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Quick Start: Assessing a Course with LASSO

This is the whole term at a glance. Most instructors give an assessment twice: once at the start of the term (pre-test) and once at the end (post-test). Each numbered step links to a detailed guide.

Before the term

  1. Create your account. Create an instructor account if you do not have one.
  2. Create your course. Create a course and answer the course questions. Already used LASSO? Copy last term’s course instead.
  3. Add assessments. Choose and add one or more assessments. For an adaptive assessment, also choose its learning objectives.
  4. Add students. Upload your roster, one student per row, using the email addresses your students will use.

Start of the term (pre-test)

  1. Schedule Administration 1. Set the Available from date and Deadline. LASSO emails each student a personal link when the administration opens.
  2. Tell students about it. Share the reasons for the assessment and remind them in class. You can also post a link in your course site.
  3. Watch participation. Check responses and send reminders before the deadline.

End of the term (post-test)

  1. Schedule Administration 2 the same way, then monitor participation again.
  2. Get your results. Open your reports and download your data.

Recommended practices

To maximize participation and data quality, we recommend that you:

  • Give points for participating.
  • Remind students several times, in and out of class.
  • Explain why you are giving the assessment.
  • Avoid time limits.
  • Do not share the answers or students’ scores.

For sample scripts and the research behind these recommendations, see the supplemental material in Van Dusen et al. (2021).

Next: Create an instructor account and sign in

All instructor guides | Help Center home

Verified on LASSO version 10.1.2, October 2026. Questions? Email contact@lassoeducation.org.