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Link Assessments to Lessons
Link Assessments to Lessons

Learn how to directly link an assessment to a lesson activity.

Monica Burke avatar
Written by Monica Burke
Updated this week

Do you have an assessment you want to direct students to while they are in a lesson? You've come to the right place!

Before we show you the process, let's see what this will look like for the student:

This is further outlined in the Student Completion section below.


Add an Assessment as an Activity

  • Step 1: After you've created the lesson, add an Activity and select Add Assessment.

  • Step 2: A pop-up for Assessment Details will appear - this is where you will choose which assessment to link to the lesson. All of your draft assessments will be available in this list. You can choose an assessment from your own folders or an assessment that has been shared with you. Select the assessment you'd like to add.

Helpful Information

  • When you choose an assessment here, you are not assigning that assessment. This is also true for when you assign the lesson. Assigning the lesson does not automatically assign the assessment. The act of assigning the assessment will need to be done separately.

  • When should you assign the assessment? There isn't necessarily a rule for when to assign the assessment, but one option would be to assign the assessment immediately after you've created the lesson, setting a start date for that assessment so that it is not assigned until you need it to be. A second option is to assign the assessment before assigning the lesson, of course with any start dates or availability windows necessary. Either way, you can assign the assessment before or after you assign the lesson, as this step truly comes down to your own preferred workflow!

  • What happens if the student starts that lesson before the assessment is assigned? When the student clicks on the lesson activity that links to the assessment, they are taken to their assessments module. If the assessment hasn't been assigned, their list will be empty; there will not be an assessment to click on.

  • What happens if you change the name of the assessment after linking it in a lesson? In this case, you will want to make sure you go back to that activity in the lesson and edit the title of the assessment to match the new title.

  • Step 3: After selecting the assessment, give any instructions needed (character limit of 1000), upload an image (optional), then click Save.

Important Note - the Assessment Name will be pre-filled with the name of the assessment you selected in Step 2. We recommend not changing this name - the best way to make sure the student sees the intended assessment is if this matches the exact name of the assessment. Essentially, a search is triggered for the assessment with the name you've entered in the activity tile. If the assessment name doesn't match your tile's assessment name, students will not see that assessment listed when they click on the activity link.


Student Completion

  • Student Step 1: While in the lesson, they will click on the activity tile for the assessment.

  • Student Step 2: They will click the "Go to Assessment" button on the tile.

  • Student Step 3: The student will be taken to their assessments module, where they will see only that assessment; they will then click on it to begin, just like they would any other assessment.

Helpful Information

  • When a student completes an assessment that was linked in a lesson, that lesson activity is not automatically marked complete. The student must mark the activity as "completed", just as they would for any other lesson activity.

  • The progress view in the lesson will display the date and time the lesson activity was completed, and the status of the lesson activity. These indicators are not directly related to the assessment itself.

    • For example, in the image below, this student marked this activity complete on 2/8/2021 at 1:01 pm, that does not mean they submitted the assessment at that time. The progress here relates only to the completion status of the activity in the lesson.


Otus Live Video

Click to see a video from our Otus Live series on linking an Otus assessment to a lesson.


FAQ and Troubleshooting

Click to see FAQ and troubleshooting details.

Is the assessment automatically assigned when the lesson is assigned?

No, assigning the lesson does not automatically assign the assessment. The assessment needs to be assigned separately.

What happens if a student starts a lesson before the assessment is assigned?

If the assessment has not been assigned when a student clicks on the lesson activity that links to the assessment, their assessment list will be empty, and they won't have an assessment to access.

Can the name of the assessment be changed after linking it in a lesson?

Yes, the name of the assessment can be changed. However, if the assessment name is changed, it is recommended to go back to the activity in the lesson and edit the title of the assessment to match the new name.

Does completing the assessment automatically mark the lesson activity as complete?

No, when a student completes an assessment linked in a lesson, the lesson activity is not automatically marked complete. The student must manually mark the activity as "completed" within the lesson.

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