Get Your Students Hired
Sandy ,
I agree with you, a combination of assessment provides a clearer picture of student learning. It also gives students a variety of opportunities to show their learning.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Sandy ,
Nice strategy. I would think the rubrics really help evaluate the objectives on the assessments.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
We have an assignment that asks the students to describe and ‘rate’ their experience with several websites. This asks them to compare and contrast and offer their opinion on which site or product would be best for their use. The discussion that is sparked between the students is where the real learning happens, the students almost debate which product is best and others learn why one size products do not fit all situations.
June, this is a great idea! It can be so challenging to understand what some of the students are actually saying. It probably has not been something that they have dealt with for awhile if ever.
Showing them how their message can be distorted can help them realize how important it is to brush up on their writing skills.
Thanks for sharing!
Jared, this is a great idea. I have recently used an objective assessment to assess a student's knowledge base and then have discussions and essays so critical thinking and higher learning levels can be assessed.
I think a combination of assessments is a good idea, it allows us to engage students with different learning styles by using a variety of evaluation.
Thanks!
I use subjective evaluations in the form of essays and discussion boards. A specific grading rubric is provided for each assessment to ensure that the objectives are clear for students and that I provide consistent grading.
It is important to provide feedback and address how well they met the objectives as well as areas that need improvement.
Penelope,
That is why in an assessment plan you want the assessments to be more than one and varied in style. It allows for diverse learning.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I have too daughters with dyslexia and they freeze up when they have to take a test. They are brilliant students with test anxiety.
Tonia,
I agree with you. Using a combination really provides a more reliable picture of learning in compared to the outcomes.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Russell,
Do you use rubrics to help determine the criteria to grade the essays? You may want use them and provide them to your students so they will know how you will evaluate them.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Hi Dr. Kelly,
I have used a combination of both. I believe using both gives the learner the opportunity to be assessed by various methods.
As we learned in this module, true/false is very closed. Multiple choice can be too ambiguous, however matching can be too easy. Essays allow the student to apply their writing skills with the information they have retained. This allows the instructor to evaluate the students comprehension of the presented material. So again, all methods used are effective.
In my particular course the majority of assignments are in the form of essay writing. Since the essays are the only form of formative and summative assessment, then all assignments are graded as subjective evaluations. This would include the accuracy of the information and correctness of the writing style and grammar. Most of the essay questions included in the Discussion Board assignments are open-ended allowing for original responses and comprehension of course objectives and outcomes. Other assignments included in the course provide for subjective evaluation in the form of comparative essays that include descriptive evaluation, interpretation, and historical context.
Michael,
How do you evaluate the subjectivity with a paper? Do you use a rubric?
Kelly Wilkinson
I think a blend of both works well -- in an English class, for example, there's a lot of subjectivity in grading papers, but skills such as citation may be objectively evaluated easily.
lindsey,
I use the same strategies except I am not a fan of T/F. I do think it gives students a variety of ways to assert their learning.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
When creating my exams, I do my best to always include objective and subjective evaluation. I like the combination of true/false, multiple choice, fill in the blank and short answer. I feel that this gives students a well balanced exam and has something for everyone's strength. My students tend to dislike the short answer/subjective evaluations however.
Anthony,
I have learned something new about BMI! :) It is interesting that you use essays as part of the assessment of math. It really is a great way to make math real. That is such an important part of math. It seems to be a part of your assessment plan. Kudos to you.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Currently in all of my courses the assessments are based on objective multiple choice and true or false questions. Essentially, I understand that this model was developed to provide instant feedback for students; thus, I had to supplement subjective assignments within the live chat sessions. Additionally the individual projects that students are given weekly also assist with assess students ability to internalize the subject which is always best shown throw a subjective assignment where students are force to communicate in the language of the course they are taking. The beauty of subjective work is that it gives you a better understanding of the learners thought process. I am extremely concerned with a learner’s ability to express their thoughts because this is an indication that learning is taking place. Additionally, as an instructor one you read written statement of listen to a verbal discussion of the learners approach to the problem solving then you can truly pinpoint where there learning curve is. You are not really able to get this information from objective assessments. Primarily, students can become great at guessing and strategic test takers. In all multiple choice questions they are designed with two answers that are close aligned to the content, one two that could be eliminated with one thought process.
Assessments should be used to drive instruction and assist the learners. We also have to remember just as learners don’t all learn the same way they don’t all test the same way.