Get Your Students Hired
HI Stan - Thanks for your post to the forum. You are using an effective mix of assessments. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Hi Marie - Thanks for your post to the forum. I agree with your primary assessment choice. Knowing the format of the certification exam and being familair with it is a big plus. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Daily quizzes are an effective way to assess the learning of students. It gives instantaneous feedback on how much the students have grasped what was recently taught. Multiple exams are most effective in Radiologic Technology since their National Boards consist of 200 multiple choice questions; therefore, the students will get used to this format and hopefully do better for their certification. Additionally, competencies in the X-ray lab are essential to their being able to do well on their externships as well as being prepared as an entry-level Radiologic Technologist.
As an automotive technical school instrucor, when I teach a brakes course, I test with multiple choice questions related to the theory and hands on tactiles for skill assessment.
Hi Susan - Thank you - I am glad that you have enjoyed my course! Having students create portfolios of their best work is such a great idea. It is invaluable in an interview. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Hi Susan,
Yes. The students create "basic" patterns that they can put in their portfolios. These base patterns can be used to create a new pattern for any design needed. These patterns should also show the quality of work the student is capable of. They should be very neat with cleanly cut edges. Any future employer should be able to look at these patterns and see that student also has the ability to pay attention to detail.
Thanks again for your class.
Susan Bunce
I try to use the hands on lab activities to gauge how much class room information my students have retined.
Hi Robyn - Thanks for your post to the forum. I like your idea of using a rubric based on whether the student can "teach back" the process. Very effective! Best wishes for continued success in tour teaching career. Susan
I am using more of a discussion type rubric with my Algebra students than a test. I can see if they understand the concept by explaining to others how to solve the problem.Which is a best practice alternative assessment method.
Hi Pamela- As I read through your post I had a strong feeling that your students are predominantly kinesthetic which you confirmed in your final sentence. Kinesthetic learners need to learn by doing so you are really doing a great job with them. It is of course often easier just to jump in and "do" it for them to quickly move on to the next step, but, as you say, they need to struggle a bit to really get it! Best wishes- Suan
I utilize a variety of methods to assess students understanding of subject matter. Because the majority of the courses I instruct have mastery based objectives, demonstration of skills or competencies are utilized. Students must be given enough opportunity to practice those tasks before performing the competency for the instructor. Demonstrations of the task are really important. Setting up the demonstration so all the students can see the various steps is very critical.
One of the most useful tips I can give, when asking students to perform a task that has just been demonstrated, is to let the students struggle a little while on their own. Some want instant success, but some tasks take time and practice to master. I also like to re-demonstrate the task after they have been struggling for a bit. It is at this point, some are able to see techniques that may help them improve or be successful. Once that is done, them I willing to watch their technique and give suggestions to help them. Often these tasks involve fine motor skills, and they need to figure out the large muscle group action first.
Yesterday I taught my class of 12 students to make white blood cell differential smears for the first time. The process just written about works well for this skill. The students will have 5 or 6 more oppportunities to perform this in class. It is one of the clinical laboratory skills required for their profession. I include the skill on a final competency for the course.
I also utilize examinations, as there is information they need to have in their knowledge base of the material. I try to test or quiz the students often. We cover a lot of techinical material, which is difficult to memorize. Testing more often helps students retain that technical information better.
To make the course more exciting, I often assign, group presentations. I teach medical assistants, and this works really well for learning about disease process. It also gets them thinking about working as a team member. Assessing the grade of the project is partially performed by the team members, as well as myself. I think students put more energy into something they can get excited about. The topics come from a list I created, but I'm always open to new topics the students bring to me, if it fits within the objectives for the course.
I feel the majority of students who go into the vocation of medical assisting are kinesthetic learners. The majority do not learn best from reading or lecture. They need activities to reinforce material.
Hi Claire- Students do love participating in activities like mock trials. I agree that this sort of activity can be difficult to grade. I find that developing a really comprehensive grading rubric that is shared with the students before and after the activity is essential. Best wishes- Susan
I teach paralegal courses. When I first started, I thought mock trials were mostly for fun, but then I learned these were one of the very best ways for me to assess what my students had learned. It's hard to grade how a student does on a mock trial, and I haven't yet figured out a good way to do this, but watching them give opening statements, question witnesses, and deliver closing arguments has turned out to be one of the best ways for me to see what they've learned about the topic of the course. I find that a wide variety of ways provides me the best assessment. So I use short quizzes to test definitions and basic concepts. I use more complicated multiple choice questions to test a student's ability to apply concepts to hypothetical situations. I use homework assignments and projects to assess students' abilities to do legal research and analysis and write persuasively.
I use a mixture of about 60% multiple choice, 20% t/f and 20% short answer. The short answer are hardest to grade, but offer the ability to give partial credit if they were close or even if wrong, but followed decent logic.
Using tests and quizzes are effective ways of assessing the learning of students. In one of my courses part of the day is lecture and the second part of the day is skills lab. This really gives a good indicator of hown well a student understands what they are learning.
HI Cheryl- Thanks for your post to the forum. Teaching online brings all sorts of different issues and assessment is certainly one of them. I find that I need to have really specific grading rubrics for the discussion threads or I get things like "Yes, I agree." or "Great post John!" Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
As an online instructor, I think a variety of assessments works the best. Each week a written assignment allows learners to integrate knowledge gained while practicing written communication skills. Also, the quizzes and formal exams provide an another avenue of assessment. In addition, weekly discussion threads allow learners to post their thoughts and reply to others. (It becomes obvious who has read the material and who may not in the discussion thread work. In a few classes we also have some short community involvement type of activities. These are motivating and offer another assessment mode.
In our Institution we have a written test and a hands on Lab Final. I feel that a student showing practical application is the best way of guaging how much the student has learned.
In the fine art classes, I can easily compare work executed early on in the semester to later work.
I'm big on variety, not just to keep things interesting, but give the widest group of students the greatest opportunity to show what they know!
I firmly believe that using different types of testing, like using different teaching styles to address different learning styles, gives me the most reliable feedback on what's actually been learned1!!!!!!