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Creating and Using Outcomes in Canvas

Canvas Outcomes allow instructors and administrators to track student mastery of learning objectives in courses through quizzes, and rubrics. This guide explains how to create, import, align, and report on outcomes using Canvas’s Improved Outcomes Management interface.

🧠 What Are Outcomes?

Outcomes in Canvas represent learning goals that can be tracked across multiple activities. They support mastery-based learning and can be aligned with quizzes, rubrics, and question banks.

➤ Canvas Basics Guide: What Are Outcomes?

🛠️ Creating Outcomes

Outcomes can be created at three levels:

  • Account Level: Managed by administrators for institution-wide use.
  • Sub-Account Level: Managed by departments or colleges.
  • Course Level: Created by instructors for use in individual courses.

➤ Admin Guide: Use the Outcomes Page in an Account

Main Account Gen Ed Outcome Group .png

 

📄 Bulk Upload Option

Admins can Import outcomes using a formatted CSV file.
➤ Admin Guide: Import Outcomes for an Account
➤ CSV Format Guide

🔍 Importing Outcomes into a Course

To use institutionally created outcomes in your course:

  1. Go to Outcomes in the Course Navigation.
  2. Click Find.
    Find Outcomes.png
  3. Browse or search for outcomes from the Account or Sub-Account.
    1. The General Education Outcomes will be in the Arkansas State University Outcome Groups.
    2. Program Specific Outcomes will be listed in an Outcome group for program.
  4. Click the + Add button for any outcome that will be assessed in your course.
    Add Outcomes.png
  5. Click Done to Add the selected outcomes to your course.
    Outcome mapped to Course.png

➤ Instructor Guide: How to use the improved Outcomes page
➤ Instructor Guide: Find and Add Existing Outcomes

🎯 Aligning Outcomes

Outcomes can be aligned with:

  • Question Banks (Classic Quizzes)
    1. Go to Quizzes
    2. Use the options menu to select Manage Question Banks

      image-1760562927557.png

    3. Select a Question Bank
    4. Click Align Outcome to open the Find Outcomes menu
      Question Bank.png
    5. Search through the Outcomes mapped to the Course to select an outcome.
    6. Click Import to add that outcome to all the questions in the Question Bank.
      Align Outcome to Item.png

      ➤ Instructor Guide: Align an Outcome with a Question Bank

  • Quizzes (New Quizzes)
    1. Go to Quizzes
    2. Select the Quiz
    3. Click Build

      image-1760564481900.png

    4. Click Outcomes at the top of the Build menu

      image-1760564497950.png

    5. Click in the Align Outcomes to Quiz box to browse the Outcomes mapped to the Course. 

      image-1760564507139.png

    6. Select the Outcomes that should be aligned to all questions in the Quiz and Click Confirm Alignments.

      image-1760564730701.png

      The Attached Outcomes page displays course-level outcomes. You can also view account-level outcomes if they have been added to the course.  

      To attach an outcome to your quiz question, browse outcomes using the Outcome Picker [1]. You can also search outcomes by typing in the Search Outcomes field [2].

      Click the checkbox next to the outcome you want to attach [3].

      View a list of all selected outcomes [4]. To remove a selected outcome, click the Remove icon [5] or deselect the outcome checkbox.

      To apply your selected outcomes, click the Align Selected button [6].


      ➤ Instructor Guide: Align an Outcome with a Quiz

  • Quiz Questions (New Quizzes)
    1. Go to Quizzes
    2. Select the Quiz
    3. Click Build

      image-1760564486579.png

    4. Edit a Question

      image-1760564543691.png

    5. In the Align to Outcomes menu, click anywhere in the Align to Outcomes section to browse the Outcomes mapped to the Course. 

      image-1760564560532.png

      To add additional outcomes to the question use use the Plus icon to return to the Select Outcome menu.

      Align Additional Outcomes.png

    6. Select the Outcomes that should be aligned to this question and Click Confirm Alignments.

      image-1760564684068.png

      The Attached Outcomes page displays course-level outcomes. You can also view account-level outcomes if they have been added to the course.  

      To attach an outcome to your quiz question, browse outcomes using the Outcome Picker [1]. You can also search outcomes by typing in the Search Outcomes field [2].

      Click the checkbox next to the outcome you want to attach [3].

      View a list of all selected outcomes [4]. To remove a selected outcome, click the Remove icon [5] or deselect the outcome checkbox.

      To apply your selected outcomes, click the Confirm Alignments button [6].


      ➤ Instructor Guide: Align an Outcome with Quiz Questions

  • Rubrics (Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes)
    1. Go to Rubrics
    2. Create or Edit a Rubric

      image-1760564836039.png

      In the Criteria Builder use the Create From Outcome button to open the Find Outcomes menu

      image-1760564872599.png

    3. Search through the Outcomes mapped to the Course to select an outcome.
    4. Click Import to make that Outcome a Criteria in the Rubric.

      image-1760564913702.png

      To use the criterion for scoring, click the Use this criterion for scoring checkbox.

    5. Use the Find Rubric option in a graded assignment to add it to the assignment, quiz, or discussion.
    6. After students have submitted the assignment, use the Rubric in the Speed Grader when grading. 
      ➤ Instructor Guide: Align an Outcome with a Rubric

🧭 Viewing Outcome Alignments

Instructors can view all aligned items in a course using the Improved Outcomes Management interface.

Course Level Outcome Alignments.png

Admins using the Improved Outcomes interface at the account or sub-account level can view alignments across all courses within that scope.

Account Level Outcome Alignments.png

➤ Instructor Guide: View All Aligned Items

📊 Reporting on Outcomes

For Administrators

Reports are available under the Settings tab in the Admin panel:

  • Outcome Export Report: Lists all outcomes in the account.
  • Outcome Results Report: Shows student performance on each outcome.

Account Reports - Outcomes.png

➤ Admin Guide: View Reports for an Account

For Instructors

To view student progress on outcomes:

  1. Go to Settings in your course.
  2. Under the Feature Options tab, Enable the Learning Mastery Gradebook.
  3. Go to Grades and change from the default Gradebook view to the Learning Mastery Gradebook view.

    image-1760559769517.png

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The Learning Mastery Gradebook is organized like the assignments gradebook with the student names and sections on the left [1]. Similar to the assignments gradebook, you can click a student's name to link to their Grades page. Each column consists of a course outcome and the outcome grade for each student [2]. Also like the assignments gradebook, the columns can be sorted, resized, and reordered. Click an outcome column heading to sort the outcome by score [3].

The Learning Mastery Gradebook also contains a sidebar that shows the outcome levels for the course [4]. The sidebar can be minimized and expanded by toggling the gray arrow icon at the top of the sidebar. You can filter outcomes or students that have no outcome results [5]. You can also export a report of student outcomes [6].

The Learning Mastery Gradebook displays 20 students per page. Use the numbered page navigation buttons to view additional students on other pages [7].

➤ Instructor Guide: Use the Learning Mastery Gradebook

 

 

 

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