Assessment in Online Courses: Practical Examples

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Assessment in Online Courses Practical Examples

• Dr. Roger Von Holzen
• Ms. Darla Runyon
• Dr. Phillip Heeler
• Northwest Missouri State University

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Heard in the Halls

• If we are to be required to assess educational
  quality and learning by virtue of how long a
  student sits in a seat, we have focused on the
  wrong end of the student.
• Laura Palmer Noone

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Heard in the Halls

• Every person putting the same amount of time
  into the same subject matter, regardless of the
  learners previous experience, aptitude for that
  subject, or ability to learn, no longer makes
  sense.
• William Draves

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How do you do online exams?

• Question based on notion that online assessment
  must follow assessment methods used on campus
• Not necessarily true
• In an online environment
• Radical change to the role of the instructor
• Shift from the deliverer of content to student
  mentor
• Function of assessment techniques must also
  change

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Online Assessment An Interactive Mentoring
Opportunity

• Need to move beyond the rhetoric that assessment
  should be utilized as a teaching tool and not as
  an evaluation mechanism
• Use quizzes and tests as interactive mentoring
  opportunities
• Enable students to evaluate their own progress
  through the course materials
• Provide feedback on course content areas that
  need further enhancement and/or development

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Beyond the Rhetoric

• Quizzes and tests should be viewed as means of
  promoting learning
• Open book and extensive testing time
• Should be only a small component of the overall
  assessment strategy for the online course

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Beyond the Rhetoric

• Evolution from seat-time/credit hours to
  outcomes-based education as a measure of learning
• Acknowledging present reality
• What matters is whether the student has actually
  learned something

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The New Role of Assessment

• Assessment techniques should be based on desired
  learning outcomes
• Assessment results should be used by students to
  evaluate progress through course materials
• Provide the instructor with
• evidence of effectiveness of course materials
• indications of content areas that need further
  enhancement and/or development

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Assessment Strategy

• Cumulative process
• Aids in forming student assessment profiles
• snapshot of student understanding
• Profile constructed by
• building learning outcomes based on critical
  course content
• use of applicable assessment methods to determine
  students understanding of learning outcomes

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Assessment Strategy

• Provides guidance to further develop conceptual
  framework
• Continuous process (formative)
• Should guide the student to mastery of the
  learning outcomes
• Assessment strategy becomes foundation for
  developing the instructional design of the online
  course

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Assessment Strategy

• Learning outcomes
• should be measurable through an applicable
  assessment of that outcome
• should provide evidence of mastery of the
  learning outcome through student performance

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Learning Outcomes

• Determine critical course content
• Discern what the students should know or
  accomplish based on the critical content
• What must the student know in order to function
  in authentic situations?
• Decide what evidence is acceptable as proof of
  knowledge or accomplishment of the learning
  outcome
• Selected student performance must furnish the
  method of assessment of critical content

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Communication of Learning Outcomes

• Include in syllabus
• List in course introductory module
• List for each individual module or unit
• Convey in related activities and assignments

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Assessment Strategy Steps

• Assist faculty in integrating new assessment
  techniques and developing overall assessment
  strategy
• Administer pre-assessment
• Provides guidance in the development of
  appropriate learning activities
• Present critical content through interactive,
  instructional concepts and activities

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Assessment Strategy Steps

• Punctuate course with short assessment
  opportunities
• Provide student with performance feedback on
  learning concepts and activities
• Provide a diverse array of assessment methods to
  reflect student understanding of the learning
  outcomes
• Provide opportunities for relearning and
  reassessment

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Assessment Strategy Steps

• Develop a post-assessment (summative)
• Provides evaluation of the overall student
  performance
• Indicates ultimate mastery of critical content
  and ability to incorporate content into
  appropriate situations

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Additional Assessment Results

• Provide instructor feedback on content delivery
  methods and techniques
• Feedback directs the instructional redesign of
  the course and the instructors role

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Online Assessment

• Provides an organized and systematic approach to
  assessment
• Digital exam building features
• Variety of traditional testing methods are
  available
• Multiple Choice
• True and False
• Fill-in-the-Blank
• Multiple Answer
• Ordering
• Matching
• Short Answer/Essay
• Options to pool questions and control the
  delivery of the material

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Online Assessment

• Traditional methods should only be a small
  component of the overall assessment strategy
• Learning outcomes should be assessed using
  applicable assessment techniques
• Online delivery provides an environment conducive
  to incorporating
• a diverse array of assessment techniques
• strategies that may be employed across a variety
  of course subject areas

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Online Assessment

• Flexibility of delivery allows for a more
  student-centered approach to assessment and
  feedback
• Proctored exams
• Some situations may require on-site examinations
• Expenses and effort involved must be considered
  Traditional methods should only be a small
  component of the overall assessment strategy

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Issues of Academic Dishonesty

• Work closely with faculty as they discuss and
  develop new perspectives on assessment
• Academic dishonesty and conduct in an online
  course should be examined as faculty design and
  develop online assessment strategies

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Issues of Academic Dishonesty

• Academic dishonesty and honor code policies
  should be clearly stated early in the course
• Include in the course syllabus

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Issues of Academic Dishonesty

• Policy examples
• Students are responsible for submitting their own
  work
• Students who cooperate on examinations or other
  work without authorization share the
  responsibility for violation of academic
  principles and are subject to disciplinary action

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Dealing with Plagiarism

• Web tracking services
• www.turnitin.com
• www.plagiarism.com
• Instructional design of course site, assignments
  and exams
• Communicate with students

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Practical Examples

• One-Sentence Summary
• Challenges students to answer the questions "Who
  does what to whom, when, where, how, and why?"
  about a given topic, and then to synthesize those
  answers into a single informative, grammatical,
  and long summary sentence.

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Practical Examples

• Minute Paper
• The instructor asks students to submit comments
  related to the following two questions "What was
  the most important thing you learned from this
  lesson?" and "What important question remains
  unanswered?"
• Students then submit their responses by e-mail or
  in a threaded discussion

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Practical Examples

• Punctuated Lectures
• Requires students to go through five steps
  listen, stop, reflect, write, and give feedback
• Students begin by listening/viewing a lecture or
  demonstration.
• Then, after a portion of the presentation has
  been completed, it is stopped.
• The students are asked to reflect on the lecture
  or demonstration.
• They then write down any insights they have
  gained.
• Finally, they submit feedback to the instructor
  in the form of short notes.

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Practical Examples

• Concept Maps
• Drawings or diagrams showing the mental
  connections that students make between a major
  concept the instructor focuses on and other
  concepts they have learned.
• Students are asked to sketch the important
  features of the geography around major concepts
  such as democracy, racism, art, or free trade.

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Practical Examples

•  Paper or Project Prospectus
• Paper Prospectus--a brief, structured first-draft
  plan for a term paper or term project.
• Prompts students to think through elements of the
  assignment, such as the topic, purpose, intended
  audience, major questions to be answered, basic
  organization, and time and resources required.
• Project Prospectus--focuses on the tasks to be
  accomplished, skills to be improved, and products
  to be developed.

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Practical Examples

• Analytic Memos
• Requires students to write a one- or two-page
  analysis of a specific problem or issue
• The person for whom the memo is being written is
  usually identified as an employer, a client, or a
  stakeholder who needs the student's analysis to
  inform decision making

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Practical Examples

• Electronic Mail Feedback
• The instructor poses a question to the class, via
  e-mail, about his or her teaching, and invites
  student responses
• Student respond to the e-mail question with a
  personal message sent to the instructor's e-mail
  account

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Practical Examples

• Exam Evaluations
• Allow instructors to examine both what students
  think they are learning from exams and tests and
  students' evaluations of the fairness,
  appropriateness, usefulness, and quality of tests
  or exams
• May help provide verification as to the
  authorship of exam answers

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References

• Angelo, T, Cross, P. Classroom Assessment
  Techniques A Handbook for College Teachers
  (Second Edition). 1993.
• Boettcher, J, Conrad, R. Faculty Guide for
  Moving Teaching and Learning to the Web. 1999.
• Draves, W. Teaching Online. 2000.
• Kaczmarczyk, L. Accreditation and Student
  Assessment in Distance Education Why We All
  Need to Pay Attention. Proceedings of the 6th
  Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in
  Computer Science Education. 2001.

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Dr. Roger Von Holzen, Director Center for
Information Technology in Education rvh_at_mail.nwmis
souri.edu
Ms. Darla Runyon Assistant Director/Curriculum
Design Specialist Center for Information
Technology in Education drunyon_at_mail.nwmissouri.ed
u
Dr. Phillip Heeler, Chairman Computer
Science/Information Systems Department pheeler_at_mai
l.nwmissouri.edu