Assessments overview
Assessments are how you measure learning on Lurno: a graded quiz at the end of a module, a timed final exam, a penalty-free practice set, a diagnostic that places people before they start, an ungraded survey, a portfolio task, or a validated psychometric instrument. They all share one builder, one delivery runtime, and one grading pipeline, so what you learn on one carries to the rest.
What this does
Section titled “What this does”An assessment is a set of sections and questions, plus rules for timing, attempts, honesty, grading, and release. You build it once, decide how it behaves, then attach it to a program or offer it on its own. The same assessment can serve a class, a cohort, a team, or a customer segment without rebuilding it.
Choosing a type at creation time is the main shortcut: each type pre-configures delivery, honesty, grading, feedback, and retakes so most people never open Settings at all. Every one of those defaults stays editable afterwards.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”- You need permission to create assessments to add one. Without it you can still open the list.
- Decide what you’re measuring: a graded score, a pass/fail gate, ungraded input, or evidence of a skill.
- If the assessment belongs inside a course, have the program ready. See Building a course.
Assessment types
Section titled “Assessment types”New Assessment opens a two-step wizard titled Start a new assessment. Step one, Type, is a picker over seven cards; step two, Name, is the title and an optional description. Create draft writes that type’s defaults onto the new assessment.
| Type | What it’s for | What the defaults do |
|---|---|---|
| Quiz | Short, low-stakes check-in | No time limit, three attempts, answer choices shuffled, auto-marked, correct answers shown immediately |
| Exam | Formal, high-stakes test | 60-minute limit, one attempt, questions and choices shuffled, secure mode on, marked by a person, results held until you release them |
| Practice | Self-paced repetition | No limit, unlimited penalty-free retakes, auto-marked, instant feedback |
| Diagnostic | Placement and level-setting | One question at a time, no going back, one attempt, no answer key |
| Survey | Opinions, reactions, climate checks | Never returns a score — Grading, Outcomes, and Scoring are hidden entirely |
| Portfolio task | A body of work collected over time | No timer, marked by a person, unlimited penalty-free resubmission |
| Psychometric instrument | Validated scale with norms | Rendered like a survey, scored against the instrument’s own norms; adds a Scoring & norms view and hides Grading and Outcomes |
The type also decides which views appear in the authoring rail — a Survey has no Grading view because it never produces a score. You can change the type later from Settings → Assessment type; Lurno asks whether to re-apply that type’s defaults or keep the settings you already have.
Assessments imported or created programmatically can carry more specific types than the seven above (certification, 360 feedback, capstone, and others). Those show in the list’s Type filter and map onto the closest of the seven for behaviour.
How an assessment is put together
Section titled “How an assessment is put together”Open an assessment and the page becomes a three-stage rail:
- Build — Settings (title, type, timing and attempts, honesty, results release, advanced, danger zone), Content (sections and questions), Outcomes (skills this assessment evidences), Grading (the grading policy and the in-context grading queue), and Scoring & norms for psychometric instruments.
- Deliver — Schedule (scheduling rules plus the hard access window), Enrollment, Accommodations (per-learner adjustments), Overrides (reopen, reset, extra time, extra attempt for one person).
- Review — Overview (participation funnel, headline numbers, score distribution, recent submissions), Results (released attempts and their scores), Analytics (a placeholder today — see Integrity & analytics), Certificate (issue a credential on this assessment).
Preview as learner in the page header opens the real runtime in a new tab without saving or scoring anything. The chevron beside it previews with extra time, with large text and a screen reader, or with reduced motion.
Timing, attempts, and release
Section titled “Timing, attempts, and release”- Timing & attempts (Settings) sets the time limit per attempt and how many tries each learner gets. Both are dropdowns and save the moment you change them.
- Access window (Schedule) is the hard boundary — outside the opens-at/closes-at window nobody can start an attempt.
- Honesty (Settings) shuffles question order, shuffles answer choices, and controls when learners see correct answers: never, after they submit, or after everyone submits.
- Results release (Settings) has two separate datetime fields — when scores are released, and when written feedback is released. Leave either blank to release it as soon as it’s graded.
Correct answers, scores, and feedback release independently. That’s deliberate: you can hand back a score straight away and hold the answer key until the window closes.
Draft, published, archived
Section titled “Draft, published, archived”Every assessment starts as a draft. Publishing is behind a readiness checklist that opens from the Publish button and checks three things: it has a title, it has at least one question, and it has a schedule or an opens-at date. If skills are attached, an extra non-blocking warning appears when any attached skill has no mapped questions — you can still publish.
Publishing makes the assessment available to attach and deliver. Unpublish takes it back to draft — the control sits in the insert panel on the Content view, not in the page header — and it pulls learner access and may disrupt attempts in progress. Archive and Delete live in the danger zone at the bottom of Settings: archiving keeps existing attempts readable but stops new ones and can be undone with Restore in the same place, while deleting removes the assessment along with all its items, sections, and results.
Reference
Section titled “Reference”| Setting | Where it lives | What it controls |
|---|---|---|
| Assessment type | Settings → Assessment type | Delivery defaults and which rail views appear |
| Time limit | Settings → Timing & attempts | Maximum time per attempt, or no limit |
| Attempts allowed | Settings → Timing & attempts | One, two, three, or unlimited |
| Shuffle question order | Settings → Honesty | Each learner sees questions in a random order |
| Shuffle answer choices | Settings → Honesty | Choices within a question appear in random order |
| When learners see correct answers | Settings → Honesty | Never / after they submit / after everyone submits |
| Scores released at | Settings → Results release | Blank releases each score as soon as it’s graded |
| Feedback released at | Settings → Results release | Independent of the score release |
| Access window | Schedule → Access window | Opens-at and closes-at; no attempt can start outside it |
| Status | Header pill | Draft, In review, Published, or Archived |
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”People can’t see a published assessment. Publishing alone doesn’t distribute it. Confirm it’s attached to a program they’re enrolled in or that they’re enrolled on the assessment directly, and that the access window is open. See Enrolling people & groups.
The Publish button won’t confirm. Open the button’s checklist. Publish stays disabled until the assessment has a title, at least one question, and a schedule or opens-at date. Unmapped skills are a warning only and never block.
Publishing or archiving fails with a permission error. Those two controls aren’t hidden from people who can’t use them. Publishing and archiving are separate permissions from editing, held by organization admins by default — ask an admin to do it, or to grant you the permission. See Roles & permissions.
Scores aren’t showing after submission. Check Settings → Results release. A future “Scores released at” holds every score until that moment. Manually graded work also stays unreleased until a grader releases it — see The grading queue.
Learners see the correct answers too early. That’s the When learners see correct answers control in Honesty, not the score-release field. Set it to After everyone submits and give a release datetime.
A timer ended attempts unexpectedly. The time limit and the access window are separate. A close date that lands mid-attempt cuts the attempt off regardless of how much time is left on the clock.
One person needs more time or another try. Use Deliver → Accommodations for a standing adjustment, or Deliver → Overrides for a one-off reopen, reset, time extension, or extra attempt.