Hi Edwin, Thanks for your post to the forum. You emphasize the need to provide feedback on assessments to students and also to critically review assessments in a timely manner. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career.
Susan Polick
We determine effectiveness by ensuring the format that we use reflects the material the students were instructed on or were required to read and that it is in line with particle knowledge as well as factual. The types of assessments we use will be in line with the types of questions that would be asked in the industry to evaluate entry level or higher level personnel for employment. Occasional conversations with employers let us know what their expectations are so we can better prepare the students outcome. After a test is taken they are reviewed with the students and their feedback helps us correct problems with clarity or confusion as well as helping them understand why the answers they selected were right or wrong. One way to determine problem questions is to analyze how often they are missed by the majority of the students. A way to test a question is to ask it orally and gauge the responses, some times I will ask the same question a different way ten minutes later.
There are a couple ways to evaluate assessment effectiveness. As mentioned in the lesson, validity and reliability are two important characteristics to keep in mind.
First, consider asking students for their feedback immediately after the exam. They may have some constructive suggestions.
Second, conduct an item analysis to see how often each test item was missed. Items that were not missed by any student and items that were missed by all students could be removed from future tests since these items do not provide discrimination.
Third, conduct a grade distribution to see f grades were distributed over possible grades. If there were mostly 'A's or mostly 'F's then consider revising the exam.
These are just a couple ways to evaluate your test.
Hi Richard, Thanks for your post to the forum. That is a good rationale for your testing option choices. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career.
Susan Polick
Different testing formats lend themselves to assessing different levels of knowledge. It totally depends on what in particular I'm assessing as to what type of testing format I choose. I teach basic college math 1/2 the day and GED prep. class the other 1/2 the day. For basic college math, I want to see that my students can do the math, so I use short answer and/or multiple choice tests. I like the short answer assessments, because I can see where they are having problems if they are in fact having problems. They may simply be skipping a step or multiplying when they should be dividing. I use a multiple choice test for the overall final, but I allow my students to show me how they got a particular answer if they want and/or need to. They feel better about being able to justify their responses, and I feel better about being more open and being able to explain exactly why we need to do it a different way. In my GED class I use all kinds of assessments. I especially like essay questions for those folks, because, for the most part, they don't think they can write at all. Allowing them to answer essay questions, whether their form is perfect or not, allows them to see that yes they can write, and no matter how good or bad their written response is their instructor can always say something positive about it and can always help them make it better. I learned in high school that there was no "perfect" essay answer. I strived for that, but I had a very picky English teacher who just did not give 100% on essay tests. He felt there was always room for improvement, and in fact, there was. I use that to this day - always room for improvement!
The best demonstration of knowledge retention that I have found is to use short answer questions. Essay questions can be very daunting, and can panic a student. Mixing short answer and multiple choice questions allows the student to be comfortable with their studies and gives them a sense of accomplishment when they are done with the test. The short answer questions allow for a deeper understanding of the material without overwhelming the student.
I try to keep the skills assessment as real to life as I can, also knowledge can be demonstrated with real life application and critical thinking scenarios.
Welding fortunately allows us to use the career field with codes already in place to monitor final hands on exams to these codes. We make sure through instructor training and frequent in-service that these codes are understood and followed as they would be in placement and job testing. Instructors are trained to teach with these codes as assessments to reach a code test objective. Each student must pass these codes for employment therefore our placement record directly reflects our training to these codes.
Hi Guy, Thanks for sharing a great example of good assessment management! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career.
Susan Polick
After giving a new test, I review it with the students and asked questions in referance to the testing info. If they missed a question I want to know what they did not understand. If it was something they misinterpeted I might make adjustments to clarify the question for the next class. The tests cover only what we have discussed at length and or read and reviewed in class.
Hi Daniel, Thanks for your post to the forum. That is a very fair method of assessment. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career.
Susan Polick
The test format can be a bit of a tricky business. In general, certain types of courses or certain content within those courses may NEED to be tested in a specific format...or you may have some play in terms of what you can do. I like to use a variety of different types all within a single exam whenever possible. This makes sure that all learners who like a particular type have something they immediately feel comfortable seeing. It also helps familiarize them with the other types and works to break down their apprehension toward them.
In the environment that I teach in the testing formats are prescribed for us.
Hi Andrea, Thanks for your post to the forum. You are using a good mix of assessments. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career.
Susan Polick
I mostly teach skills classes. Although there is some content that needs to be learned as well, it is more about whether or not they have improved on the necessary skills. I give them projects that are due, and occasionally a quiz based on vocabulary that they need to know, depending on the class I am teaching. Once in a while, a student does not attend class regularly and comes to class with the work completed., which is suspect. I also give a short final practicum at the end of the term to be sure that everyone has developed minimum competency in the skills being taught.
After each test I will review the tests with the class and ask the same questions in different ways, being more thourough to make sure they truly understand the info. See if the M/C and T/F are adequate or if more completion/short answer questions are needed.
The type of students I deal with are in a trade school so I thiink the multiple choice test work the best.
I am not usually involved with writing test questions for our classroom courses but I loved the suggestion from this course about jotting down a few questions after the lecture or classroom time. I agree about the information discussed being fresh in the instructors mind and I imagine the response of the students to the information helps as well. I know the classroom instructors review questions with the students and check to see if a certain question was most often missed. Many times if the majority of the class got the question wrong, after discussion with the class on why, the instructor will "throw" the question out.
After practical skills testing, the instructors review again how the students did to find out if there is any consistency of incorrect skills being performed.We can then decide if we are not teaching that skill efficiently and review that skill in a different way. We are make changes on the skills assessments year after year because there always seems to be another or better way. That is what makes teaching fun and challenging.
Hi James, Thanks for your post to the forum. I base my daily quizzes primarily on the required readings to ensure that they are doing so. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career.
Susan Polick
I think that this is a good guide, but I have seen students rely on class material as the only study source for tests. My students need to read the text material and are responsible for knowing it as some questions do come from the text and may not be covered in class.
