Keeping with the assessment theme, what about assessment at a distance?
Assessment at a Distance
So much of what has been written about assessment at a distance is unfortunate. The emphasis seems largely to be on cheating — as in, how do I know my student didn’t pay somebody to take the exam? — and plagarism — how do I keep them from just turning in somebody else’s work.
Granted the supposition that all education is at distance, there are those instances where the teacher doesn’t watch a student actually doing the work which is then submitted for assessment. That’s not just online, but every time you get a written paper back or a worksheet turned in. It’s important to ask the question, “Why aren’t we asking this about classes that meet in the room?”
October 24th, 2007 at 10:33 AM
We don’t ask this question in a face-to-face room because we feel as though through an online course students are more likely to cheat than in a traditional classroom. Its the whole notion of the students don’t really feel our prescence and feel a greater temptation to take advantage of the honor system. But, the problem not be with the location of the classroom. The problem could be how we are assessing those students.
I could create an assignment with nothing but low Bloom level questions and ask the students to complete the assessment. My results have a higher probability of being tainted than with say a more open-ended, performance based assessment. It’s like Nate says in his blog on Assessment at a Distance, if students receive a problem they are required to solve a problem with a lower chance of any cheating occuring during the task. The problem though teachers may run into is time management and finding the time in the course of their daily teaching lives to create such an assessment for each task. Knowledge based assessment requires little time to create and even easy to grade. Make a key, compare the tests….done. Where as the performance based assessment requires a rubric, compare the ruburic, determine whether the answer falls into the right criteria, and make your best judgment on what the student’s grade should be. I’m trying to make an excuse that we should always used knowledge based assessment due to the time factor, but it is something we encounter.
Assessment at a distance should be more performance based tasks. Taking several ideas, create a problem around those ideas, and give it to the students to solve. The classes I have been in that took an approach to assessment this way proved to be more beneficial to mean than read the chapter and study it for an exam. I got to see how what I was reading applied to what I was facing in the “real world.” Maybe we should make an effort to include more of this type of assessment in our practices.
October 26th, 2007 at 10:29 PM
From reading Siemens, I get the idea that real learning takes place through connectivism. The relationship is important and whether face to face or at a distance, when the instructor and the student can carry on a conversation related to learning, informal assessment can take place. The connection between teacher and student cannot be underestimated. As Dr. Lowell says, the student’s voice comes through in what he/she writes. I think as teachers, we can tell what students are disconnected. Unfortunately, it is often quite a few. They may “do” enough to get by and get a passing grade, but learning takes place in those who are really connected.
October 27th, 2007 at 4:08 PM
I think we should assess like this more often. It is important to know if the student knows where to find the information. It is more important than knowing the information to me. If my students could tell me where to find the information I would be pleased. Or even how to look for help.
October 28th, 2007 at 11:54 AM
[...] phaedrus » Blog Archive » Assessment at a Distance phaedrus » Blog Archive » Assessment at a Distance [...]
October 28th, 2007 at 12:22 PM
I always try to encourage students to ‘find’ the answer. I think when they are doing class work or homework they should learn how to find the answer for those questions they don’t know. I don’t think this is cheating I think it is learning. Now, on a test that is a different game. We are not going to allow students to open their books to find an answer in this scenario, they are expected to already know it. But, in the end we have no control over what or how students do their work at home so we have to be sure to use other types of assessment that will give a more accurate view of what they know.
October 28th, 2007 at 4:29 PM
I agree a lot of what’s been said above. I varied assessment approach definitely lessens the chances of cheating. I also like to offer multi-genre assessments, where students select their own culminating project. By doing so, I think they tend to feel more invested. I think the key is for students to own the projects they are required to do.
October 28th, 2007 at 5:32 PM
[...] Assessment at a Distance Filed under: EDUC 685 — by gnewsome @ 5:32 pm Assessment at a Distance [...]
October 28th, 2007 at 10:54 PM
I love how students think you cannot recognize a “cut and paste” job!