I prefer to use hands on assessments and final projects in lieu of objective exams. It is more relavant to my students field of study and more accurately reflects their progress in the course.
Hi Brian, Thanks for your post to the forum. I love that approach to assessments, although it may not work for everything.
Susan Polick
I use topic tests where I simply say, prove to me you have complete understanding on the following topics. Student may show this in anyway they deem fit. Test are graded using a rubric.
Project-based assessments are a good alternative to objective tests.
Hi Jamey, Thanks for your post to the forum and for sharing great examples of skill application assessments! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career.
Susan Polick
Hi Leyann, Thanks for your post to the forum. That frequent feedback is so necessary! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career.
Susan Polick
I find that after grading homework assignments and passing them back that reviewing them together as a group is so beneficial. After grading I track which ones the class had incorrect and we review them and have a open discussing about them. It helps to reinforce the lesson.
I like to have my students do hands on activities to demonstrate their understanding of the content. I will also have students stand and perform the activity. Putting students into groups and asking them to prepare summary presentations of key content has also been a techniques used to assess learning/comprehension.
Ditto. I teach in the Information Technology field and it is imperative that students are able to take the theoretical concepts that are taught and apply them.
It may sound too unorthodox to suggest a 50% non-grade system of assessment in which competency skill for a certain criteria under the subject matter can translate into how competent a student can apply it to a real-world scenario, something like "Socratic" way of learning.
Hi Erin, I agree that is true for many disciplines. I often use case studies in my general education courses.
Susan Polick
Giving the students a project or an essay would be another way to assess how the students are comprehending the material.
In my field, case studies are one of the best tools used to determine the student's knowledge of the subject.
Hi Leslie, Thanks for sharing a good example of application assessment!
Susan Polick
I agree that hands on assessments are practical. In coding we apply a case scenario and ask the student to write their path for the correct coding.
We use case studies and hands on comptentcies with grading ruberics.
being in the medical field , hands on is a wonderful assessment tool.
I agree that the hands on assessment is a very practical and positive way for students to learn, it includes a variety of ways to learn to help all students, as mentioned in the above comment, if someone learns best by listening, covered, reading, covered, hands on covered..
Hi Annette, The "hands -on" does certainly make the theory clearer.
Susan Polick
I like to use this method as well. Due to the type of material I teach, the theory is harder to comprehend (for most students)without actually performing the tasks. So when they finally get to do the work "hands-on", I love to see when it "clicks" in their minds.
