Kimberly,
In my experience, students have always benefited from completing a pretest at the beginning of a course.
Barry Westling
I think this is a great idea!This helps to see what the students learning capabilities are.
A pre-test can help an instructor determine the instructional focus.
David,
Yes, information about students helps customize their individual learning plans, which usually varies to some degree from class to class.
Barry Westling
So you can structure your course in a practical way based on the student abilities, learning methods, and backgrounds,
Sean,
Students usually feel they are either adequately prepared or underprepared. In my experience, I usually wind up with a mixed bag, so my job is to narrow where I want to focus my emphasis with this class, with these students, this time. The next go around, the emphasis may be way different.
Barry Westling
It could give you a real sense of the student's level of prior work in this field.
Marketa,
I think many newer instructors assume their students are arriving with a base knowledge of prior learning. But the reality is nearly every class will be a mixed bag of past experiences, skills, and abilities. Pretesting can help assess, then identify exactly where this class, this time, is performing.
Barry Westling
When I first started teaching I learned that not all student are at the same level so pretesting helped me get an overall look at where to start the course work at and what needed to be reviewed. I found that sometimes students have learned the information and just need to review it to help remember how to apply it.
Dyana,
Right, and it's OK to makes the pretest useful. For instance, I have asked just three questions, and other times I have made 30 question tests that include essay and included key calculations. It varies depending on what we want to know about prior learning so as to better plan how we can convey needed information given the valuable time we have available.
Barry Westling
It is important to know what you are up against as an instructor. Anytime a new class in incorporated you want to be able to see where they are in relation to the subject matter, in order to construct a more accurate way of teaching.
Diane,
I have also given the same pretest at the end of a course to demonstrate just how far students have come. They usually can't believe how much progress has occurred.
Barry Westling
I agree. It helps me plan lessons that will address those areas that need reinforcement.
Ali,
Great example of understanding where student's beginning skills are in order to take them to the next step in their learning.
Barry Westling
Diane,
Yes, it's a planning tool for instructors.
Barry Westling
Pretests can assist with understanding the knowledge that the students already have. For instance, I am experiencing students struggling in a Bachelors online Hospitality Technology Systems class because they don't have the skills to compile Excel spreadsheets. So now as part of my course content, I have added a refresher on Excel to ensure that the knowledge is there for compiling the restaurant schedule in an Excel spreadsheet.
It can tell me what areas I need to spend more time on and what areas I can spend less time on. Pretests help me determine students weakest are that need to be strengthened.
Rae Lynne,
Yeah, pretests are really a planning tool for instructors. Sometimes we find more remedial work is needed, which adds extra work and time. But I'd rather know this so I can plan appropriately, and still cover all I need to cover.
Barry Westling
Joe,
This is potentially possible. However, I've had students perform poorly, and based on the pretesting, I had to really scramble to get everyone up to speed and cover everything that was required. Even so, I think the pretest helped me.
Barry Westling
Depending on the course I am teaching, I do use pretests. I find the information gained to be VERY beneficial in guiding the remainder of my lessons. I also can find common weak points and review this material but not waste time covering material the students are already comfortable with. I would be interested in finding ways to utilize pretests in an introductory concept course (like Marketing, Supervision, etc.) the only idea I have ever utilized is to give a basic vocabulary type quiz the first day of the class to determine if basic vocabulary/terminology levels exist to help me plan with the homework, activities, etc. for the remainder of the course reinforcement planning.
