Assignments, Assessment, Grading, and Cheating

1. Assignments, Assessment, Grading, and Cheating John Jones Director, Media Resources Center

2. We’re doing how much? (Agenda) • Introduction • Assignments • Assessment & Grading • Cheating • Questions

3. Introduction • The Importance of Blackboard • Collection resources • Communicate with students • Assess student work • Grading

4. Assignments

5. The Importance of Clear Objectives • Course Objectives – what will students be able to do as a result of having taken this course • Unit Objectives – what will students be able to do as a result of completing this unit? • Objectives are now a required part of your course syllabus, and are reviewed by your department chair • In some cases, they may already be designed for you

6. Interaction Modes • Student to content • Student to instructor • Student to student • Student to community or workplace

7. Applied Learning • Can you design an Applied Learning assignment for your class? • Service Learning and volunteerism (a type of applied learning) • Mentorships • Research within the academic area • Consider the type of work done by people who work in your field • Is there a way to give students concrete experience producing that sort of work? • Can you connect them with a real-world business that might use their project? • Bring the experience back to the course objectives

8. Service Learning • What is service learning? “a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.”  -National Service Learning Clearinghouse • Can you design assignments for your class that involve volunteering or engaging with a community issue as a part of the project – we have models and examples across many disciplines.

9. An Argument for Alternative Projects • Multiple choice exams and essays are useful, but do not replicate work students might do in the real world • Other project types, if well designed, can allow students to demonstrate content knowledge in more authentic ways • A short list of ideas: advertisement, chart or graph, debate, game, legal brief, letter to a friend, literature review or annotated bibliography, play, poem, performance, video, web page, work of art • Rubrics can be used to establish goals and evaluate student work

10. Oldies Corner: Discussion Forum • Discussion Forums don’t have to be superficial and trite • As you adapt in-class work for online experiences, think hard about the outcomes and how they can be achieved • Don’t let the technology lead your decisionmaking

11. Assessment & Grading

12. Quizzes & Exams • Ways to use tests • Help draw attention to key concepts • Practice skills and knowledge • Evaluate student learning • Low stakes vs High Stakes assessment

13. Alternative assessment: Achievements • Achievements • Create a way to indicate that students are adopting good behaviors • These can be shared with other students if they do not indicate actual grade information • Celebrate course milestones

14. Grading

15. Thinking about Grading • Grades are critical communication with your students • Because of that, strive for your grading to be: • Fair • Timely • Clear & Predictable • Easy to find and access

16. FERPA and Grades • Grades are protected FERPA information • Don’t discuss grades via email • Don’t discuss student grades with parents or other family members • Make sure you complete your FERPA training.

17. Grading Strategies • Simple systems are best • Complex weighted systems are more prone to errors • Complex systems are difficult for students to understand • Keep good records in case of appeals • Keep up a predictable pattern for grading (timely grading) • Steal from your colleagues (then say thank you)

18. Using Rubrics to simplify Grading • Blackboard Rubrics simplify grading in blackboard • Can be used for any assignment • Can deliver pre-scripted information to students with a few mouse clicks • Well-designed rubrics are indispensable when grading: • Discussion boards • Written assignments • Projects • Presentations

19. Peer Assessment • Peer Assessment is a powerful but complicated tool • Many departments use peer assessment as a matter of course • Others don’t use much at all • If you are planning to create a new Peer Assessment assignment, we recommend consulting with Instructional Design and Access • Accessibility of student created content must be considered • Peer Assessment tools are tricky in Blackboard • Students will have to be trained on how to give their assessments

20. The Blackboard Grade Book • Blackboard’s gradebook is recommended for all classes, • Easy to share grades with students • Let blackboard archive your grading in case of appeal • The simpler your grading system, the better • Can your course grade be raw points? • Weighted column grading is the primary source of instructor blackboard tickets at the end of the semester. • Make sure you add the ”0” for incomplete work

21. Cheating

22. First: You’re not going to solve this • Cheating is a human activity • Some academic structures inadvertently encourage cheating • We can move the needle but we can’t get rid of it

23. What Encourages Cheating • Fewer, Higher Stakes exams • Content delivery without engaging student interest • Lack of connection to the class and the instructor

24. Prevention • More frequent, lower stakes quizzes • Projects and exam questions that ask students to draw from their own person judgement and experience (alternative assignments) • Make changes to the content and assessments with some frequency

25. Detection • SafeAssign • Available for all assignments in Blackboard • Checks text against a massive database of other text sources to look for substantial signs of plagiarism. • Generates a report – human review is necessary to make a final determination • ProctorU • Live virtual exam proctoring via videoconference. • There is a student fee for this service

26. Questions? Need Extra Help with these topics? Come to the IDA Blackboard Labs Tuesday and Wednesday (every week) 1-3pm Ablah Library