How do I plan course-embedded assessments in Insights?

Course-embedded Assessments (Canvas Assessments)

Course-embedded assessment measures allow coordinators to connect Canvas assignments to specific learning outcomes, enabling faculty to gather learning outcome data through assignments they already teach in their courses. In addition to qualitative and juried assessments, coordinators can use Insights to plan course-embedded assessments that collect quantitative data through Canvas rubrics.

Combining course-embedded assessments with other assessment methods provides a more holistic understanding of student learning. This integration of quantitative and qualitative data can make assessment results more meaningful and support informed decision-making.

New in this release: Course-embedded assessment measures now support rich text formatting in assignment descriptions, the ability to add links and images to instructions, set due dates on measures with automated notifications, and improved visibility of grading progress and data collection status.

Before you begin.

Be sure you have created the following in Insights:

An assessment Cycle (see How do I create Cycles & Goals for assessment plan creation?)
An Assessment Plan (See How do I create an Assessment plan?)

Add a Course-Embedded Assessment Measure to an Existing Assessment Plan in Insights

1. Open the Assessment Plan

Go to Plan > Assessment Plans and click the pencil icon to edit an existing cycle's assessment plan.

2. Add a Measure

On the Manage Plan page:

Find the section where you want to add the measure.
Click + Add Measure.
Select Canvas Assessment.
Click Build.

3. Configure the Measure

Complete the fields in the Add Measure window:

Collect Results by — You can select the method that Insights will gather assessment results in Canvas
1. Pushing Course Assignments - Insights will create assessments and rubrics for faculty in the selected Courses.
2. Listening for Outcome Results - Insights will listen for any faculty-created assessments for the outcomes and courses selected.
Assignment Description — Enter a clear, descriptive description of the assignment purpose (e.g., "This assignment measures ILO 1: Critical Thinking"). You can use rich text, links, and reference images. See the section below: Adding Images and Instructions to Course-Embedded Measures.
Collect results for — Select whether this assessment is for Program or Institutional Assessment.
Programs and/or Learning Outcome Type — If Program Assessment was selected, choose the Program and select the Learning Outcome Type (ILO or PLO). If Institutional Assessment was selected, ILO will auto-populate.
For Mastery of: Category and/or Learning Outcome — Select an outcome category (optional) to filter options, then select the Learning Outcome(s) you want to measure. You may choose multiple outcomes.
Assess CLOs Mapped to Selected Outcomes or Assess Selected Outcomes Directly — Choose whether to assess course-level outcomes (CLOs) mapped to program/institutional outcomes, or assess the program/institutional outcomes directly. If assessing selected outcomes directly, you will select the Rating Scale in a later step.
Academic Year — Select the academic year as managed under Term Management in Settings.
Collection Terms — Select the Insights term(s) for data collection.
Canvas Terms — Shows the Canvas terms associated with the Insights terms.
Goal — Optional. Connect the measure to an institutional goal.
Objective — Optional. Connect the measure to a learning objective.
Departments — Select the department codes that contain courses you would like to target.
Course Levels — Select the course levels that you would like to target.
Assignment Type — Choose the suggested assignment type (e.g., Essay, Project, Quiz, Discussion).
Canvas Submission Type — Select the submission method in Canvas (e.g., text entry, file upload, online URL).
Course Preview — Click to expand and see which courses will be included based on your selections. (Only visible if you have selected "Pushing Course Assignments")
Select Rating Scale — Choose the rating scale for this assessment. (Only visible and required if you selected "Assess Selected Outcomes Directly")

4. Save and Deploy

Click Add Measure. The measure is saved as a Draft, so you can continue editing it.

When you're ready to deploy the measure to Canvas, click Update Plan.

Important: Draft measures are not visible to faculty in Canvas until the assessment plan is updated.

Additional Assessments can be created for this same cycle at any point, and existing assessments can be updated holistically prior to their deployment to Canvas, and with updated terms after their deployment to Canvas (in order to target newly created course offerings in Canvas).

Choose + Add Measure and complete the modal with the desired assessment criteria.

Deploy Course-Embedded Assessment Measure to Canvas

Once measures are configured, coordinators can deploy them to Canvas to create assignment shells in targeted courses.

1. Access the Plan

Go to Plan > Assessment Plans and locate the plan containing your measure.

Click the right chevron (>) icon to expand the measure specifics and view the current status

Click the time icon to Track Cycle Progress

For more details on tracking Cycle progress go to the article "How Do I Track Cycle Progress in Insights?"

Click the pencil icon to edit or view measure details

Click the trash icon to delete the measure

Click the up arrow icon to deploy the measure to Canvas

3. Deployment

When a course-embedded measure is deployed to Canvas, an assignment shell for the outcome assessment is created inside the Canvas courses that were targeted in the measure configuration.

NOTE: Only courses that have been curriculum mapped will be impacted.

Example: If the measure targets "Level 1" courses in the English department aligned to a specific learning outcome, assignment shells are created in Canvas for only those Level 1 English courses that are curriculum mapped to the selected outcome. (i.e., an assignment that captures learning outcomes data specifically for English 110 is desired; so in the curriculum map, English 110 must be aligned to a Program/Institutional Learning Outcome. In the measure configuration, if English is the program selected and Course Levels = Level 1, an assignment will be created for English 110 and any other English, Level 1 courses that are mapped).

4. Faculty Publishing

Assignment shells that are created in corresponding Canvas courses are intentionally created as unpublished to allow faculty to:

Edit the assignment title and details
Add or refine instructions using the Canvas rich text editor
Publish the assignment once prepared

This ensures coordinators are proactively gathering learning outcome data through Canvas assignments while faculty maintain autonomy over assignment execution and instruction.

Track Cycle Progress

The Assessment Plan Status Dashboard gives coordinators a consolidated, top-down view of an assessment plan's progress, including the status of individual measures, upcoming assessment terms, and deadlines. Coordinators can select a subset of measures, add notes, and build a meeting agenda to streamline the data collection process.

Accessing the Dashboard

The Track Cycle Progress button can be accessed from three places in Insights:

Plan Page — Each plan in the plan list has a Track Cycle Progress icon button, giving coordinators quick access to a specific plan's status without navigating to the main dashboard.
For more details on tracking Cycle progress, go to the article "How Do I Track Cycle Progress in Insights?"

Status of Assessment Plans

Coordinators can view the status of an assessment plan at any time. The following statuses define assessment plan activity:

Planned: The assessment plan has been initially created with specific criteria. No plan assignments exist for this course offering in Canvas until the plan is deployed.

Deployed: The assessment plan has been deployed to Canvas, creating corresponding assignments as outlined in the plan's criteria.

In Progress: Once an assignment has been scored, the plan is officially in progress and actively gathering data. Note: Once this status is reached, the existing assessment plan can no longer be edited. If changes are needed, a coordinator must delete the existing plan and create a new one.

Completed: All courses included in the assessment plan, relative to the term, have been scored and data collection is complete for this stage of the plan.

External Assessment: Used for assignments that are not submitted electronically through an integrated LMS — such as high school dual enrollment courses, paintings, or recitals. Evaluators receive emailed links to rate artifacts directly against a rubric.

External Juried Assessment: A multi-rater process designed for external evidence. Unlike Canvas Juried Assessments, these typically occur within a single term. Once all assessors have submitted their scores, results, findings, and recommendations are displayed on the Assessment Plan results page.

Grouping Options

Measures in the Assessment Plan Status Dashboard are grouped and filtered by Section by default.

If a plan has the Goals & Objectives option enabled, coordinators can also group and filter measures by Goals and Objectives across all three tabs. When an agenda is printed or published with goal-based grouping, each measure's associated goals and objectives are included in the printed output.

If a plan does not have Goals & Objectives enabled, measures are grouped and filtered by section only, and the Group By toggle is not displayed.

View Course-Embedded Measures and Grading Progress

1. Select the Cycle

Go to Dashboard, select the appropriate cycle from the Cycle dropdown, and click Search.

2. Open Cycle Results

Scroll to the Assessment Plan section and click View Cycle Results.

3. Review the Measures

Course-embedded measures are listed by measure name with status information showing:

Number of courses targeted
Percentage of courses with graded assignments
Courses pending grades
Due dates for data collection

4. Monitor Grading Progress

View which courses have submitted scores to Insights and which are still pending. This helps you identify courses that may need follow-up or reminders from faculty.

Grading Progress Information:

- Courses with submitted scores and data collected
- Courses with pending assignments awaiting faculty grading
- Overall completion percentage for the measure
- Timeline of score submissions

5. Add Context

Enter notes that help explain the results, such as:

When and how assignments were taught
Any course-specific challenges or circumstances
Grading timeline or notable patterns
Limitations that may affect interpretation of results

6. Save Results

Click Save Measure Results to save your notes and progress tracking.

Drafts and Version History

New measures are saved as Drafts, allowing you to review and refine them before deployment to Canvas.

Each user assigned to a measure through the Assessment Plan can have one active draft at a time.

Insights displays the user, date, and time of the most recent draft update. Each time the draft is updated, this information automatically refreshes to show who made the latest change and when.

You can continue editing the draft as needed or delete it if it is no longer required.

Caution: Once a measure is deployed to Canvas, its version history is not displayed in the final report. Document any significant changes to the measure configuration in your assessment plan notes.

Best Practices

✅ Start with a clear purpose by identifying what the course-embedded measure should assess and what learning outcomes it addresses.

✅ Write clear assignment descriptions using simple, specific language so faculty understand expectations and grading criteria.

✅ Use rich text and images strategically to provide visual guidance, rubric examples, and grading workflows that help faculty consistently score assignments.

✅ Target courses strategically by selecting departments, course levels, and learning outcomes carefully to ensure the right courses are included.

✅ Align measures with curriculum mapping — only courses mapped to your selected learning outcomes will receive the assignment.

✅ Set realistic due dates to allow enough time for faculty to score assignments in Canvas and for coordinators to review results.

✅ Deploy early in the term so faculty have time to prepare, publish, and teach the assignments.

✅ Use the Data Collection Status tab to monitor term completion progress and identify measures that may need follow-up.

✅ Use the Authoring & Review tab to track the status of any qualitative measures in the same plan and ensure reviewers have the context they need.

✅ Build meeting agendas in Insights to streamline assessment review committee discussions and keep a record of decisions and notes.

✅ Combine course-embedded assessments with other assessment methods (qualitative measures, juried assessments) to gather comprehensive evidence of student learning.

✅ Close the loop by documenting resulting actions such as course improvements or program changes based on assessment findings.

There is no limit to the number of assessment plans that can be created in Insights.

Connect assessment plan's goals, objectives, course levels, LOs and LO types (PLOs/ILOs), and assignments (or other artifacts), relative to your curriculum mappings. Then deploy the assessment plan to Canvas to connect to all formative assessment data gathered in Canvas throughout your term/cycle to start gathering valuable summative assessment data.

Plan assessments proactively instead of reactively.