your existing courses and/ or corresponding resources in our collaborative module forum on Moodle.