Joseph,
Do you have the students pick what goes into the portfolio? This can be an important employment package for students.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Melissa,
I like your attitude. It is harder because we really don't wee it working as well. We have started implementing service learning assignments and experiential learning assignments into our online courses. We want students mirroring experiences of f2f courses.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Melissa,
True, and it can be an important tool to measure growth in the student as well as their commitment to life long learning.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I am an online instructor so observations are out as far as the physical aspect of observing someone. However, I do (as an art instructor) work with students to refine their work for their final graduation portfolio. I also provide both summative and formative feedback about their performance on a daily/regular basis.
As for observing them - I do observe their writing, their habits (do they post on time) and when I see patterns arise, I will follow up with emails or phone calls to see how I can better help them be successful within their course(s).
Terry,
Sounds like you are redefining "observation". You really have great strategies regarding your assessments. The variety assessments services your students well and hopefully you.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I have used a mixture of all three items in teaching medical students clinical skills. I find them to be highly subjective and can vary depending on the grader. Standardizing grading is of the utmost importance when using these types of assessments.
Unfortunately, this isn't an approach that I've had the opportunity to work with. I can certainly see the value, but since I have no control over the course content, this isn't an option that have been implemented.
I have been using portfolios as authentic assessment for years. Many of our courses are building block projects that then get assembled into a final portfolio. In addition to assessing the students with these projects and final portfolio, we also do yearly assessment of the program using the portfolios developed within that year and evaluating them with a pre-determined rubric. This helps with accreditation and ensuring we are on track as a department with what we are delivering in relation to the outcomes we have defined.
Dawn,
True, those first rubrics for any design courses are difficult. It took the Interior Design department quite a few tries at really nailing down effective and productive rubrics. We started with checklist rubrics, then moved to very vague category ones and finally have settled on a set of rubrics that have good categories and well defined items within each category. These are based on the design principles and industry needs. Students have thrived with these and the instructors do a much more even job of grading. It takes time to dial in the rubrics but when you do, they are well worth the time.
I teach a Gen Ed research writing course. This makes authentic assessments challenging.
Students write essays for the sake of writing essays. They don't have many choices in their topics except for their research paper. I attempt to work with students to choose topics that they care about, can benefit from, or are related to their areas of study or career.
The challenge with authentic assessments in a writing course is that they are not embedded into their other studies, making their need for research writing authentic.
I believe this is also why so many students push back against their required writing courses.
I try to appeal to students' personal interests, future plans, or daily lives when choosing the research paper topic. By having students be able to benefit personally from their research, this can make the assessment authentic.
Amanda,
You are right about making sure criteria is set for expectations for the student regarding subjective assessment. You want to make sure you uphold the expectations by setting criteria for students to follow.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Stacy,
I understand you situation. Why do you thin alternative and Authentic assessments would be interesting to use?
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Matthew,
Thank you for sharing your use of authentic assessment. You really can use it in both f2f and online courses. It allows you to showcase skill in context. It does help with accreditation. You stated your purpose for using authentic assessment so succinctly.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Matthew,
Thank you for sharing with us your process. That is assessment! You continually work to improve the assessment tool and the parts around it including the way it is evaluated. we always strive to improve.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Lindsay,
I agree with you. They do have to take a research topic and make it relevant to them. They become the expert in the topic. As you said, that makes it authentic.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I use portfolio as an assessment. It is an appropriate evaluation for the student, class sharing and overall progress for he teacher as well. The student also learns how to evaluate their own work as well as others.
Should visual art students be provided with finished completed visual examples before starting a project?
Kelly,
Don't you think the skill of learning how to objectively evaluate your own work and others and being able to make decision s based on that is such a powerful skill that will be used in the real world? I don't have a problem with providing both good and bad examples of a project. I do know some of my visual arts instructors feel it stifles creativity. It is an interesting debate.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
For the past 10 years, my school has used authentic assessments. In the courses that I teach, project management, I prefer authentic assessment. The assignments are scenario-based, and the assignments give students an opportunity to employ the knowledge that they have learned in dealing with real-life situations. Personally, I think that usch experience in invaluable.
I think that the use of objective assessments in a project management couse is probably counter productive. Students typically have no knowledge of project management, and hence would most likely have difficulty with objective assessments. On the other hand, if the students had extensive project management experience, then an objective assessment would probably have more value.
My use of authentic assessments is with having students use an interactive website to learn and test for plagiarism. This site was introduced by another instructor and embedded into the course.
Dr. Vessel
Generally what I try to during the course is to encourage the students to discuss their actual work experience in the discussion thread as it relates to the material. While this may not be a true authentic assessment, I think it is about as close as the course I teach comes to this. I will be looking for was to implement this type of assessment.
