Lois,
Agreed! It is so important in professional courses (and others) that students transfer their learning to real world experiences. You want them to use the content to make them better professionals.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Lois,
You make a great point. Can you as an instructor get the data that tells the story of student learning? That can be a problem sometimes.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Gweendolyn,
Your point about whether the learned skills can be transferred to real life is an important point. I teach nursing and the student learning outcomes are focused to improve practice. Also, adult learners want to know that what they are learning is going to be helpful to them and therefore needed. Being able to assess the value of the learning to real life situations is important.
Thank you, Lois
I consider the course and program student learning outcomes. I want to assess whether students have met the outcomes. Have they gained the knowledge needed to meet the outcomes.
I also consider whether the assessment will really give me a picture of the student's overall learning in the course. If the assessment is a project, the project should cover all major material and outcomes from the course. The student should be able to demonstrate mastery of the content based on the assessment.
Lois
Christopher,
Great post. You are right. You need all the tools of assessment and a good assessment plan to insure learning takes place.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
First, the instructor needs to clearly give the students the summative tasks, conditions and standards. Then, he/she needs to ensure that the delivery methods and formative assessments provide the students the opportunity to effectively complete the summative assessment IAW the lesson objectives.
Second, the student needs to ask the instructor question to clearly understand the lesson objectives and the summative assessment.
Erina ,
Yes, and you don't want the technology to be the barrier that will "taint" the results of the assessment.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Douglas,
Great post. I agree it is helpful to know how students process their learning and how they are using your materials. It may be up to you to make the change.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
The two most important things to consider are (a) the learning objectives and (b) that the student can demonstrate that they are meeting the learning objectives with respect to the assessment.
When you are creating or conducting your summative assessments you need to make sure that you the instructor have a solid understanding of the materials or rubric that you are assessing. I also think it is important to understand how the students process their lessons and learn their materials. You have to create summative assessments that are comprehensive and dynamic so that they measure the depth and breath of the materials in the assignment(s).
Stephanie,
Great comments. Yes, we have to have a plan to assess ALL outcomes. It may take more than one assessment to do that.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Stephanie,
I agree with you. Student centered learning means student responsible. It is not easy to break the habits students have when the come to the course.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Jacqueline,
Nice comments. For many types of content, the assessment must be tied to real world events or tasks. It is important for students to make that connection.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Jacqueline,
Great post. it is always important that we look at what the student learned but you are right, we as educators have to look at it to determine if we are on track with the objectives and student learning.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
David,
I love your post. Summative assessment should assist the student and the educator. I think at times we only look at student outcomes we don't analyze our role in the design or choice of the assessment.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Jennifer,
True, I think we have to also let students know what they did right. Both types of summative feedback are so important for student success.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Nicholas,
Agreed, they must measure what you attend to measure. Objectives should drive the assessment, the assessment should NOT drive the objectives. I think we lose sight of that in our era of standardized testing.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Sueanne ,
I LOVE your number 2! Transference of learning is so important and we don't always think about that.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
When conducting summative assessments, I think the two most important things to consider are whether it truly measures student learning in relation to outcomes. We also need to ensure the assessment is assessing all knowledge and skills. We want the assessment to give us a true picture of student learning or an all encompassing look at it.
Theran,
that is such an important point and I agree with you. We can do all these things, but if the student does not put in the effort, the process is ineffective. Do you think there are viable ways to help students see the connection between desire to learn and outcomes?
