Case Study #12: Academic Assessment – Canvas LMS Integration

ISSUE:

As commercial Learning Management Systems (LMS) become more sophisticated, many are beginning to incorporate the assessment of student learning outcomes as a feature in their software packages. If the assessment professionals at an institution are looking for an alternative to expensive Accountability Management Systems (AMS) to document their assessment progress, evaluating the capability of their LMS in this regard may be worthwhile. The case below describes a specific instance of the application of Instructure’s Canvas LMS to the institution’s assessment program as a pilot opportunity.

SOLUTION:

For an institution that employs Canvas as its Learning Management System (LMS), assessment of learning outcomes can be integrated directly in the LMS without the need for any additional assessment software package. At one college this approach was piloted by a single discipline in anticipation of a more universal application once the processes were worked out. This implementation will only work if the Canvas gradebook is required for all instructors, as the assessment features within Canvas are tied directly to the Learning Mastery Gradebook. Learning outcomes are input into the Canvas system at the administrative level, and are therefore made available to all course section shells. Instructors can align each assignment with one or more outcomes (course, program, general education, or institutional) and create a rubric explicitly for outcome assessment, distinct from any grading rubrics that might be assignment-specific. As the instructor grades the assignment within Canvas, they can also evaluate the associated outcome(s) at the same time. Results are stored (and archived) in the course shell, and can be retrieved at the administrative level to compile for reporting purposes. The image below shows how each student is evaluated for each learning outcome within the Canvas shell using an institutional-wide 5-point rubric scale adopted by the college’s assessment committee.