Types of Assessment

• Provide a starting point for the discussion: Offer students a few questions to get the discussion started. What are the salient points about the case? What information is not relevant? What were the implications? What are the next steps?
• Keep the discussion going: After students have discussed a case study for a few days and the conversation is fading, release new information about the case. How does that change student perspectives about the case and how they might resolve it?
• Assess the case study: Communicate to students how the case study will be assessed. Will it be graded as a group assignment or individual? What criteria will be used to assess the case study? How will feedback be provided? An example of a group case study rubric can be found here.

• Exam reflection: After an exam, students submit corrections or amendments to questions in which they did not receive full marks along with a reflection on how to improve their learning process and what they will do differently next time to prepare.
• Diagnostic learning logs: Students keep notes throughout the course on what was clear to them, what they still have questions about, and other observations. Creating an FAQ discussion board for student questions allows everyone to see elaborations and clarifications on topics that are not clear to students. Question prompts to get students thinking include: What is unclear? Is there anything you disagree with? How does the course content connect with your own experiences and perspectives? What are your next steps to enhance your learning?
• Think again: Ask students to state their views or understanding about a topic at the beginning of the course or unit, and to reassess their opinions or understanding at the end. Prior to the instruction, ask them to write about the value of the topic or issue, or to draft initial ideas of how a problem might be solved. At the end of the course, have them look back to see if their thoughts have changed.
• Pre/Post-checklist: Ask students to evaluate their knowledge and skills on course topics by indicating it on a numerical scale. At the beginning of the course, the checklists provide information about students’ self-assessment of current understanding. At the end, students complete the same checklist to gauge their progress.

• All UW students, including Continuum College students, have access the Office 365 suite. Microsoft Visio can be used to create some infographics, as can the SmartArt tools in both Word and PowerPoint. Do keep in mind that students with no prior experience with these tools will need more time to learn how to use them.
• The infographic can be submitted alone or along with a short written paper in which the student outlines their decision-making process. Finished assignments can be posted to a discussion board or used in an online student presentation.
• Clear expectations: Unlike a traditional paper, word limits or guidelines do not make sense for an infographic assignment. Instead, provide examples of infographics with too much and too little content. Also, provide learning outcomes for the assignment so that students know what they should focus on and don’t get distracted by less important aspects of the assignment.
• Critique examples: Post a few sample infographics to the discussion board for the class to critique the design, clarity of information, visual effectiveness, attention to detail, or other factors that will be evaluated. What makes them effective? What could be improved?
• Student choice: Infographics work well when students can have a choice of topics. It can be motivating for them to develop something they are interested in. A range of topics also allows for a peer feedback process so that they can improve their project before submitting it.
• Add a written component: Have students submit a short written document articulating their design decisions (if design considerations are part of the criteria), what content they decided to emphasize and what was omitted, and reflections on their learning in the assignment. Depending on the goals of the assignment, they could address questions such as: What connections did you make? How does the course content connect with your own experiences and perspectives? What would you do differently next time? Did you have any significant shifts in perspective?

• Integrate into the course design: Online discussions need to be intentionally integrated into the course and serve an intended purpose. Clearly state the learning objectives for participating in online discussions. Provide time in class to review, and integrate participation into your and student workload. Include monitoring and engaging with online discussions as part of the teaching team’s instructional work.
• Divide into discussion groups: Opinions vary on the ideal size of student discussion groups, but some recommend groups of about 15-20 students. This allows for a diversity in experiences and perspectives while decreasing student workload. However, it does not necessarily decrease the instructor’s workload. If it is not feasible to hire an IA to manage the discussions, instructors might decide to respond to all groups at once, summarizing their comments in one post.
• Choose discussion prompts carefully: Make sure each discussion has a purpose and convey it to students. Students do not appreciate when discussions appear to be busywork. It is not necessary to have an active discussion board throughout the entire course. For example, you may decide to skip the discussion board when students have a major project due that week – participation at such times is likely to be minimal and perhaps superficial.
• Convey expectations and keep an eye on the discussion: Since some students are not accustomed to this type of academic writing, let them know what you expect in terms of participation and netiquette. Keep an eye on the discussion to make sure there are no inappropriate posts. It is not recommended to respond to every student post – this actually decreases student participation as they wait for the instructor to respond. Instead, you might want to strategically redirect the discussion when it meanders, ask questions to get students thinking more deeply, and pull out themes that you see in student responses.
• Let students know how they will be graded: Will the discussion board be graded holistically at the end, or will students receive a grade for each post? What criteria will be used to grade the discussion board? Will ‘participation’ be graded, and if so, how will it be measured? Do you have expectations regarding word count and/or the number of responses to original posts?

• Some things to think about when planning student presentations include:
• Will it be individual or group presentations?
• If students do a group project, will all members of the group be required to present?
• How will the audience have the chance to ask questions? Do the questions need to be asked in the same environment as the presentation?
• What are your contingency plans in the likely event of a technology disruption either in the classroom or online?

• Have students listen to sample podcasts and share their thoughts in a short audio-recording to the discussion board or in class. Canvas allows participants to record a response and directly attach the audio file to the discussion board post.
• A simple podcast assignment: have students use their phones to record a 3-5 minute podcast. Require students to write a script they will submit alongside their audio file. Having a script makes it easier for the student to record in a single take, and makes it easier for the instructor to assess. Consider how to ensure everyone has access to appropriate technology – not everyone has a phone or one with recording capability.
• Use a rubric to grade their final podcast assignment. Consider what kinds of learning you are expecting students to demonstrate with this task and format. Common categories include content, organization, delivery, and creativity.

• Be explicit about how long you expect it will take for students to complete the exam. If you are concerned about how long students will devote to writing, consider breaking the exam up into multiple parts. This allows you to see how things are going and make any needed adjustments for part 2. It also allows you to start marking part 1 as soon as possible.
• Conduct the open book exam in class to have a consistent environment for all students and to ensure students are working within the time limits.
• Include word ranges or word limits for each type of response for clarity of expectations and to ensure a reasonable grading process.
• Limit the need for students to create graphs/charts/complex diagrams if they will require technical expertise that may be a barrier.
• Focus on higher-level thinking questions (i.e. questions that can not be readily answered by google or AI) such as “What would happen if…”; “Why do these two theorists/groups/researchers disagree about…”; “Read this paragraph and discuss how it relates to the concept of….”
• Require students to explicitly draw on course materials. If you want citations, provide clear instructions about how to do that.
• Decide if/how you will enable students to ask you questions during the exam. Also, clarify if and how you will respond.

Because oral exams can generate significant anxiety and introduce different types of bias into the assessment scenario, it is important to plan carefully for meaningful, fair and ethical oral exams.

• Develop standard procedures to ensure fair treatment of all students. For example, establish the length of time, the number of questions, and the assessment criteria and assessment tools such as checklists or rubrics and communicate those details to students well ahead of time. Write a script for instructions to students so that they all have the same information. Decide how much you will ‘prompt’ students and how many clarifying questions you will ask. Transparency is essential for this kind of exam.
• Use the same technology and process for oral exams as for holding 1:1 office hour consultations so that everyone is familiar with it.
• If possible, provide students with one unscored ‘practice question’ at the beginning of their oral exam to clear up any procedural questions or concerns before using questions for assessment.
• To ensure greater reliability and to mitigate issues of implicit bias, consider having more than one assessor. If more than one assessor is not available, consider having one instructor/TA facilitate and record the exam, and have a second instructor/TA score students’ responses based on the recording.
• If combining an oral exam with a written exam or project, choose a small sampling of questions from the written exam or project and ask the student to explain how they answered each question, or ask them to ‘extend their thinking’ for a few of the written exam questions.

• Have students choose from a list of topics closely related to the course so that they can dive into an area of interest to create an annotated bibliography.
• Invite a subject-area librarian to do a guest speaker session with students on search strategies and appropriate citations.
• Even if students are not going to write a research paper, have them draft a thesis statement or research question first. They can then curate an annotated bibliography which includes a description of the extent to which the chosen sources help to address the research question or proposed thesis.
• Prior to a major research assignment, have students contribute to an annotated bibliography to be shared in the online discussion space as a resource for all students in the course.

• Provide examples of a news article critique and use the discussion board to discuss the elements of a good critique and news source. Post a rubric or assessment criteria to help guide student work.
• Have students find two media items with competing positions on a relevant topic to critique and compare.
• Have students post their critiques to the Canvas Discussion board, then break the class into small groups to provide each other with peer feedback.
• Give students the option of using media to complete their assignments (such as recording a video or creating an infographic).

• Introduce the assignment early and include an assessment rubric. Students need time to understand the task and reflect on it, so introduce it early. A rubric will help them to make decisions about what to include in their eportfolio. 
• Consider the Collect-Select-Reflect-Connect framework
  • Collect: Students gather artifacts
  • Select: They select the strongest exemplars of their learning
  • Reflect: Students reflect on what they have learned. Consider giving them some reflection questions to get them started: What did you learn? Why is it important? How does it connect to other courses/ topics/ fields? What are your next steps to advance your learning?
  • Connect: Identify connections between the artifacts and reflection to provide a focus or themes for the portfolio.
• Provide guidelines and set limits. Let students know what types of work are appropriate for their eportfolios. Some possibilities include discussion board posts, blog posts, video and audio recordings, written assignments, group projects, images, and infographics.
• Some students may want to put everything they have into an eportfolio. Set firm limits such as the minimum and maximum number of artifacts they can include, and a word range for written pieces such as an introduction, reflection statement and summary.