EDUC 633 Assessments

Description: Read the following quote:   

Successful educational institutions in the future will out of necessity integrate the worlds of education, work, and leisure with leading edge electronic technologies as they become available.  The new model for educational activity will be that which is delivered by the institutions and acquired by the students in an anytime, anyplace, on-demand fashion. The educational institution of the future, at the post-secondary level at least, will not be a campus we drive through and view the ivy covered halls of wisdom, but it will be a learning experience we participate in while we drive along the highway, relax at home, work at our desks, fly to distant locations, collaborate with fellow learners, and accomplish all the other tasks required of us to be productive, useful, and educated citizens of the world.  It will always be at our fingertips, or at least no more than a click away. One of the major challenges of this new “at-our-fingertips” learning environment is how to assess learner achievement in an online course in which learner and instructor seldom or never see each other in face-to-face contact.  The assessment must be authentic as defined by Wiggins (1998), Bridges (1995) and others and must be effective in that it measures learning, engages the learner, is integrated into the learning process, and promotes further learning.  The assessment paradigm developed as a result of this study will be a step forward. (Drummond, 2003)

 

 As in this quote, the literature has suggested that the evolution of mobile and online education has revolutionized and introduced challenges for assessment. Take a virtual field trip to the library databases and identify several articles to answer the following questions:

What are those revolutions?

Online and mobile learning has revolutionized the way teaching and learning occurs.  Beeber and Boboc (2010) noted that anonymity has played a key role in changing student learning attitudes.  Students “may sense a certain freedom to engage in discussion and state viewpoints specifically as a result of the lack of face-to-face interaction with the instructor.”  Additionally, there may be more opportunities for student-instructor interaction and fewer constraints on peer relationships.

What are the challenges?

Beeber and Baboc identify the following as some of the challenges:

·         Student expectation for immediate response, feedback, and access to instructor via email

·         Impact on instructor time management processes

·         Need for greater initiative on the part of both instructor and student

Alden (2011) adds these to the list as related to group assignments:

·         Group produced papers are almost indistinguishable from individually produced papers

·         Assessing individual contributions to the final group product

What is current online and mobile assessment methods being used and what is there effectiveness?

Alden offers these methods for assessing individual contributions and group projects:

·         Shared team grade

·         Faculty review of records

·         Faculty review of student-generated portfolio

·         Peer assessment of team member contributions

Luchoomun, McLuckie, and Wesel (2010) also support Alden’s offering by suggesting the use of e-portfolios to aid in assessing online learners. 

Summary

            Assessing learning in an online environment can present a challenge for instructors.  Traditional methods and expectations from face-to-face environments may not translate to the virtual learning world.  It may be advisable for online instructors to evaluate the expectations of their students, content of the lessons, and learning objective to develop learning assessments that will adequately measure student learning and understanding.   Initiative plays a key factor in student-instructor interaction and may be a determining factor in engagement.  

Reflections

Based on your personal theory of learning, how should online learners be assessed?

            Since no two learners are exactly alike, assessments should encompass a variety of methods based on the subject and learning objective.  Assessments for a math class may not be similar in format as those for history or science classes.  However, some crossover may occur between classes.  Some language arts skills may be required for history or science classes for example.  Math skills may be needed for a science class.  The ability to adapt and integrate assessments into a hybrid format is a necessity.  Multiple choice questions are simple but effective tools to gage baseline understanding.  However, synchronous or asynchronous discussions would provide an opportunity to assess internalization of subject matter.  Portfolio reviews offer a holistic approach to assessing the progress of a student over time.

 

How is this congruent with what is understood, in the literature, about mobile and online education assessment?

            My proposed methods of assessing online/mobile students follow the literature very closely.  I think that flexibility and adaptability are important when deciding on the type of assessment used.  Assessments cannot be one-size-fits-all because learning is multi-modal. 

 

References

Alden, J. (2011). Assessment of Individual Student Performance in Online Team Projects. Journal Of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 15(3), 5-20.

Beebe, R., Vonderwell, S., & Boboc, M. (2010). Emerging Patterns in Transferring Assessment Practices from F2f to Online Environments. Electronic Journal Of E-Learning, 8(1), 1-12.

Luchoomun, D., McLuckie, J., & van Wesel, M. (2010). Collaborative e-Learning: e-Portfolios for Assessment, Teaching and Learning. Electronic Journal Of E-Learning, 8(1), 21-30