Evaluating the process helps with continuous improvement. The instructor can evaluate his/her own course and processes as well as take comments and feedback from the students during and after their journey through the course. The instructor can then see if there were any roadblocks in the process that made it difficult for the student to reach the learning outcomes.
Very true, Carissa. Focusing on the process of learning means that evaluation is ongoing and students recognize they are on a learning path. This helps to situate the students within their own process of learning.
I totaly agree. We must test what the student has learned not what he/she has guessed or set to mimorised. We see way to much of this. If the student is called apon to show what he/she has learned in the class we might have more students wanting to get in "touch" with what the class is all about in the first place.
Yes, James, and simply asking students to "explain" something in their own words is a great way to check for understanding. No one can explain anything not understood.
Yes breaking habits, we have have installed problems with vehicles and given the student a path. sometimes it is harder to get them to follow the path then to diagnose the vehicle. breaking the habit of tunnel vision is a task.
Our department just coincidentally had a discussion about this very topic. Using the analogy of goals and indicators.....The diploma is the indicator that should represent that goals have been mastered. If the measurement tools are flawed and deliver a "false positive" then the entire education is no more than a house of cards.
My personal measure is applicability (something that I use in real life or changes my behavior).
It's interesting to me to see holistic learning coming up in the online environment. I am a specialist in multiculturalism, bilingualism and language acquisition theory. The form holistic assessment took in the brick and mortar environment was portfolios.
I actually enjoyed the writing in this course. The passion of the author comes through as well as her intelligence. That is, if she really exists (teasing, the emails seem computer generated.) :)
Yes, I do exist, Virginia :) I have a similar background to your own with language acquisition, instructional design, and I also studied critical pedagogy, which brings together various discourse themes such as anti-biased teaching and learning and transformational pedagogy. I like your cross reference to transformational outcomes as measurements of learning. My sense is that the fully online environment and the blended environment are perfect ones in which to develop holistic assessments - the environments themselves are self-directed and immediate. Both of these characteristics support holistic evaluation more than conventional teacher-led environments. Good discussion...
I think it is important to evaluate the process of learning in addition to learning outcomes because each of us learns differently and therefore as an instructor ignoring this difference can have affect the success of our students to truly acquire knowledge.
Yes, Marilu, and how do you think you can best evaluate the learning process? How can assignments and tests be created and designed to include and demonstrate the learning rather than a simple response? It is quite a challenge and I would love to hear ideas from some on this thread about how they have been able to accomplish this successfully.
As an teacher your assessments drive your instruction. If students are not demonstrating an understanding of the content either through quizzes, tests, projects or group discussion it is up to you to alter your instruction to better meet your students' needs.
Indeed, Christina, which means that everything else comes second to the actual learning process of the student. This is difficult for those teachers who are bound to content or on one input tool or method. Being varied and flexible as a instructor means that more students will succeed. Good comments!
If the process of learning is solid, the process can be applied to other parts of the student's life, including his/her work life. It is like teaching math word problem solving, I teach the process so that students can apply the process to other problems that may be slightly different. By assessing the learning process, I can more effectively determine that the student will be successful after completing my class. The content of the course is important and should also be assessed but determining the weight of each of these assessments towards the final score in the class is the more challenging decision for me.
Great, Kristin - yes, the focus on process means that applications of the process can change as students learn to problem solve adequately. This also encourages critcal thinking and "quick" thinking, which is invaluable for ongoing learning and successful employment.
It is important to evaluate the process of learning so that the student has the opportunity to be successful on terms that are custom to him. However, I think that the sure sign of a great student is the ability to offer to a course what is asked in the design. That is more along the lines of pure outcome. I think that great students are flexible learners.
Critical thinking skills are very important. They are the beginning of being a good problem-solvers.
That can be true, Mariska, however, those kinds of learning skills have to be learned. Most students do not have the abilities you describe without intentional instucional guidance and coaching from their instructors. That means, then, that just exepcting sudents to achieve is not enough - rather to facilitate and develop the kinds of skills needed for success should always be the goal of the instructor working directly with students. Can you think of ways to develop these kinds of skills in your students?
The main purpose of tests is not to determine what a student has learned as much as it is to see how well the student is able to take a test. If anything is effectively tested, it is memory and the ability to deduce the right answers. Students need to demonstrate what they have actually learned and how they learned it. Since tests are not the best way to demonstrate learning, students need to show how they use critical thinking through projects, collaboration with other students (discussions), and research essays.
It is important to evaluate the process of learning in addition to learning outcomes because using assessments aids in establishing a need for improvement as well as determining the degree to which these goals correspond to student needs. Using learning objectives may help instructors to achieve better clarity about what they want to accomplish in their classes, and greater clarity about what techniques they need to use to achieve those goals. Specific learning objectives also help students achieve those objectives more easily because they know, from the beginning, the goals of the course. Learning objectives give students a way to think about and talk about what they are learning. In addition, specific learning objectives make it possible to more reasonably assess how well the process of teaching and learning is progressing. When evaluation is used it permits the learning outcomes to be asked and answered. Evaluations help to answer if the goals and objectives of new curriculum have been met.
Great points, Angel, regarding the importance of learning objectives and outcomes. So, instruction begins with the end in mind but how do you think the methods of evaluation as well as the learning outcomes might be changing because of new technology?
Good points, Angel, regarding learning outcomes and objectives. How do you think the methods of evaluation as well as learning outcomes might be changing as a result of new technology?
