Technology Assessment Tools
When assessing the use of technology assessment tools in an online learning environment, what do you believe are the three most important things to consider?
Roland,
What a great post. You are right and we haven't really talked about students devoting enough time to complete an exam. How many of us have students take an exam that we know will take an hour starting at 11:30 when the cut off is 12:00? Then they email the instructor saying there was a technology issue that would not let them finish. (I guess you picked up that this has happened to me). So many students haven't taken online exams and they can be very uncomfortable taking an online exam. I do provide practice quizzes so they can get used to the technology and testing.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Three important things to consider are the comfort level of the students, the goal to be accomplished, and the availability of support. If students are uncomfortable or do not have support, learning will not occur. Also, the technology must be suited to the purpose of the course so student time is being used wisely.
Sarah,
You make great points. I don't think you can underestimate the availability of support. You also make a great point about using student time wisely. If there are barriers learning is not accomplished and time is wasted.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Use assessments that align to learning outcomes and work well in an online environment. Using a variety of assessment techniques throughout the course provides instructors with the best picture of their students' learning. While there is no rule about what works best, and different subject matters call for different types of assessments, the following are some generalized methods that work well in an online environment.
• Performance assessments: students develop a product such as a blog or wiki
• Authentic assessments: students complete work under the same conditions that they would in the real world
• Portfolio assessments: students demonstrate progress over time by showcasing artifacts and reflecting on their learning
• Computer generated and scored tests and quizzes: allow for banks of questions, randomization and, in some cases, instant feedback
• Learning outcomes are directly related to assessment strategies: Identification: (post photographs, complete quiz); Describe (write essay, create graph); Analyze (write a lab report, relate a theory to a real world scenario); Create (write programming code, build a model); synthesize (create a blog or wiki, complete a research paper).
Learning objectives, selection of tools, and timely grading and feeback are key to using tools for developing online assessments.
Three things that I think are important to consider would be:
1. User-friendliness. If all the time is spent trying to figure out how to use the tool, then it won't be very helpful for anyone.
2. Challenging. But I don't think that the assessments should just be a cake walk. I think it is important to give the students something that will push them.
3. Engaging. I think different learning styles should be considered to provide the most effective experience to students.
Vimlarani,
What a great post! You are right you must match the assessment wit the outcomes. The results must be able to measure the outcome. A variety of assessments will give students opportunity to show what they know and/or can do in different ways.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Josh,
Great post. The user friendliness is so important for both the student and the instructor. I saw one technology tools that was great for the instructor to design the assessment, great for the students to take, but the data needed by the instructor was impossible to get. That is a problem with software!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
What I believe to be the three most important things to consider when assessing the use of technology assessment tools in an online learning environment are:
1. Ease of the tool for the student
2. FAQs on troubleshooting problems
3. Getting feedback from the student to make the necessary changes
Diana,
You make a great point. We forget the importance of FAQ and tutorials provided by the software for both the instructor and the student. Yes, you have to be able to extract data that will help you make assessment decisions.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Hello All,
First being ease of use. Did the students talk about what they learned or how hard it was to use the app.
When assessing software, and online applications, the overall outcome can be the proof, but also what can be asked of both the student and the outcomes are, did the application allow for diversity in the learning environment and did it consider the creative problem solving approach, with built in flexibility of original thinking allowed. Also assessments needs to be performed as a scientific study if the results want to be considered accurate.
Thank you.
Kelly
Kelly,
Love your post. Reliability of the application is so important. You make such an important point regarding the output of results. You have to be able to measure the learning and report the results. Very astute observations.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
A great question and three things I consider important when it comes to the use of technology in the online learning environment are:
1. Availability/Connectivity - What I mean by this is how easy is it to access the bandwidth that the students, staff, the administration and faculty use? To keep it fair, I am discussing the actual educational institutions (bandwidth, spectrum, cloud or other [new] aspect of technology service offered to remain connected.
2. Technological Support - This is a lifeline to all things technological, in the event something does go awry then being able to call someone who can not only talk you through issues (if you have any with gaining access to the school site-servers etc.) but sometimes even small personal things/settings they can talk you through to ensure you get and / or remain connected.
3. Ease of use - Regardless of the technology, if on a mobile devices, a specific LMS or platform, it is always best to keep the process of the technology and the use of it as simple as possible. If there are many steps involved with gaining access to a site, submitting answers and reviewing or viewing information, as this could possible deters students from participating and become rather frustrating for faculty.
Though there are many areas to consider, I think these are foundational things which need to be considered when using technology.
Mike
Michael,
You bring up important points. I know some institutions who have had so much problems with LMS that it became the barrier to learning. Connection is everything. I also had teachers taking an online course and couldn't do their work at school because of the firewalls. You do have to be aware of the connectivity.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Students understanding of the material that is presented in a non-traditional environment, knowing the level of engagement the student is putting forth and making sure that the student understands the objectives (goals) of learning the materials.
amanda,
These are good criteria. I don't know now "non-traditional" online education is now.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Important considerations for the selection of technology in an online learning environment include i) appropriateness of the tool for specific assessments, ii) familiarity with the tool to make sure students can access the assessment and receive proper feedback and iii) suitability of the tool for assessing students performance based on the content of the course. Thanks
Hi Kelly,
To answer your question, I always ask my students about their current experience with the software that I'm teaching them. Based on their responses, I can more accurately diagnostically assess the.
I can further consider the Formative assessment by reviewing how they are doing as the course progresses through reviews, quizzes, etc.
The 3rd tool I would use is the Summative Assessment method of assessment by seeing what they know at the conclusion of a project which would give me a more accurate way of measuring their progression.
Jim deLapine
I really feel that the alignment of the material being tested and the course objectives is the most important item with online testing. Secondly the alignment of the testing format with the teaching format is important and finally the understanding of the technology and its purpose by the students and teacher is crucial. The alignment and the understanding must be strong in order to get true assessments of the learning and not just getting assessment of the technology. Sometimes I feel that successful students who take online assessments are those who understand the process not necessarily understand the learned materials. The assessment needs to assess learning not use of technology.
thank you
Charles Vakos
Chander,
You are right. You also want to make sure that you get the data you need to tell the story of the student and the course.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
