Overview

Assessment paths support continuous assessment in either a formative (assessment for learning) or summative (assessment for learning) context. It allows you to group components of an assessment together to be marked individually and graded as a whole. It also supports multiple assessments being grouped in the same way.

There are two use cases for Assessment Paths:

1. It allows educators to conduct a series of assessments to have their candidates evaluated based on their performance over a period of time. For instance, all the assessments planned for a course in a term or semester can be grouped together, each with its unique weight to provide an overall grade to the candidate in the course.
2. Alternatively, it can be used for summative assessments consisting of several components, each with its own time window, duration, graders, and feedback. A good example here is language proficiency assessments that consist of 4 parts for assessing reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. In this case reading, writing and listening can be conducted as one continuous multi-part assessment (same time window), while the speaking test is scheduled at a different time.

Assessment path’s Open beta supports the following: 

• Schedule assessments with components that are graded as a whole.
• Candidates can be added to the whole assessment or test for flexibility, while contributors can be added to the whole assessment. 
• Grading committees can be added to the whole assessment. 
• The assessment's overall grade is automatically calculated based on a threshold, taking into account the weighted marks of each individual test.
• Candidates can view the summary of results and feedback for the whole assessment and tests in the candidate dashboard. 
• A new candidate dashboard that provides a better overview of all assessment activities to “house” all assessments in one place. It also comes in a new improved design.
• New Open API to create multi-component assessments.

The new candidate dashboard will coexist with the old dashboard during the beta period and candidates will be directed to the new dashboard for the Assessment path until we make the full transition to it. 

Definitions:

• Test: In Inspera, you can create individual tests. Once you have created tests, you can then add them to the Assessment path. 
• Assessment path: A container that includes tests and provides a structure for organizing and managing the overall Assessment. An Assessment path is a continuous assessment or assessment for learning - that is designed to measure a candidate’s knowledge, skills, or abilities in a particular subject or field. 
  • It consists of multiple tests, each of which can be a different type of assessment (such as essay, multiple choice, and so on). The assessment as a whole is used to evaluate the candidate’s overall performance and provide a final grade. Within the Assessment path, you can do the following:
    • Set up Assessment with its time window
    • Add/ manage contributors
    • Add/ manage candidates
    • Add/manage committees
    • Set the marking type, method of evaluation, method of calculation of points (test weight on individual component), grading scale, and threshold
    • Marking workflow: Confirm candidates all at once or individually
    • Marking collaboration settings: Set private marking or shared marking. Set whether all graders must confirm, or one grader can confirm.