Assessment

Formative Assessments help monitor student progress to determine which students are learning various aspects of the course content and how well.

Traits:

• Monitors individual student learning.

• Occurs during the learning process.

• Is low stakes and/or ungraded.

Examples:

• Exit ticket with a question about the day's topic.

• Hold up a number of fingers to indicate understanding on a topic.

• Polling system.

Summative Assessments are used at the end of an instructional lesson, unit, or module to evaluate student learning. 

Traits:

• Evaluates individual student learning.

• Is a product of the learning.

• Is always graded (high stakes).

Examples:

• Quizzes

• Midterm exams

• Final projects

• Final draft of a paper

• Shuffle quiz questions in Canvas.  This prevents two students collaborating – one answering “odd” and one answering “even” questions – and then putting their answers together.

• Set Canvas quizzes to display one question at a time (with multiple questions displaying, students can zoom out on their browser and capture a dozen or more questions in a single grab using screen-capture for sharing).

• Limit the number of attempts on Canvas.  Consider allowing multiple attempts for low-stakes assessments (short quizzes) while allowing one attempt for high-stakes assessments (mid-terms and final exams).  Some students may in essence be ‘practicing’ with each attempt they are given.

• Create an assessment in Canvas with randomly selected questions from a test bank, making it difficult for students to share answers.

• Set a time limit for quizzes on  Canvas (but also consider students who may need extra time or have an accommodation –  you can give individual students extra time through the Canvas moderate a quiz page.  This helps ensure that only students with some familiarity with the content can complete the entire assessment in the time you have set.

• Use short answer and essay questions that require critical thinking and creativity.

• Mix objective and subjective questions. Weigh essay and short answer questions more than the multiple choice/true false questions.

• Offer several “low-stakes” quizzes instead of a single high-point value quiz – many students may not see a payoff for taking the time to look up answers online.

• Draw specifically on course content, modules, or lectures:  “How was sustainability defined in our Zoom session from Tuesday?”

• When writing objective or short answer questions, place them in the context of a specific real-world or industry situation.

• List vocabulary words as part of the alternatives to the question, such that the student would need to look up each vocabulary word to determine the answer.  Example:  Bacterial cell membranes contain: (A) Phospholipids, (B) Glycogens, (C) Phosphates, (D) Enzymes.

• Have your multiple sections take their quiz/test for the week all at the same day/time.  This minimizes the opportunities for the first students who take the quiz to pass on information about the quiz (or the actual questions themselves!) to their peers.