The two most important things are material you want the student to take away from the course and if they student understood that material.
First, we must ensure that there is a direct connection between the assessment and learning objective. Without this, the students are not truly absorbing the overall concepts of the course, and the assessment will not be a reliable picture of what the students learned. Also, the instructor will not have an accurate picture of what modifications or adjustments must be made in order to ensure that the students absorb the learning objectives. Secondly, summative evaluations should span a range of knowledge areas or skills. Every student should be developed in their critical thinking ability. While we should make assessments based on the lowest level of learning (remembering) through multiple choices quizzes, etc., we should not avoid making assessments also based on creativity (i.e. planning) in order to determine how well the students can apply the class concepts.
Ramonica,
You make a great point pretest does help you focus on learning and provide students with individualized help by providing electronic resources.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Kimberley,
What a great post. The objectives and the rubric are really the bookends of learning. How the students fill the gaps is what we need to analyze.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
With this type of assessment, in my opinion it is important to assess information that relates to what was previously taught and to make sure the dialog can be interpreted correctly via the computer to avoid confusion.
When conducting summative assessments you have to consider the learning objectives of the course and the rubric. As an instructor you want to know are your students, as a whole, grasping the material and is your grading a fair representation of what you are teaching.
Thank you
Valerie,
It is truly summing up knowledge or skills. You do need to make sure it is friendly for both student and instructor. I have seen technology for assessment that was great until they had so many on the website that it crashed. This was part of our state testing. Students were a nervous wreck but it wasn't their fault.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Cristy,
I agree with you. Students seem to retain the information better if they can connect it to the real world or to something in their careers.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
My thoughts on summative assessments are that the content of the summative needs to include the content of the course session. If it includes other information that the students may not have learned, the assessment will not be valid.
The other thing that is very important is the use. Is the assessment user friendly for both the instructor and student.
Valerie Miller
I believe that it is essential to relate the topics and objectives to real like scenarios It helps the student.
Sabrina,
Great post. How do you set your expectation for this type fo assessment? do you use rubrics.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Students’ should be able to understand an assigned essay topic by summarizing research article (s) and providing detail examples to support the topic which they will be able to recite the information at a later date. Secondly, students’ should be able to demonstrate a hands- on assignment after they have been instructed on how to perform the necessary steps. By demonstrating/presenting a hands-on assignment (learning Microsoft Word ), it shows that students’ have the ability to utilize the different MS Commands.
Sabrina S.
Erica,
What a fabulous quote. We were just talking about the problems with improper alignment. We have to make sure our colleagues know the importance and purpose of the alignment.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
When conducting summative assessments, it is important to consider how the material was taught and the intended objectives. A lot of times, the intended objective, teaching, and assessment are not properly aligned. Consequently, students do not do well. This is the reason so many students fail state and national assessments. And quite honestly, I believe that teachers should receive extensive training or master degrees in curriculum design so they understand how to align objectives, teaching, and assessment.
Khal,
What a powerful post! Both of your items to consider are so important. Those items are the purpose of summative assessment.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Jennifer,
The Assessments? What about output or data to interpret?
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Sarah,
Interesting statement, ". . . learning objectives form both the instructor and the student point of view." There is a difference. We have different interpretation of the output of the outcomes (objectives). We really have to include both groups and we don't always do that.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Dr. Wilkinson,
When conducting summative assessments, I believe that the two most important things to consider are:
1. Accurate understanding of the objectives of the assessment from both the instructor and the students.
2. Evaluation of both teaching and learning depending on the results of the assessment.
-Khal
They should be looked at from both the course objective view and the students view and if they met the course outcomes.
The two most important things that I think should be considered are the learning objectives from both the instructor and the student point of view. Were they obtained and if not what can be change so that there is a better understanding. Next would be the barriers of the course.
Both the instructor and the student see the course in very different perspectives and we have to take them both into consideration
