Introduction:
Provide a brief introduction/overview of your issue.
Assessment is the primary motivational tool of instructors
for encouraging and rewarding student learning. Anything that
helps it progress more smoothly advances the teaching mission
as a whole. Anything that ruffles the assessment waters, undermines
learning.
Teachers of online courses face a number of challenges in conducting
assessments of student knowledge. The obvious ones such as security,
test-taker identity and technological malfunctions or limitations
are exacerbated by the anxiety felt by many students and the
difficulty in getting a quiet testing environment.
Upon completion of this workshop, participants shall
- Be aware of options and issues in conducting online assessments.
- Have participated in sharing ideas with other online teachers
around the theme of assessment.
What is assessment? For the purposes of this discussion we’ll
primarily focus on measures of student learning that contribute
to the student’s summative grade
as this produces the most challenges. A summative assessment
can include tests, quizzes, papers, presentations, or projects.
(A summative assessment is one that provides a summary of work,
typically for the purposes of assigning a role, such as “entry
to graduate school” or “top student”. SITE
ratings are summative.)
One can use assessment in a formative
manner, to provide feedback on student understanding. (A formative
assessment is one that is done primarily to give a learner information
about his or her performance. Its function is to enhance skill
or to “form” the person and is typically ungraded.)
Discussion Question:
What have you found is your best assessment technique?
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