Exactly, Deborah. So, when assessing a process, the process should be mapped out, quantified and given a score. So, in setting up assignments, gathering this kind of information is vital for your assessment. I have often, in the past, had students submit a project proposal within which they outline their "steps to accomplish" and/or "methods to accomplish". That helps me assess their process and not just the task. Do you have any other ideas on how process might be assessed?
It is important to evaluate the process of learning in addition to the learning outcomes because we need to find out if the student has aquired new knowledge or skills. How we evaluate this process is another question. Conventional testing does not do the job. Instead, the student may have memorized the information for the exam or is a good test taker. Maybe the student has mastered a process but is unable to demonstrate this new knowledge on a multiple choice test.
Yes, Kenny, rigor must be maintained for students. Often that is the criticism of using new technology - that it lowers the standard of the course and the expectations of the students. Do you agree? How do you work to maintain the academic rigor while using new technology...?
James, I agree, If a test cannot prove the ability of the learner, how can we evaluate ourselves as instructors. I feel that if a student is challenged they perform better.
Yes, Greg. I like your commitment to process and your focus on learning - your adjustments to the student's existing flow mean that he/she will understand the adjustments within an already familiar context. Much more effective than simply scoring the answer as wrong. Great! This is the kind of support for process that we must demonstrate as teachers...
The outcome is extremely important. We can't train a programmer to leave to NASA and develop an "almost perfect" module of code for their calculation section. However, it is very important to understand how a student thinks. If a student turns in a flowchart for a programming concepts class, and the flowchart is wrong, I mark the exercise wrong. I also ask them to show me how they got to that decision, beginning with step 1, to however long it takes on a whiteboard or similar, until they finish. I don't make corrections along the way. We go through it a second time, and I begin to show them how small changes and logic decisions can help correct the flowchart. Once I understand what a student is trying to do, I can focus in on that specific hurdle.
As I stated the students had to use the internet to obtain references from different sites to obtain specifications and procedures to carry out thier lab projects.
Certainly, Greg, the importance of each individual student is vital. However, how can using the Internet as an instructional tool help to build both the skills and knowledge base for our students?
Being in a vocational environment we often have to evaluate the students by what they understand of the topic. The use of web information is used in our classes in the web training and in their labs as they have to access sites to gather specifications and procedures, then apply them to the work, at the end they have to write answers to questions based on the labs. The way they interpret the work varies in explanation, which we have to decide whether they understand it or not. It takes understanding the individual.
Very true, Carl, and actually promotes the importance of all processes of learning and not just as they relates to a specific task.
It opens the opportunity for innovation while arriving at a desired outcome. It's always been a sore point for the student to fully explain how an outcome was achieved yet never given credit for the process when the final answer was somewhat circuitous or wrong. Logic and rational thinking were not included in the result. It's great to see the education industry adopting these new holistic approaches.
Yes, Angel. Great points and I agree with you. I support your comment as well about learner autonomy which is the greater goal of our teaching. Have you seen or experienced some specific uses of technolgy that demonstrate this? I can think of the use of chat for group work - great for supporting this kind of development. How about you?
The use of technology provides opportunity for the learning process to become much more engaging for students. Technology has become a transforming force on how students learn and are driven to learn as it relates to the learning outcomes, objectives and evaluations. Technology can provide students with more of a hands-on relationship and can give direct input into the learning process. It is also an effective way to increase students' learning autonomy.
Good points, Angel, regarding learning outcomes and objectives. How do you think the methods of evaluation as well as learning outcomes might be changing as a result of new technology?
Great points, Angel, regarding the importance of learning objectives and outcomes. So, instruction begins with the end in mind but how do you think the methods of evaluation as well as the learning outcomes might be changing because of new technology?
It is important to evaluate the process of learning in addition to learning outcomes because using assessments aids in establishing a need for improvement as well as determining the degree to which these goals correspond to student needs. Using learning objectives may help instructors to achieve better clarity about what they want to accomplish in their classes, and greater clarity about what techniques they need to use to achieve those goals. Specific learning objectives also help students achieve those objectives more easily because they know, from the beginning, the goals of the course. Learning objectives give students a way to think about and talk about what they are learning. In addition, specific learning objectives make it possible to more reasonably assess how well the process of teaching and learning is progressing. When evaluation is used it permits the learning outcomes to be asked and answered. Evaluations help to answer if the goals and objectives of new curriculum have been met.
The main purpose of tests is not to determine what a student has learned as much as it is to see how well the student is able to take a test. If anything is effectively tested, it is memory and the ability to deduce the right answers. Students need to demonstrate what they have actually learned and how they learned it. Since tests are not the best way to demonstrate learning, students need to show how they use critical thinking through projects, collaboration with other students (discussions), and research essays.
That can be true, Mariska, however, those kinds of learning skills have to be learned. Most students do not have the abilities you describe without intentional instucional guidance and coaching from their instructors. That means, then, that just exepcting sudents to achieve is not enough - rather to facilitate and develop the kinds of skills needed for success should always be the goal of the instructor working directly with students. Can you think of ways to develop these kinds of skills in your students?
Critical thinking skills are very important. They are the beginning of being a good problem-solvers.
It is important to evaluate the process of learning so that the student has the opportunity to be successful on terms that are custom to him. However, I think that the sure sign of a great student is the ability to offer to a course what is asked in the design. That is more along the lines of pure outcome. I think that great students are flexible learners.
