Category: Assessment

online teaching tips
Assessment, Distance Ed

Online Teaching Tip: Monitor your students’ progress

Mendi Benigni

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Monitoring Students Online

When you teach on online class, especially an asynchronous online class, it’s easy to “lose” students. If you are an OAKS user, there’s a tool that can help you keep up with your students and help you identify those that may be at risk.

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User Progress

The User Progress tool, located in the Classlist in OAKS, allows you to see everything each student has done in the course. You can see what Content items they have clicked on, their discussion posts and replies, all assignments and quizzes posted/taken, even when they logged in last. This is a great one-stop-shop to investigate a student you think may be struggling.

  1. In your OAKS class, click on Communication > Classlist.
  2. Locate a student you’d like to look at, and from the dropdown arrow next to their name, choose View Progress.
  3. The first area shows you an overview of the student.

    Screenshot of View Progress Overview

  4. Click on a tool from the list on the left and you will see the details for that tool. In the image below you will see the Content section, showing which items were viewed, the number of times they were viewed and the how long they spent on the page.

    Screenshot of the Content section opened up

**Be aware that the time can be misleading. It will not indicate if a student opened it and printed it or if a student opened it and left the document on their screen after they left.**

IMPORTANT NOTE: if a link in Content is set to “Open As An External Resource” (open in a new window) it will not be tracked in View Progress

The Classlist > View Progress area is a great tool that can help you identify those students who may need a push or who may be struggling. Remember, it is just a tool and shouldn’t be the sole measure of online participation.

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Assessment

Akindi has great new features for online classes

Mendi Benigni

In response to everyone going online, Akindi (our bubble sheet scanning application) has created new features that allow you do use the program in your online class.  This option is great for quizzes, tests, and exams that are time consuming to recreate online such as those with music notes, math formulas, etc.

NOTE: Akindi does not offer all of the anti-cheating features available in OAKS.

Check out the A Beginner’s Guide to Akindi Online for all the details and tutorials.

If you are curious as to how it works for the students check out Student Experience of Akindi Online Assessment

If you still have questions you can get answers at https://help.akindi.com/en/collections/2215712-online-bubble-sheet-assessments

 

Student Focused SLOs
Assessment, Best Practices, Pedagogy

Writing Student Learning Outcomes

Mendi Benigni

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What is the purpose of Student Learning Outcomes?

SLOs help us, faculty/program/ department/school, to determine and define what we want the learners to be able to DO, KNOW, & VALUE as a result of taking the course AND helps us design, evaluate and redesign the instruction for the future.  These SLOs are an important component of course creation.

SLOs should be: 

  • Student focused
  • Measurable and Observable
  • Contain a verb from the upper levels of the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

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What do students really need to get out of your class?

When writing an SLO, one of the most difficult parts is making them measurable.  The first step in this process is to

identify what the student NEEDS to know/value/be able to do.

 Stay focused on the knowledge or skills they will need to retain to be successful in later classes, in the profession, and/or in life.

“I want students to …”

I want teacher candidates to …”

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How to write an SLO

Step 1:  What do students really need to get out of this class? (know, do, value)

Step 2:  What performances, if achieved, would cause you to agree that students know it, can do it, or value it?

Step 3:  For each performance, describe the quality or quantity you will consider acceptable to show they have achieved it.

Step 4:  Test your performances.  Ask yourself, if a student completed exactly what is outlined in Step 2 & 3, would I consider them to have completed the outcome listed  in Step 1?

Step 5: Write S.M.A.R.T.  Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

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SMART outcomes are set with the purpose of increasing student achievement. They are specific in that they clarify precisely what students should learn, the level of the learning (proficiency level), the assessments that will be used to make the proficiency determination and a time frame. A SMART Outcome is:

Specific ‐ A specific SLO has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general one. To set a specific outcome you must answer the “W” questions:

  • Who: Who is involved? 
  • What: What do I want to accomplish? (USE BLOOM’S VERBS!)
  • When: Establish a time frame. 
  • Which: Identify requirements and constraints. 
  • Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the outcome. 

from UMass Dartmouth http://www.umassd.edu/fycm/goalsetting/resources/smartgoals/

Measurable  ‐ Student success is measured by assessment.  It answers the question – HOW, How much? How many?  The criteria should be concrete and geared toward measuring progress. 

Answer the question, “How will I know they’ve accomplished what I expect them to in this course?”

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Attainable but Aggressive ‐ The outcome should be set high but within reason.  High outcomes are not always attained but that does not mean it was a failure.  

Results Oriented/Relevant  ‐ Results tell you who has achieved proficiency.  These results determine which students need remediation or enrichment.  Relevant allows you to narrow the outcomes into those that are most important instead of trying measure everything in the course which can often happen.  

Time Bound – All outcomes are bound by a clearly‐defined time frame.  Setting a time lends a sense of urgency and allows you benchmarks by which you can examine your data and make relevant changes to move you and your students toward the final outcome.

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Examples of SLOs 

MODEL:  As a result of WHAT, WHO will be able to ACTION VERB + DEFINED BY EXPLICIT AND OBSERVABLE TERMS.

As a result of PARTICIPATING IN THIS EXSC 315, STUDENTS will be able to ANALYZE AND SUMMARIZE a research study as using concise and non-judgemental language.  

As a result of passing TEDU 201, the student will be able to debate major political and economic issues that have influenced policy decisions in education as determined by federal, state, and local agencies.

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role play graphic
Assessment, Collaboration, Pedagogy, Teaching Advice

Role Play as a Learning Tool

Mendi Benigni

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I was inspired by a Faculty Focus article when creating this newsletter.  This article spoke about adding role playing activities to your teaching to act as practicum experience but I think you can take it further.  The article states, “Role play can be implemented by college instructors and professors as an additional way to increase practice of skills within the confines of a college classroom among peers.”  Staying within these constraints, this strategy can be used in almost any discipline.  It’s just a matter of creating a scenario or roles/characters and having your students submerge themselves into the activity.  Hopefully, during this submersion, they will get to experience a practical skill or what it’s like to be in a specific scenario.

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HERE’S HOW IT WORKS:

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  1. Create your outcomes.  Write down the outcomes you wish to happen as a result of the activity.
  2. Write up debrief questions that will let you know if you met your outcomes.
  3. Create a scenario.  Examples include: “You are in a pub in Nazi Germany…,” “It’s Parent-Teacher Conference day…,” “You are a member of FEMA’s first responders after a hurricane disaster…,” “You are on a team of researchers who will look at the effects of exercise on…”
  4. Create the roles/characters.  On notecards, write up the different roles that the students will take on.  From the examples above they could by “SS, Jew, Woman, etc.,” “parents of a student with a learning disability, parent of an unengaged student, etc.,”
  5. During class, post the scenario on the screen.  Give each group a stack of role notecards.  The students are then given a minute to get familiar with their roles and jump into the scenario.
  6. Debrief. Set a specific time for the activity to take place then debrief with all the student groups.

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Uses:

Just a few of the possible role playing opportunities are:

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  • Classroom management,
  • Parent teacher conferences,
  • Student teacher conferences,
  • Mentoring,
  • Historical scenarios,
  • Exercise Science testing,
  • Disease containment,
  • Natural disaster recovery,
  • Interview with and Nutritional plan creation for a patient,
  • Interview with and Exercise plan creation for a patient.

These are only a few.  Let your imagination run wild.

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Minimum Final: F, Maximum Final: A, Current Grade: A
Assessment

Cool OAKS Tip to Find At Risk Students

Mendi Benigni

OAKS contains data that will help you know which students may be in trouble.  NOTE: this will only work if you have released the Final Calculated Grade.

  1. In OAKS, go to Communication > Classlist
  2. From the dropdown arrow next to your first student choose View Progress
  3. Above the Grade area for that user you will see three grades, Current, Maximum, Minimum.

The Maximum grade will give you a guide as to how that student will do in your class based on acing all of the remaining assignments in the grade book.

Grades: Minimum F, Current A, Maximum A

Important things to note before this will work properly:

  • Your Final Calculated/Adjusted Grade must be released for the student to view.
  • All of your gradeable items must be in the grade book (Grades > Grades).

Again, it’s a guide that you can use to find the at risk students and to help them make the best decisions.

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Assessment, Best Practices, Pedagogy

Top 5 Tips To Get Students To Read Your Feedback

Mendi Benigni

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WHY WON’T STUDENTS READ/USE THE FEEDBACK I GIVE?

A complaint I hear over and over again from faculty is “What can I do to make my students read and use the feedback I give them?”  Faculty and teachers spend so much time giving detailed feedback and notes on assignments only to find the returned work in the trash.  That’s because, to the students, the assignment is OVER.  They look at the assignment long enough to find out their grade then they are done.  To them, that assignment (and learning) is over and in the can, along with the graded assessment.

 

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SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?

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The most important thing is to determine WHY you are giving feedback.  

Is it to justify the grade you’ve given or to cover your hide (grade-centered approach) or is for the students to improve and learn (learning-centered approach).  Both are fine, but Grade-centered normally focuses retrospectively on the errors made and what was wrong with the assessment and therefore, a student is never going to read that or take anything away from that type of feedback.  Learning-centered feedback focuses on suggestions for future practice.  The other issue is that, even if we are giving future practice comments on a completed assignment, many times the student won’t need to apply that feedback until the next assessment which can be some time in the future.  By that time the feedback is out of the student’s mind.

Learning-centered feedback (formative) should be given DURING the assessment and the students should use it to BETTER their final assessment (summative).  During this process, the intense reading and markup is done at the formative stage.  For the final assessment, you, as the instructor, just read it and grade it.

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In my research on this subject everyone seems to say the same thing over and over again.  The #1 way to get students to read their feedback is to

DELAY THE GRADE!

Whether is a draft or a final assignment, when you return them only give the feedback.  Don’t include a rubric or a checklist or grades.  Students are more likely to read the comments to try to discern their grade.  You will then release the grade at a later time.

This is only one method below are more you can try.

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Top 5 Strategies to Get Students to Read and Use Feedback

  1. Don’t provide a grade with your feedback.
    No rubrics, no checklists, no grades.  Only you’re commented feedback.   
     
  2. Explain the purpose of the feedback.  
    Why do you give feedback and what is your expectation of them to read and use the feedback?  When they know why or how you expect them to use it they are more likely to read it.
     
  3. Build a connection from the feedback to the revision.
    Have the students read the feedback and make three observations and two questions based on your feedback.  You could also have them make the changes in the final assessment then write a brief paper of how using the feedback improved the final assessment or what they changed as a result of the feedback and what they learned from those changes.  You are basically requiring them to read and use the feedback as part of the process.
     
  4. Use a mix of feedback styles. 
    Try different feedback forms on different assignments such as text, audio, video, in person, interviews.  Mixing it up keeps the students on their toes.
     
  5. Prevent feedback overload.
    Don’t mark up every tiny thing that is wrong with a paper.  Focus on the most important things you want your students to glean and improve from your feedback (2-3 things) and mark only those.  Try the Sandwich technique: compliment; changes; compliment.

    If you’re giving multiple assignments where feedback will be given then consider scaffolding your method.  The first assignment, give the feedback but teach your students how to revise their work based on that feedback.  Then move to a place where you are leaving them on their own to fix it.  This is particularly important for younger students and college freshmen.

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burst the old bubble with Akindi
Assessment

CofC Officially Launches a New Scantron Alternative

Mendi Benigni
akindi is the new scantron alternative. the existing scantron machines will be decommissioned may, 2020

Akindi will allow you to:

  • have multiple versions of a test
  • print bubble sheets directly from your department printer
  • grade bubble sheets from any networked scanner
  • grade bubble sheets using your iPhone
  • immediately get your test results and test reports
  • use it as a standalone application or integrate it with OAKS and the OAKS Grade book

Uses for bubble sheets in the classroom:

While bubble sheets are normally used to give quizzes or tests there are other ways to use it.
  • formative group assessment: have the student complete the answers together as a team then go to their table and scan their bubble sheet using your phone to tell them where there are misunderstandings.
  • reading quizzes: have student take a short quiz on the readings or homework at the beginning of the class then use your phone to quickly grade them to help guide your lectures.  Also serves double-duty to take attendance and uploads the grade into the OAKS Grade item.
  • post class test for understanding: give a quiz the last 5 minutes of the class to test for understanding.
  • rubrics: use them to score a rubric
  • evaluation: use them as a likert scale to do a mid-semester student evaluation of the class.
I know you may be thinking, “Can’t I do all this in OAKS?”  Well, yes you can but that requires all of your students to have and bring a laptop to class daily.  Also, when taking an in-class quiz or test in OAKS students can see each others’ screens.

Learn more about Akindi and tutorials on how to use it