14 Assessment Planning

Assessment Planning – You must review your course goals and/or competencies to develop an assessment plan. If you create a new course, you will use the competencies and goals to guide your assessments.

If you are converting a course from a traditional class, go with the assessment plan in place and convert the assessments to online formats. You can also review your current assessment plan and update current assessments or add authentic learning assessments.

Frame your assessment plan to meet the core concepts/goals in your course by assessing the 1.) facts and concepts (core vocabulary and subject concepts), 2.) hands-on applications (think authentic learning), and 3.) more complex “creation” projects.

• Facts and concepts – Use the quiz function on the LMS, discussion board (students integrate current knowledge with existing knowledge), mid-term and final exams, and by creating games and puzzles (jeopardy, crosswords, word search. etc.)
• “Hands-on” applications – short assignments to include conducting research, written or video reports, interviews, data analysis, timelines, case studies, podcasts, concept mapping, simulations, etc.
• “Creating” Projects – Continues the hands-on theme above and sometimes utilizes collaboration between peers or outside sources.  Some ideas for creating projects are video projects or other multimedia creations, field or lab work with a report, “teaching” the learning content, creating databases, creating Wiki pages, presentations, group projects, design projects, larger research projects, etc.

The assessment plan summarizes the assessment types’ points/percentages (weights). The summary of the score distribution is also included in the syllabus so that students can understand how their grades are broken down.

Assessment types in the online classroom can be:

1. Discussion Board/Class Discussion
2. Quizzes
3. Assignments (weekly, bi-weekly, etc.)
4. Projects (Group, Individual, community, etc.)
5. Group Work (discussion board, projects, etc.)
6. Peer evaluation (papers, projects, etc.)
7. Mid-term (exams, papers, projects)
8. Finals (exams, papers, projects)
9. Other assessments not included in the above categories.