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Summative Assessments

When conducting summative assessments, what do you believe are the two most important things to consider?

The overall knowledge of a studnet at various stages within the course, as well as the timeframe that the information was learned. Some students may do well on an assessment due to their previous course work and work experience. This is an important aspect to consider when reviewing the overall sucess of a student, as well as the assesment. Additionally, a student may do well on certain portion of an assessment due to the timeframe of when the certain materials have been learned.

What do you mean by "due to the timeframe" ?

That the testing was valid.
That the testing included formative assessment.

Gail,

You are correct. The tests should be valid and reliable and test what you are expecting it to test. Testing in both formative and summative modes are very important.

Thanks!

Summative Assessments are great for both the instructor as well as the students. However, if I were to state the two most important things to consider regarding summative assessments would be: 1. does the project/portfolio measure what I want it to (from the instructor's perspective) and 2. did I learn/assimilate the objectives that were set out at the beginning (student perspective). I beleive that these are the two most important considerations because the thinking is coming from two different perspectives. The instructor needs to take a step back to be able to determine if the project or whatever it was helped the students to gain the appropriate knowledge/skill set that it set out to do. The students need to be able to figure out if they came away with the knowledge that they needed to so that they can be successful. Both considerations will help the class as well as the student develop more fully.

I agree with Amanda. What are you trying to measure, and was the material properly learned, are the major concerns. If the teacher does not have clear standards for what is being taught then the students will not have clear (or valid) results. So in that sense assessment is more about the instructor than the students. If the material is known to be very specific, and very clear--say technical, standardized procedures that have to be followed--then what you are measuring is how well the students have learned them. But, again, a good instructor can make all the difference in the world.
It's interesting, one time as I was getting checked out to rent a little Cessna the flight instructor said she could tell, by how aviation standards and procedures had changed over time, not only when someone had learned to fly but when their teacher had learned to fly.
It's more responsibility than we sometimes realize.

When doing summative assessments I believe it's important to have some sort of benchmark which is well defined by the instructor and clearly understood by the students. I also believe it's important to make sure that the assessment is offered in a way that all the students have a way to show what they learned and also learn from the final results. Finally, I believe the summative assessment can be used as a guide to determine if instructional goals have been met and lesson plans need to be adjusted.

Diana,

I agree benchmarking is important because it allows students and professor a way to compart to others.

What would be your other way?

The two most important things to consider in a summative assessment are; 1) were the course objectives understood by both the instructor and student and 2) were they delivered in a way that can be applied in the students life to be able to easily retreive them for exam and practical purposes.

What about learning?

1. That it accurately measures student ability.
2. That it illustrates the quality of teaching
3. That it is in line with the intended learning outcomes

Right on!!! (sorry that is a 70's term)

I think you need to consider what your course objectives are so that you can measure them, and something that is cumulative so you know if the students were learning the entire course.

I feel that the course objectives need to be taken into consideration as well as my objectives for their learning.

things to consider:

1. ability to measure
2. learning relative to outcomes/objective

When conducting summative assessments, the two most important things to consider are what students know and what they do not know.

How would you use it.

The two things to consider are:

What the students learn?
What do they need to improve on?

To me, it doesn' matter if they learned one thing or a lot of things. As long as they have one takeaway. Also, we always need to set goals for the future. Students need to constantly challenged in order for them to improve. The last thing I want is for someone to feel they have mastered everything and turn on the "lazy button."

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