The instructor designs and utilizes a variety of formative and summative assessments to help students achieve the course learning objectives.
- The instructor includes clear learning outcomes and explains the connection between these outcomes, course content, and assessments;
- The instructor uses a variety of assessments appropriate to the objectives;
- The instructor includes formative feedback and/or grading rubrics to help students achieve the learning objectives;
- The instructor includes opportunities for self-assessment.
Reflection
I was going through the @ONE program the same time that the colleges where I teach were improving their Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs). Some of the courses used to have up to 20 “objectives,” but the courses now have fewer, focused SLOs that are easier to measure. The @ONE program provided helpful information about how to take an SLO and develop an assessment for measuring it.
When I design a course, I complete the following steps:
- Obtain the most recent SLOs.
- Develop (or revise) assessments to measure the SLOs.
- Develop content and practice activities to help students achieve the SLOs.
Artifacts
The following artifacts provide a sampling of how I include a variety of formative and summative assessments in my courses.
Assessments at a Glance
The Student Learning Outcomes of my Composition and Literature course are straightforward and map nicely to course assessments. Each essay has a rubric of “Fundamentals” that apply to all good essay development and a “Focal Point” that apply to the specific SLO. I created an Assessments-At-A-Glance document that provides a reference for students and clearly maps each assessment to each SLO.
- View the 301 Assessments-At-A-Glance document
Grammar Tutorials
I use a Grammar tool called NoRedInk.co–that provides both summative and formative assessments–that help to measure grammar SLOs. I setup practice activities for students to learn grammar. When knowledge of grammar is one of the Student Learning Outcomes, I also setup Quizzes to measure the student’s learning.
View the following screencast of the NoRedInk tool:
- View the NoRedInk Tool video on YouTube
- Visit the NoRedInk website and enter the following class code to view the practice activities and quizzes: xke9w7kv
Essay Rubrics
I create essay assignments and develop rubrics that help measure essay writing SLOs. The following assignment sheet shows an example of an essay project.
- View the CauseAndEffectEssay-Fall2014 assignment sheet
Assessment Plan
I created an Assessment Plan in the @ONE program that reflects upon summative and formative assessments for a class. The document also includes different types of assessments (a quiz and an essay rubric).
View the following screencast that provides a discussion about how I was able to use my Assessment Plan for a course:
- View the Using My Assessment Plan video on YouTube
- View the Assessment Plan