Assessment Tools

Rationale – Assessment Tools Moodle LMS

Gibbs and Simpson (2005) are right in arguing that assessment should be designed “to support worthwhile learning”, and avoid students working out the ‘hidden curriculum” or just working to pass a particular assessment, be it summative or formative. They also make some valid points regarding students not bothering with assessments if the grade does not count, and of how “exams are very poor predictors of subsequent performance”. Their findings regarding the need to choose and space out assignments correctly so that they serve as part of the learning process is also important to keep in mind. However, despite their findings regarding exams being poor predictors, and of students obtaining higher marks in courses that rely more on assignments, I think a balance between summative and formative assessment and between types of assessments is important. If as the authors argue: “students need chances to reflect on what they have learnt, what they still have to learn, and how to assess themselves”, then exams and quizzes can be useful, but not as the only means of assessment. A balance must be achieved between not only the type of assessment, but also the grading, rating or feedback system depending on the objective(s) behind the assessment. It is within this reasoning that I would like to place the sample Quiz in my Moodle course.
The sample Quiz in my Moodle course would be used as a formative assessment in order for students to reflect on what they have learnt. Personally, I feel the quiz formats we were asked to use for this assignment, lend themselves to other subjects that have clear one word or right and wrong answers; this is not the case in literature. I fear that as a result, I would still have to check some of the students’ answers like I do with a paper and pencil quiz, where students often come up with different but acceptable answers.
So far, I have not found Moodle as friendly as they say. I am more linguistic than visual, so the icons don’t work for me. For example, I started my Quiz and interrupted it, and when I went back to it, it took me quite a while to find how to edit it. I also could not find where to put additional instructions for each section of the exam. Once I discovered everything, the process was fairly quick, but having used Blackboard and the Macmillan English Campus tools,I find Moodle is not as straight forward as they say. Perhaps they should add the option of switching the icons for words? Just a thought.

References
Alderson, J.C, C. Clapham and D. Wall (1995)” Language Test Construction and Evaluation”. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bechman, L.F. and A.S. Palmer (1996)” Language Testing in Practice”. Oxford: Oxford university Press.

Douglas Brown, H. (2000) “Principles of Language Learning and Teachin” (4th ed). England: Longman. (Chapter 10)

Gibbs,G. & C. Simpson (2005). “Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning”. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf 23/06/09.

Gronlund, N. E (1983) “Medición y Evaluación en la Enseñanza”. México: Editorial Pax.[In English: Measurement and Evaluation in Teaching]

Kubiszyn, T. and G. Borich (1990) “Educational Testing and Measurement: Classroom application and practice”. USA: Harper Collins, (Chapter 5)

Omaggio – Hadley, A. (1986) “Language Teaching in Context”. Boston: Heinle &Heinle (Chapter 9)