Atomic Assessments :: Atomic Assessments - Overview [UW-Madison]

Atomic Assessments is an advanced quizzing tool currently available through Canvas to all of UW-Madison's for-credit instructors. Because it is an advanced quizzing tool, it is recommend for technically advanced instructors or instructors with departmental support staff. Please leave ample time to develop and test assessments in Atomic Assessments before incorporating them into your live courses.

This document provides some basic information about the centrally supported advanced quizzing tool Atomic Assessments, including tips on how to get started using the tool.

Select this link to list all Atomic Assessments documents from the Learn@UW-Madison Knowledgebase at the bottom of this page.

Atomic Assessments Logo.png

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.

Please see DoIT’s Atomic Assessments IT Service Page for a more detailed description of Atomic Assessments.

Tool Functionality Details

Basic Functionality

  • To Create an Atomic Assessment, you simply select the Atomic Assessments link in the Canvas Navigation Bar and then select New Assignment.
  • There, you are guided through the creation process of the assignment including Determining the Settings of the Assessment.
  • After the assignment settings are done, you will then add items to the assignment.
  • Once items have been added, you can then preview the assignment to see what the students will see. 

Advanced Functionality

  • Inside the item settings, you can upload a data table. This table is a comma separated list of values.
    • You can then use those values to create multiple questions and answers using just one item.
    • You can put multiple questions inside the same item, which will allow instructors to have values to be carried forward into successive questions. 

Use Cases

  • The College of Engineering uses Atomic Assessments to leverage the advanced quizzing options available. This includes the various question types as well as the data table feature. The data table allows for them to create one question and then have multiple answers. It also allows them to chain questions together allowing them to have items that build off of each other. 

Getting Started

See Atomic Assessments - Getting Started [UW-Madison] for details on how to begin with Atomic Assessments.

Additional Resources

    Results: 1-17 of 17

    No.Document TitleIDUpdatedViews
    1Atomic Assessments - Overview [UW-Madison]923962023-12-087829
    2Atomic Assessments - Is Atomic Assessments for me? [UW-Madison]920502023-12-086698
    3Atomic Assessments - Accessing Simplified View1382462024-08-12354
    4Honorlock - Using Honorlock with Atomic Assessments [UW-Madison]1138642024-08-082583
    5Atomic Assessments - Major Release Schedule [UW-Madison]1077652024-05-011911
    6Learn@UW - Service Status Pages for Learn@UW Tools [UW-Madison]992002024-02-084163
    7Atomic Assessments - Determining Assignment Settings [UW-Madison]924092023-12-118037
    8Atomic Assessments - Grading Assignments [UW-Madison]924392023-12-115141
    9Atomic Assessments - Reports and Downloading Student Responses [UW-Madison]924582023-12-114588
    10Atomic Assessments - Creating a Test Assessment (Student Tech Module) [UW-Madison]1307132023-12-08578
    11Canvas - Student Tech Modules in Canvas Commons [UW-Madison]1016942023-12-067553
    12Atomic Assessments – Importing a Canvas Course from Previous Semesters [UW-Madison]936972023-02-273176
    13Canvas/Atomic Assessments - Known Issue - 401 error in SpeedGrader [UW-Madison]1242562023-02-24965
    14Atomic Assessments - Creating Assignments in Canvas [UW-Madison]924382023-02-088996
    15Atomic Assessments - Exporting and Importing Activities [UW-Madison]924892023-02-084183
    16Atomic Assessments - Enabling Atomic Assessments in Canvas [UW-Madison]923992023-02-085559
    17Atomic Assessments Accessibility and Usability Information1149712024-08-161397

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