Assessment and Evaluation
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Using Authentic Assessment to Integrate Current Events Into Courses
Authentic assessments are activities, whether for marks or not, that involve students addressing “real-world” problems in a way that reflects activities they might engage in as professionals in the discipline. Authentic assessments can provide several benefits to both students and instructors, including: Enabling students to engage with current issues to increase engagement in learning actively Allowing students to see the role the discipline may play in addressing issues Broadening the audience, which may lead to increased effort and quality Sharing potential solutions outside of the institution is “what the world needs.” Reducing issues around academic integrity When creating such activities for your students, there are a number of things that…
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13 tips for talking to students about academic integrity
Do you wonder how best to speak with students about academic integrity?Here is a great resource from Kwantlen Polytechnic University, developed by Dr. Kristie Durkewich (thanks again for creating this, Kristie, and for the CC-BY license). Watch this eight minute video for 13 tips of “pure academic integrity gold”, as one of our USask Educational Development Specialists put it. Kristie makes a particular point about the ways we “signal” to students our commitment to fostering and developing students’ academic integrity. This is an overview of Kristie’s 13 tips, with some USask resources added. Have a dialogue about the importance of academic integrity and review the policy. (here is the USask…
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Academic Integrity ‘Talking Points’ for Instructors
In addition to pointing students to the USask academic misconduct policy (a minimum requirement as part of your syllabus), it’s important to talk about academic integrity and academic misconduct with students. Students need to know that: You know about academic misconduct and the temptations students face; You respond to the suspected academic misconduct; You prevent academic misconduct in multiple ways; and You care about students’ learning and a fair environment for assessment. Core ideas What you can say to your students I know sites that facilitate or deliver academic misconduct exist unpermitted collaboration occurs I am aware of sites that make it possible for students to cheat on…
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Deterring Exam Collusion Using the LMS Tools
Some exam cheating occurs as a “crime of opportunity.” That is, the situation has made it so easy to cheat, that some (not all) students think everyone must be doing it and then some (not all) are tempted. This is not what you want. You have multiple tools to address this. When students know that you have set up the quiz, test, or exam in Canvas in such a way that it makes cheating more difficult most will appreciate that you care enough to add this preventative measure. Videos have been created to show you how to use some of the tools in Canvas. Here you will find instructions on:…
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How to Make an Effective Rubric
Good rubrics have three key advantages: If you develop them, they help you align your assignment with your outcomes They help you have similar marks for different students’ assignments of similar quality (inter-rater reliability), if you practice using them with other instructors or your TAs They increase student understanding of the skills you want them to demonstrate and focus your students specifically on those skills Although a good rubric is very helpful, they can be hard to develop. This video describes why we use rubrics, common mistakes we make as we create them, and how to make a good one. Interested in more? View a one hour session from Sue…
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Considerations for creating an open-book exam
An alternative to the traditional time-constrained invigilated final exam is the open-book exam. “Open-book” implies that learners will have access to some type of references or resources during the exam, but the level of access to resources and time constraints are variables controlled by the instructor depending their exam design decisions. If you are considering an open-book exam, here are some things to keep in mind: Focus on the Learning Outcomes – When making decisions about exam design and the types of questions you are going to have on your exam, think about the most important things you want your students to come away knowing (your learning outcomes / key…
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What Can You Do About Academic Misconduct?
The causes of academic misconduct have been well-studied and the following points explain most of this concerning behavior. Research shows that very few students plan on doing things like buying papers or crowd-sourcing exam questions when they enroll in courses. Students widely report that their decision to “cheat” was almost always instead taken at the last minute, under pressure, based on one or more of these 3 concerns: Students placed a low value on what was to be learned Students had low expectations of success for themselves, whatever success meant to them Students believed cheating was widespread: “Everybody’s doing it—I’d be dumb not to” Low value on learning required…
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Sequencing an outcome
Summary: Align your course with clear goals! Learn how to sequence learning outcomes effectively to enhance student success and engagement. Date of publishing: May 14, 2020 How do you breakdown a course outcome into manageable sections, or chunks, of information or action for students? What do students need to be able to do with automaticity before they can meet this learning outcome? Here is a template to help you in docx form: Sequencing Template blank Sequencing Template A. My end goal is to have students be able to meet this specific learning outcome: B. Therefore, I need students to be able to do these three (or more) sub-components, in this…
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How to get students to hand in quality work by planning for choice
In my course, at this level, at this place of progress in their learning, what do students need to demonstrate to me? Handout version for USask Instructors What do I expect of my students? Offering choice in how students meet course objectives is rooted in inclusive education and that by providing choice we acknowledge and respect that there are many ways to demonstrate learning and students have the agency, when appropriate, to pick the one that motivates them. These checklists might help you think about “shifting the ‘locus of control’ from the teacher to the student” (Jopp & Cohen, 2020) There are three methods described: when students pick the medium…
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Leveraging Peer Feedback in an Online Environment
When students take courses in-person, they often find at least one friend in the course with which they discuss the course, the assignments, give feedback to one another, and so on. With the shift to remote delivery, students might have more trouble finding someone to connect with on their own. This post explores how you can introduce peer feedback into your course to ensure that your students have a chance to share their work and receive feedback from peers. In the best cases, they might even form friendships, but another benefit of using peer feedback is that the quality of student work usually increases, which can make your marking much…