Within the backward design framework, assessments are the means by which instructors know if students have met the learning objectives of the course. The assessment plan is thus an essential tool for connecting, at a high level, those assessments to the learning goals.

Assessments and Activities

Assessments and activities are inextricably linked in online courses. Assessments are the graded components of a course, and activities are the tasks that students perform in the course. Many but not all activities are assessed; for example, reading a journal article is an activity that is not graded. However, you might include an activity that is assessed, such as a reading response, to gauge how well students understood the article and to keep them accountable for the reading in the course.

Assessments are the graded components of a course, and activities are the tasks that students perform in the course.

Frequency and Stakes

Online courses tend to have MORE assessments than face to face courses...however, they tend to be lower stakes than other courses.

This varies from course to course and thoughtful design helps balance your workload.

Your Assessment Plan

Your Assessment Plan

An assessment plan is the breakdown of how you will assess your students to arrive at the final grade in the course. The assessment plan is usually embedded within the syllabus and can be out of a total percentage or total points. When developing an assessment plan, you want to incorporate both low-stakes assessments that keep students engaged in the course and more summative assessments that allow students to demonstrate their comprehensive understanding of course concepts or to apply higher-order thinking to your content.

Example Activities and Assessments

It may surprise you that many of the activities you do in your face-to-face course can be redesigned for an online format. In fact, some instructors note that their most proven classroom activities were more inclusive and engaging when redesigned for an online course. When designing or redesigning activities, it's worth keeping in mind that an in-class activity cannot—and should not—play out the same way in the online environment. Consider how you might harness the material conditions newly available to you and your students: an activity that was once confined to a 75-minute class period is now asynchronous and can stretch over two days, involving more voices and ideas.

Instructors new to online teaching often wonder what types of activities are possible in online courses; here is a list of potential activities that can be used or adopted. This is neither a complete nor a compulsory list of online activities; rather, it is intended to stimulate ideas by sharing examples of activities developed for online teaching.

Anchored instruction (Links to an external site.)
Blogs as a reflection tool (Links to an external site.)
Case studies (Links to an external site.)
Debates (Links to an external site.)
Discussion prompts
Icebreakers
Lab experiments (Links to an external site.)
Peer review
Portfolios (Links to an external site.)
Presentations (Links to an external site.)
Problem-based learning (Links to an external site.)
Quizzing
Reflections
Role Playing (Links to an external site.)
Simulations (Links to an external site.)

Group Projects Can Work Better Online

Many instructors who assign group projects in their face-to-face courses worry that group projects do not work online because students are unable to collaborate together in class or on campus. While this may be the case, there are some advantages to group projects in online courses. One of the biggest complaints from students about group projects is related to workload; some students perceive that they do more (or less) work than others on the project. With online courses, instructors can better see in the Canvas course site who is contributing, and Canvas has both asynchronous and synchronous tools available to help students develop their projects. Additionally, students report that it is easier to collaborate with classmates online with tools that help them share files and contribute whenever their schedules permit.

Writing Effective Assignment Prompts

Providing clear and effective prompts is particularly important in online courses because you cannot verbally discuss your expectations or answer questions as you would in a face-to-face class. So that students understand what you expect from them on activities and assignments, you will need to write prompts for each assignment. There are creative and personalized ways you can explain assignments and make space for questions.

Consider using the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (Links to an external site.) (TILT) framework to help with writing assignment prompts. The TILT project offers a transparent assignment template with three parts:

Purpose: Clarify how this assignment will help students meet learning outcomes by gaining knowledge and/or practicing skills.
Task: Name what students should do to complete the assignment, including steps to follow and common mistakes to avoid.
Criteria for success: Provide a checklist or rubric and models of excellence, so students know what to aim for and how to evaluate their own work.

The TILT framework builds on research demonstrating how greater transparency in teaching—that is, giving students explicit information about assignment purposes and grading criteria—enhances learning, retention, and student success, especially for students who are first-generation, low-income, or members of underrepresented groups.

Make Activities Relevant

Learning tends to be more meaningful when students clearly see how it is relevant to their present lives and to their futures. Tailoring activities so that students can incorporate and reflect upon their experiences can significantly help to personalize online learning. When activities are relevant to students, they are more likely to complete them and learn from them. In addition, activities that invite students to relate concepts to their own lives and then share these insights with their classmates is a wonderful way to cultivate an inclusive classroom climate that incorporates diverse identities and experiences.