Assessment
A Reflection on Assessment and Assessment tools.
Teachers and students are linked to each other in a necessary world of assessment, which they traditionally have disliked (Gibbs and Simpson, 2005). Whether it be diagnostic, formative or summative, assessment is only effective when it is relevant, timely and meaningful to the student being assessed (Gibbs and Simpson, 2005). Luckily in our new world of teaching, there are new tools available to help create a more positive experience for teachers and students to help support student learning.
I have used online quizzes and marking programs such as Quia and classmarker.com to save time in providing quick assessment with online marking tools. However, with the tools offered with a Moodle course shell I found I was more in control of every little detail from providing the assessment time and instructions to more importantly providing meaningful feedback to the students taking the test/quiz/survey. Other tools such as timed delivery, repeated practice and importing pictures help to make quizzes more connected to students and helps highlight the meaning behind the assignments, and my goal is to make the assessments more about extending learning through the test/quiz.
Learning takes time and if students don’t spend enough time on material they won’t learn it (Chickering & Gamson, in Gibbs & Simpson, 2005). Using etests and quizzes allow me the opportunity to extend student learning through both specific and general feedback and even provide opportunities to direct students to information to support answering questions.
Students need the connection to purpose and what/why/how they are being assessed(Egan, 2010). Having clear online instructions and direction can prevent misinterpretations in language and meaning, especially since they are posted online and can be easily reference time and again by students.
In all, I truly value the assessment tools available online and those provided within the Moodle shell. These are invaluable in supporting student learning and engagement, as well as supporting teachers and teaching assessment. I fully anticipate creating my courses supported through Moodle modules and Moodle assessment.
Gibbs, G. and Simpson, C. (2005). “Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning.” Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Accessed online 11 March 2009 http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf