Online Assessments: SafeAssign + Tips and Pitfalls “Whats” and “Whys” of assessments Assessment types Types of test questions Assignments Rubrics SafeAssign Peer Review

Blackboard’s Assessment Features Blackboard’s “Assessments” o Tests o Surveys Other Assessment Tools o Assignments o Self and Peer Assessments o SafeAssignments o Links to External Publisher Assessment Tools Other Gradable Activities o Discussion Forums o Journals, Blogs, Wikis o “Instructor’s Choice”

Advantages of Online Assessments Increase student engagement Provide timely feedback Location- and time-independent Automatic score recording Time-saving (Students and Instructors) Inclusion of online media

Disadvantages of Online Assessment Students require technology Students require technology skills Technology problems Impersonal Difficulty providing assistance during a test Integrity Issues

Uses for Online Tests Traditional Testing Gather (useful) information Assess your teaching Pre-class preparation Online Worksheets Practice tests

COMMONLY-USED TYPES OF QUESTIONS

Commonly-used Types of Questions Multiple Choice o Students pick the single correct answer True/False o Students choose whether a statement is true or false Fill in the Blank o Students must fill in a blank or blanks with the correct answers

Commonly-used Types of Questions Matching o Provides two columns for students to match Short Answer or Essay o Students type their answers into a text box o Only difference is the size of the answer box File Response o Students can upload a file to answer the question

More Types of Test Questions Calculated Formula o Assigns values to variables in an equation and asks students to calculate the answer Calculated Numeric o Fill in the Blank question which only accepts a numeric answer Hotspot o Student must click on the correct (rectangular) area of an image

Still More Types of Test Questions Jumbled Sentence o Students select the correct order of answers from a drop down list containing all of the potential answers Opinion Scale / Likert o Survey-style answers based on an ordered scale Quiz Bowl o Jeopardy-style “answer with a question” Either/Or o Fancier True/False question which allows other dichotomous answers like agree/disagree Multiple Answer o Students choose all answers which are correct Ordering o Students must place a list in the correct order

How to Build a Test Manually, from scratch Use Respondus to import from.doc files Re-using questions o From other tests o From Pools

Test Exceptions and Feedback

Test Best Practice Provide a practice test in your Course Provide Test‐Taking information to your class Randomize the order of answers o Don’t use “all of the above” and “none of the above” or other positional questions Use a mixture of question types Structure tests with sets Avoid large images or other large media

Academic Integrity Difficult to prevent students from referring to other sources Online tests should be viewed as open book Steps to reduce the potential for dishonesty: o Have students sign an academic integrity policy o Limit the time for completing the test o Use “Question Sets” and randomization to present a different version of a test to each student o Create a follow-up assignment requiring students to apply the knowledge they have demonstrated on a test o Proctor the online tests where you can monitor student activity

Assignments Allows for paperless marking A “drop box” for electronic submission Automatic creation of Grade Center column Drop box “closes” on or shortly after the due date Two kinds available o Regular Blackboard “assignment submission area” o SafeAssignment

Grading Assignments

Grading an Assignment From the Grade Assignment Window: o Download submitted document o (Use track changes?) o Enter comments o Enter Grade o Upload marked document

Rubrics Clarify expectations for assignment Standardize marking across graders Improve feedback Time-saving

Create Rubric

Grading With A Rubric

Rubrics Available… Assignments SafeAssignments Essay, Short Answer, and File Response test questions Blogs and journals Wikis Discussion board forums and threads

SafeAssign: The Plagiarism Detection Tool for Blackboard SafeAssign™ is a plagiarism detection and identification service included with our Blackboard license. It helps educators determine if plagiarism has occurred by detecting unoriginal content in student papers.

Instructors: How to Begin Go to a Content Page such as ‘Course Content’ Under ‘Assessments’ choose SafeAssignment. Choose ‘student viewable’ = NO

How Does SafeAssign Work? The submitted papers are checked against SafeAssign’s databases of source material: o The Internet: comprehensive index of documents available for public access on the Internet. o ProQuest ABI/Inform database. o Institutional document archives. o Global Reference database: papers volunteered by students from Blackboard client institutions. Trent students cannot contribute to the Global Database.

Sample Originality Report

Types of Submissions Student Submit: o A dropbox is created in Blackboard o Student may submit only one document o Paper becomes part of the Trent repository Direct Submit: o Instructors can submit particular papers or portions of papers o Paper becomes part of the Trent repository

Best Practices for SafeAssign Do not use the ‘student viewable’ option o greatly increase questions and anxiety for students o report should be viewed subjectively by the instructor Do not use the ‘draft’ option o draft assignments do not join the Trent Repository Demonstrate to your students: o what a safeAssign report shows o emphasize whether or not it’s plagiarism is still subjective

To Be Aware Of “Trent Respository” and the “Global Respository” hosted on Blackboard’s servers in the US o Documents are identified by code number o Key linking code and student is held only on Trent’s server Trent students’ submissions cannot become part of the Global Repository Disabled for Trent

Peer Review The Blackboard Guide: /self_peer_assessment.pdf /self_peer_assessment.pdf Blackboard’s Help Pages: us/Learn/9.1_SP_10_and_SP_11/Instructor/070_As signments/005_Self_and_Peer_Assessment us/Learn/9.1_SP_10_and_SP_11/Instructor/070_As signments/005_Self_and_Peer_Assessment A good quick guide from University of New South Wales: assessmenthttps://teaching.unsw.edu.au/blackboard- assessment

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