Assign an Assessment

Assign a simple, advanced, or rubric assessment to individual students or classes.

Brooke Fodor avatar
Written by Brooke Fodor
Updated over a week ago

Assessments are assigned from the Drafts Assessments page. In order to assign an assessment, you must have access to the assessment draft as an original or shared copy. Teachers and co-teachers can assign to any of their classes, and admins can also assign assessments directly to classes.

When assigning, you have the option to select and customize the following:

  • Classes, students, and student groups

  • Due date, start date, and availability windows

  • Instructions

  • Additional settings for each assessment type


Assign an Assessment

  • Step 1: Navigate to the Drafts page your Assessments module.

  • Step 2: Select the ellipsis to the right of the assessment you wish to assign.

  • Step 3: Select Assign.

💡 Tip: You can also assign an assessment directly from any open assessment draft. In the assessment draft, you will see the Assign button at the top right.

  • Step 4: On the Assign page, add any desired dates and settings, then click the Assign button at the top right.

    • You must select at least one class before clicking the Assign button. All other selections are optional.

    • Additional details about each section of the Assign page are included below.


Students

In this section, you will choose which students to assign the assessment to.

  1. Select Classes: Select the class or classes you wish to assign the assessment to. You can assign to more than one class at a time.

  2. Select Groups: After selecting one or more classes, select the group or groups you wish to assign the assessment to. This is an optional setting.

  3. Assign to: If needed, remove a student from the list by hovering over their name and selecting the x button.

💡 Tip: If you only need to assign the assessment to specific students, it may be easier to click the Deselect All button, then click on the students you'd like to assign the assessment to.


Dates and Availability

In this section, you will determine due dates, start dates, and availability windows. All of these components are optional and not required to assign an assessment.

  1. Due Date: Establish a date and time for when the assessment is due. If students do not submit the assessment by the due date, it will be given an automatic status of Missing. The student will still be able to access the assessment beyond the due date if there aren't any availability windows.

  2. Start Date (Assign at a Later Date): Auto-assign at a certain date and time.

  3. Availability Windows: Limit student access to an assessment to a specific timeframe. Multiple availability windows can be added, and assessments will auto-submit at the conclusion of the last availability window.

❗ If you are unfamiliar with availability windows, please review this resource before using them. Used incorrectly, they may trigger auto-submissions of assessments before you intend for them to be submitted.


Instructions

Add brief instructions for students to see before they take the assessment.

  • Type up to 5000 words using bold, italics, or underlined text.

  • The second image above is an example of what the instructions will look like for the student when they start the assessment.


Settings

Each setting is briefly described below. Some settings are only available for specific assessment types (Simple, Advanced, or Rubric).

➡️ Settings Available for All Assessments Types

  • Include Score in Final Grade (points-based only): When toggled OFF the assessment grade appears in the gradebook, but the status is marked as Excluded and the score does not factor into the student's overall grade.

  • Allow Post Grading Review: Allow students to review a graded assessment. Advanced and Simple assessments have an additional option to Show Correct Answers in the review.

  • Lockdown Browser: Eliminates the ability to use external websites while taking an assessment. Note - The student must have the Respondus lockdown browser installed on their device in order to utilize this feature.

  • Time Limit: Set the number of minutes students have to complete an assessment.

  • Allow Multiple Attempts: Allow students to attempt the same assessment multiple times. Each new attempt overrides any previous attempt.

  • Allow Graded Assessments with the Status of "Missing" to be Submitted: Allow students to submit an assessment that has been graded and marked as missing.

➡️ Settings Available for Specific Assessment Types

The assessment type is indicated next to each settings as S (Simple), R (Rubric), or A (Advanced).

  • Show Correct Answers (S, A): Used in conjunction with the Allow Post Grading Review setting in order to enable or disable the correct answer from showing during the review for each auto-graded question.

  • Randomize Questions (S): Randomize the order in which assessment questions appear for each student.

  • Randomize Items (A): Randomize the order in which assessment items appear for each student.

  • Texthelp Speechstream (A): Allow students to use a toolbar that includes text-to-speech read aloud, translation, dictionary with read aloud, picture dictionary, and highlight pens.

  • Allow Student Annotation (A): Features include the use of a notepad, sticky notes, drawing mode, and highlight tool. Note: Teachers do not see student annotations.

  • Turnitin (R): Integration available if the district has a Turnitin subscription. Student submissions are automatically checked for plagiarism.

  • Auto-Score Settings (A): Available only for Advanced Assessments that utilize Standards Based Grading Scales (Non-Points). With this feature, you have the ability to set the default mastery level a student receives for auto-graded questions.


Assign from an Admin Account

Administrators follow the same steps as teachers when assigning an assessment to a class. However, admin accounts have one additional option in the Settings section: Assign as a Locked Assessment. Learn more about locked assessments.

  • Assigning the assessment locked means that the data from that assessment will aggregate when viewing Assessment Analytics.

  • Assigning the assessment unlocked means that the data from that assessment will not aggregate when viewing Assessment Analytics.

What are the benefits of assigning an assessment from an Admin account?

  • Can be assigned to multiple classes at one time; offers an alternative to sharing the assessment draft with teachers and asking them to assign it.

  • Can be assigned as locked so that data will aggregate.

  • Instructions, dates, and other settings can be standardized across classes.

  • Helpful for benchmark and other common assessments.

  • Teachers are still able to grade the assessment.

  • Teachers are still able to adjust assessment settings (such as due dates, availability windows, start dates) as needed.


Otus Live Videos

Click to see videos from our Otus Live series on how to assign each type of assessment (Simple, Rubric, Advanced).

Assign a Simple Assessment:

Assign a Rubric Assessment:

Assign an Advanced Assessment:


FAQ and Troubleshooting

Click to see details for FAQ and troubleshooting.

What if students need to be able to take the assessment more than once, do I have to assign it multiple times?

No. You can use the Allow Multiple Attempts setting. For more information, check out this article.

Can I assign the same assessment twice?

Yes. If you are assigning the same assessment twice, you may want to clone and re-name the assessment so you can distinguish between the two in the gradebook and in your list of assessments.

Can I make edits to the assessment questions or answers after it has been assigned? You can make edits to any draft assessment at any time, but those edits will not update the assigned version. You must unassign and reassign the assessment.

Can I change any settings after the assessment has been assigned?

Yes. For more information on adjusting those settings, check out this article.

Questions Related to Unassigning:

How do I unassign an assessment?

Navigate to your assessments module, select Assigned, then select the correct class. Choose these ellipsis to the right of the assessment and select Unassign. Please unassign with caution. See this article for more information.

Can I unassign an assessment from an entire class?

Yes. This can be done by following the steps outlined in this article.

Can I unassign an assessment from individual students?

Yes. This is done through the Manage Assignees section. For more information, check out this article.

What happens to the student scores if an assessment is unassigned?

Student scores will be deleted. There is a warning presented when an assessment is selected to be unassigned. Please unassign assessments with extreme caution, as the student data attached to that assessment cannot be restored.

What is the difference between deleting an assessment and unassigning an assessment?

Deleting an assessment will remove the assessment from your drafts completely. With an advanced assessment, the scores will remain in the gradebook. Unassigning an assessment will remove student scores, but the assessment will remain in your drafts for you to use in the future.

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