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Summer Institute for Online Course Development Institute – Assessment Techniques

Presentation by Nancy HarrisDept of Computer Science

+Assessment of Student Performance

“Any course, online or face-to-face, should have clear, measurable objectives. An instructor need only pick the assessment technique that best matches each learning objective.”

From – Assessing Student Learning Online: It’s More Than Multiple Choice, Osika, Elizabeth.

+Assessment in general

Formative assessment – The goal is to help the learner become better. Provides the feedback that helps guide the learner through the material.

Summative assessment – At one point in time, where is the learner in relation to the learning goal. This is an evaluative assessment.

+Assessment does

Teacher StudentHow well has this student mastered the material?

How well have I done in presenting learning opportunities for all students to master the material?

How well am I learning?How well am I teaching?

+Online challenges Feedback should be immediate – no face to face so it is

harder to provide immediate “over the shoulder” feedback.

It is more cumbersome to evaluate work online. (IMHO)

The technology: You plan an online exam which will be taken synchronously by all learners. They will have 1 hour beginning at 10:00am May 18. Students have one opportunity to take the test. It is now 10:00am and the e-mails begin. “I got booted out of the computer.” “My battery died.” “I hit submit not save and now it won’t let me in.”

How do you know that this is the correct student doing the right thing?

+Some strategies

Practice low stakes to perform high stakes Especially true for online technology Helps test phobic students

Use frequent small assessments to encourage frequent course engagement Helps the student to manage their work Enables you to evaluate how students are progressing

through the course

Provide a variety of assessments Helps you get to know students Helps students by providing different ways they can show

what they have learned

+Some assessment technologies

Blackboard tools Adaptive Release Test manager Assignment Discussion board (you’ve already worked with this) Survey manager (but frankly, I prefer Qualtrics for surveys)

+Recommendations

Assume the students have ready access to “helps” Can you encourage open book, open note assessment? Can you focus on mastery of material without worrying

about “cheating”? Can you provide examples of ethical behavior with regard

to this class and point out consequences of not behaving ethically (beyond Honor Code violation and direct consequences).

Organize your site well to make it easy for students to find assignments and tests.

Provide quick feedback – (something that is easier said than done)

+Demos

Blackboard Assignment

Blackboard Tests and Survey

Qualtrics

Blackboard Adaptive Release

+Demos Blackboard assignment feature

Tool for organizing online assignments for students Pros

Can put all material together for a single assignment in one place.

Assignments are quickly organized for evaluation purposes You can provide feedback to the student through the

assignment Organizes directly into the Grade Center

Cons Once students upload their assignment, if they need to

make a change, you must clear the assignment. Bulk downloads don’t recognize assignments graded

through the grade override, but if you grade online, this is not an issue.

+Demos Tests and surveys

Tool for creating tests and surveys for a course

Pros Can make tests self grading (or easier grading) Organizes directly into the Grade Center Can include feedback information to help the student with the

material Can limit attempts, time Variety of test questions for any discipline – can embed pictures,

videos, links Textbooks sometimes provide BB compatible test banks

Cons Not easy to modify tests in BB, but Respondus can make this easier If you are a Mac user, there is no Respondus tool.

+Demo - Qualtrics

Survey tool

Provides a quick easy mechanism for launching surveys

Examples might include course assessment, student introductions, student peer evaluation, exit pass

Pros Very easy with many different kinds of questions By adding a name or user id you can actually make it a test

Cons Must go through the training and get an account to use Can’t grade directly through Qualtrics, but that is usually not

why you would use it.

+Demo Adaptive Release Path building tool (or selective display tool)

You control how a student progresses through a series of learning activities

You control which students see which learning activities

Pros You can customize the view of your course (ie a test,

material) to individual students You can customize the view of your activities based on prior

performance

Cons You can make mistakes in setting up memberships You can frustrate students unable to complete prior tasks