Alix’s Exploration of Learning Technologies

In my LMS, I have included a variety of opportunities for both formative and summative assessment. Moreover, I have included opportunities for peer, self, and teacher feedback.  Under Topic 2: Cell structures, formative assessment is afforded by a discussion forum enabling peer feedback  and a quiz tool enabling self assessment. In the discussion forum, the students must develop a cell analogy (eg. the cell as a city or a school) and read and critique the analogies of other students. By participating in this forum, students must translate their knowledge into an analogy and then defend the analogy based in peer feedback, thus engaging in the social negotiation of learning. Self assessment is afforded by the completion of a study guide and a quiz. The study guide requires the students to summarize information from a note package. The questions are designed to focus the students attentions on key concepts and the desired learning outcomes. The self-assessment quiz provides pre-programmed general feedback that reminds students where they should be focusing their study efforts. The overall feedback from the quiz provides suggestions for further action based on the quiz results. Formative assessment  and teacher feedback is provided by a concept map assignment that must be submitted online and an in class exam. The time spent creating the concept map also serves as review of the material in preparation for the exam.

The development of the assessment tools in moodle was, as usual relatively intuitive. Setting up the discussion forum, uploading the study guide and adding the concept map assignment did not take long. The discussion forum options give the administrator the option to grade participation either by number of posts or by allowing peers to rate postings. The assignment tool allows the administrator to control the submission time line  and there is an option to receive an e-mail when the assignment is uploaded.

The quiz tool was much more time consuming. Each question has to be created and saved separately. Each response can be given specific feedback and each question general feedback. Overall feedback at the end of the quiz can give feedback specific to the quiz results. Feedback and grading is not available for essay questions and thus must be graded manually. There are options to control: the number of times students may attempt the test, the time between attempts, and which grade will be counted (if at all).

After completing this assignment, I would think twice before developing an online test using moodle as creating a question bank along with the pre-programmed feedback is very time consuming. However, once a question bank is established, the quiz tool could serve as a powerful assessment tool providing valuable feedback to the students with little effort from the teacher.

Assessment is a powerful  determinant of the goals of both teachers and learners (Jenkins 2004). According to  Brown and Glasner (1999), assessment can be used for the following reasons:

•    providing feedback
•    grading
•    enabling students to correct errors
•    motivating students
•    consolidating learning
•    applying abstract ideas to practical examples
•    estimating students’ potential
•    guiding selection or option choice
•    giving staff feedback on how effective their teaching has been
•    providing statistics for internal and external uses.

Gibbs and Simpson (2004) purport that  it “assessment has an overwhelming influence on what, how and how much students study” .
As such, they describe ten conditions under which assessment can support learning.:

A. The effects of design of assessment tools on volume, focus and quality of studying
Conditions:
1. Sufficient assessed tasks are provided for students to capture sufficient study time

2. These tasks are engaged with by students, orienting them to allocate appropriate amounts of time and effort to the most important aspects of the course.

3. Tackling the assessed task engages students in productive learning activity of an appropriate kind

B. The effect of feedback on learning
Conditions:
4. Sufficient feedback is provided, both often enough and in enough detail

5. The feedback focuses on students’ performance, on their learning and on actions under the students’ control, rather than on the students themselves and on their characteristics

6. The feedback is timely in that it is received by students while it still matters to them and in time for them to pay attention to further learning or receive further assistance

7. Feedback is appropriate to the purpose of the assignment and to its criteria for success

8. Feedback is appropriate, in relation to students’ understanding of what they are supposed to be doing

9. Feedback is received and attended to

10. Feedback is acted upon by the student

References:

Gibbs, G. and Simpson, C. (2005).  “Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning.” Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

Jenkins, M. (2004).  “Unfulfilled Promise: formative assessment using computer-aided assessment.” Learning and Teaching in Higher Education , i, 67-80.