Bush Innovative Teaching Grant Workshop on Assessment

Tuesday, June 10, 2006

Part 1.

KK: Was not getting enough feedback

-Used What-do-ya-knows

-Students showed up and did it – Showed everything then knew

-gave points for completion

-could give feedback afterwards

Trent: Unit Testing in software design.

-any change to the project code was tested as it was added

-instant feedback on if the new code wasn't working properly

Bert: more varied forms of assessment

-discussion and unit exams (not just midterm and final exams for the course)

Greg: reward structures for daily work

-clickers used to reword students who do the reading and are prepared for class

Karen: share assignments with peers, collaborative assessment

-peer feedback

Ted: online homework -- OWL

-feedback on student performance per concept

-provide practice

Jeff: applied -

-exams geared toward the subject

-tests

-project/presentation/demonstration

-grant proposal

Brady: move from basics to application

Pam S.: variety -> different methods to share what they know

-exams

-essays

-projects

-each project included a rubric showing components and qualifications.

Michelle: very diverse classes

-connections journal

-connect between the class and people in other fields

Pam G: team projects. Plan, execute, assess (one day)

-write self-assessment and group assessment

-peer assessment

-instructor assessment

Molly: journals

Jimmy: Capstone paper

-papers on experiences

-ask more questions dealing with their opinion on the discipline

-think about what they had learned

Tammy:

-weight 4 modes as equally as possible (reading, writing, etc.)

-daily journaling (in French)

-papers in upper level classes

-assess program in senior year

Viktor: changed to an online lab manual

Matt:

-exams that applied their knowledge of facts to opinion based and possibly controversial questions

What more do we want to know about assessment

Summative assessment is an assessment “of” learning to check how much knowleage has been gained often in the form of tests or papers for points

Formative assessment is an assessment “for” learning used to find out what the students already know and are able to do in order to formulate a teaching strategy around their strengths and weaknesses.

First Discussion

1. “How do you diagnose learning now?”

a) Interactive activities (games, teamwork, discussion)

b) Summative and Formative are not distinct, and they depend on implementation rather than form of activity.

i) Just because there are points awarded for an assignment doesn't make it automaticly Summative

c) Even final exams can be seen as formative if there is a highly structured curriculum.

• Formative activities tend to be more open-ended, making it harder to grade for summative assessment.

e) How do you get students to fully participate in formative assessments if they are ungraded?

e) Challenges posed by online courses:

i) Rigid modules limit use of formative assessment.

ii) Reader response questions led to students relying on other sources rather than synthesizing from assigned reading.

(1) Require students to complete discrete quizzes before uploading a reader response.

f) Basing exams off quiz questions may more helpful than making fresh exam questions.

2) “What is the goal of formative assessment?”

a) Instructor must serve as evaluator, which can conflict with the role as a partner/coach.

b) Help students improve their learning and give feedback.

3) “What is the goal of summative assessment?”

a) Shares similar goals with formative assessment.

b) Should provide a variety of assessment types, as students will do well on different types of questions/activities.

i) This may give students a false sense of the field. If a major requires certain skills, assessment should be based around those skills. Students who do not do well at these questions will not do well in the field.

Second Discussion

1) Use of rubrics with syllabus”

a) Provide clear expectations.

b) Save instructor time (no need to repeat common comments).

• May make evaluation too rigid.
• On large open ended papers a rubric would have to be so vague that it becomes un-useful
• How to let students know what makes an A paper.
• Example exceptional papers placed online for review with the authors consent.

2) Draft/revise cycle:

a) Some students did not like this, many do.

b) A system was mentioned where students may complete an unlimited number of draft/revisions cycles, but do not receive a grade until they declare a version to be final.

3) Giving students example papers from previous years as an example of what is expected:

a) Did not improve writing quality.

Third Discussion

• MDID; How does this benefit students:
• Easy access to pictures, aid in study.
• Would it be possible to implement a flashcard system?
• Berberi project
• Shift from grammar to culture to make the course more interesting/relevant to students.
• Use of themed modules (Tour de France for 1 st year French)
• Will students see this as forced or silly?
• Most language instruction seems forced and silly.
• Sara’s mystery project has been successful and popular with students.
• Can we tie this in with current events (do modules when the event is occurring)?
• Possibility of creating a foreign language segment on KUMM.
• One language for each day of the week.
• Learn words, play foreign music.
• KUMM lacks foreign music, so this would have to be brought in.
• Students could create radio segments as a class project.
• Shows for each segment of the module, highlighting music, culture, food.
• We could create a podcast of these shows.
• Music would have to be removed for copyright reasons.
• How will we know if this is successful?
• Cannot judge success until we see if students continue in language courses.
• Compare sections with this module to those not using it.