Sandy ,
True, but they have to have the foundation found in the lower levels of learning. Instructors should understand that there is value in all of the levels and they are not mutually exclusive. Good post!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Sharon, you make such an excellent point about reliability. I worked for a VPAA who was a statistical guru and he VPAA taught me the value of making "critical alignments" between objectives and summative assessments. In a practitioner focused graduate program this was a challenge but his methods worked!
Great point!
Sandy U.
The most important thing to consider is aligning the levels of student mastery with the learning objectives.
Secondly, Blooms Taxonomy should be considered to meet higher levels of learning for each objective. While this is important for all learners it is particularly important for adult learners.
Russell,
Great post. Yes, they must align with the outcomes of the course and/or unit.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I completely agree. As a proprietary school, it is important that our students are ready to interview and land a job as soon as possible, after they obtain their diploma.
A summative assessment is needed a certain points during classroom instruction in order to gage the student’s knowledge or skills. This is important to make sure that they are learning at the levels necessary to meet the expected outcomes and objectives of the course. It is also important that to align these outcomes and objectives with real-world applications.
Anna,
You make such great points. We as educators must weigh convenience and speed with true and reliable measures that all of us use to base good learning and teaching decisions.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Anna,
Great post. You are right validity and reliability are so important in the development of assessments. I agree with you we have to make sure we incorporate when we can authentic assessment. We want to make sure ours students understand assessment isn't just testing.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Currently in all of my courses the assessments are based on objective multiple choice and true or false questions. Essentially, I understand that this model was developed to provide instant feedback for students; thus, I had to supplement subjective assignments within the live chat sessions. Additionally the individual projects that students are given weekly also assist with assess students ability to internalize the subject which is always best shown throw a subjective assignment where students are force to communicate in the language of the course they are taking. The beauty of subjective work is that it gives you a better understanding of the learners thought process. I am extremely concerned with a learner’s ability to express their thoughts because this is an indication that learning is taking place. Additionally, as an instructor one you read written statement of listen to a verbal discussion of the learners approach to the problem solving then you can truly pinpoint where there learning curve is. You are not really able to get this information from objective assessments. Primarily, students can become great at guessing and strategic test takers. In all multiple choice questions they are designed with two answers that are close aligned to the content, one two that could be eliminated with one thought process.
Assessments should be used to drive instruction and assist the learners. We also have to remember just as learners don’t all learn the same way they don’t all test the same way.
In looking at summative assessments, it is important to consider the validity of the assessment questions and the assessment format. Primarily because, we are in the assessment era because of the age of accountability; thus everyone wants to validate their perspective roles. With this being said when we are looking at the validity of an assessment , we have to know are the questions aligned properly to provide the credible data that is need to address the instructional implications? Many times we have to consider reliability of the assessment also because are these tested items the objectives of the instructional focus that was designed for the content. The concern that I know have with the reliability and validity of assessments is that they have determines the instructional content of subjects instead of subjects dictation what should be assessed.
This allows me to transition into my next thought with respect to the formatting of assessment and its reliability as far as the content being addressed. As educators, we need to be mindful that we are not creating a set of learners that are conditioned to the mentality of test taking and not learning to retain knowledge. As a result, the delivery of assessments are important, we should not get students accustomed to objective answers and not presented with the opportunity to answer a question subjectively.
Anthony,
What a great post. You use interesting words to describe teaching and learning math in the online environment. I had not thought about imagination in math, but that is really critical thinking. I have a friend that teaching statistics online and f2f and she has used applets to help demonstrate mathematical equations. In using the applets students see the possibilities of an equation by adjusting slope. There are are so many applets. I know you are teaching math but I thought I would share it with you. Here it is: http://sapphire.indstate.edu/~stat-attic/index.php
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Dr. Wilkinson,
There are probably far more than just 2 things to consider, but the two that come to mind for me ( 8 years online teaching experience – Calculus, College Algebra) are…
1. What answers did students get for the problems - “what do they know ?â€
2. How did they get the answers – “what thinking process was used ?â€
As some of the replies in this forum have noted, the students need to want to learn. In many adult classes which are career focused, the students only want a grade from their mathematics course, and have no intention of ever remembering or using any of what they learned. This is why I think my point 2 is so important, as it is teaching “critical thinking†as a process.
In grading mathematics papers, I look very carefully at how the students obtained the answers. There are always some methods taught in the class, but others are available on the web or through paid sources. For example a solution to a polynomial equation can be obtained by algebra, graphically, iteration, guessing, copying, editing a similar problem, cheating, finding a “web calculatorâ€, or any combination of the above. Typically I teach at least one algebraic method of solving a problem, and leave the other possibilities for the students to figure out on their own.
The level of imagination used in solving these problems by “alternate†methods gives me good insight into not only what they know but also how they know it. Many of the IT students are chastened to find that the simple algebraic “procedures†they see in class do not work when coded into a software program … the algorithm simply “blows up†the computer. This can lead to either much more thought (good students) or frustration and copying someone else’s work (poorer students). This difference gives me a good basis for the assessment!
Comments?
Anthony
Samantha,
great points! You are right, it does allow you to make the curriculum changes needed to improve learning.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Hello Professor
I really believe that for summative assessments it is imperative that they actual assess what the student is learning in the curriculum of the class. In addition, since I am a criminal justice professor I believe that the assessments are practical and ensure the students are learning the practical aspects of the field in addition to the theoretical.
Samantha Carlo
Nicole,
I agree with you. You have to develop summative assessments that will demonstrate the students knowledge and/or skills that were expected in the course.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Karen,
You are so right. Students have to be able to demonstrate their knowledge and/or skill without worrying about the technology. You make a great point that students should know what they need to know.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
When conducting summative assessments, I believe the two most important things to consider are what you wanted them to learn and knowing what measurements indicate that their knowledge, skills, or attitudes have changed. For example, if I want a student to know how to build a website probably the best assessment would be to have them build a website. Then I would use a rubric to make sure that they website adheres to the design and development principles outlined by the learning objectives.
When conducting a summative assessment, I believe the two most important things to consider are:
1) the assessment should be designed to allow the student to demonstrate that they have achieved the learning objectives of the course/lesson/unit and,
2) the student should know in advance what is expected via the assessment. For example, if the assessment is a final paper or presentation, a clear assignment guideline and a grading rubric should be available to the student at the time the assignment is made.
samia,
That is exactly the benefit of the summative assessment. They should validate the learning.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Dr. W, as am instructor, I feel the summative assessment allows me to 'assess' whether: 1) the objectives of the course have been met; and 2) that the learner has been able to tie in theory to real world situations.
Samia
