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Faculty Panel: Enhancing Learning with Low Stakes Assessments

12:30-1:45 pm, Wednesday, Oct 27th, 2021, Hesburgh Room 246

https://bit.ly/lowstakespanel

Please sign in & introduce yourself to your neighbor

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Introductions & Contact Information

Panel:

Sonja Mapes, Associate Professor of the Practice, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Mathematics
Rachel Branco, Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Neuroscience & Behavior
Kelley Young, Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

Moderator:

G. Alex Ambrose, Professor of the Practice, Director of Learning Research, ND Learning | Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence

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Logistics

Access Slides & Recordings:
Timeline Overview

Panel
Related Scholarship
Questions & Discussion

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How to cite & Share this presentation

Young, Kelley, Mapes, Sonja, Branco, Rachel, Ambrose, G. Alex (2021) "Enhancing Learning with Low Stakes Assessments" Faculty Panel, ND Learning | Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence.

Click here for the slides
Click here for the recording

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Traditional vs Low Stakes Assessment

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@gAlexAmbrose

Few

Macro

High Stakes

Assessments

3x Exams & 1xFinal�(3x20% +30%)

Frequent

Micro

Low Stakes

Assessments

13x Quizzes, 2x Take Homes, & 1x Final Exam (84%)

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Panel

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Related Scholarship

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Accepted Manuscript (expected Winter)

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Accepted Manuscript (expected Winter)

Homework:

-due every two weeks

-used Gradescope to ease grading

Short creative assignments

-due every two weeks

-creatively used TAs in large class

“I really enjoyed the problem sets and deep dives in this course. It allowed us to use what we have learned to real world problems and was good practice. Also not having a final or exams really helped relieve stress and make learning more interesting instead of stressful.” -Molec Neuro student Spring 2021

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Journal Article in Progress

Mapes Szekelyhidi, Sonja, Mulholland, Hsu, Kuang-Chen, Brian, Cracker, Andrew, Ambrose, G. Alex (Expected Dec 2021) “Flexible and Effective Assessment in Math During (and After) COVID” Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies (PRIMUS) Journal.

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"Getting questions wrong really is a chance to learn and improve, not just watch your grade drop."--Fall 2020 Student

*Spring 2020 shifted to emergency remote

Avg GPA: 3.03

Avg GPA: 3.73

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Catlin Schalk, Catlin, Duan, Xiaojing, Woodard, Victoria Weber, Ambrose, G. Alex (2021) “Visual and Predictive Analytics for Early Identification of Non-Thriving Students in an Introductory Chemistry Course” Midwest Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL) Annual Conference. Virtual.

Poster Presented

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How we can help?

https://learning.nd.edu/people_practice_areas/learning-research-assessment/

Summary of Learning Research & Assessment Services:

Conference proposal, presentation, poster and manuscript assistance
Umbrella IRB & consent form access
Research design, data collection & analysis services
Funding and undergraduate/graduate research assistantships
Learning analytics with data access, analysis, & visualization
Survey design, administration, analysis, & visualization
SoTL literature reviews & lib guides
Video observations & rubric development consultations
Focus group & interview support
Course/college assessment and program/grant evaluation support
Research and assessment design consultations and workshops

LEARNING RESEARCH

The Research & Assessment for Learning (ReAL) Design Lab is the hub for research on learning at Notre Dame. It connects researchers, designers, educators, and scholar-practitioners who are interested in studying, designing, and building learning ecosystems that maximize learning. Our network includes faculty (tenure-track, teaching, and professor of the practice across the disciplines), staff (OIT, instructional designers, and advisors), and students (undergraduate and graduate research assistants). With a goal of describing, explaining, predicting, and improving student learning to make it more effective, efficient, and enjoyable, we focus on student-centered active learning across a range of environments: traditional, blended, flipped, and fully online. The ReAL Lab team conducts applied learning research in the learning sciences, learning analytics, Educational Research, Discipline-Based Educational Research (DEBER), and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL). We believe in a human-centered, design thinking approach and work to balance Assessment FOR Learning (formative and student-centered) with Assessment OF Learning (summative and institutional-centered). In moving beyond basic accountability, the Lab seeks to measure improvement at all levels: learner, course, program, and institutional. Simply put, we harness the power of applied learning research in helping all educators build and share their craft as scholar-practitioners.

IRB - ADD INFORMATION

Reasons: Why work with us?

Deploy scholarly teaching approaches through evidence-based practices grounded in the literature
Improve students’ learning experience and Course Instructor Feedback (CIF) Scores
Generate evidence of teaching effectiveness, student learning, and impact in your discipline for promotion
Improve classroom teaching approaches
Increase student engagement/motivation
Innovate pedagogies, technologies, course assignments and assessment
Measure student learning and support program evaluation
Support program assessment
Contribute to the body of knowledge on teaching and learning (i.e. presenting/publishing in SoTL)
Align to / support individual college accreditation goals
Support grant development/assessment

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Save the date...

https://learning.nd.edu/events/improve-your-teaching-student-learning-with-classroom-research/

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Open Discussion