Table of contents
- Focus Question
- Objectives
- Questions to Ponder
- Notes from reading
- Not a whole lot new learned here
- There were a few bright spots however
Focus Question
How will I determine students are learning?Direct creation of learning artifacts by students that demonstrate their understanding of concepts through their application of concepts to realize something. Ideally whatever is produced is authentic in the sense that it invites application to a situation / simulation similar to one where these same skills and concepts would need to be applied.
Authentic assessment—assessing student abilities to apply knowledge, skills, and attitudes to real world problems—is not only possible in an online environment; it is getting more popular. (Thompson, n.d.)
Objectives
After completing all of this week’s activities, you should be able to:- Determine assessments appropriate for the learning objectives you’ve established in your blended course
- assessments are aligned with learning objectives; methods lead practicing skills and competencies that are to be tested in assessments (everything connects)
- Revise existing course documents as appropriate based upon assessment decisions
- Configure online quizzes for your blended course
- self directed, formative assessment quizzes
- Create written student instructions for each graded assignment in your blended course
- checklist
Questions to Ponder (before reading)
- How much of the final course grade do you typically allot to testing? How many tests/exams do you usually require? How can you avoid creating a “high stakes” environment that may inadvertently set students up for failure/cheating?
- How much of the final course grade do I typically allot to testing? For the most part, it has not been determined by me but by those responsible for the course syllabus. However, as a rule, I would want to opt to have assignments weighted equally throughout the course and also have assignments be sequenced in such a way that they build upon earlier assessments and build towards subsequent assessments.
- I've learned that putting more than 20% weight on any one assessment typically means making it "high stakes". The draw back? Performance anxiety - a one off "disaster" can effect a student's final grade - thus explaining the "high stakes" nature of it. We want students to demonstrate their learning and unless managing "stress" is considered an important part of the assessment, a learning objective, then it should be minimized as much as possible. How to avoid it? Simple. Don't make one assignment so high stakes. Another option is to design an assessment so that it is ALSO a learning experience. Even invite students to make notes or drawn on notes that they think will help support them in the completion of an assignment - perhaps even make this a group / collaborative activity so they once again, engage with course contents, negotiate understanding and meaning prior to completing the assignment. Invite students to even use these notes to help them complete an assessment.
- What expectations do you have for online assessments? How do these expectations compare to those you have for face-to-face assessments? Are you harboring any biases?
- I think that I should value online assessments as much as any other assignment that is given in a face to face context. However, I can imagine a healthy dose of skepticism from peers and supervisors (even students) who believe that when done sight unseen, students are inclined to "take advantage" of the situation to round up help and thus undermine the validity of the testing. Yet the few articles that I've read, surprisingly indicate that the incidence of cheating online is not even marginally significant when compared with that in a face to face context.
- What trade-offs do you see between the affordances of auto-scored online quizzes and project-based assessments? How will you strike the right balance in your blended learning course?
- Trade offs with auto scored online quizzes? Immediately what springs to mind is how objective testing is essentially inviting practice in lower order thinking skills (memorization, identification, classification) but far less likely to be taxing higher order thinking skills. However, any course of study does require a basic competency in the discourse of its subject and these sorts of online quizzes become useful for both ensuring students make them a focus of study and for monitoring student success in understanding them. Project based assessment would be far more welcomed for its ability to promote application, judgement and synthesis of concepts and thus promote higher order (critical thinking) skills. But the caveat with them is in how much more time they require to be reviewed and assessed. In a MOOC with participants that number in the 100s or even 1000s, this is just not feasible. What then needs to be entertained is the use of peer review with a clear and comprehensive rubric - perhaps supported by an instructor's own reflections and guidance (thus the peer assessment also becomes yet another "learning / application / judgement experience"). The balance? Between what is humanely possible for the instructor and what is most beneficial to the students - essentially choosing the "biggest bang for the buck".
- How will you implement formal and informal assessments of learning into your blended learning course? Will these all take place face-to-face, online, or in a combination?
- My (yet to be identified) blended learning course would definitely see a combination of the two and ideally with one supporting the next. By this I mean that the concepts studied and learned for one assessment are continued / built upon / reapplied / reinforced in subsequent assessments so there is a cumulative reinforcement of them.
Notes (after reading)
Not a whole lot new learned here.
Stressed the importance of aligning learning objectives with course activities, with selection of site tools to realize these activities, and ultimately with the design of assessment to measure the extent to which these objectives have been learned / met. Underscored the importance of knowing how students learn and then transfer that learning so as to be seen .. so as to be used in new contexts. Without this transfer, the instruction is virtually meaningless .... Students articulate this when they say "When are we ever going to use this stuff?".The trick?
Make learning authentic so students see clearly how concepts learned have a direct application to their needs .. to "their" real life.
There were a few bright spots however.
The ability of technology to provide new affordances not possible in traditional educational design was noted. Examples?non graded, multiple choice quizzes
These should be used to realize self assessment. For example, invite students to do them multiple times and actually use them as a learning tool (of course this also means designing a battery of questions deep enough and randomly selected, and even perhaps only awarding an "overall mark" when completed (so they may still not know which questions they got correct or incorrect)Overlooked in the text was how these same quizzes provide the learner with more opportunities to experiment, o try more frequently, to learn through trial and error.. and to do so in a much safer environment then found in a traditional classroom. This last point is most important. In a traditional classroom, a student may refrain from answering because of the risk of being scorned or ridiculed by their peers for their "inaccurate" and perhaps clumsy attempts - thus extinguishing what is a classic learning method - "trial and error".
presenting video examples or explanations
These allow a student to view content repeatedly, without restraint, at a time and place convenient to them. As a result, they are given more autonomy to consult with a learning resource to help them learn when they deem it appropriate .. rather than when an instructor deems it appropriate.presenting non credit, online practice exams
These again allow a student to actually encounter and test strategies to see which work to help them answer a similar question that demands the target skills in a graded in-class exam. As a result, their mastery of choosing the appropriate skills and applying them to successfully complete an activity improves and their confidence in applying them also improves. Walker et al (2014) In effect, allowing students to practice material and skills prior to a formal assessment (self tests)online assessment tool features
This was worthy of being mentioned. Key tool features include- randomization of test questions (need for question banks)
- assessment time limits (time the test to discourage going off task; promote student focus)
- rules of assessment completion (one sitting all questions or multiple sittings but with time restrictions)
- support proctoring (proctor receives password and gives to a student just prior to monitoring them)
assessment design strategies
An interesting strategy shared here was to invite students to design a rubric thus making them more aware of the assessment methods and qualities to practice in producing learning artifacts.The need to learn more about writing effective multiple choice items (can never get enough of this stuff it seems) was also listed.
The alternative to T/F
I would like to investigate the extent of support from either peers or experts or both on the use of the following for "formative assessment"
The use of True False questions but with a difference - the inclusion of a "I don't know" choice and the grading value of +2 for a correct answer, -1 for an incorrect answer, and no change for a "I don't know". The rationale for this is to discourage guessing, encouraging more careful reflection on the choice of answer, and to identify question / topics that students may be struggling with. A compound score at the end would indicate just how confident they may be with the content they know and how much more they may need to study if they are to excel.
Projects / Authentic tasks
Nothing really new for me here.Defining expectations
The need to spend more time (then I already do) with students to explain a rubric / checklist so that they can already begin to understand what they will be assessed on and how. Opportunity exists here to invite students to actually be involved in the design of the rubric along with the instructor once they know the course outcomes.Informal Assessment (formative assessment)
Good checklist for creating an assessment. All of the items should be addressed- name of assignment
- learning objective(s) that the assignment is aligned with (syllabus)
- due date of assignment
- resources that are recommended to help someone complete the assignment (model, framework?)
- expectations of the instructor (length, number of citations, etc.)
- level of group participation (if any; individual assignments, group or team projects, entire class projects)
- procedures for submitting assignment (peer review, how to give peer feedback, how instructor will give feedback)
- grading criteria (rubric)
The One Sentence Summary (Assessment method)
Often used in traditional instruction, can be adapted for online use. Invite student to demonstrate how much they know on a topic, process or concept. Students answer seven questions separately.- Who?
- Does what?
- To whom (or to what)?
- When?
- Where?
- How?
- Why?
Key references
10-Examples-of-Question-Improvements.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://online.ucf.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/21/files/2016/01/10-Examples-of-Question-Improvements.pdf
blended_assignment_instructions.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://blended.online.ucf.edu/files/2011/06/blended_assignment_instructions.pdf
Effective-Assessment-Examples.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://online.ucf.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/21/files/2016/01/Effective-Assessment-Examples.pdf
ELI_poster_IBIS.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/sites/default/files/library/presentations/ELI11/PS07/ELI_poster_IBIS.pdf
Examples-of-Multiple-Choice-Items-at-the-Levels-of-Bloom.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://online.ucf.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/21/files/2016/01/Examples-of-Multiple-Choice-Items-at-the-Levels-of-Bloom.pdf
Microsoft Word - IBIS handout for ELI.doc - IBIS+handout+for+ELI.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/sites/default/files/library/presentations/ELI11/PS07/IBIS%2Bhandout%2Bfor%2BELI.pdf
online_quiz_settings.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://blended.online.ucf.edu/files/2011/06/online_quiz_settings.pdf
Pizzo, J. (2011, January 27). Effective Online Assessment: Scalable Success Strategies. Retrieved March 21, 2016, from https://online.ucf.edu/faculty-seminar01/
Thompson, K. (n.d.). BlendKit Course: BlendKit Reader: Chapter 3. Retrieved March 21, 2016, from https://blended.online.ucf.edu/blendkit-course-blendkit-reader-chapter-3/
Watson, G., & Sottile, J. (2010). Cheating in the Digital Age: Do Students Cheat More in Online Courses? Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 13(1). Retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring131/watson131.html
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