Assessment: Managing Tests, Projects, and the Grade Center

Anastasia Trekles, Ph.D.

Today’s Goals

Use the Quality Matters rubric and Standards 3, 4, and 5 to help guide your course development

Discuss appropriate assessment strategies in your course course and discipline

Use a variety of formative and summative assessment methods to maximize your picture of how students are doing

Formative and Summative AssessmentFORMATIVE

Helps you get a handle on how the course and/or students are doing at any given point

Gives you a chance to correct something if it’s not going as planned

SUMMATIVE

Usually done at the end of a unit or course

Provides a final look at how things went

Determines whether students “pass” or have attained the necessary skills to move on

Tools for Assessment

Quizzes and tests Discussion forums Rubrics for the creation of:

Writing assignments Multimedia (text + images, video, etc) Presentation tools Digital video and audio E-books, wikis, blogs

Remember Bloom’s?

This stuff helps you find and create the most appropriate assessments!

Tests in BlackBoard Can be mobile-capable or browser-only Can be supported through Respondus LockDown

Browser and Respondus Monitor You can create tests from scratch or import from

Respondus Test Generator (or other tools) Test exceptions settings allow different options

for different students (like extra time) See https://www.pnc.edu/distance/learn-tutorials

/ for all videos on tests See http://www.pnc.edu/distance/respondus for

info on downloading Respondus

Tips for Successful Tests Edit the Test Options -

check your settings Do NOT turn on Force

Completion! Use Test Availability

Exceptions for make-ups and accommodations

Auto-Submit is ok – forces the student to stop when timer ends

Decide on options for how and whether students can receive feedback

Resources for Test Design Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt:

http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/writing-good-multiple-choice-test-questions/

UNC Charlotte Center for Teaching: http://teaching.uncc.edu/learning-resources/articles-books/best-practice/assessment-grading/designing-test-questions

Kentucky State booklet on “writing trick questions”: http://www.k-state.edu/ksde/alp/resources/Handout-Module6.pdf

When a Test Doesn’t Cut It

At higher levels of Bloom’s tests are often not the best measure

Consider other ways of gauging learning: Research projects or papers Presentations or debates Concept maps Student-created media (video, audio, etc.) Performances Other products that show learning in action

Tools for Student-Created Projects BlackBoard discussion, blog, wiki, Kaltura media tools WebEx: http://purdue.webex.com Google Docs: http://drive.google.com Prezi: http://www.prezi.com Bubbl.us: http://www.bubbl.us MS Office Templates:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/ Screencast-o-matic: http://www.screencast-o-matic.com Jing and Camtasia: http://www.techsmith.com Wordpress: http://www.wordpress.com SimpleBooklet: http://simplebooklet.com/index-edu.php Draw.io: https://www.draw.io

Rubric Creation Tools Need help with the

text for your rubric? Try rubric-makers

that make your job easier!

Rubistar:http://rubistar.4teachers.org

iRubric:http://www.rcampus.com/indexrubric.cfm

Creating Rubrics in BlackBoard You can grade using rubrics right

within BlackBoard Rubrics make your job a little easier

when grading more extensive assessments

Video tutorials available: https://www.pnc.edu/distance/learn-tutorials/

Something to Try – Self-Reflection When students have a chance to reflect on

themselves as learners, they may be more inclined to grow and achieve more

Try one of these surveys in class or as an assignment/discussion and see the reaction Felder’s Index of Learning Styles:

http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

Biggs’ Study Process Questionnaire: http://www.johnbiggs.com.au/academic/students-approaches-to-learning/

When Work Needs Grading Use the left-hand

sidebar and choose Needs Grading to view when new work has been turned in

Alternately, in the Full Grade Center, ungraded work submitted will have a “!” icon

The Grade Center Allows you to see all

grades at a glance – works like a spreadsheet

You can create columns for various purposes, including calculated columns

Use the Manage button to change column organization

Use the “arrow-menus” to change settings, view and edit grades

Assessment Resources Carnegie-Mellon Assessment resource:

http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/howto/basics/index.html

Writing good learning objectives: http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/tutorials/id/developObjectives.asp

Kathy Schrock’s guide for educators: http://www.schrockguide.net/assessment-and-rubrics.html

Workshop in scenario-based learning and authentic assessment examples: https://sites.google.com/site/workshopctandsblresourcesite/home

Help for BlackBoard Tools Tests, Surveys, and Pools:

http://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_2014_04/Instructor/110_Tests_Surveys_Pools

Using assignments: http://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_2014_04/Instructor/100_Assignments

Using rubrics: http://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_2014_04/Instructor/120_Grade_Center/020_Grading/010_Rubrics

Using the Grade Center: http://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_2014_04/Instructor/120_Grade_Center

Thanks!

Reach us at: pncolt@pnc.edu Twitter and Facebook: @PNCOLT http://www.pnc.edu/distance for all

workshop notes, links, and training needs