Procedures for
Educative Assessment
1.
Forward-Looking Assessment
Formulate one or two
ideas for forward-looking assessment. Identify a situation in which students
are likely to use what they have learned, and try to replicate that situation
with a question, problem, or issue.
Below, I’ve generated ideas for two learning activities.
During these activities, students will identify sources that meet the
information need described and turn in a worksheet describing what sources they
found and why they found them to be appropriate for the proposed situation.
Learning Activity 1: Working alone, students can imagine
that someone in their family has been diagnosed with a disease. Ask the student to find three reliable
sources of information on that disease to share with their relative so that
they can ask their doctor the necessary questions for ongoing care.
Learning Activity 2: Working in pairs, ask students to
imagine that they have begun working in the sales department at a local car
dealership. Their boss has tasked with gathering information to help identify
the towns in their area where people are most likely in the market for new
automobiles. Using some of the research
tools learned in the “Business” section of their course, find three reliable
sources that would help inform this report.
2.
Criteria
& Standards
Select one of your
main learning goals, and identify at least two criteria that would distinguish
exceptional achievement from poor performance. Then write two or three levels
of standards for each of these criteria.
One of the main learning goals for these learning activities
is the ability to “Evaluate information and its sources critically.” For these
activities, I would require students to explain their reasoning for selecting
sources. The AACU Information Literacy
VALUE Rubric provides excellent criteria for poor to exceptional achievement
(used below):
Poor / Fair: Shows an emerging
awareness of present assumptions (sometimes labels assertions as assumptions).
Begins to identify some contexts when presenting a position.
Questions some assumptions. Identifies
several relevant contexts when presenting a position. May be more aware of
others' assumptions than one's own (or vice versa).
Identifies own and others' assumptions
and several relevant contexts when presenting a position.
Exceptional: Thoroughly (systematically
and methodically) analyzes own and others' assumptions and carefully evaluates
the relevance of contexts when presenting a position.
3.
Self-Assessment
What opportunities can
you create for students to engage in self-assessment of their performance?
In order to allow students to self-assess their work, I will
provide the rubric I will be using to give feedback on class activities and
other class assignments to students along with the directions on how to
complete the activity and assignment. From the Fink document, I really liked
the ideas of having students suggest the kinds of feedback they’d like when
turning in the assignment, as well as asking them to explain which portions of
the task they found to be difficult / that they struggled with.
4. “FIDeLity”
Feedback What procedures can you develop that will allow you to give
students feedback that is:
·
Frequent
·
Immediate
·
Discriminating, i.e., based on clear criteria
and standards
·
Lovingly delivered
This is tough, just from a time management perspective. I
already indicated that I plan to share the rubric for activities and
assignments with students before they are due, so that should address the
“discriminating” element. The frequent and immediate are going to be difficult –
I’m in the process of learning to use the rubric function in Blackboard, and
I’ve heard from many people that this does indeed speed up the grading process,
so I hope this will help! For the lovingly delivered component, I do try to
keep my language positive (while using the feedback sandwich – always opening
and closing with positive feedback, with the negative/constructive criticism in
the middle). Honestly, I want to know if others have tricks for encouraging
students to read the feedback – I always get the feeling (and sometimes the
proof) that they don’t.
Situational Factors
Assuming you have done
a careful, thorough job of reviewing the situational factors, how well are
these factors reflected in the decisions you made about learning goals,
feedback and assessment, learning activities? What potential conflicts can you
identify that may cause problems? Are there any disconnects between your
beliefs and values, the student characteristics, the specific or general
context, or the nature of the subject in relation to the way you propose to run
the course?
In reflecting on what I have written about so far for this
class, I think the number one issue or problem that I may run into, in terms of
the course and the student characteristics, is that most students already
believe they are efficient researchers, and many come into the class with the
attitude that it is a waste of time. With the “forward looking” assessment and
learning activities I hope to show students that the skills they are learning
and applying in the course will benefit them in both their personal and
professional lives after they leave college.
In addition to providing many real world examples / activities, I plan
to intersperse the class time with fun and humor – to not have everything
they’re doing in class be serious (or “boring.”)
Learning Goals and
Feedback & Assessment
Issues to address
include: How well do your assessment procedures address the full range of
learning goals? Is the feedback giving students information about all the
learning goals? Do the learning goals include helping the students learn how to
assess their own performance?
I will use and/or develop rubrics that relate to the student
learning outcomes for the course and tie those to individual activities/
assignments so that students know what I am looking for and exactly how their
work will be evaluated. Those rubrics will be shared with students in advance
so they can check their own work prior to submitting it for grading.
Learning Goals and
Teaching/Learning Activities
Do the learning
activities effectively support all your learning goals? Are there extraneous
activities that do not serve any major learning goal?
As I work further on mapping on my plans for activities and assignments throughout the course, I will be able to eliminate activities that are “extraneous” or don’t serve a major learning goal. For those activities I plan to include to increase the “fun” factor in class, I will make sure those activities are also tied to the main learning goals of the course.
4. Teaching/Learning
Activities and Feedback & Assessment
How well does the
feedback loop work to prepare students for understanding the criteria and
standards that will be used to assess their performance? How well do the
practice learning activities and the associated feedback opportunities prepare
students for the eventual assessment activities?
Again, the sharing of the rubrics with students in advance
and the application of the rubric feature in Blackboard will allow students to
see exactly how their work was assessed within the parameters of the rubric. I
think the suggestions in the Fink document to have students receive feedback on
either a low-stakes assignment or a non-graded assignment prior to the first
graded work would be helpful to demonstrate to students how grading/assessment
will be performed in the course, so they can see the “rubric in action” if they
haven’t already seen it in previous courses.
