Assessments

Introduction

For assessment in an online environment, we need to think a little outside the box. We cannot assess in the online environment the same way we assess in a face-to-face class. We have to find different approaches and reasons for assessment.

This page offers "starting points" for thinking about online assessments.

Bloom's Taxonomy for Assessment

Bloom's Taxonomy is the basis for course design, and implicit in that is the idea using the taxonomy to think about assessment strategies. You should have a firm understanding how Bloom's Taxonomy figures into course design and assessment. See the Bloom's Taxonomy section of this site.

Frequent Testing

Without a doubt, you will have reading assignments and possibly audio lectures in your classes. All readings and lectures could be followed up with a short quiz (5-10 questions) with low grade weight. This achieves two things: It promotes time-on-task for working with the material for student learning, and it assures you that they have the foundational knowledge presented in the readings or lectures. The quizzes can be timed so that they must be completed by a certain date/time. In a sense, we are using quizzes as a teaching tool to promote student learning.

Testing for Knowledge and Comprehension

To promote time-on-ask for learning
To insure students are reading material
To insure students are listening to audio lectures
To insure students are reading discussion posting
Other?

Focusing their Attention

Giving small, frequent quizzes focuses them on information that you deem important. The questions for a small quizz can help prepare them for the other assessments that you will employ in the course. It would be helpful to give them a check list of items (study guide) that could possibly be on the short quizzes.

Concerns about Cheating

Giving a quiz online opens up concerns about cheating such as using notes or books during the quiz. Instead of worrying about cheating, encourage them to use course materials during these "mini quizzes." Instead of testing their ability to regurgitate memorized facts, they are being urged to use resources to find knowledge.

Other Forms of Assessment

For assessment of deeper learning, you should consider other options.

Group Projects
- Peer Assessments/Evaluation for participation (use rubrics)
Problem-Based Learning
Case Studies/Analysis
Compare/Contrast concepts
Analogy and Metaphor
Essays
Critical Reviews/Arguments
Examination of Assumptions
Class discussions (See link below on discussion strategies.)
Connecting current knowledge to new knowledge
Student Portfolio (to document progress throughout the semester)
Student Products (See Bloom's Taxonomy for student products)
Student Reflection Journals (Students reflect on their learning)
PowerPoint Presentations (to be presented using Live Classroom)

These types of assessment strategies could be distributed to the class using the Assignment tool in GeorgiaVIEW. No matter which assessment strategy you use above, you will always need to guide the learning process with complete instructions. The topics above are suitable for use with the Assignment tool. For effective use of the assignment tool, please see the Assignments area of this site.

Authentic Assessments

Authentic assessments is sometimes called performance assessment. A learning task is usually grounded in some real-world problem. Instead of testing isolated knowledge or skills, authentic assessment focuses on the ability of the student to apply knowledge or skills to real-world challenges that might interest them. To understand authentic assessment, let's contrast it to traditional assessment.

Traditional Assessment	Authentic Assessment
Selecting a response	Performing a Task
Contrived	Real Life examples
Recall/Recognition	Construction/Application
Teacher structured	Student structured
Indirect evidence	Direct evidence
Source: http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/