Assesments for Online Learning

Each year, more and more courses are being created for and in class courses are moved an online environment. As online learning continues to grow, UDL workers need to utilize different forms of assessments to help students best stay engaged, learn and retain the course/module objectives. Instructors can also use these assessments to help understand how students are taking to the online course.

What are assessments? Assessments are how students show their understanding of the learning objectives for each course or module to the instructor. Assessments are used by instructors for grading as well as helping students who may be struggling and fixing areas in the course that aren't clearly shown to participants. There are two different types of assessments, formative assessments and summative assessments. Formative assessments are arranged throughout the course as a way for students to display their understanding of the intended learning objectives . Formative assessments also give the instructors the ability to give feedback and help students in areas that were misunderstood or even ignored. Summative assessments are preformed at the end of a course and are done for students to truly display whether or not the student has a full comprehension of the intended course outcomes. Not all assessments are graded but are to be used as a way for students and instructors find out what students already know, what they will learn in the course and how everything will be delivered and assessed and for instructors to encourage participation from all students.

This table from MERLOT: Journal of Online Learning and Teaching shows what makes up an optimal assessment

Various forms of assessments can be used in an online learning environment. Some different forms of assessments that can be used during an online course or module are quizzes, podcasts, blogs, group discussions, video projects and a whole variety of others. With these new and different ways for students and instructors to utilize for assessments, it creates an environment where students are able to express themselves and their understanding in their own most effective way.

One of the examples I gave as different assessments was group discussions. For an online course group discussions can be put into threads for students to make introductions, ask each other questions as the course goes along and allow students to share interesting articles or videos pertaining to the course or specific module. Using a KWL chart for these types of assessments allows for students to display to instructors what they already know, what they want to know and what have they learned through the course. Doing this allows students to ask questions, reflect on other students' ideas in an informal easy way and instructors are able to see what information students are potentially struggling with and offer some assistance. Assessments like this can be authentic, allowing students to give their own understanding based on real life experiences. They are also engaging, responsive and will allow the instructor to correct invalid information in the discussion.

Another example was video projects or podcasts. There are students that may have issues with reading and writing, for example students taking courses in their second language or students with dyslexia. For those students only having reading and testing for assessments, it can quickly get frustrating and the students may lose interest in the course. Each student learns best in their own ways and for some speaking and explaining ideas is simpler and more engaging than simply writing a report or essay. For more hands on types of work, using video projects for students can help the students give a clear guide and understanding of how to complete a task instead of just an instructional booklet.

With a multitude of forms of assessments available for online learning, assessments can have different looks, sounds and even feeling. Using a variety of assessments, each should be clear of what is expected of the students. Therefore, creating a detailed and clear rubric for each assessment is important. Dates and times of when assessments will be need to be clearly shown usually in the course syllabus. Assessments should have variations throughout the course to help keep students interested and engaged. As we have learned using the ADDIE model, students are able to learn and retain information much better when they are engaged and working in a multitude of ways instead of passive learning that occurs when students are only able listen to the instructor, do readings and write tests. Each specific course will have it's own best usage of assessments so the instructional designer will likely have to work with the SME to develop the best design for what and when different assessments are used.

Sources:

Image Source: Online Assessment Strategies.

Sewell, J. et al. (2010) Online assessment strategies: a primer. MERLOT: Journal of Online Teaching and Learning 6:1, 297-305, p. 300

Pearson, R (2020) F20: Designing Assessments, slide 2

Pearson, R (2020) F20: Elements of Instructional design, slide 4