Summative Assessments
When conducting summative assessments, what do you believe are the two most important things to consider?
First, I think a diagnostic assessment should be done prior to the course to assist the instructor in building the course, activities, or projects in sequential manner. Secondly, I think that formative assessments should be done ongoing to provide insight into whether or not the students are grasping the current materials being taught. I think these two assessments need to be considered prior to the summative assessments to ensure the students' success.
Nicole,
You bring up an excellent point. The ultimate goal of the summative assessment is to assess the course objectives. Although is may sound strange, some assessment tools may not be able to accurately assess the course objectives.
Excellent Post!
Jim
Kelly,
When conducting summative assessments, I believe the two most important things to consider are:
1. Making sure that I use a variety of assessment tools. Depending on a student’s style, they may perform better with a certain type of tool. Thus, using only one type of tool may not provide a complete assessment.
2. Use an assessment tool that can provide the instructor with feedback that can be used to improve the course learning. It is important to ensure that the learning methodologies in the course are constantly evaluated for effectiveness.
Sincerely
Jim
When conducting a summative assessment the assessment must be designed to measure the course objectives and skills required by the course. The second most important thing is to be relevant to the student requirements and instructor requirements. rubrics and evaluation criteria should be carefully designed to enhance the understanding of the material, not just assign a grade.
When conducting summative assessments, it is important:
1) For the instructor to understand what were the learning objectives for this course, or this part of the course;
2) Use an appropriate to tool conduct the summative assessment.
What do you think? Do these work for your courses, too?
Sincerely,
Marjorie Thrall Moller
Summative assessments should tie in to the expected outcomes for a lesson or unit. It is important to test what students are expected to know or be able to do after a learning unit. Students should know up front the expectations and be tested only on that. Assessments should be part of the initial development process.
Results on summative assessments not only show individual progress but can show class learning gaps if students overall do not do well on a particular part of the lesson. This shows a need for more content development, tutorials, practice and attention / time spent for this particular part of the course or lesson. Lyn Hoffmann
When looking at summative assessments, I believe that they need to be well thought out to cover the learning outcomes desired. I also agree with many in this forum, that it can be used as an indicator if I did my job as the instructor to enhance the student's learning. With regards to this type of assessment, I feel it is equally revealing in my role as an effective instructor and their role as students.
The first would be if the assessment has been clarified to properly function and second would be the time allotted. These are basic functions that can get easily overlooked.
I have seen assessments that clearly were designed to confuse or narrow down those who would succeed.
If the time frame is lacking then the assessment cannot be utilized to it's fullest.
When conducting summative assessments, I believe the two most important things to consider are the assessment is linked to course objectives? the assessment is valid and reliable?
Richard,
You are right, the assessments are so important for us. That is our accountability too.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I think it is great how we acknowledge that these assments are also for the instructor. So often we forget to reflect on our roles and responsibilitie as educators. Are we presenting the material in a diversified manner, are we engaging, are our medians relevant?
These are all aspects we must take into consideration.
Dawn,
You make a great point. You want students to connect the learning with previous learning, experiences, and real life experiences. Students tend to retain the knowledge better and longer.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
When using summative assessment, I believe that it is important to relate the topics and objectives to real life situations, and whether students can take these learned skills and transfer them to real life situations.
Thank you,
Dawn
Karen,
You make such an important point. Timing is everything and we don't really think about that. Great post!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Eric,
That is true! It should correspond with the outcomes but that is what you want students to know and to do.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Heather,
True, and they should match your objective of the course. They all should lead to learning.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
When conducting summative assessments, I believe ensuring that the assessment is occurring at the correct point in the course and that the student has been exposed to the information at an optimal level. The instructor should be careful that the summative assessment does not cover too much information which could cause the student to be unsuccessful.
Secondly the Summative Assessment should cover a degree of learning levels so the student can demonstrate their knowledge or skill.
Aundrea,
You make such an important point. There must be a connection between the assessment and the learning objective and students must understand that connection. Our students in higher ed don't want busy work they want something that makes sense to them regarding their learning and they deserve it.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
1. First does the summative assessment directly map to the corresponding course learning outcomes/objectives (CLOs)?
2. Second does the assessment measure what it intends to measure (validity)?
