As I was reading this chapter, many things struck me. How do we access student learning? How is assessment connected to learning goals? What are the tools that exist to assist teachers in gauging how much students are getting out of class?
I am also reading a guide (paperback) called Assessing Student Learning by Linda Suskie. In this book I found a very helpful visual (figure 1.1 on page 4):
This process of reviewing how our learning goals (1) for class are connected to the learning activities (2) and then how we assess whether students learned (3) and successfully / unsuccessfully met the learning goals (4) feeds right back into the next time we try to teach, is all a "continuous four-step cycle.
This cycle reminds us that as we develop our curricula and then teach our students, it should all be directly connected and aligned.
Regardless of how we choose to assess our students, oral, written, multiple-choice, presentations, muddiest points, clickers, etc., it has to tie back to our original learning goals. Some questions that come to my mind are, "did the student learn in this class? and if so, what did they learn? and ultimately, did they meet the learning goals and outcomes that I set for this course?"
In terms of how we assess our students, tests and exams are often used to determine how much learning occurred. But what are the ways to assess our students? Our reading from Chapter 3 in the Blendkit helps us distinguish between informal and formal assessment. Both of which are helpful in assessing student learning.
Determining when to insert formal assessment throughout the semester is a familiar process to many of us. You teach a unit or chunk of material, then you test "to measure students' progress" through exams and quizzes. This is a good way to break up the semester by setting landmarks on the schedule where students know they will be tested.
Informal assessment actually gives the faculty member an idea, throughout the semester, of how students are processing/understanding the course material. Faculty at the University of Vermont utilize JiTT or Just in Time Teaching strategies including low stakes iClicker questions sprinkled through lectures to engage students and determine what they understand and what they mis-understand. Especially when determining what students understood from the reading the night before class. Another technique called the "Muddiest" point, a mechanism for faculty to get student feedback about what they still find confusing after a lecture, is usually written on a piece of paper and put into a box or on a table at the back of the room allowing students to give anonymous feedback to the faculty or guest lecturer. This type of assessment assists faculty in meeting students exactly where they are in their learning.
Formative and Summative assessment are another way to look at these type of assessments. Celt Tips offers a great explanation of both Formative and Summative assessment.
Some other questions that come up when thinking of formal assessment in the online environment are usually around fears of students cheating. Online LMS like Blackboard or Canvas, incorporate testing tools that allow faculty to randomize sets of questions so that students can get a unique test each time to deter online cheating. There are other features like limiting the amount of time that a student can take a test and how many times they can take it. Blackboard also allows you to set specific rules for students who need more time or have other accessibility needs.
Another way that some colleges and universities deal with the potential of online cheating it to pay a fee to have tests proctored in person or through a secured center online that records the student with video while they are taking their test. Test Proctoring is still taking off and has a $$ cost associated with this service, so some institutions of higher ed have not yet adopted this method.
Overall, it is good to know the LMS at your institution and what tools are at your disposal for testing and measuring your students' learning. The more ways you have to measure learning, the larger scope you have of what your students actually are learning.
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