Feedback on performance is a critical part of a learning environment, and assessment is one of the most important activities in education. As teachers, we need a way for students to demonstrate what they understand and what they don't. A well-designed assessment can give you valuable information about students' misconceptions. If the feedback is immediate enough, it can also be a critical tool for students to gauge their own performance and help them become more successful.
With the Schoology assessment activity, you can design assessments that consist of a large variety of question types, such as Multiple choice, True/False, and Short Answer/Essay. You can allow the assessment to be attempted once or multiple times with the questions and answers randomly ordered. Additionally, you can set a time limit for your assessment.
Some ways you can use assessments include course exams, mini-quizzes for reading assignments or at the end of a topic, exam practice using questions from past exams, deliver immediate feedback about performance, and self-assessment.
When creating assessments, remember to provide students with clear instructions and specific rules to follow. Make sure students understand how to use all the features you included in the assessment.
REQUIRED: eAcademy teachers must provide students with at least seven (7) days to complete a graded assessment.
Since eAcademy operates online and asynchronously, students are permitted to work on weekends and during the week to ensure they have an adequate amount of time to get the work completed. This is especially important for students with IEPs or 504 plans.
Please note that if you have an assessment that requires more effort, you are permitted to provide students with more than seven (7) days.
Assessment Strategies
Using the assessment activity effectively takes some work and practice. The first thing to do is to use effective question design strategies. If you ask good questions, you’ll get useful data about your students’ performance and understanding of the material. Of course, the converse is also true. There is a ton of literature about effective assessment design available. We’ll just highlight a few of the most important ideas.
Tie each question to a course goal. After all, you want to know whether your students are achieving the goals of the course, so why not ask them directly?
Try to ask a number of questions about each important idea in the course. This gives you more data points about student understanding.
When writing a multiple-choice question, be sure each wrong answer represents a common misconception. This will help you diagnose student thinking and eliminate easy guessing.
Use true/false questions sparingly. Assessing a student's understanding of the content can be difficult when they have a 50/50 chance of getting the correct answer.
Write questions requiring your students to think at different levels. Include some recall questions, some comprehension questions, and some application and analysis questions. You can determine where students are having problems in their thinking. Can they recall the material, but not apply it?
Test your questions. Use Assessments Reporting and Item Analysis to determine which questions are useful and which aren’t. You can view immediate feedback on student and item performance, which helps drive your instructional decisions.
Some strategies you can try to prevent cheating include setting time limits on assessments and putting more value on reflective forms of assessment such as discussions and assignments.
Steps to creating an assessment in Schoology
Navigate to your Schoology course and click the chevron to the left of one of your main folders to expand the folder.
ALTERNATIVE: To add the assessment to your course landing page, select Add Assessment from the Add Materials drop-down menu at the top of the page. The assessment will appear at the bottom of your course. After you edit all the settings, you can move the assessment into a folder, if desired.
Hover your mouse pointer directly below the location where you want to add the assessment until you see a green dashed line.
Left-click your mouse and then click Add Assessment.
Name: Enter the assessment name, which will be displayed inside your folder. Provide a unique and meaningful name for every assessment in your course. This makes it easy for you and your students to locate the assessment in the gradebook. For example, add the week or topic number to the beginning of the assessment name.
Additionally, at the end of the name, it’s very helpful to add the approximate amount of time it will take students to complete the assessment along with the number of points that can be earned.
REQUIRED - Due date and Time: All graded eAcademy assessments must have a Due date and time. To provide students with plenty of time to submit the assessment, set the time to 11:59 PM.
pts: Enter the number of points the assessment is worth.
Submissions: From the drop-down menu, select one of the options.
Enable - Students are able to open and take the assessment.
Enable until - Students can take the assessment until the date and time you specify in the Until field that displays.
Enable from…until - Students can begin the assessment after the date and time indicated in From and before the date and time in Until.
Disable - Students cannot take the assessment.
(Optional) Password: If desired, enable the password setting. Then, set a password that students enter to complete the assessment. To learn more about passwords, review Password Protection for Course and Managed Assessments.
NOTE: Passwords must be at least 5 characters and are case sensitive.
Category: From the Category drop-down menu, select Assessments (or select the name you chose for this category, if you renamed it).
Period: From the Period drop-down menu, select the grading period that aligns with the Due date. DO NOT select Set as midterm/final. This may negatively impact student grades.
Factor: Leave the Factor setting at the default value.
[NEW] Collected Type: Checking the box will disable the ability to add a traditional score to the assessment in the gradebook. This is an Exception code that allows you to forgo traditional grading on a material. Enabling this setting will create a new column in the gradebook.
Scale/Rubric: Leave the Scale/Rubric setting at the default value.
Click Create.
Options (default) at the bottom of the Create Assessment window:
If desired, you can change the Options at the bottom of the Create Assessment window.
Individually Assign: Use this setting to only display the assessment to one or more members of the course or a grading group.
Published to students: Use this setting to display or hide the assessment from the student view.
Grade Statistics: When enabled, this setting displays the statistics for the assessment to the students, which is located in an icon above the assessment submissions.
[NEW] Count in Grade: This setting is enabled by default.
If disabled, this setting allows you to exclude a material’s scores from the grade calculations. This allows you, students, and parents to know immediately if a material is used in grading.
An example might be a pre-test you don’t want to count in grade calculations. The assessment grade will appear in purple italics in the gradebook and will not impact a student’s overall grade.
Copy to Courses: This setting allows you to copy the assessment with the current settings and options to another course.
Adding instructions, reviewing the assessment settings, and adding questions to the assessment
After you click Create, you will need to add assessment instructions and review the assessment settings.
Instructions: From the Setup tab, add your assessment instructions. Provide clear and concise instructions for the assessment. This is where you can also add an audio or video recording to enhance the written instructions.
REQUIRED: Per eAcademy course requirements, include the amount of time it will take students to complete the assessment in the instructions. Also include the number of points that can be earned.
Use the rich text editor tools to apply formatting to the font; change the indent or alignment of select text; insert a link, image, or table; spellcheck the instructions; apply paragraph headers; and switch to HTML.
Assessment Settings: Select your desired settings.
Assessment has a time limit: Yes or No
Assessment questions are randomly ordered: Yes or No
Show possible points for each question during the attempt: Yes or No
Assessment Toolbar: Select your desired settings.
Students can flag questions for review: Yes or No
Students can eliminate answer choices: Yes or No
Students can use a calculator during attempt: No; Yes, basic; or Yes, scientific
Students can use a ruler during attempt: No; Yes, 15 cm; or Yes, 6 inch
Students can use a protractor during attempt: Yes or No
Students can highlight text: Yes or No
Students can use a notepad: Yes or No
Student Settings: Select your desired settings.
Allow students to view results after an attempt is submitted: No, Yes, or Yes with correct answers (PLEASE NOTE: This setting must be set to YES to allow students, guardians, OEAs, and coaches to view assessment results).
Number of attempts students can submit: Select between 1 and 20
Click Save at the bottom of Setup before you click Questions. Otherwise, you will lose any text you added and any settings you edited.
Click Questions.
Under CREATE ITEMS on the left, select the question type you would like to add to your assessment and complete the fields. Click here to learn more about Schoology assessment question types.
After creating each question, click Save.
After creating the assessment, use the breadcrumb links at the top of the assessment editing page to navigate back to the desired location.