5 Assessment Strategies
Now that we have a basic understanding of authentic learning and assessments, we will discuss creating an assessment plan for your online course.
To develop an assessment plan, you will want to review your course goals and/or competencies. If you create a new course, you will use the competencies and goals as guides when creating your assessments.
If you are converting a course from a traditional class, you may choose to go with the assessment plan in place and convert the assessments to online formats. You may also take this opportunity to 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.
1. 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.)
2. “Hands-on” applications – short assignments to include conducting research, written or video reports, interviews, data analysis, timelines, case studies, podcasts, concept mapping, simulations, etc.
3. “Creating” Projects – Continues the hands-on theme above and sometimes utilizes collaboration between peers or outside sources. Some ideas of 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 points/percentages (weights) of the assessment types. The summary of the score distribution is also placed in the syllabus for students to understand how their grade is broken down.
Assessment types in the online classroom can be:
1. Discussion Board
2. Quizzes
3. Assignments (weekly, bi-weekly, etc.)
4. Projects
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