for Effective Teaching through Online Environments

Workshop: Formative Assessment for Online Courses

Overview

This brief hybrid workshop presents three methods for building digital formative assessment exercises.

Initial Activity

Record your responses to the following:

  • List at least three techniques that online students might use to assess their learning before completing a graded course requirement.
  • Are these techniques interactive, reusable or engaging?
  • Do you think students will regularly use these techniques?

 

eClip - Formative Assessment

Formative Assessment

Reflection Activity

During the next five minutes, consider the following questions and record your responses. Then pair with a partner and share your thoughts.

  1. Which method described in the eClip do you think would most engage student learners?
  2. How might you adapt one of the formative assessment exercises for your online course?
  3. What are some of the prospective challenges to incorporating these formative assessment exercises into a virtual learning environment?

Followup Resources

A Learner-Centered Online Course Design
Hornsby, K. (Winter 2008)
(A conversion of traditional “good practices” classroom pedagogies to an online environment. Academic Exchange Quarterly, Vol. 12, Issue 4, p. 28-33. Retrieved, June 15, 2009 from http://www.rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/cho4182z8.htm.)

Eclipse Crossword Puzzle Maker
(A free, extremely user-friendly software tool that creates crossword puzzles using instructor’s term and clues. Creates both paper and digital outputs of puzzles.)
www.eclipsecrossword.com

Hot Potatoes Software
(This software enables instructors to design interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for online use)
http://hotpot.uvic.ca/

The Technology Literate Professoriate: Are We There Yet?
Madigan, Dan (2006)
(A discussion of when technology should be used in the classroom and how to assess whether a particular technology enhances student learning. IDEA Paper #43 Retrieved, June 15, 2009 from http://www.theideacenter.org/sites/default/files/Idea_Paper_43.pdf)

Multiple-choice questions based on Bloom’s Taxonomy
University of Texas at Austin (2007)
(This website provides examples of multiple choice questions written to assess student learning at various levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Retrieved, June 25, 2009 from http://www.utexas.edu/academic/diia/assessment/iar/students/plan/method/exams-mchoice-bloom.php)