Summative meets formative: time-limited assessment in Cadmus

The way our students learn is influenced by the way we design our assessments. Using a mixture of formative and summative pieces within a course gives us the opportunity to support student learning and complete necessary evaluation. Both these assessment types don’t need to be mutually exclusive. By viewing assessment as a journey, not an outcome, we can begin to tie formative elements into otherwise entirely summative pieces.

Creating an assessment like this can feel a lot more complicated than writing and marking an exam. But with a tool like Cadmus, it’s not as difficult as you think. Cadmus lets you easily create flexible, time-limited assessment pieces for your students, while ensuring that the work submitted is a student’s own. Cadmus gives your students a single environment to view assessment instructions, access resources, plan, collect research, draft, and submit final pieces. And with the ability to update and re-release assignment instructions, you can create learning experiences that prepare students for more authentic time-limited assessments.

If you’re wondering what an assessment like this could look like in Cadmus, start with the example below.

Brian’s Take Home Exam Design

Brian teaches a second-year contract law unit that has a take-home exam as the final summative piece. Using Cadmus, Brian has been able to make the experience more authentic - giving his students the opportunity to research and prepare beforehand. He’s created a task that reflects what many practising lawyers do, with multiple touchpoints and the ability for students to receive feedback along the way. By providing feedback, he hopes his students will feel better prepared for the time-limited component of the assessment.

To do this in Cadmus:

1. Brian creates a Cadmus Assignment in the LMS with introductory information about the assessment and relevant resources

2. Students are given time to research and take notes in preparation for the time-limited assessment task

3. He updates the Cadmus Assignment with added instructions as students prepare and submit a legal memorandum for feedback

4. Students submit their work as a draft in Cadmus

5. Brian provides feedback to students on their work through Turnitin, which they use to improve their final submissions

6. Brian releases the time-limited component to students over a weekend, by updating the Cadmus assignment instructions with the final task

7. Students complete their work in Cadmus and are able to view the notes they have written along with the draft memo they submitted for feedback

8. Students submit their final assessment through Cadmus

9. Brian and his teaching team review the submissions in Turnitin and submit final grades as usual