Reshaping Assessment for Today’s Learners

Faculty of Health Sciences Semester 2, 2009

Paula Williams eLearning Consultant from ACU

About this workshop

9.00 Welcome9.05 Icebreaker: VARK, (Paula)9.45 Diversifying assessment strategies (Trevor)10.00 Types of assessment (Paula)10.15 Brainstorm 10.30 Break

About this workshop (2)

10.45 Blackboard quizzes (Trevor)11.00 Writing quiz questions (Paula)11.20 More things about quizzes (Trevor)11.40 Rubrics and BB gradebook (Trevor) 12.00 Ways to save time marking (Paula)12.20 Process of redesign (Paula)

12.30 Evaluation & Close (lunch)

VARK

• Visual• Auditory• Read/Write• Kinesthetic

We have 15 minutes to talk about VARK

Example: think of a simple learning activity

• Aim: teach your students correct activity eg could be a clinical technique/procdure

• Task: In groups, write learning outcomes and design assessment task

• Discuss: how would your assessment task suit different VARK styles?

We have 20 minutes for this activity

Diversifying Assessment Strategies• Focus on written assessment is flawed• Assessment in universities based on elite• And yet…focus on written assessment is really,

really important• Two reasons to diversify assessment:

1. More diverse assessment benefits more diverse learners2. More diverse assessment strategies makes it easier to

focus on the development of written assessment skills

We have 15 minutes to talk about diversifying assessment

Learner Benefits of Diverse Assessment

• ACU assessment policy says: “Assessment tasks … should be of different types to address students’ differing learning styles.”

• As well as addressing students’ learning style differences, diverse assessment strategies builds diverse skill development. Including the development of written skills.

Developing written – and other – assessment skills

1. We know that written skills are important and are a mark of the university-educated person

2. Marking and providing feedback on written work is very time consuming for staff

3. Written assessment may not be the only – or indeed best – way of assessing some learning objectives

Diversifying assessment (for the visually oriented)

Written Assessment

Written Assessment

Quizzes

Oral Recording

Photo Story

} Reduced marking time

} Focused marking time

Types of Assessment

• Remember VARK?• Assessment that suits:

– Visual learners?– Auditory learners?– Read/write learners?– Kinesthetic learners?

We have 15 minutes to talk about types of assessment

Types of assessment (2)

• Visual examples:– Draw a diagram or flowchart– Create a webpage– Photo story

• Auditory examples:– Make a podcast– Give a presentation

Types of Assessment (3)

• Read/write example– Definitions, Dictionaries and glossaries – Essays

• Kinesthetic example– Trial and error, hands-on activities – Displays, Dioramas, posters, task cards

Brainstorm

• In pairs, brainstorm the types of assessment you could use in your unit for 5 minutes, then swap

• Challenge: try to think of examples that are not writing-based

We have 15 minutes to talk brainstorm

Time for a break

Blackboard quizzes

• Blackboard quizzes – MCQs … and more– Calculated– Combination– Fill in the blank– Matching

Examples of quiz types

• Lets do it in Blackboard

Writing quiz questions

• In groups, write quiz questions that will assess some aspect of handwashing

• Challenge: try to create auto-marked questions that are not multiple choice

A few more things about quizzes

• Quiz scores can be weighted –they do not all have to be equal

• Quiz questions can be designated according to our marking scheme

• Short activity: are your questions: Pass, Credit, Distinction, High Distinction level?

Rubrics

Blackboard’s Gradebook

Ways to save time Marking

• Quiz• Rubrics• Peer assessment• Talking is faster than writing:

– Multimedia– Audio assessment and feedback

How to go about Redesigning your Assessment

• Allow around 1.5 days in total1. Initial idea, chat to someone about it2. Redesign (expect to take a full day)3. Consult with others to get feedback4. Revise on basis of feedback

Follow-up activities

• Paula around this afternoon and tomorrow• Website available in Sharepoint• Blog it!

Thank you

• This is the end of Reshaping assessment for today’s learners.

• Please complete an evaluation.