knowledge surveys as an alternative or additional assessment tool in the classroom
DESCRIPTION
Tom Hickson, Department of Geology. KNOWLEDGE SURVEYS AS AN ALTERNATIVE OR ADDITIONAL ASSESSMENT TOOL IN THE CLASSROOM. Let’s cut to the chase…. How would you interpret these data?. Confident. Not confident. N = ~60 students. Roadmap…. Motivation What is a Knowledge Survey? - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
KNOWLEDGE SURVEYS AS AN ALTERNATIVE OR ADDITIONAL ASSESSMENT TOOL IN THE CLASSROOM
Tom Hickson, Department of Geology
Roadmap…
Motivation What is a Knowledge Survey? Applications of Knowledge Surveys Implementation Here at UST
MotivationIdeally, our course organization, content, and learning goals all work together to maximize student learning
Motivation
I was looking to forge a more direct link between my course goals, organization and content
I wanted to know what my students thought they knew
I wanted a low stakes pre- and post-course assessment
I wanted something that was data-rich and fairly detailed
I wanted something easy to administer and analyze
What is a KS?
Questions that cover course content. Organized by main content areas. May be coded to Bloom’s Taxonomy. Students do not answer the questions. Students rank their ability to answer the
questions on a Likert-type scale. For my courses, between 70 and 150
questions.
As a departmental assessment tool
One of three assessment tools we use 188 questions that cover our entire curriculum Administered to all graduating students on our
departmental “assessment day” in the spring Called the “Senior Exit and Knowledge
Survey” (yes, the “SEKS”)
Other benefits
Students see entire course content: no mysteries
Used as a study guide, students learn to self-assess
At completion of course, provides students with a detailed snapshot of what they have learned
Implementation: Blackboard
Give the KS as a TEST, not a survey In Blackboard, surveys are anonymous. We don’t
want that Take class time to do it Can give it as a first homework as well. Download the data from Blackboard back to
Excel to analyze
Resources
Nuhfer, E. and Knipp, D., 2003, The Knowledge Survey: A Tool for All Reasons, To Improve the Academy, v. 21, pp. 59 78.
Science Education Resource Center (SERC)
Perkins, D. and Wirth, K., Knowledge Surveys: Applications and Results