Module5_Assessments
In this module you will:
Quality Matters™
Based on national standards of best practice, research literature and instructional design principles, the Quality Matters™ Rubric outlines 8 standards central to effective online learning.
With respect to Assessment and Measurement the QM Rubric Standard 3 states that educators should:
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QM Assessment Standards |
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3.1. Align assessments to learning objectives. (Considered Essential - 3 pts) |
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3.2 Clearly state the course grading policy. (Considered Essential - 3 pts) |
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3.3. Outline criteria for the evaluation of student work and participation. (Considered Essential - 3 pts) |
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3,4 Provide a sequence and variety of assessment instruments appropriate to the content. (Considered Very Important - 2 pts) |
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3.5. Provide "self-check" assignments, communicate effectively and provide quality feedback. (Considered Very Important - 2 pts) |
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Authentic Assessment – The opportunity to demonstrate understanding of acquired knowledge and skills as opposed to testing isolated skills or retained facts. Learning Objective - Describes what you intend the student to be able to accomplish once he or she has completed a course, lesson plan or learning activity. Muddiest Point – A teaching technique devised by Frederick Mosteller, who advocated using the last three or four minutes of every class to ask students three questions: What was the most important point in the lecture? What was the muddiest point? What would you like to hear more about? Rubric - A scoring tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work. Rubrics generally specify the level of performance expected for several levels of quality.
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Aligning your assessments and learning activities to your learning objective is important when developing your course. There is a connection between alignment, assessments and learning activities.
1. Determine what you want the students to learn. 2. Create learning objectives to meet your learning goals. 3. Create assessments to determine if the students learned what you wanted them to learn. 4. Create learning activities/content that will match your learning objectives and assessments.
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Review the following video that show a course and the alignment. See if you can determine if this course is aligned or misaligned.
video 4:31 min
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No single type of assessment provides a complete picture of student learning, but choosing the right type or right combination of assessments will give you a more accurate measurement of how closely students have achieved the learning objectives.
In this module, we will review some general assessment concepts and look at several types of assessment. As you read about each type of assessment, think about choosing assessments and creating alignment in your course. We will look at:
This slideshow table presents examples of the kinds of activities that can be used to assess different types of learning objectives, and the ways that we can analyze or measure performance to produce useful feedback for teaching and learning.
http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/howto/basics/objectives.html
You can click on Start Slideshow to automatically move from slide to slide. Or you can click the Arrow keys to manually move from slide to slide.
Assessment Smarts
Assessments have either a formative or summative purpose:
Objective tests are a "tried and true" method of assessment. They can be used for formative or summative assessment and may have selected response or constructed response questions such as:
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Objective tests are convenient because they are easy to administer and score and allow you to focus on several specific topics. For example, if correct spelling is the objective, an objective test can specifically target that objective better than an essay, because in essays students will only choose words they can spell correctly.
The drawbacks of objective tests are that they tend to:
Objective tests are typically used to assess remembering and understanding. If constructed properly, they can also assess complex cognitive processes such as applying, analyzing and evaluating.
Tips for Objective Tests:
Design objective tests that reflect:
the range of cognitive processes outlined in your learning objectives
what student have learned and not content that was "covered" in lectures
Use text, quotes, data tables, charts, maps or
Incorporate a variety of assessments for a more complete
Objective tests can effectively assess remembering and understanding. (The blue shading shows where tests are most frequently and effectively used.) If written correctly, they can also assess complex cognitive processes such as apply, analyze and evaluate.
Tip for Assessing Procedural Knowledge: To assess procedural knowledge (the ability to perform a skill), objective tests can assess prerequisite knowledge (shown in blue), but they generally do not assess skills unless the procedure is a cognitive skill or "paper-and-pencil" procedure that involves a mathematical problem,
Online Resources for Creating Objective Tests
Essays allow students to demonstrate their ability to understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create. They can vary in length from short paragraphs to lengthy papers and incorporate different styles like:
Essays are a flexible tool because they can be tailored to assess almost any type of
Use an essay when you want students to be deeply engaged in a subject and apply complex cognitive processes. To write an essay, students must evaluate information, analyze concepts and present them creatively and logically.
Essay Assessment Tips
When you use an essay for assessment keep these things in mind:
Like essays, concept maps can be used for learning or assessment. Also called graphic organizers or
Concept maps can vary in structure and purpose. They can illustrate hierarchical structures, key concepts (spider chart), processes, or decision trees.
Concept maps give students a deeper understanding of concepts, processes or events. When students develop a concept map they must specify the interrelationships between concepts which:
Concept maps are useful for formative or summative assessment in any subject area. They give you a picture—literally—of how students understand, organize or interpret concepts so you can
correct misconceptions in student understanding.
Assessment Tip
We do not all mentally structure concepts the same way, so unless there is a specific organization or relationships that students need to know, allow for individual interpretations of concepts and relationships.
Concept maps can be very directed, somewhat directed, or not directed at all (see the table for examples). Use directed concept maps when students need to understand a specific organization or relationships, and use an undirected concept map when you want students to develop their own mental
| Very Directed | Somewhat Directed | Undirected |
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| Graphic structure provided (students label items) or relationship lines provided (student label lines) | List of concepts and relationships provided, but no structure or lines | No structure or relationships provided—student constructs structure using their own concepts |
Assessment Tip
When grading concept maps, you can use a simplified rubric or a point system for each key element or relationship.
Because concept maps encourage complex, critical thinking and long-term memory of concepts, they can be applied throughout the taxonomy table. Directed concept maps (like the example above) assess lower levels of the
Projects are products that students create and performances are presentations of a skill or creative work. They are excellent ways to double up on learning and assessment by allowing students to apply new knowledge and skills to a "real world" activity while you determine how well students have met the learning objectives.
| Engineering & Architecture | Business | Humanities |
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| Arts & Media | Science | Education |
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Use projects and performances when you want students to cover a topic in depth and engage in authentic, "real-world" tasks. Most projects and performances are challenging and require initiative, planning and
Assessment Tip 1
Semester-long projects or performances can be time-consuming, so it is important to give students meaningful formative feedback as they progress. Weekly or bi-weekly feedback helps students focus on the process of creating the project or performance rather than only on the final product.
Assessment Tip 2: Yes, we definitely recommend a rubric.
Projects and performances are multi-dimensional and complex and a rubric allows you to clearly define expectations. They can also help ensure validity and alignment because they can reflect the specific and observable goals defined in your learning objectives.
See an example rubric for a digital storytelling project or our Creating a Rubric .
Project and presentation assessments are unique and complex. The complexity means that they have the potential for assessing a wide range of
Now that we've looked at several types of assessments, let's review them.
So far in this module, we saw that each type of assessment focuses on different cognitive processes and types of
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When you choose assessments for your course, think about which are aligned with your learning objectives and activities. No single type of assessment provides a complete
Note:
Metacognitive knowledge, the awareness of thinking and learning, is critical to the learning process. Because it is difficult to define and assess (and is a broad topic in itself) it is not included in these tables.
video time: 1:25 min
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Providing specific and descriptive criteria on how the students will be graded is important. Evaluation of students work and participation should be clearly stated in the grading policy. Use of rubrics, grades and opportunities for students to measure their own learning is helpful for students to gauge their learning process. Providing these rubrics and grading guides is helpful for the student to understand the method of your grading.
Rubrics are a tool that make assessment and grading easier. A rubric is a scoring guide that lists the required elements or characteristics of a student product and describes different levels of quality for each element (see an example).
Rubrics are best suited for assessments such as essays, projects or performances because they make grading easier and give students more detailed feedback. Rubrics also facilitate alignment because they can directly reflect the learning objectives.
Below are PDF instructions on how to use assessment tools in Moodle.
How to Create a Quiz/Exam with Random Questions (pdf)
How to Grade an Exam (pdf)
Example of a Rubric for grading assignment in Moodle (Pdf)
Create a Rubric to use when grading assignment in Moodle (pdf)
Example of a Grading Guide when grading assignment in Moodle (pdf)
RESOURCES
You have successfully completed the Module 5 Assessments lesson module.
Apply the knowledge learned in the lesson module by completing activities, assignments, discussions, reflections, and/or feedback evaluations located in the Moodle course.
