What is Atomic Assessments?

Atomic Assessments is an advanced quizzing tool that allows instructors to develop and deliver sophisticated quizzes directly in Canvas. Atomic Assessments is built on the Learnosity assessment platform, with key features including:

• Support for more than 50 question types including drag and drop, interactive charts and graphs, mathematical text for question stems and answers, and audio student responses.
• Ability to add variables into questions, which increases the number of quiz variations.
• Advanced reporting that includes student responses, question evaluations, and more.
• The ability to create multi-part items that include multiple question types and that can be built on shared data.
• Robust tagging system that can be used to organize, randomly generate assessments and do outcome based reporting.

This tool is available through Canvas to all for-credit users. Before deciding to use Atomic Assessments in your course, keep in mind that it is a complex tool. You should be prepared to invest time into exploring the tool and testing any content developed before using it in your courses.

Comparison of Canvas Quizzes vs. Atomic Assessments

Most quizzing needs can be met by using Canvas Quizzes. Atomic Assessments provides more advanced quizzing functionality for instructors looking for deeper mathematical functionality, audio responses from students, more varied question types, and other advanced quizzing options. A comparison of the two tools is provided in the table below to help you determine if Atomic Assessments is right for your course. You can also request a consultation with the Learn@UW-Madison team by contacting the DoIT Help Desk if you would like more assistance in determining whether Atomic Assessments or Canvas Quizzes is right for you.