This document discusses assessment and evaluation in blended teaching. It distinguishes between assessing student learning and evaluating course design/teaching. It describes traditional and new forms of online assessment, such as allowing additional resources on discussion forums. It recommends Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATS), like muddiest point exercises, for formative feedback. Rubrics are also suggested to make expectations explicit and improve student performance. CATS and rubrics provide feedback, reduce workload, and encourage learning dialogue between instructors and students.

1. Assessment and
Evaluation in Blended
Teaching
Summer Teaching Innovations Academy
June 6, 2012

2. Assessment vs. Evaluation
O Assessing student learning
O determining the quality of student work
O Evaluating your course
O determining the worth or effectiveness of
course design or teaching

3. How do you Assess Students?

4. Assessing Students Online
O Considering offering traditional forms of
assessment in Blackboard
O Rote learning
O Simple assessment of mastery
O Replace valuable class time with online
assessments
O Low stakes and frequent

5. Documents Process and
Product
O Instructors are able to monitor learning
before final product is due
O Offer help before final product is due

6. New Forms of Assessments
O Assessments may be offered in new ways
through online or blended teaching
O students can bring in additional resources
on discussion forums
O students “rehearse” a team project online
and then present in the f2f session
O Group work is much easier to document
O the entire process is documented

7. Types of Online Assessments
O Self Assessment: Practice
O Graded Assessment: Pre-test/Post-test
O Course Assessment: Formative
O Course Assessment: Summative

8. Tools for Assessment
O CATS – Classroom Assessment Techniques
O very brief writing assignments
O let’s you know how students think and feel
O complete as soon as a module is done (or
during)
O designed to provide immediate feedback for
both students and instructors
O lets you know if your teaching is accomplishing
what students are supposed to be learning
O provides a clear understanding of students
learning so you can adjust teaching

9. Benefits of CATS
O Less instructor prep time
O Students feel more connected
O Demonstrates instructor’s investment in
students learning
O Students become monitors of their own
learning

10. Examples of CATS
O Muddiest Point
O What has been the muddiest point so far in this
module? That is what remains the least clear to
you?
O One Minute Paper
O What is the one thing you learned in this
module that you did not know when you
started? or What are the 2 (or 3,4,5) most
significant (insert another word such as
surprising) things that you learned during this
module?

11. More CATS
O One Sentence Summary
O Students summarize knowledge of a topic
by constructing a single sentence
answering, “Who does what to whom,
when, where, how and why?”
O Student Generated Test Questions
O Students write test questions and model
answers for specific topics in a format
consistent with course exams.

12. How to Use a CAT
O Explain the purpose to your students
O Build it into your course as part of
instruction and assessment
O Administer CAT online
O Summarize the responses and act on
them
O Award small amounts of credit for
completion

13. Selecting a CAT
O You should first determine the nature of
the material that you wish to assess
O Three broad categories:
O Course Related Knowledge and Skills
O Learner Attitudes, Values, and Self
Awareness
O Learner Reaction to Instruction

14. More Tools for Assessment
O Rubrics
O scoring guides used in assessment
O designed to make instructor expectations
about student performance explicit
O Provides clear, well defined feedback to
students

15. Teaching and Learning
Benefits of Rubrics
O Instructors are able to assess consistently
through objective criteria
O avoids grading “drift”
O Eases workload for instructors
O Knowing instructors expectations
improves student performance
O Motivational tool for student because
performance level is defined
O consider providing students with examples

16. Common Elements of a Rubric

17. Basic Types of Rubrics
O Analytical rubrics identify and assess
components of a finished product
O Holistic rubrics provide a general
assessment of performance
O Checklists provide a simple list of
expectations

18. Analytical Rubric

19. Holistic Rubric

20. Simple Checklist
O a simple list of criteria and possibly a
rating scale

21. Conclusions
O CATS and Rubrics
O provide feedback to the instructor and
students
O reduces instructor workload by providing
solid information
O avoids the high stakes catastrophic
assessment that more often terminated
learning rather than extending it
O encourages instructors and students to
engage in dialogue about the course