Student assessment in the blended learning class

Biggs et al. [1] and Bloom et al. [2] convince their readers that the assessments and learning activities must be aligned with the unit learning outcomes. A time-consuming student assessment known in the traditional classroom teaching can be replaced with the formative assessment and summative grading using i.e. oral examination, presentation of assignment in report individually. The consequences of the wrong assessment are the student threshold and low motivation of students to continue within the educational program. Assessment of learners during the course requires carefully planning and consideration.  Gikandi (2010) as referred to in Baleni (2015) identified ten principles that underpin the design of such assessment. We should be asking ourselves in our courses if the principles of our assessment activities are aligning.

Assessment activities need to (Gikandi 2010, in Baleni 2015:  230):
  • be authentic by being relevant and meaningful to the learner real life situations and experiences, and seamlessly embedded in the teaching and learning processes.

  • engage and support learners in individual construction of knowledge and meaning, making them feel free and confident to use their previous knowledge and experience

  • provide learners with opportunities to construct knowledge. Students should be allowed to share information with their peers online like in discussion forums

  • be accompanied with opportunities to provide formatively useful, ongoing and timely feedback. Elaborated, timely feedback not based on marks should be provided to students by both the lecturers and peers.

  • be accompanied by analytical and transparent rubrics that assist the learner to clearly understand the expected level of achievements. Such rubrics enhance student preparation for the submission of tasks and builds confidence in students to know that marking will be transparent

  • create opportunities that engage learners in meaningful reflection. Students must be allowed to reflect on their own understanding, i.e. self-assessment to motivate them towards achieving set outcomes.

  •  provide opportunities for ongoing documentation and monitoring of learner achievements and progress over time. This will nurture students to be self -sufficient and the lecturer will also reflect on students’ progress.

  • Teachers need to be more explicit in stimulating shared purpose and meaning of learning and assessment activities. There should be evidence of alignment of teaching outcomes and assessment criteria.

  • involve learners in multiple roles. Students should be part of planning assessment like choosing which rubric or what design of the rubric should be used to assess their tasks.

  • be flexible and provide room for multiple approaches and solutions. Opportunities must be provided for students to reflect by looking at the rear mirror of their understanding of the topic as well as how they have developed to be independent thinkers
We have carefully investigated which types of assessment are used in the blended classrooms, and found a blendkit for academic teachers:
“ For instance Riley et al. (2014) suggest that faculty ask themselves: “How well does your course make connections between learning objectives, course activities, and selection of site tools to accomplish the assignments? How well do face-to-face and out of class time learning activities complement each other?” (p. 164).
The most crucial step needed in each unit of instruction is the preparation for students’ transfer of learning to new contexts. If learning is not transferred from the place of learning to practical application, there can be no positive return on investment of the time needed to create, implement, and evaluate instruction. Students are smarter than we might think. If the lesson doesn’t apply to something tangible or if it can’t be used in real life, you can expect them to ask, “When are we ever going to use this stuff?”
One of the good options to assess is students is a quiz. We could assess the students via quizzes. It can be via informal quizzes previous to the final exam so the students train before the finals. Quizzes may give “bonus” points to the students who complete the quiz satisfactory. These quizzes can include a fazit so after the student complete the quiz and get the score the right answers can be reviewed.  The questions could be: Matching, multiple choices, true false, written or a combination. The next question is how to prepare multiple-choice quizzes. We have found a blog which will guide you through the design of quizzes:

Students can be already assessed during the classroom hours. You just need to find the way how to ask different types of questions. Here is our guide how to provoke active student participation in the learning activities and assessment at the same time:

  • Present practical or real-world situations to the students. These problems may use short paragraphs describing a problem in a practical situation. Items can be written which call for the application of principles to the solution of these practical problems, or the evaluation of several alternative procedures.
  • Present the student with a diagram of equipment and ask for application, analysis, or evaluations, e.g., "What happens at point A if .?," "How is A related to B?"
  • Present actual quotations taken from newspapers or other published sources or contrived quotations that could have come from such sources. Ask for the interpretation or evaluation of these quotations.
  • Use pictorial materials that require students to apply principles and concepts.
  • Use charts, tables or figures that require interpretation.
  • Ask students to write essay.
  • Provoke many discussions during classroom sections.
     
    References
    [1] Worsley, S., Bulmer, M., O’Brien, M. (2011), Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge in a second-level mathematics course. In: Hugman A and Placing K (ed.) Symposium Proceedings: Visualisation and Concept Development, UniServe Science, 139-44.
    [2] Kinchin, I. (2009), A Knowledge Structures Perspective on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Int J Scholar Teach Learn, 3(2), 1-6.
    [3] Gikandi, J.W. (2010). Engaging with formative assessment for meaningful online learning. http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/casestudies/255. Accessed on 10 February 2015.
    [4] Baleni, Z.G. (2015). Online formative assessment in higher education: Its pros and cons. The Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 13 (4).
    [5] Riley, J.E., Gardner, C., Cosgrove, S., Olitsky, N., O’Neil, C., and Du, C. (2014). Implementation of blended learning for the improvement of student learning, In A. Picciano, C. Dziuban, and C. Graham (Eds.), Blended learning: Research perspectives, volume 2. NY: Routledge.

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