Online Assessment Techniques

You can lead a boy to college, but you cannot make him think.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)

Today our college faculty was invited to participate in a Webcast entitled Integrating Assessment Programs with Online Course Design facilitated by Dr. Keith Pratt and Dr. Rena Palloff.

For those of you who might not have been able to attend, here are some of the assessment basics they presented:

• Design learner-centered assessments that include self-reflection;
• Design and include grading rubrics for the assessment of contributions to the discussion as well as for assignments, projects, and the collaboration itself; and
• Include collaborative assessments through public posting of papers along with comments from student to student.

As to their suggestions on how to measure knowledge acquisition, the presenters listed rubrics, self-assessments, peer assessments, authentic assessments, and good questioning techniques to review text and course materials. They defined learner-centered assessments as focusing on learning, not grades; allowing learners to be empowered to take on learning tasks; giving learners input into the assessment process; and insuring that instructors retain responsibility for monitoring progress and assigning final grades.

Here is a quote from the conference materials, which gives a good summary of the topics presented in today’s Webcast:
“Assessments and assessment criteria need to be clear and easy to understand, should align with the instructional approaches used in the course, the context in which the course occurs, and the competencies to be assessed.”

If you have used successful online assessment techniques, please share them with our readers here.

We welcome your comments!