Collaborative Notes by Digital Learning & Innovation

odli — 2024-05-24 21:20:00 UTC

Prevailing Points: As you read the article and watch the video, identify the main ideas and key points. Summarize these points in concise notes and post them in this section. Think about the overarching themes, significant insights, and crucial details that encapsulate the essence of the material.

odli — 2024-05-24 21:20:17 UTC

Aha Moments: Reflect on the content and note any surprising or particularly enlightening moments. These are the instances that made you think, "I never thought about it that way before!" or introduced you to new concepts. Share these moments and explain why they resonated with you.

odli — 2024-05-24 21:20:31 UTC

Clarifying Questions: Formulate questions that arise as you engage with the material. These should be questions that delve deeper into the content, seeking further explanation or exploration. Consider what you would ask the author if you had the opportunity.

2024-06-18 15:33:12 UTC

Does pretesting happen in areas of higher education? When one is teaching skills that are more based on critical thinking and higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy (analyzing and evaluating), what kind of pretesting would you use?

2024-06-18 15:59:31 UTC

The weight or % of points assigned to each assessment needs to reflect the importance of each objective (i.e. there will be heavier % assigned to the objectives/concepts that are of higher importance for student to understand than objectives of lower importance)

2024-06-18 16:16:32 UTC

Objective v. performance assessment: Objective questions have single/best answer and focus more on knowledge or skill BUT do not give the student the opportunity to use more critical thinking skills, organize and integrate ideas. Performance Assessment (ex, extended response, oral presentation) may have multiple "right" answers and allow students to use other skills that may better demonstrate their evaluation and integration of concepts.

-It is important when thinking about essays the difference b/w extended essay v. restrictive. While extended essays helps to measure students understanding of concepts/principles, can be difficult to grade AND can be difficult to show factual knowledge. Restrictive essays are easier to grade and show understanding of factual knowledge but d/t the structure, may not be able to see as much of the integration of ideas/concepts

2024-06-18 20:19:42 UTC

Testing goal is to obtain valid info regarding student achievement. Can occur before, during, and after instruction period. Many different types including T/F, short answer, matching, restricted response. Formative improves instruction between learners and teachers and assesses progress. Summative measures learners competency when marks need to be formally recorded (exam, end of semester, etc).

2024-06-18 20:20:52 UTC

The soup analogy is awesome

2024-06-18 20:23:00 UTC

What formula is used to decide the number of formative assessments that should be assigned? Additionally, does the lack of weight relating to formative vs summative assessments affect the motivation of the learner to complete the assigned (formative) assessments?

2024-06-19 22:42:46 UTC

Test items/performance assessments should match the learning objective (i.e. the questions themselves are based on what the student is trying to accomplish through each objective).

2024-06-19 22:56:34 UTC

Avoid ambiguity in writing test questions! Make sure sentences are concise, avoid overcomplicated vocabulary, and words that lack precise meaning (I am the queen of long winded sentences so I need to pay attention to this!)

2024-06-19 23:05:39 UTC

Tests that have a variety of learning outcomes (i.e. both objective test items and performance assessments and/or interpretive exercises help students learn that memorizing facts alone is not sufficient to understanding and comprehending the course content.

2024-06-20 18:18:29 UTC

Formative assessments aid learners in recognizing areas of improvement and also demonstrates their understanding of the content

2024-06-20 18:19:12 UTC

Summative assessments allow learners to recognize their progress in the course. They are mostly used for grading and promotion purposes

2024-06-20 18:21:00 UTC

I loved the idea of ensuring alignment of the test questions and learning objectives. The verb should match the learning objective.

Ex: If explain, use short answer; If identify, use multiple choice.

It makes sense!

2024-06-20 18:22:08 UTC

I appreciated the tip on keeping answers relatively the same length and to avoid negatives. I remember negatives being confusing on tests myself!

2024-06-23 20:56:51 UTC

Formative assessments are used to assess the learner's progress, while summative is used for formal grading and competency in the course. There are various types of assessments, but an essay format allows for the student to have freedom in expressing their knowledge instead of being constricted to multiple choice, true and false, etc.

2024-06-23 20:59:26 UTC

It is very interesting to think about assessments from the teacher's perspective because the results allows for adaptation of teaching methods to enable better comprehension for the students. Another piece that stuck out to me was formative assessments can be given very frequently for this same reason: to track the student's learning.

2024-06-23 21:02:35 UTC

I've had previous courses with no assignments and few exams, which sticks out to me after reading this because I believe it would be difficult to track learning progression with few assessments. My question would be how do the teachers track learning progression without many formative assessments?

2025-06-16 17:09:17 UTC

The whole idea of a table of specifications and using it as an assessment blueprint is new to me.

2025-06-16 17:12:10 UTC

Formative assessments, which may not contribute to a learner's grade, are used FOR learning and to assess progress in the course. Summative assessments are used for grading and to identify competency in a course. The decision to use an objective test and/or a performance assessment is informed by the learning objectives.

2025-06-17 22:53:47 UTC

Basic types of classroom tests and assessments include:

Readiness: A low-level of difficulty items for prerequisite measurement assessment in which the educator gains an understanding of deficiencies or extent of what students have already achieved in the beginning of the course or unit.
Placement: A wide-range of difficulty items for a course or unit objective that takes place at the beginning of the course or unit to modify instructional planning and advanced placement.
Formative: A formative assessment utilizes variable difficulty items for a predefined segment of instruction to assess any improvement and direct learning through ongoing feedback. This is typically in the form of quizzes and tests.
Diagnostic: A low-level of difficulty items utilized as-needed during instruction to remedy errors related to persistent learning difficulties.
Summative: A wide-range of difficulty items given at the end of a course or unit to assign grades, certify accomplishments, or evaluate teaching.

2025-06-17 22:58:19 UTC

I never realized there are different types of ways to assess learning outcomes based on the verb utilized. For example, "names/draws" can be assessed with fill-in-the-blank questions, "identifies/matches/distinguishes" can be assessed with multiple choice questions, and "describes/explains" can be assessed with essay questions.

2025-06-17 23:03:05 UTC

A table of specifications helps to prepare a list of instructional objectives (ie specific learning outcomes), outlines course content (describes the type of performance students are expected to demonstrate), and prepares for a two-way chart (relates objectives to the content of the nature of the sample of test items and assessment tasks).

2025-06-17 23:07:54 UTC

Objective assessment items are highly-structured task that limits the type of response the students can make. Cannot be in their own words, and the scoring is quick, easy, and accurate.

2025-06-17 23:08:32 UTC

Performance assessment can measure understanding, critical thinking, and complex learning where originality of response is desired

2025-06-17 23:14:51 UTC

I think a lot about innovative learning strategies in the health education sector and see how relevant and valuable performance assessment tasks are. However, there are times when objective assessments are required in order to meet state/federal licensing exams for board certifications.

2025-06-20 02:16:26 UTC

The reading highlights that assessing information's validity, reliability, and usefulness heavily depend on careful planning and preparation. The main goal is to obtain valid, reliable, and useful information about student achievement.

2025-06-20 02:19:21 UTC

The reading helped me to understand that not all objectives can be measured by traditional classroom tests, such as multiple-choice or essay questions. Performance assessment tasks are necessary for outcomes involving verbs like "constructs," "delivers," or "measures". The combined weight of classroom tests and performance assessments should reflect the importance of the objectives.

2025-06-21 17:11:25 UTC

The reading brings to mind that end-of-instruction tests that are primarily for summative assessment (grading), can also serve formative functions like providing feedback, encouraging advanced work, and assigning remedial tasks, or even acting as a pretest for subsequent units. This dual utility was not immediately obvious to me before this module.

2025-06-21 17:13:34 UTC

This reading shows that effective assessment requires precisely determining and defining what is to be measured to construct tasks that target intended knowledge, skills, and understanding.