Paper Exams and Assignments

If you normally hand out paper exams, you have a couple different options. If your biggest priority is to let students hand-write answers, we recommend using Gradescope to present and collect the assignment. Gradescope is a platform designed for students or instructors to scan and upload hand-written work for online marking-up and grading. You can sign up for an introductory workshop here, if you’ve never used it before; they run every Thursday!

If your priority is to be able to simply distribute the same file you would have printed out for an in-person class, you can use a Canvas Quiz or a Canvas Assignment to do that. Upload your document file into the Files area of your Canvas course and include a link to the document in the Assignment description or Quiz question. Students will be able to download it and write in their responses before saving and uploading the edited file as their submission.

Note: Assignments will give you tools to annotate and mark up the uploaded document in Speedgrader, the online grading tool, while Quizzes will not.

Essays

In many ways, essay assignments or exams are the simplest to transfer online. Canvas Assignments support this very well. You can have students type or paste directly into a text-entry box, or allow them to upload files. By setting both availability dates and a due date, you can also use Assignments for blue-book style exams with a limited time window.

Using Assignments will also give you tools to annotate and mark up the submitted text or uploaded document in Speedgrader, the online grading tool. Speedgrader allows you to mark up the document, add comments, record audio comments, use a rubric, and enter the final grade.  These will all be viewable to the student in Canvas when grades are published.

Traditional Tests

If your exams are normally traditional tests with multiple choice, fill in the blank, numeric, or short-essay questions, the best parity of experience will be achieved if you re-create the test in Canvas Quizzes. You will need to manually enter the questions into the Quiz, but there is an advantage in return for that work. Once you have done so, Canvas will grade everything but essay and file-upload questions for you automatically.

Online tests can also do things that are considerably more difficult using paper. The Quiz tool in Canvas can shuffle the answer options, randomly re-order the questions themselves, and create a large number of individualized tests using question banks. 

If you want to continue using the test papers you have previously used, without re-creating the questions in Canvas, see the Paper Tests and Assignments section above.

Student Presentations: Live

If your course includes presentations by students, and you wish those presentations to be ‘live’ in real-time, schedule time for them in Zoom. As long as you enable screen-sharing by multiple participants, using the “Share Screen” button’s menu, students will be able to share presentation materials with the class as they speak.

Student Presentations: Recorded

If your course involves student performances, presentations, or oral recitations, and you have chosen to have students record and submit these rather than present live, we recommend having students use Kaltura Capture to record themselves and their presentation materials. Kaltura/My Media has no file size limits and is integrated with Canvas so that these recordings can be submitted in a Canvas Assignment, or embedded in a Canvas Discussion, if you want other students to view and comment on each other’s work.

We also encourage instructors to simplify the approach for this remote class setting. Consider reducing the length of the presentations which must now be recordings, as many students now find themselves with low-bandwidth connections and will have trouble uploading large recordings. 

For additional information, check out our resource on remote assessment and exams.  We provide best practices, considerations, detailed information on each assessment type, and how-to guides on using Canvas Assignment and Quizzes.  If you would like to speak with an instructional consultant regarding your remote assessments, please email [email protected] or request a consultation. We’ll be happy to help!