Assessment and Evaluation
- Academic Integrity, Assessment and Evaluation, Curriculum Development, General, Instructional / Course Design, Instructional Strategies, Program Evaluation
The Academic Honesty Bonus: Another Advantage of an Aligned Curriculum
[social-bio] In my role as a Curriculum Development Specialist, I get to talk with faculty about their programs and the many reasons to examine and renew curricula in higher education. In recent months, another advantage to an aligned curriculum has come to mind for me: academic honesty. I posit that the three following relationships hold generally true, and promote academic honesty among students. When faculty alert students to the progressive nature of the curriculum and convey to students how what they are learning now prepares them for, not only life after graduation but for future courses, students can better recognize the benefit of deep learning. For example, students can come…
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Weeds, Cheating and Success
[social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler I remember pulling weeds in a vegetable garden and coming across a strong healthy canola plant whose seed must have drifted in from the neighbour’s field. Was it a weed? If it had grown in the field then it would be considered a strong specimen, but what about in a vegetable garden? What about milkweed, wildflowers or grass? Sharing ideas and drawing on one another’s skills to reach the best answer, process check or polish a report are valued skills in the workplace and even within group projects in classes. However, during a typical test these same behaviours would be considered cheating. In his post,…
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Gather Data, Take a Timely Look, and Make Change
[social-bio] Recently, I read Fetterman, Deitz & Gesundheit’s 2010 article on using empowerment evaluation to renew a medical curriculum. The Stanford University School of Medicine engaged in a process of collecting data about their courses and providing that data back in a timely fashion to faculty and directors who engaged in reflection and discussion to create changes in courses, clerkships, and across the curriculum. Such discussions, timely feedback, and the facilitation by a curriculum evaluation person acting as critical friend were identified as key components of this process. The article provides details including how they addressed challenges for faculty such as balancing demands on time and sharing course and curriculum…
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Anything But …
[social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler Not exams. Not this example. Not that textbook again…Anything but that! Our rejection of a particular method or medium for teaching may be motivation enough to try something new. However, “Not ____” just rules out a single direction, leaving open all other possibilities. Deciding between the many alternatives involves setting a goal and sensing what features we want to change and what we want to retain. For example, “Not an exam” leaves open many possibilities depending on our goals. If we want to measure students’ learning of all material in the course, we can decide to keep the end-of-term timing of final exams. A second…
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Grades: Something to Lose, Something to Gain
[social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler At the start of each course, the syllabus outlines the assessments on which students’ marks will be based. Through this document, a rubric given with the assignment, or after receiving the marked up pages, students learn how we have chosen to grade. Specifically, they have learned if we are focused on loss or gain. We can frame grades as starting from nothing with everything to gain through phrases such as “Everyone starts with 0, work hard and you will earn marks on each assignment”. Whether a student’s goal is 50 or 90, they all start with zero and have nothing to lose. Assignments are marked…
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Signal or Noise: what do I really want to assess?
[social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler “The essential requirements of a course/program are the knowledge and skills which must be acquired or demonstrated in order for a student to successfully meet the learning objectives of the course/program.” (University of Saskatchewan policy) When I was in undergrad, I thought I was a good student. I would take notes during classes, remember the material, tutor my classmates, complete assignments, and so on. Then would come the final exam including the multiple-choice section with its numbered bubble sheet. I could read, circle the right answer, even write a rationale, but I could not fill in the correct bubble – I actually could not…
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Student Evaluations of Teaching: What are we really measuring?
[social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler with Sheryl Mills On the recent CBC Early Edition podcast, the issue of what standardized testing was really assessing was raised. I find a similar concern arises with student evaluations of teaching. The debate of the validity and meaning is not new, but recent findings further suggest that when asking student about their instructors what we are actually measuring may not be what we expected. We may be looking at the gas gauge to measure speed. We do not appear to be measuring learning, or at least the actively engaged involvement with material that produces increased confidence, higher attendance, greater usefulness of reading textbooks, and better…
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Tap into Students’ Desire for a Fair Incentive Program
[social-bio] In the December 5, 2012 issue of University Affairs, Roslyn Dakin offered a range of ideas about how grading impacts learning. Reading Dakin’s article caused me to reflect on some of what I learned from the senior undergraduate Education students who participated in my doctoral study of students’ understandings of academic honesty and dishonesty. Contrary to much commentary about students’ “take” on academic dishonesty, I found that students did discuss these matters as though they had a basis in morality. As future teachers, they saw academic honesty as a route to professional competence and wanted to know—deep down—that they were worthy role models for learning. From what the students…
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Course Learning Outcomes or Course Learning Objectives?
Summary: Clarify the difference between course learning outcomes and objectives. Understand their impact on student engagement and success. Find out how to enhance your course design! Date of publishing: January 14, 2013 What exactly are course learning outcomes and why are higher educational institutions moving in this direction? First, the distinction between course learning outcomes and course learning objectives needs to be established. Course learning outcomes are student-centred and are statements of what a learner is expected to know, understand, and/or be able to demonstrate after completion of a process of learning (Kennedy et al). On the other hand, course learning objectives are instructor centred and explain what the instructor…
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The Value of Timely Feedback
[social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler “It’s a challenge to try and be flexible… If we can’t do something when it needs to happen, then its timeliness is gone and we’ve missed the opportunity.” – Gordon Knoble* When the outcomes and assessment strategy for assignments have been plotted and we know what feedback students will receive, there still remains the question of “when.” When will students receive feedback? And why does timing matter? Timing of feedback is one of the predictors of students learning as outlined by Grant P. Wiggins’s 1998 book, Educative assessment: Designing assessments to inform and improve student performance, and summarized by David Wees in 2010 post The…