Alternative Assessment

1. Alternative Assessment GradSTEP 2011 John Morrell Blaine Smith

2. Which of these best describes the discipline in which you teach? • 1. Natural Sciences / Math / Engineering • 2. Humanities / Fine Arts • 3. Social Sciences

3. Think of a course in which you expect to be assessing students. How many students will be in this course? • 1. 15 or fewer • 2. 16 – 30 • 3. 31 – 60 • 4. 61 – 120 • 5. 121 or more

4. Now think of an assignment in that course that will be challenging to grade. What kind of assignment is it? • 1. Test / Exam • 2. Homework • 3. Short Paper • 4. Long Paper • 5. Project • 6. Presentation • 7. Other

5. Muddiest Point • What is the most challenging or confusing aspect of assessment for you?

6. Alternative Assessment The utilization of non-traditional approaches in judging student performance.

7. Alternative Assessment

8. Common Characteristics of Alternative Assessments • Asks students to perform, create or produce something • Evaluation criteria and standards are known to the student • Involve interaction between assessor (instructor, peers, self) and person assessed • Provides self-assessment opportunities for students • Provides opportunities for both individual and group work • Encourages students to continue the learning activity beyond the scope of the assignment

9. Key Features of Alternative Assessments • Assesses a learning process and encourages student self-reflection • Based on authentic task with real-world application • Topics and means of expression are of interest to the students

10. Assess Process of Learning • Flexible • Show development • Increases communication • Promotes reflection • Provides feedback

11. Assess Process of Learning • Process Journals • Interactive Journal • Drafts • Portfolio

12. Classroom Assessment Techniques • Background Knowledge Probe: short, simple questionnaire given to students at the start of a course, or before the introduction of a new unit, lesson or topic. • Minute Paper: brief response to the following questions: “What was the most important thing you learned during this class?” and “What important question remains unanswered?” • Muddiest Point: jot down a quick response to one question: “What was the muddiest point in [the lecture, discussion, homework assignment, film, etc.]?”

13. Authentic Assessment • Close to actual practice • Real world scenarios • Relevance outside of class • Larger audience

14. Student Choice • Choose topic or propose assessment • Help to develop evaluative criteria • Mode of expression • Visual • Written • Multimodal • Genre • Media

15. Questions to Ask • Does the assessment meet outcome goals? • Does the assessment enable students to demonstrate their progress and capabilities? • Do the assessments use authentic, real world tasks? • What options/choices are allowed? • Will the assessment be meaningful and engaging to students so that they will be motivated? • Does the assessment involve real problems, situations, and audiences?

16. Revamp an Assignment: 3-minute Paper • On the top of your paper write down an assignment that could be revamped into an alternative assessment • Consider ways to make it: • Authentic • Measure process • Reflective • Include student choice • Engaging and motivating

17. Grading

18. Denis Rancourt • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0HZDN6xXZ8 • http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/the-two-languages-of-academic-freedom/

19. What are the purposes of grading? • Evaluation • Motivation • Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic • Ranking relative to others • More?

20. What are the potential problems with grading? • Validity • Reliability and Accuracy • Fairness • Bias • Others?

21. The Curve

22. Norm-Referenced Assessment • Obtain information about a learner’s performance in relation to others’. • ACT, GRE, MCAT, etc. • Can take more than a year for a single multiple choice question to be approved. • Some instructors “curve” test scores for various reasons • Department requirements, personal preference, compensating for lower than average scores, etc. • Is the adjusted distribution fair to all of the students? • Do you have other assessments that reflect similar score distributions for the same students?

23. Criterion-Referenced Assessment • Define the content for assessment in terms of what knowledge and skills the student must demonstrate • Define a grading scale for judging student performance • Make sure that the assessment requires students to perform the same skills they practiced during their learning activities prior to the assessment • Distribution can take any shape

24. Teaching with Rubrics • Evaluative Criteria • Quality Definitions • Scoring Strategy • Holistic • Analytic

25. Potential Problems with Rubrics • Task specific evaluative criteria • Excessively general evaluative criteria • Dysfunctional detail • Equating the test of the skill with the skill itself • From “What’s Wrong—and What’s Right—with Rubrics” in Educational Leadership (Oct. 1997)

26. Class Participation 0. Absent. 1. Present, not disruptive. Tries to respond when called on but does not offer much. Demonstrates very infrequent involvement in discussion. 2. Demonstrates adequate preparation: knows basic case or reading facts, but does not show evidence of trying to interpret or analyze them. Offers straightforward information (e.g., straight from the case or reading), without elaboration or very infrequently (perhaps once a class). Does not offer to contribute to discussion, but contributes to a moderate degree when called on. Demonstrates sporadic involvement. 3. Demonstrates good preparation: knows case or reading facts well, has thought through implications of them. Offers interpretations and analysis of case material (more than just facts) to class. Contributes well to discussion in an ongoing way: responds to other students' points, thinks through own points, questions others in a constructive way, offers and supports suggestions that may be counter to the majority opinion. Demonstrates consistent ongoing involvement. 4. Demonstrates excellent preparation: has analyzed case exceptionally well, relating it to readings and other material (e.g., readings, course material, discussions, experiences, etc.). Offers analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of case material, e.g., puts together pieces of the discussion to develop new approaches that take the class further. Contributes in a very significant way to ongoing discussion: keeps analysis focused, responds very thoughtfully to other students' comments, contributes to the cooperative argument-building, suggests alternative ways of approaching material and helps class analyze which approaches are appropriate, etc. Demonstrates ongoing very active involvement.

27. VALUE Rubrics (AAC&U) • VALUE: Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education • Intellectual and Practical Skills • Inquiry and analysis • Critical thinking • Creative thinking • Written communication • Oral communication • Reading • Quantitative literacy • Information literacy • Teamwork • Problem solving • Personal and Social Responsibility • Civic knowledge and engagement • Intercultural knowledge and competence • Ethical reasoning • Foundations and skills for lifelong learning • Integrative and Applied Learning • Integrative and applied learning

28. Participatory / Consensus Rubrics • Have students collaborate in the creation of a rubric.

29. Self Evaluation • Create opportunities for self reflection. • Can you allow students to contribute a self-reflection as part of the assignment? • Could you allow students to grade themselves?

30. Revision and Test Correction • Create structured opportunities for learning and improvement. Allow students to revise papers and correct test questions. • Before or after assigning grades?

31. Other ideas? • Non-binding grades. • More?

32. Exercise • Think of an assignment on which you might experiment with some form of alternative grading (3 mins) • Share with your neighbor (5 mins) • Ideas?

33. Return to Muddiest Point • Other questions and thoughts?

34. Resources • Vanderbilt Center for Teaching (http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/teaching-guides/assessment/) • The CFT is hosting a workshop on January 26 entitled “Negotiating Student Expectations about Grades and Goals” from 4:10 – 5:30 • Furman Center for Teaching (http://facweb.furman.edu/~ctel/rubrics.htm) • RubiStar – rubric templates (http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php) • AAC&U VALUE Rubrics http://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/)