Assessing Online Learners Using Interactive and Engaging Strategies

 

Workshop Date to Be Determined

Students need specific feedback on their assessments to understand why they received the grade assigned by an instructor and how they could improve. This workshop challenges instructors to look at assessment strategies from the student perspective to make expectations transparent and assessments that are interactive and engaging.

How Can Learning Assessments Increase Student Satisfaction?

Student satisfaction in online courses is often associated with clear guidelines on learning assessments and constructive feedback. Learning assessments refer to the student performance during an online course and are fundamental to the learning experience. An effective assessment plan provides instructors with a detailed representation of a learners’ progress and achievement and whether they are meeting planned learning outcomes. 

What Strategies Should We Use to Assess Online Student Learning?

Assessing online learning is developmental and instructors can use strategies from the beginning of a course until the course is complete. Providing regular and varied opportunities to evaluate learning throughout the course can help keep students engaged, ease stress, and make it easier to identify where support is needed. Frequent, low-stakes assessments and alternative assessments can scaffold or replace some high-stakes assessments.

Students need specific feedback on their assessments to understand why they received the grade assigned by an instructor and how they could improve. Rubrics provide clear criteria regarding what is expected for an assignment and guide specific feedback on why a certain grade has been given. Instructor feedback plays an important role in keeping students aware of their performance, giving them a sense of accomplishment, and helping them stay motivated.

Focus of the Workshop

A variety of ways for students to demonstrate their learning will be shared along with time-saving ways to grade submissions. This workshop focuses on challenging instructors to look at assessment strategies from the student perspective to make expectations transparent. 

In this workshop, participants will:

• Distinguish among diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments.
• Identify a variety of assessment strategies and tools to administer effective, secure, and interactive assessments and activities.
• Discriminate between graded and non-graded assessment strategies.
• Explore feedback strategies and rubrics for improving learning.

For more information, contact us. To see all the workshops we have available, go to Professional Development for Instructors.