Build a Group Assignment with essay and multiple choice questions

[janet_samuels]

I teach an accounting course where groups of students do financial statement analysis. The group is supposed to then answer questions about the assignment.  Some of the questions will be multiple choice (e.g. a question about the trends they are seeing or who performed best).  I would want these automatically graded.  Some of the questions will be essay questions where they do a deeper analysis of the financial ratios.

I am struggling to figure out how to set this up. I don't want them to submit a word document as it would be too long and I would need to go through and grade it "off line" --- given the number of students I have, I want the multiple choice graded automatically and I want the ability to quickly go through and assign points to each of the 8 parts of the essay analysis.  However, if I set this up as a quiz, I can't figure out how to assign it to a group.  Given the large number of students I have, I do not have the time to review answers from each student --- I want the answers from the group.

Any suggestions?  is there an "non-Canvas" tool I could use if Canvas cannot accommodate this?

[Shar]

Hi Janet Samuels,

Is the multiple choice part of the quiz also group-work? Or is the multiple choice each individual?

You could use a group discussion for the group-essay portion combined with a group assignment submission with a text box. The students discuss the essay question in the discussion board, and then their designated speaker submits the final work in the assignment for the group.

Then when you grade:

• quiz portion is auto graded.
• group members get nominal score for participating in the group discussion.
• essay portion is the text-box assignment that is submitted for the group. Use a rubric for the 8 parts.

By the way, with the text-box assignment you do not have the ability to make annotated comments on their work. So that may be a reason to switch to a submitted document.

Hope this idea sparks other ideas for you,
Cheers - Shar