Developing an Effective Assessment Strategy in a College Course

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Developing an Effective Assessment Strategy in a
College Course

• Assessment Drives Learning
• It is a process that should inform both the
  students of their learning progress and
  accomplishments and the teachers of the
  effectiveness of their methods and strategies.

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What is the Goal of the Course?

• The goal is to have the course experience cause
  a qualitative change in a persons way of seeing,
  experiencing, understanding, and conceptualizing
  something in the real world as opposed to a
  quantitative change in the amount of knowledge
  possessed.

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Assessment Purpose and Process

• What and how students learn depends to a major
  extent on how they think they will be assessed.
• The assessment practices must send the right
  signals.

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The Purpose of Assessment
Assessment is conducted to inform practice.
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Assessment is the ongoing process of

• Establishing clear, measurable and expected
  outcomes of students learning
• Example
• By the end of the semester the students will be
  able to write a five paragraph essay with fewer
  that five grammatical errors.

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Clear

• A specific skill(s), behavior(s), attitude or
  knowledge set
• Example
• Skill- Find the main idea(s) in a professional
  journal article
• Knowledge- know the names of all 206 bones in the
  human body

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Measurable

• What action will be taken by the students that
  can be measured
• Example
• 1. Students will write essays, summaries, or
  narratives
• 2. Students will give speeches, presentation,
  demonstrations, discussion, or take oral exams
• 3. Students will dance, play an instrument, cook
  a food, or act a scene

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Assessment is the ongoing process of

• Ensuring that students have sufficient
  opportunities to achieve those outcomes
• Time frame is usually--By the end of the
  semester

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Assessment is the ongoing process of

• Systematically gathering, analyzing, and
  interpreting evidence to determine how well
  student learning matches our outcomes/expectations
  
• Many samples or snapshots of their work over a
  extended period of time

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Assessment is the ongoing process of

• Using the resulting information to understand and
  improve students learning
• Feedback to the students on how to improve
  performance
• Feedback to the teacher on how to improve
  instruction

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Learning Outcomes are a Big Part of Course
Assessment

• Learning outcomes are statements that specify
  what learners will know or be able to do as a
  result of a learning activity.
• Outcomes are usually expressed as knowledge,
  skills, attitudes or behaviors

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Start with a Needs Assessment

• Learning outcomes should flow from a needs
  assessment.
• The needs assessment should determine the gap
  between an existing condition and a desired
  condition.

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Learning outcomes provide direction in the
planning of a learning activity

• They help to
• Focus on learner's behavior that is to be changed
• Serve as guidelines for content, instruction, and
  evaluation
• Identify specifically what should be learned
• Convey to learners exactly what is to be
  accomplished

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What are the characteristics of
learning outcomes

•  Learning outcomes have three distinguishing
  characteristics.
• The specified action by the learners must be
  observable.writing, talking, drawing, dancing
• The specified action by the learners must be
  measurable.
• The specified action must be done by the
  learners.

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How do you fix an unclear outcome?

• Many syllabi include learning outcomes which are
  unclear or represent elements of curriculum
  rather than some action the students will
  demonstrate. Note the following ambiguous
  examples
• Participants will understand the nine reasons for
  conducting a needs assessment.
• Participants will develop an appreciation of
  cultural diversity in the workplace.

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Can be Measured

• By the end of the semester students will be able
  to recall in writing the nine reasons for
  conducting a needs assessment.
• By the end of the semester students will be able
  to summarize in writing how cultural diversity
  can enhance productivity in a workplace.

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Learning Outcomes need Action Verbs

• Since the learner's performance should be
  observable and measurable, the verb chosen for
  each outcome statement should be an action verb
  which results in overt behavior that can be
  observed and measured.

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Action verbs

• Sample action verbs are
• compile, create, plan, revise, analyze, design,
  select, utilize, apply, demonstrate, prepare,
  use, compute, discuss, explain, predict, assess,
  compare, rate or critique

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Ambiguous Verbs

• Certain verbs are unclear and subject to
  different interpretations in terms of what action
  they are specifying. Such verbs call for covert
  behavior which cannot be observed or measured.
  These types of verbs should be avoided
• know, become aware of, appreciate, learn,
  understand, become familiar with

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What is the Role of Testing in Assessment

• Testing is systematically gathering and
  analyzing evidence of achievement of students
  learning outcomes It is one part of assessment
• It is difficult to write tests that accurately
  and completely measure students learning so
  other measures should supplement the use of tests
  in assessing students learning

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Evaluation is Different from Assessment

• Evaluation is using Assessment Information to
  make a Judgment on such things as
• Have students achieved the learning goals set for
  them
• The relative strengths and weaknesses of our
  teaching/learning strategies
• What changes in our goals and teaching/learning
  strategies might be appropriate

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Role of Grading in Assessment

• Grades are often based on more than just what the
  students have learned as measured by tests,
  papers, projects, presentations etc.
• Grades may be impacted by students effort,
  attitude, behavior or participation
• Grades may also be impacted by course rules that
  lower grades for being late or absent from class
  or turning in late work

• These may all be appropriate classroom management
  tools but they illustrate how grades may not
  reflect what a student has learned as defined in
  the courses learning outcomes.

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Grading Standards are often Inconsistent

• Do the tests clearly match the content taught,
  the level of thinking taught and the skills
  taught in the class?
• Are the test questions precise enough and
  consistent enough with what we taught to be an
  accurate measure of the learning?This is
  difficult to do even for the ACT testing company

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Grades cant tells us about Students Strengths
and Weaknesses

• A grade of B in organic chemistry says the
  student has probably learned a great deal of the
  information but we dont know what she has or has
  not mastered

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Grades fail to clearly tell us about large
learning

• Critical thinking skills
• Problem solving abilities
• Communication skills/oral/written/listening
• Social skills
• Emotional Management skills

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Do grades have a place in assessment?

• YesThey can be useful evidence of students
  learning if they are based on direct evidence of
  students learning
• (tests, papers, projects etc.) that are truly
  linked to major learning goals and clearly
  delineated, consistent standards through test
  blueprints or rubrics (Suskie, 2004)

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Grading Standards are often Inconsistent

• Do different faculty teaching the same course
  agree on what the standards of A or B work should
  be?
• Does a teacher have grading standards defined
  precisely or are they vague
• This feels like a B paper to me

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