Mastery Connect Unveils More Canvas Support Upgrades

Instructure's Mastery Connect has announced new Back to School updates. These new updates will better support the Canvas + Mastery Connect integration, save users' time when creating assessments, and make the overall user experience in Mastery Connect more seamless, efficient, and effective.

Here is what's new in Mastery Connect:

New Mastery Global & Sub-Header Navigation 

Mastery Global Navigation Bar 

• Items have been moved to the main global navigation bar, and Pins and Community have been removed and relocated under the More tab in the global navigation bar.

Assessment Index Navigation Bar 

• Item Bank has been removed from the Assessment sub-header, and a new tab called Drafts has been added.

New Tracker Assessment List 

New Assessment Tab

• Teachers will have a new Assessment tab at the top of the tracker that details assessments from the tracker, grouped by standards. The existing tracker view will be visible under the Students tab. 
• In the assessment list view, teachers will be able to locate all of their published and draft assessments organized by standard and create assessments quickly and easily. 
• Teachers can also launch the assessment details modal, the performance grader, and view reports. There will also be a quick view of how many students have completed an assessment. 
• The view can be customized through the Tracker Filter at the top of the tracker. Users can view benchmarks only, specific units, or power standards, allowing them to quickly locate assessments and data, enabling users to focus their time on teaching. 
• Multi-standard assessments will show under each of the standards present in the Assessment. They will be tagged as multi-standard, and the standards assessed will be listed for reference. The Tracker Assessment List can be filtered by multi-standard assessments as well. 

Pro Tip: Benchmark assessments are also included in the assessment list and have distinct visuals and information, such as availability, assessment window, and icons that identify the benchmark differently from other assessments in the list. 

New Draft Assessments 

How Draft Assessments Work

• All new Mastery Connect assessments will now start as a draft regardless of the type of Assessment. Assessments in draft will automatically save changes so users can quickly return later to complete their work. 
• Draft assessments can contain items authored in the new inline item authoring experience. Items created in a draft assessment are in a draft state.
• Draft items will be in one of two states until an assessment they are included in is finalized and ready for use: 
  • The Assessment will not be publishable until all draft items are publishable. 
    • If draft items have a standard alignment, a destination item bank, and a point value, they will show with a draft tag until the Assessment is published.
    • If a draft item does not have a standard alignment, a destination bank, or a point value, it will be in a non-publishable state and have an orange bar across the top. 
• When a draft assessment is complete and created by the user, all items will be added to the chosen item banks, and the Assessment can be shared with other teachers in the district. 

Where can I find draft assessments?

• An assessment created in the new tracker assessment list will be located in the drafts group and in the assessment index. 
• Draft assessments created in the assessment index or via a curriculum map will show only in the assessment index and cannot be added to a tracker or CMAP until they are published.

How do I create a draft assessment?

• To create a draft assessment from the tracker: 
  • You can also select the “+” button from any standard or draft group if assessments exist.
  • This will open the assessment creation modal/experience.
  • Click Add Assessment from the Students or Assessment list.

• To create a draft assessment from a linked Canvas course: 
  • You can also select the “+” button from any standard or draft group if assessments exist.
  • Click Mastery Tacker in the Course navigation.
  • Click Add Assessment from the Students or Assessment list.

• To create a draft assessment from the assessment index: 
  • Click Add Assessment.
  • Fill out the required details and click Next.
  • This will open the assessment creation modal/experience.

• To create a draft item:
  • Click Add Assessment in the tracker, assessment index, or curriculum map.
  • Click Add Item or the “+” icon.
  • Select Author New Item.
  • Fill out the requirements for that item type.
  • Click Save.
  • Items will now be in a draft state and published when the Assessment is created. 

• To identify an item bank destination:
  • Select the destination bank in the authoring window.
  • If you want to change the destination before creating and publishing the Assessment, you can also change it by clicking the draft item in the item organizer and changing the destination in the item preview.

Pro Tip: There is no time limit on the draft status of an assessment. A user can start an assessment, leave it, and return overtime to finish it.

New Assessment Creation Experience 

Assessment Creation Upgrades

• Educators can create assessments from the tracker or assessment index (tab). Users can quickly generate a draft assessment on the New Add Assessment modal by filling out essential information in the assessment shell. 
• New Hero metrics allow users to quickly access essential metrics such as the number of assessed standards, questions, and points on all assessments.
  • Settings and scoring options can also be found at the top of the page.
  • Standard-level cut scores will be automatically populated using district defaults, saving teachers time when creating an assessment. 
• SMART alignments have made locating items and aligning standards to questions easier for item-based assessments. All standards and associated items are now automatically available based on the standard set used to create the Assessment.
• Expanded item filtering and item filter re-design make accessing content from the Mastery Item Bank, Mastery Item Bank Supplemental, and district banks easy, and users can select multiple learning frameworks, such as DOK, to narrow search results. 
• A new option for item-based assessments is the ability to bulk align questions to standards when authoring new questions, importing from Canvas Classic Quizzes, and bulk selecting items to add to an assessment. 
• When creating a document-based assessment, teachers can choose the number of questions and question types and complete an answer form to align with standards, choose the correct answer, and edit the question type. Once each question on the Assessment has an answer, the Assessment can be saved. A new document uploader and layout for an added document make it even easier to create a document-based assessment.

Inline Item Authoring

• Users can also author items directly while creating an item-based assessment. Standard sets will be automatically filled, and users can input their content and then save it as a draft item on the Assessment. This new feature allows users to create new items, add existing items, and manage the filters and results of item-searching without ever leaving the assessment creation process.
• When authoring items, a settings tray allows users to identify the item’s difficulty level, DOK, or language and edit the title directly on the item preview. 
• When a draft assessment is complete and created by the user, all items will be published and added to the chosen item banks, and the Assessment can be shared with other teachers in the district. If the items are published to the shared teacher bank, these items will also be available to all users to utilize on an assessment. 

Pro Tip: No changes will be made to any assessments already published in Mastery Connect unless the Assessment is cloned or edited. When an assessment is cloned or edited, it will be shown in the new assessment experience.

New Classic Quiz Import to Mastery Connect

• From a Canvas-linked tracker, teachers will now be able to select Classic Quizzes for conversion, which, once converted, will be visible as draft assessments on the new tracker assessment list. 
• From the Canvas button in a linked tracker, a user will see any available Classic Quiz content and can then choose the quizzes they would like to convert. These assessments will become draft assessments in the linked tracker. 
• All item types, except for File Upload and Formula, will convert to items in Mastery Connect, but only Graded Classic Quizzes will be available for import. A quiz does not have to be published in the course to be imported into Mastery Connect. Any Classic Quiz text items will be converted to passages. 
• Question groups are not supported in Mastery Connect. All questions from a Classic Quiz will be brought over and converted, and an alert will appear in the assessment creation experience regarding question groups. If you do not want specific questions on the Assessment, delete the converted draft item before creating the Assessment.
  • Text questions are converted into passages. The assessment builder’s passages will have two separate tabs: Converted Passages and Item Bank Passages. 
• Teachers must align each question to a standard to finalize and publish a converted Classic Quiz into a Mastery Connect assessment. Bulk actions allow you to align all or some items simultaneously in three clicks. 
  • Note: Standards alignment per question is required for all Mastery Connect assessments and supports standards and item-level reporting. 
• Once the Assessment is created in the tracker, a corresponding unpublished Canvas assignment is automatically created, facilitating easy delivery through  Canvas. And after your Classic Quizzes are imported into Mastery Connect, the original quiz can be deleted from Canvas to avoid confusion.

Pro Tip:

• At this time, only Classic Quizzes can be migrated. Instructure will be working on migrating New Quiz data by Q4 of 2023.
• If an entire assessment cannot be converted, a “Failed” message will be in the import list.
• If an item on an assessment cannot be imported, a user will see a message in the assessment creation experience indicating that an item could not be converted. 

Professional Development Resources

• Click here for a FREE PD recording on the Mastery Connect updates that district, school, and instructional leaders can use to inform turn-key training with faculty and staff!!
• Click here for Professional Development Options, including a new offering for purchase called Mastery Connect Back to School Updates, and contact your Customer Success Manager for more information.