Online Teaching - Assessments

This guide covers the most common scenarios for papers, quizzes & other short in-class assignments, and exams.

The basics

• Tutorial - collecting papers online
• Tutorial - no-frills online exams

Add-ons

• Tutorial - replicating 'reading responses' or 'short free-write' assignments
• Tutorial - introduction to assessments with 'structured' questions and answers

Pedagogical tips

• Think about moving to exam formats that are less time-constrained and less reliant on 'closed book' restrictions
• Consider laying additional emphasis, from the very beginning of your course, on the UW Code of Student Conduct (https://depts.washington.edu/grading/pdf/AcademicResponsibility.pdf), and its expectations regarding academic integrity

Stories from the trenches

• "[Students] are in the privacy of their homes, sometimes with children who will interrupt them. It may be impossible for them to take a test without interruption. Circumvent the need for proctoring by making every exam open-notes, open-book, and open-internet."
  - Rebecca Barrett-Fox, "Please do a bad job of putting your courses online"
   
• "Decide what you’re going to do about any high-stakes assessments, particularly exams. There are no easy answers here, especially if you planned to have a good chunk of a student’s grade hinge on what would
  have been a proctored, in-person test.... You could take another route to summative assessment for the course, such as replacing a big supervised test with some type of project that is easier to personalize and less dependent on proctoring."
  - Michelle D. Miller, "Going online in a hurry: What to do and where to start," The Chronicle of Higher Education
   
• "It is very important to be responsive and provide timely feedback. Students are often submitting discussions and assignments into an online campus management system, which can seem impersonal and create a sense of anxiety for some. Our faculty responsiveness – and I try to get a response out within 24 hours – can alleviate some of that tension and truly make our learners feel supported"
  - Jacqueline Kelleher, "Take My Advice," Inside Higher Ed 
   
• "[P]edagogy first; technology second. In our field bells and whistles dominated in the early years. We understand now, better than before, that indeed technologies are tools to be applied mindfully and appropriately."
  - Dianne Conrad, "Q&A: Toward Better Assessments in Online Courses," Inside Higher Ed

Created by the Department of History Ad-hoc Tech Support Team: Eric Johnson, Kristin Roberts, Alexandra Colley DuSablon, Josh Apfel