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Online Assessment Techniques

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Title: Online Assessment Techniques


1
Part I The 3 Ts of Online Assessment Tools,
Techniques, and (Saving) Time
Curtis J. Bonk, Professor, Indiana
University President, CourseShare http//php.india
na.edu/cjbonk cjbonk_at_indiana.edu Vanessa Paz
Dennen, Assistant Professor Florida State
University http//www.vanessadennen.com,
vdennen_at_fsu.edu
2
Session Objectives
  • Detail online assessment techniques
  • Discuss how to match learning activities with
    learner assessments
  • Examine instructor time and comfort issues
  • Discuss ways to limit and detect cheating and
    plagiarism
  • Document online tools and resources for
    assessment

3
Online Assessment Techniques
  • (with some time-saving
  • tips added in)

4
Is this motivating? How would you feel?
  • You take an online class.
  • You read some Web pages.
  • Maybe you watch some videos or hear some audio
    clips.
  • Maybe you ponder some study review questions.
  • You take a multiple choice test online.
  • You receive an automated score on the test.
  • Class is over.

5
How about this scenario?
  • You take an online class.
  • You meet your fellow students on the d-board.
  • You read some materials. You find and share some
    materials too.
  • You participate in some discussions of course
    concepts.
  • You take a multiple choice test.
  • You receive an automated score on the test.
  • Class is over.

6
Commentary on Scenario 1
  • No interaction with peers.
  • Students dont feel missed if they dont
    participate.
  • Not clear why course is online (except perhaps
    for media elements).
  • Potential for immediate feedback is nice -- but
    assessment format is limiting.

7
Commentary on Scenario 2
  • Interaction with peers is great. Serves as a
    motivator.
  • Community is likely to develop.
  • Students will feel involved and important if they
    share examples and resources.
  • Assessment format may not be well aligned given
    the activities.
  • Class lacks closure in a manner appropriate to
    the activities.

8
Assessment and Learning
  • Course objectives, activities, and assessments
    should be in alignment
  • This tends to be an issue in courses regardless
    of medium.
  • Example
  • In class students conduct a debate
  • Students are tested on their ability to recall
    facts

9
Mis-aligned Online Learning and Assessment
  • A not-uncommon scenario
  • Discussion is used as a learning activity
  • Students are required to participate
  • Participation is noted by how many messages were
    composed by a student
  • But does this method measure learning?

10
Common Online Assessment Complaints
  • Instructor perspective
  • Theres too much to assess!
  • I dont know what activities to assess!
  • I dont know if students really are ready for the
    test!
  • How do I know the student actually did the
    work/took the test?

11
Common Online Assessment Complaints
  • Student perspective
  • If theyre supposed to discuss, why doesnt that
    count as part of their grade?
  • If theyre just supposed to do something, why
    does quality matter?
  • I just got a number, no feedback.
  • I didnt get participation feedback.

12
The Feedback Issue
  • Students participating in online activities look
    for feedback to know
  • A. the instructor is reading their contributions
  • B. their participation is valued
  • C. their participation is adequate, in terms of
    quality and quantity
  • Feedback need not be individualized to be
    effective
  • Whole class commentary provided on a regular
    basis was found to be just as satisfactory from
    the student point of view (Dennen, 2001)

13
The Assessment Issue
  • Often, online activities go unassessed
  • Add-on syndrome Adding an online activity to a
    previously designed class because it sounds like
    a good idea

14
The Assessment Issue
  • Students are more likely to participate when then
    know there is impact on their grade
  • Direct impact graded on participation (quality,
    quantity or both)
  • Indirect impact participation should bolster
    performance on other assessments
  • Students quickly become aware if an online
    activity is not related to assessed learning
    objectives

15
The Assessment Issue, Cont.
  • Sometimes the wrong things are assessed
  • Examples
  • Assessing students online moderation skills when
    the course topic/learning objectives have nothing
    to do with online moderation
  • Assessing quantity of participation, but not
    quality
  • which, granted, is easier, but encourages sloppy
    message posting rather than thoughtful learning
    dialogues

16
Blooms Revised Taxonomy
  • A useful tool for checking alignment
  • Also great to guide your course design!

17
To Find Out More
  • A Taxonomy
  • For Learning
  • Teaching and
  • Assessing
  • By Anderson
  • And Krathwohl

18
Assessment Techniques
  • Options
  • Formative or Summative
  • Student-led (Self or Peer) or Teacher-led
  • Public or Private
  • Process or Product
  • Other issues to consider
  • Objective or Interpretive
  • Rubric-based or Wholistic

19
Formative vs. Summative Assessments
  • Formative
  • Alleviate student anxieties re expectations
  • Seem especially high in online classes
  • Encourage working toward mastery
  • Can be informal
  • Summative
  • Used for students grade
  • Assumed to be best effort

20
Example Online Formative Assessment
  • Paper draft discussion forum
  • Start a discussion forum for papers-in-progress
  • Have each student start a thread and post
    elements of their papers as they complete them
    (e.g., topic, major claims, research sources)
  • A schedule for each element is useful
  • Monitor and provide feedback

21
Student vs. Teacher Led
  • Teacher-led
  • Traditional assessment
  • Most often summative
  • Student-led
  • Students may assess self or peers
  • May be formative or summative
  • Can greatly relieve instructor burden
  • Students reinforce concepts through feedback
    process

22
Examples Online Self-Assessment
  • Self-tests Use test tool to create self-tests
    (multiple choice, true false)
  • May wish to track student efforts
  • Can incentivize use (essentially, use as a
    learning tool)
  • Reflection papers Have students submit brief,
    focused papers expressing the strengths and
    assessments of their assignment(s)

23
Example Online Peer Assessment (Formative)
  • Feedback groups Assign students in groups to
    provide formative feedback on projects and papers
  • Often raises quality of assignments
  • Need a structure with clear deadlines
  • Need prompts and models to guide students
  • May wish to assess feedback process/contributions

24
Example Online Peer Assessment (Summative)
  • Conference Presentations Have students present
    their work and ask questions/provide feedback to
    others.
  • In d-board, have students attach papers to
    messages post a message with a synopsis or
    attach a powerpoint presentation
  • Each student/team should have their own thread
  • Feedback should occur during a defined period of
    time.
  • May consider allowing students to rate
    assignments on certain dimensions

25
Public vs. Private
  • Private
  • Work is submitted to the teacher only
  • Entire burden of feedback is on teacher
  • Important if assessing at fact level
  • Public
  • Peers can see each others work (either in
    process or completed)
  • Peers may comment on each others work
  • Often increases quality of work submitted

26
Process vs. Product
  • Product
  • The end deliverable
  • Look for polish, accuracy
  • Process
  • How the student got there
  • Look for thoughtfulness of approach, intent

27
Assessing Process
  • Easy to do
  • Many technology tools will archive student
    work/interactions
  • Students create a document trail in process
  • Helps students develop metacognitive knowledge
  • Instructors structure/model/encourage productive
    work processes
  • Students learn how to manage their own work
    processes

28
Why Assess Process?
  • For the instructor
  • Provides formative feedback on course (e.g.,
    helps gather data about why students have
    difficulty with product-oriented assessments)
  • Clarifies who is doing most work in small group
    assignments
  • Helps prevent cheating

29
Why Assess Process?
  • For the student
  • Typically improves the quality of their products
  • Helps them develop productive work processes
  • Puts on a schedule
  • Shows that you care about individual growth

30
Assessment Project Cycle
  • From Classroom Assessment Techniques by Angelo
    Cross (1993)
  • Step 1 Plan
  • Choose class
  • Focus on assessable question
  • Design project to answer question

31
Assessment Project Cycle 2
  • Step 2 Implement
  • Teach target lesson
  • Collect assessment data
  • Analyze data
  • Step 3
  • Interpret results
  • Communicate results
  • Evaluate assessment project

32
I. Term Papers
  • How to do online
  • Have students each start their own thread and
    post topic of interest
  • Peers and instructors give feedback
  • Students post thesis statements, research
    sources, etc., with iterations of feedback
  • Final paper is posted

33
Term Paper Assessments
  • Product the paper
  • Process quality and timeliness of student work
    from time when paper is assigned
  • Process quality and timeliness of feedback
    provided to peers
  • Process responsiveness to feedback received from
    instructor and peers

34
II. Discussion Assignments
  • 1. Chain of thought
  • Have students develop a solution to a problem
  • Have students indicate what led them to a
    particular conclusion, method or approach
  • Can be done in a discussion board

35
Discussion Assignments
  • 2. Theory to Practice
  • Have students match up theories you are learning
    about to actual problems
  • Present students with problems and have them
    explain what theories they would use to solve
    these problems and how they would approach it
  • Debrief the assignment

36
Discussion Assignment
  • 3. Synthesizer (i.e., wrapper)
  • Have students take roles being the weekly
    synthesizer of class discussion
  • Add a meta level in which students narrate
    their own experiences while reading the weekly
    discussion
  • Reflect on how life relates to discussion

37
III. Group Projects
  • Tools used
  • Chat brainstorming ideas, making group
    decisions, regular way to feel connected (should
    be archived)
  • Discussion board commenting on drafts
  • E-mail quick feedback
  • File exchange sharing project files
  • MS Word Track changes

38
Group Project Assessments
  • Product project files that are turned in
  • Process online archive demonstrating
  • Who contributed what
  • Who provided peer feedback
  • Who worked in a timely manner
  • How collaborative a group was
  • Process peer ratings
  • Process interim instructor consultations

39
Group Project Assignments
  • 1. Work Plans
  • Have students develop a plan of work for their
    project
  • Make them outline topic, schedule, resources
    needed, division of labor and anticipated form of
    final deliverables
  • At end of project, have students evaluate how
    well they followed their own plan and how useful
    it was

40
Project Assignments
  • 2. Research Trail
  • Have students document the steps they took in the
    research process and the results
  • Ask for a brief reflection on how effective their
    process was and what they might change the next
    time

41
Project Assignments
  • 3. Process Presentations
  • Have students focus on their process as well as
    their product in class presentations
  • To maintain focus, ask them to share 3 main
    lessons learned
  • Might ask for some process documents to be
    shared, like an early draft

42
Project Assignments
  • 4. Design Journal
  • Have students maintain a journal of all ideas
    related to their project
  • Encourage sketches, lists, organizational charts,
    etc.
  • Require journals to be turned in with final
    projects

43
IV. Reflection Assignments
  • Have students keep a weekly journal of their
    thoughts on readings and course content AND
    real-world related instances that they noticed
  • May make these public, with each student having
    their own discussion thread

44
Making it Happen
  • Learners need to see that process is valuable
  • Model appropriate processes
  • Provide students with scaffolding (guide sheets)
    to structure their processes
  • Give students feedback on their process
  • Require students to reflect on their processes
  • Grade students on process

45
Vanessas TopTime-Saving Tips
  • Before you assign it, ask yourself can I
    reasonably assess it?
  • Rely on students/peers for providing some
    feedback
  • Let students know what to expect up front
  • Choose the right tool for the job
  • Get to know the editing and commenting features
    of your favorite programs
  • Use rubrics!
  • I make them in Word, and then while grading I
    highlight or bold the section that applies to the
    students projects. Add a few comments at the
    bottom speedy grading!
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