Crafting Meaningful Assessments: A Path to Effective Learning (FLEX#21702)
Presented by Saloua Saidane and Charlie Lieu 05/03/2024
Agenda (adapted from )
What is an authentic assessment?
Authentic Assessment | Low-Impact Assessment |
Requires students to do something to demonstrate knowledge and skills. | Requires students to respond to a question to demonstrate knowledge and skills. |
Fosters active learning. | Fosters passive learning. |
Requires students to contextualize and apply what they have learned. | Asks students about what they have learned out of context and tends to encourage rote memorization. |
Achieves deep learning, which is more likely to transform students’ views and be remembered. | Achieves shallow learning that is less likely to be retained over long periods of time. |
Inspires students to make connections between course content and the real-world. | Generally keeps learning confined to a book or other academic context. |
Assessments are the assignments and activities used to assess or measure students’ learning over time and, ultimately, their mastery of outcomes. They also provide students with progress checks of their learning throughout a course or service area. The table below distinguishes authentic assessments from traditional assessments and highlights some of their benefits. As you review the two columns, reflect on the assessments in your program.
Why are authentic assessments valuable?
Some additional benefits of authentic assessments include:�
What are some myths about authentic
assessments?
Myth | Reality |
Authentic assessments don’t work for my discipline. | Authentic assessments can be developed for any discipline. It is human nature to teach the way we were taught. Disciplines and departments also have their own cultures of assessment that create fixed mindsets about how student learning can be measured. These factors can influence how faculty think about authentic assessments, but they can work in any discipline. |
Authentic assessments involve big, complex projects. | Authentic assessments can involve complex projects, they can also involve simpler tasks, as well. |
All authentic assessments are summative in nature (they measure learning that has occurred). | Authentic assessments can be used as formative assessments too, providing students with progress checks about their learning. |
I teach online. I need to use quizzes and exams for assessments. | Regardless of the modality of your course, authentic assessments provide valuable opportunities for students to develop skills they will use in the real world. |
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Identify Learning Objectives
Select an Authentic Task
Identify Criteria
Create a Rubric
To learn more about these steps, visit the Authentic Assessment Toolbox by Jon Mueller, North Central College.
What are the 4 steps to creating an
authentic assessment?
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Take Assessment in Digital Learning, a 4-week online course from CVC-OEI/@ONE
Outcomes:�
Improve Your Mastery of Online Assessment
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The CVC-OEI Course Design Rubric is used for Peer Online Course Reviews (POCR) across the CCC system. However, it is also a valuable resource for individual faculty who are developing a course or looking for ways to improve.
Section C of the rubric is dedicated entirely to Assessment and element C1 is exclusive to authentic assessment.�
Reference the CVC-OEI Course Design Rubric
Get Ideas!
Learning Objective(s): 1) Describe the structure and function of human organ systems. 2) Evaluate medical claims.
Task: The first student finds a medical claim online from an UNreliable source (facebook, Quora, Dr. Oz, etc.). This claim must be related to a topic from the current course unit. The responding student researches the claim using multiple reliable and scholarly sites. This student then evaluates what portions of the claim are valid and which may be overstatements or fabrications. They also link the information to content from the unit.
How it Works: Students are learning to evaluate claims and where to find reliable medical information. This discussion is part of every unit to give students practice with this skill. This is set up as a discussion to give students practice responding to false claims made by others - they are expected to use evidence rather than opinion in their responses. Students are asked to link the information they learn to content from the unit to help them clearly see the connections between our class content and their lives. Students are graded on how well they summarize the information from their sources and how clearly they connect the information from our class to the topic they researched.
Resources: View the Discussion Prompt in Canvas
Contributed by: Suzanne Wakim, Butte College
Biology Faculty; DE, SLO and OER Coordinator; Human Biology
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Reliable Medical Sources
Learning Objective(s): Explain the structure and function of the lymphatic system
Task: Create a pamphlet that could be found in a doctor’s office explaining why a doctor may check a patient’s tonsils. Be sure all of the information on the pamphlet is easy to understand (aim for an audience that doesn’t have any background in biology). The information you should include:
How it Works: The rubric includes points for both the accuracy and the clarity of the descriptions. Students are being asked to take complex information and simplify it for the general public. These are both important because (as Richard Feynman said) - if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
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Contributed by: Suzanne Wakim, Butte College
Biology Faculty; DE, SLO and OER Coordinator; Human Biology
Health Basics for the Public
Learning Objective(s): Identify, compare and contrast various types of data and sampling techniques.
Task: Students will be planning for collecting data of various types using the survey creation ideas learned in this unit. Students will explain their sampling method and how the collected data would help them infer the result they want to study.
How it Works - there are two parts to this assessment:
Notes: This is assignment is given to the students after the first module to understand the fundamental concepts of Statistics. This assignment/project can be modified as an individual project with peer reviewer.
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Data Collection Project
Contributed by: Gayathri Manikandan, Compton College
Assistant Professor/ Math Instructional Specialist, Elementary Statistics
Learning Objective(s): Students will create a video to share their research project and findings with the class. Students will give and receive peer feedback on their research project and videos.
Task: Create an Adobe Spark Video of your social justice research project to share with the class that includes your argumentative thesis, main arguments, and one key source found on the library databases.
How it Works: For their social justice research projects, all of my students have chosen different topics related to a social justice issue. After they have written their research papers, they create an Adobe Spark Video to present their research and learning, which includes their interest in the topic, thesis stating their position on the issue, main arguments, and key takeaways. Once the video is produced, it is embedded in a Canvas discussion to share with the class and to give and receive peer feedback. The entire research project is scaffolded into several formative assessments that build the necessary skills before culminating in the final research paper and video. Students are offered extra credit for adding closed captions to their video for accessibility, and there are always a handful of students who take advantage of the opportunity.
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Social Justice Research Videos
Contributed by: Maritez Apigo, Contra Costa College
Instructional Designer & English Professor, Composition and Reading
"I got to be creative and share my personal story during the research project and video that truly touched my heart."
- Student, FALL 19
Learning Objective(s):
Task: Interview a working professional about the value of IPC in their role and present your findings in a 3-5 minute video presentation.
How it Works: The project is scaffolded into three steps, explained below.
Notes: Students are provided with two examples of model assignments; a sample email outreach template, and sample interview questions.
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Contributed by: Brielle Plump, Cabrillo College,
Adjunct Faculty, Communication Studies
Job Shadow Presentation
Learning Objective: Write original code to demonstrate the use of a programming concept.
Task:
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Contributed by: Prof. Tasha Frankie, San Diego Mesa College,
CISC Professor, CISC 190 Java Programming
“Explain” Videos
View Tasha Frankie’s 10-minute video tour of this authentic assignment.
Article that inspired Tasha: The Best Way to Test Students? Make Them Explain It On Video by Rhett Allain
Learning Objective(s): Apply confidence intervals and hypothesis testing to provide evidence for a claim.
Task: Develop a hypothesis test, gather data, analyze the data and use the results to justify recommendations to a client.
How it Works: Students form teams of two or three. Then they come up with a hypothesis and identify a client who might be willing to hire the team to conduct the research. They then gather the data and use a spreadsheet to find a confidence interval and p-value for their hypothesis test. Next they write a report that uses the statistical results to form recommendations for their client based on their results. The payment can be hypothetical, but the identified client must be real. For example, last quarter a team had the manager of a gym as their client and their hypothesis was that gym members would go to the gym at least two nights per week if it were open at night. Backed up with their data and statistics they recommended opening at night. The team came from three cities far from each other, but were able to communicate online without any issues.
Resources:
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Contributed by: Larry Green, Lake Tahoe Community College,
Mathematics Faculty, Elementary Statistics
Client Recommendations Based on Statistical Analysis
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Learning Objective(s): Students will construct an online “virtual museum” by collecting and arranging images of artworks. Students will interpret the artworks through the lens of a topical theme and analyze artworks by Content, Form, and Context.
Task: Design a digital museum that includes three curated exhibits “spaces” that mimic real-world museum experiences.
How it Works: Students choose between writing an illustrated paper or designing a webpage with Adobe Spark. Students choose the theme of their museum. Each museum must include 3 titled rooms with 3-4 works of art in each room. Students must write a museum description, an impact statement, and a description of each individual work of art using analysis techniques learned in the course. Once the project is complete, it is submitted through a Canvas assignment. Students also share their assignments with each other in a Canvas Discussion. The project is scaffolded into smaller, formative assignments that build the necessary skills in analysis and the Adobe web-builder before culminating in the final project submission.
Resources:
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Contributed by: Meg Phelps, Art History faculty, Ventura College, � Online Art Appreciation
Make Your Own Museum
"This was a very unique, enjoyable project. I felt we really had a chance to show what we learned, while getting creative ourselves. It was also very challenging. For me, even coming up with a theme was a challenge, but I had a lot of fun with it. ...it was a lot of work but it really gives us a chance to show what we have learned."
- Student, FALL 17
Learning Objective(s):
1) Measure and record data using the correct number of significant figures.
2) Perform standard chemical calculations such as: unit conversions, stoichiometry, and mole calculations
Task: Students will collect data for the titration lab and use the data to perform calculations.
How it Works: Students will titrate an acid with a base and record data with the correct significant figures based on the tool used to make measurement. Students are also expected to perform calculations and give the answers in the correct significant figures and with the correct units. Students are expected to apply the calculations used for the experiment to other titration questions using stoichiometry, and dimensional analysis by showing all the steps involved in the calculation process.
Contributed by: Chemistry Faculty at San Diego Mesa College
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Introductory Chemistry (Lab)
Learning Objective(s): 1) Use dimensional analysis to solve problems related to measurement, and metric conversions.
2) Express the answer to the correct number of significant figures and with correct units.
Task:
How it Works: Students are taught and shown in lecture how to do conversions and how to report the results in the correct significant figures and with the correct units. Conversion problems are scaffolded into smaller formative steps of dimensional analysis that build the necessary skills before being applied to more complex calculations involving several steps. These skills are learned both in lecture and lab.
Students are expected to set up equations for dimensional analysis that show all the necessary steps needed to get to the correct answers. Students need to perform calculations and report their results in the correct significant figures and the correct units.
Contributed by: Chemistry Faculty at San Diego Mesa College
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Introductory Chemistry (Lecture)
Establish a Culture of Assessment
The Four C’s of Culture | Strategies |
COMMITMENT |
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CONSISTENCY |
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COMMUNICATION |
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CONNECTION |
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How to Select an Assessment Method
Assessment Method | What to Consider |
Surveys |
Look for existing resources. What information already exists that could assist you in your assessment process?
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Focus Groups | |
Interviews | |
Observations | |
Portfolios |
Surveys
Descriptive data about attitudes, behaviors, opinions, values of an individual are collected.
Examples: Good to use after a large event (scholarship banquet, commencement, career fair, workshops) or after point of service - Financial aid/Admissions/Counseling/Student Accounting.
Survey Best Practices
Tips |
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Focus Groups
An interview with a small group of people to get information on a specific topic or experience.
Examples: Good to use for learning communities, Associated Students, students who attended CRUISE, student who used student athlete counseling, Department staff, etc.
Interviews
Purposeful discussions with a single individual to get information.
Examples: Good to use for cohort programs (EOPS and Promise) exit interviews, Affinity groups (Rising scholars, Foster Youth, CalWORKs) Learning communities - before/after, Peer Navigators, Outreach Ambassadors, Project Assistants
Observations
Observing what is there (naturally occurring)
Examples: Observe event set-up and run of show, event logistics, workshops, Welcome Week, cultural events, spot office procedures and flow, talk to participants, etc.
Portfolios
Collections of artifacts that demonstrate student learning.
Examples: Writing samples, projects, journals, videos, to-do checklist etc. Learning communities, cohort programs, To-do checklist for: career services, counseling, admissions, etc.).
View this 4-minute Byte-sized Canvas episode from Helen Graves, one of CVC-OEI/@ONE’s wonderful instructional designers.
Rubrics