Journal No. 1 - Assessment

The one part of the Intel website in particular that I found especially interesting and insightful was the page on formative and summative assessment types. Reading the Types of Assessments page was an "aha" moment that helped clarify my conceptual ideas of how assessments can be used to evaluate student understanding and knowlege. Having taken a course in instructional design over the summer, thinking of assessments in terms of formative and summative makes so much sense and seems so logical. Nearly identical to the concept of formative evaluation, I could immediately grasp the significance and possible benefits of "formal" (my words) ongoing assessment throughout the course of learning. Having experienced first hand the effectiveness of feedback from formative evaluation for creating effective instruction, I am in complete agreement that formative assessment is often relegated to a secondary role in favor of summative assessments. Unfortunately, formative assessments are not used nearly enough and should be implemented as part of a regular classroom instructional practices.

However, I think "formal" is the key word here. I know many teachers, myself included when I teach fly casting classes, use strategies to elicit feedback from students to evaluate student learning and adjust their teaching on the fly. This is good instructional practice, but only utilizes one possible strategy of formative assessment for monitoring the progress of student learning. As suggested on the Intel website, I think the best way to implement ongoing formative assessment is by developing a "formal" assessment plan. Similar to instructional design, creating such a plan not only ensures that the assessments align with the learning goals and lesson objectives, but more importantly that there is plenty of opportunity for assessment when all the "action" is taking place during the course of learning as opposed to after the fact. Although, I understand and agree with the need for summative assessments and do think there are effective strategies for designing them, I think the website makes a valid and important point that most of the information collected in summative assessments primarily benefits the teacher and not the student. That is unless time is taken by the students to analyze the result of the summative assessment and apply it to future learning. Unfortunately, it's often the case that students are happy to be "done" with the assessment and teachers simply do not have the time to spend and must move on to cover other subject material.

As I was reading through the material on the Intel web site, I was thinking of ways that I could use that information in current role as a GA in the educational technology department. The part of the website that I found interesting in thinking about how to use the available tools in Blackboard Vista to help instructors develop effective assessment strategies were the detailed tables on the Assessment Strategies web page listing overviews of the methods, purposes, and instruments for the five main strategies. Although many of the assessment methods are currently being used in the Vista courses I've worked in and have participated in as a student, I think there is room for further improvement.

A couple examples that immediately come to mind how formative assessments might be improved using the tools provided by Vista include:

• Using grading forms (rubrics) that can be attached directly to discussions and assignments. Makes it easier for instructors as well since all grading takes place directly within Vista. AND provides explicit feedback to students who can view the scored rubric once.

• Using the assessment tool to create non-graded self-test that can be taken multiple times to reinforce core declarative knowledge or check for understanding and misconception.

• Using the assessment tool to create non-graded self-test of prior knowledge to be complete before the course begins and again after the completion of the course

• Using blogs, wikis, or journals to have students keep an ongoing record of their learning (newer version of Blackboard 9.1 has more robust tools built into the system; KSU will be piloting to this system starting as early as Spring 2011)

In general, I thought the Intel website on assessment was outstanding. I will definitely recommend and use this resource when working with faculty to develop assessment strategies for use in their Blackboard Vista courses.


Resources

Assessing Projects: Using Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning. Retrieved September, 16 2010 from http://educate.intel.com/en/AssessingProjects