There are some new tools available this semester in VIULearn. The Quick Eval tool now has a homepage widget to help instructors streamline their evaluation across multiple assignments, quizzes, or graded discussions in a single course. The Awards tool offers opportunities to gamify your course and build in recognition of students’ achievements unrelated to the course grade.

Quick Eval Homepage Widget

The Quick Eval tool has been available for some time in VIULearn as a link from the My Home page and an option in the Course Administration Tools. If you’ve never used Quick Eval before, it is a single hub from which you can access and assess student submissions to Quizzes, Assignments, and graded Discussions from one place. You can also use the Quick Eval tool as a dashboard where you can quickly see how many students have completed an assignment and even who has or hasn’t submitted work for your course. 

With the Quick Eval Homepage Widget, you can now see unassessed submissions for each course in the homepage widget and click through the widget to access the Quick Eval tool from your course homepage. If you prefer not to use the Quick Eval tool, you can minimize the widget so you don’t see this information on your homepage.

Awards

The VIULearn Awards tool can be used to set up badges and certificates that learners can earn by completing specific activities related to your course. Awards can be given automatically or manually by the instructor. Certificates and badges are not official credentials from VIU. 

You can see Awards in action at VIU in the mandatory WHMIS course from Health and Safety which provides a completion certificate that participants can share with instructors or supervisors to demonstrate they have completed the course. 

Proof of completion of a course or section of a course is only one way that Awards can be used in VIULearn. You can use the Awards tool to manually award badges to students who complete an optional beneficial activity related to the course, such as attending a VIU event doing volunteer work, or for maintaining good habits, like perfect attendance, or turning in assignments early. 

You can also use Awards to encourage students to have fun with your course materials by adding gamified elements to your course. Scavenger hunts or 

• Reward student behaviours – Manually give badges to students who do something optional but beneficial for the course such as volunteering, attending a campus event etc. 
• Reward students for reaching goals – perfect attendance, turning in assignments on time, etc. 
• Make your course in to a game – scavenger hunts

Have Questions? 

If you have any questions, or would like to set up a consultation with one of our Teaching and Learning Specialists about assessment or gamification in your courses, please contact us at learnsupport@viu.ca.