We are now towards the end of the academic year. We have all struggled and somehow learnt and managed to teach online. But it’s time for assessment now. Many would have already started with the online assessments. But, here though this blog I would wish to mention a few useful tools and tips for conducting and evaluating the online assessment effectively.
Assessing student learning is an essential component of effective teaching and learning in the online environment. The following resource will provide you with information on how to effectively use online assessments.
First, Lets see the difference between Assessment and evaluation ?
Assessment is to track the students understanding the areas of weakness during the learning process. It allows us to adjust the teaching accordingly and is basically improving the learner’s performance.
Whereas, Evaluation focuses on grades and determines the merit value or quality of the programme, it helps us to identify if a course is effective and redesign it course or product accordingly. It is product-oriented.
Objective of assessment :
Online assessments allow you to learn more about your students, and help to learn more about ourselves as well – so that you can see which is the right way of teaching for the students.
Types of assessment
- Pre-assessment or diagnostic assessment,
- Formative assessment,
- Summative assessment,
Methods of assessment
- Written Assignments: Short essays, research papers, case study responses.
- Online Discussion: Asynchronous discussion activities (i.e. discussion board, blog or wiki).
- Concept Maps: Provide visual representation, info graphics, mind mapping
- Game- type activities :
- Presentations: slide deck, poster, Blackboard Collaborate
- Test/quiz/exam: Traditional multiple choice, short or long answer questions.
Advantages of online assessments
- Saves lot of time and money
- Can be completed in less time.
- Data can be easily collected and exported to excel file.
- Can be taken during class, or at home
- Can get results and feedback instantly
- Many candidates can take the assessment at the same time.
- Helps you to know more about your students and their needs.
Disadvantages of online assessments
- Need to be a computer literate to create or take an assessment
- Technology is not reliable, internet and technical problems makes it complicated
- High costs are involved in such software.
Online assessment tool
It can be used to assess the students. You can also use to get feedback from students and parents. Similarly, students can use Google forms to assess their own learning and set the learning goals as well as to collect data. I have made an explanation video on how to set questions in Google forms, send it to students and how to export the marks to excel sheet, click on to the link to view it.
It is a game-based classroom response system played in real time. You can project the Questions on a shared screen, while the students can answer the questions It allows you to design multiple-choice quizzes as well as polls and surveys that populate on-the-spot data; the quiz questions and polls stimulate quick instructional decisions as well as whole-class discussion.
It is an easy-to-use online feedback app that can be used to get answers from your respondents. It adopts a minimalist design that allows users to create, share, answer, and manage topic questions without signing up for accounts. It can be used for brainstorming, polling, synchronous and asynchronous communication, and formative assessment.
It is a free formative assessment tool that allows you to create lessons and assignments that students work through on their devices at their own pace. You can observe student progress in real time and provide immediate feedback.
Evaluation process :
- The students must be aware of the expectation of the assessment in advance and have to keep them posted.
- Teachers can use the auto-grading options available in the online assessment tools. For example, questions like multiple choice, true-false, or short answer can be set to assess automatically and provides feedback along with the results.
- Students can submit the assignments into the LMS within the scheduled date and time, you can later cross check to give feedback.
- One of the basic requirements for evaluation is the rubrics. Its effectiveness is based on the level of detail included. ‘Rubrics help to define the characteristics of a high-quality assignment and help the student understand assignment and assessment expectations. Rubrics also provide a range of performance by establishing categories that span the range of possible outcomes, from basic to exceptional performance on task.
Conclusion
Online assessments are a critical part of online education and should be undertaken with the same level of care and rigor that you put into creating your learning content. The best part is that you need not be a genius to build online assessments. There are many software tools that allow you to generate engaging tasks. Choose your way to assess student learning and a related tool to align your needs and the results you want to achieve.
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