Online Assessment

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Have you evaluated all the learning outcomes with assessment so far?

yes

Consider reweighting your grades for the term & cancelling final assessment

no

Can you redesign your assessment to meet your learning outcomes in an alternate format?

Yes

No, I have to keep my exam!

Are you sure?

It’s going to be hard

Yes

Digitize your exam

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Consider alternative assessment

• Discussions
• Links to student video
• Post a word doc to BB assignments

no

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Is it MC?

No

Use Blackboard assignments

Yes

Use Blackboard Tests

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Have you evaluated all the learning outcomes with assessment so far?

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Extraordinary circumstances require an extraordinary response.

“This time next year, your students will likely not remember a lot of the material you're trying to cover during this time, but they will remember the connection you built with them. They will remember your flexibility, generosity and compassion.” Dukewich et al, 2020

If you’ve evaluated all your learning outcomes already, consider doing something fun for the rest of term and redistribute weighting of existing assessment. If you do though, consider an option for students to complete an alternative assessment in case they need to bring up grades and were counting on the final for that

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Can you redesign your assessment to meet your learning outcomes in an alternative format?

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The situation we find ourselves in is not normal. Given that, we are now free to adjust our grading structure.

If some of your learning outcomes have already been evaluated/met, your future evaluations can focus on the ones that have not (instead of being cumulative, for example).

You will need to update your syllabus and submit the revision to your department and your students.

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Discussion Thread/Forum

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Discussion forums can be an excellent way to assess student knowledge

Grading for participation can be a functional way of both getting learners to engage with material and still having a manageable grading experience

Can award marks for substantive contributions to an asynchronous conversation, collection of self-curated contributions, reflections on their contribution and that of others (which enhances metacognition)

Important to choose topics that are complex and that students can be challenged by and engage with from their own experience

Lower stakes way for ESL/EAL students to practice their English

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Student-created videos

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Students can show high-level learning and understanding through visual/video means, which also allows for creativity. Does require solid internet to upload but most can do the work on their phone/laptop offline and just upload later

Also good for presentations/group presentations

Students can put video in their own file storage place of preference (OneDrive, Google, Dropbox, YouTube) and post the link to it in a Bb Assignment. Learners should check the permissions on the file allow it to be viewed by you

Alternately, they can post video on YouTube or Microsoft Stream; Can make a YouTube video ‘unlisted’ and therefore not discoverable by others to keep it private.

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Use Blackboard Assignments

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Bb Assignments is the best tool to distribute and collect alternative assessments, some take home exams, assignments, videos, presentations and more

Flexible tool for asynchronous assessment

Word and PDF docs can be viewed and graded in the tool; all other files should be linked to

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^ this is a screenshot of a video tutorial. Clicking on the photo will bring you to the tutorial hosted on Microsoft Stream.

Online exams - important considerations

Things to remember for online exams:

• Everyone is under huge stress right now, including you; be flexible and consider that the norms are now out the window - ask yourself again, do you really need this exam?
• Perfection is the enemy of the good - we need good options, not perfect ones!
• If you must hold an exam, use fewer questions over a longer period, open a larger window of time to start the exam (e.g. start any time within 12 hrs rather than all at the same time) even if you still keep a 2hr exam for example; use test pools, randomisation to enhance academic integrity
• Now is not the time to try and crash-learn a completely new technology - use what we have and you are familiar with already; have backup plan if the technology fails
• Run a low-stakes test first - e.g. 5-10%, only a few questions to test the system, student access, and for students to learn the new environment; Consult with the LMS team and let them know when you plan to run the exam
• Not all students have internet access, let alone reliable access; most students have phones, but not all have laptops; consider surveying students to find out what they have access to

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Note: high-stakes timed exams should be a last resort e.g. where required for licencing or accreditation. See next page if you really want to run an online exam

Use Blackboard Tests

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Ways to do this if you must:

1. Create the test within Blackboard (easy enough for small tests)
2. Use a test-generator (e.g., from a publisher) and import your testgen file into Blackboard
3. Create the test in a text document, then copy it into a test-generator
1. Click “Create Quiz” and then download the zip file
2. Import the zip file into Blackboard Pools
3. Create your test
4. Choose “Reuse Question” > Find Questions
5. Select the items from your Pool > Submit > Voila! Your questions are in your test.
6. Press “OK” at the bottom
7. Then you’ll have to set all the test options - SEEK HELP FROM SOMEONE WHO KNOWS HOW TO DO THIS e.g. the academic continuity team or an experienced colleague

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Other ideas for alternative assessments

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Be creative!

• Simplify your plans and go back to your learning outcomes. What have you already assessed? Focus only on what has not yet been assessed. Let go of the rest.
• Consider ways to assess fewer concepts more deeply
• Get students to develop a concept map of the key topics of the course
• Web-quests are easy to set up, fun and helpful in developing information literacy (do require internet but not high speed or hugh data)
• Self-evaluation of learning e.g. through reflective paper triggers metacognition
• Everyone is focused on the Corona virus - create an assignment about it in your disciplinary context as it touches every aspect of human society

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