north carolina network for excellence in teaching the assessment toolkit

North Carolina Network for Excellence in Teaching www.nc-net.info

The Assessment Toolkit


Topics What is Assessment? Why Do We Assess? Assessment is More than Grades! Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Design

Assessment Techniques Traditional vs. Non-traditional

Assessment Options for Assessing Online The Assessment Toolkit – Hints and

Techniques


Outcomes

1. Define assessment and describe why there is a need for a variety of assessment techniques.

2. Assess your own assessment strategies.3. Compare and contrast traditional and non-traditional

methods of assessment.4. Select appropriate methods of assessment for

selected student outcomes.5. Identify assessment challenges and choose

strategies to integrate in a traditonal or online class. 6. Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to design appropriate

assessment activities.


Assessment...

“…is the systematic collection of information about student learning, conducted within the time, resources, and knowledge that are available, and used to improve learning by the most effective possible use of available resources.” Barbara Walvoord


What is Assessment?

The systematic, on-goingon-going, interactive process of monitoring learning in order to determine what we are doing well and what we must improve.

Assessment involves observing, describing, collecting, recording, scoring, and interpreting information.


Why do we assess?

Find out what students are actually learning

Identify student-learning areas. Make changes in our courses. Become better teachers. For accountability


What Are YOU Already Doing?

Capstone experiences Senior seminars Internships Field Experience Classroom Assessment

Techniques (CATS) Comprehensive Exams Essay Tests Multiple Choice Tests Research papers

Portfolio evaluation Oral Reports Portfolios Reflective journals Rubrics Service learning projects Simulations Quizzes Lab tests Others:


Assessment is More Than Grades

“Assessment should

• assist students in diagnosing their their ownown learning and

• help students "become more effective, self-assessing, self-self-assessing, self-directeddirected learners." Angelo & Cross


Assessment is More Than Grades

Assessment is feedbackfeedback for both instructors and students

Assessment is a relationshiprelationship between objectives and outcomes


Bloom’s Levels of Learning

Remember

Understand

Apply

Analyze

Evaluate

Create


Designing Assessment Activities

Using Bloom’s TaxonomyObjective Verb / Level of

LearningAssessment

Technique

Example:

Students should be able to plan a well balanced meal using knowledge of the food pyramid.

PLAN = Synthesis Question on an exam A Project Journal writing of

planned meals


Givens about Assessment

Assessment techniques should be based on desired learning outcomes.

Assessment results should be used by students for self-evaluation of progress through the course.

Assessment results should provide the instructor with …– evidence of effectiveness of course materials– indications of content areas that need further

enhancement and/or development.– feedback on teaching/learning strategies.

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The Assessment Cycle

Student Outcome

Evaluation

Feedback /Revision

Activity/Assignment

Assessment


Traditional vs. Alternative Assessment

Traditional Approaches to Assessment are

• objective test/exams where students choose a response from a given list, such as

• multiple-choice, • true/false, or • matching.

Alternative AssessmentAlternative Assessment• Capstones • Research Projects• Classroom

Assessment• Essays• Learning Logs • Oral presentations • Demonstrations • Portfolios


Assessing Online

Multiple Choice True False Multiple Answer Matching Ordering Short Answer/Essay


Ways to Minimizing Students' Complaints About Grading

1. Give enough opportunities 2. Provide alternative assignments.3. State grading procedures4. Provide policies on late work. 5. Avoid modifying your grading policies during

the term. 6. Keep accurate records of students' grades. 7. Create a test bank 8. Mix question types


Ways to Minimizing Students' Complaints About Grading

9. Test early 10. Test often 11. Test what you really want students to learn. 12. Return the first graded assignment before the

add/drop deadline. 13. Record results numerically rather than as letter

grades, whenever possible. 14. Matching Table. Compare the objectives for your

course with the questions on your test by setting up a simple table that lists the completed course content in one column and the test questions in the other. Keep students from asking questions about material that was not adequately treated during the course.


Rubrics

A rubric is a guideline for assessing student performance.

It is the criteria or scoring rules against which student work will be judged.

One purpose of a rubric is to make public the key criteria that students can use in developing, revising, and judging their own work. The key elements of a rubric are– the descriptors for what a performance is like

and– the full range of possible performance levels


Steps to Designing a Rubrics

1. Brainstorm or generate a number of potential dimensions to use.

2. Select a reasonable number of the most important dimensions.

3. Identify benchmarks for each level of each dimension.


Components of a Rubric

• Levels of Mastery• Excellent, Good, Needs Improvement, Unacceptable,

Exemplary, Acceptable, Unacceptable.

• Dimensions of Quality- components of quality performance

• E.g., written communication, logical reasoning,

• Organizational Groupings - Skill dimensions divided into skills.

• E.g., Written communication may be assessed on grammar, organization, appropriateness, use of evidence, documenting sources, etc)

• Commentaries - Information on the critical features& standards for

each of the mastery levels.


Rubric Worksheet

IF…the Task has these elements...

THEN…consider these as possible dimensions:

Oral Presentation

Problem Solving

Teamwork

Written products

Demonstration


Student Portfolios

Portfolios are collections of students' work over time A purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the

student's efforts, progress and achievements in one or more areas.

The collection must include student participation in selecting the contents, the criteria for selection, the criteria for judging merit and evidence of student self-reflection.

“Purposefully Selected"


Why use portfolios? Because they…

provide multiple ways of demonstrating competence.

can be more accommodating of different learning styles.

portray the process by which students produce work not just the final product.

could engage students actively in the learning process.

are flexible, in that the contents can be chosen to reflect the needs of the student, course, program, or institution.


Types of portfolios

Showcase model, consists of work samples chosen by the student.

Cumulative, consists of all work that represents each objective into the portfolio.

Descriptive model, consists of representative work of the student, with no attempt at evaluation.

Evaluative model, consists of representative products that have been evaluated according to established criteria.


How to Create a Portfolio• Purpose:Purpose: What is the purpose(s) of the portfolio? • Audience: For what audience(s) will the portfolio be created? • Content:Content: What samples of student work will be included? • Process: What processes will be engaged in during the

development of the portfolio? • Management:Management: How will time and materials be managed in the

development of the portfolio? • Communication: How and when will the portfolio be shared

with pertinent audiences? • Evaluation:Evaluation: If the portfolio is to be used for evaluation, when

and how should it be evaluated?

http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/portfolios.htm


Components of a portfoliosComponents of a portfolios

1. Table of Contents with page numbers.

2. Personal introduction describing the student’s background and experiences.

3. Each artifact is described in a short narrative reflecting upon what it is, how it demonstrates obtainment of the objective, and what the student learned as a result (self-reflection)


Portfolio Example

Course: ENG 114: Business WritingObjectives to Demonstrate the ability to:1. Develop a resume.2. Participate in a mock job interview using

appropriate techniques.3. Write a business letter with zero grammatical errors. Items to Include in the Portfolio:1. Resume2. Transcript of interview scenario3. Business Letter


Other Assessment ToolsOther Assessment Tools

Application Logs

Take-home tests

Observation Checklist


Challenges

(What I have heard about today that I would like to try.)

By when What Course?

My Plan

north carolina network for excellence in teaching the assessment toolkit

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