+ Summer Institute for Online Course Development Institute – Assessment Techniques Presentation by Nancy Harris Dept 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 How 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 s 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