Assessment tools and strategies to help you align your course objectives to assessments in your courses. When you align objectives well, you can truly find out whether students are learning what they need to learn from your course.

1. Office of Learning & Technology
Purdue University North Central

2.  We will cover:
 Formative vs. summative learning assessment
 The meaning behind “authentic assessment”
 Quality Matters and aligning assessments
 Using technology to enhance our ability to assess
effectively

3.  Accomplishment of learning objectives
 Quality of interaction or project work (measured
with rubrics)
 Knowledge (measured with tests and exams)
 Knowledge application (measured with essay or
advanced-level tests)
 Experience with technology
 Course
 Instructor

4. FORMATIVE
 Helps you get a handle on
how the course and/or
students are doing at any
given point
 Gives you a chance to
correct something if it’s not
going as planned
SUMMATIVE
 Usually done at the end of
a unit or course
 Provides a final look at how
things went
 Determines whether
students “pass” or have
attained the necessary
skills to move on

5.  Unfortunately, human nature is such that we
will typically only do what we have to
 Only students that are intrinsically motivated
will tend to go beyond
 Experience and research shows that most
students tend toward extrinsic motivation
and perform best when:
 A grade is involved
 Completion of a major course requirement is
contingent on participation

6.  When students have a chance to reflect on
themselves as learners, they may be more
inclined to grow and achieve more
 Try one of these surveys in class or as an
assignment/discussion and see the reaction
 Felder’s Index of Learning Styles:
http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html
 Biggs’ Study Process Questionnaire:
http://www.johnbiggs.com.au/academic/students-approaches-
to-learning/

8.  Assessments in your course should match up
with what students need to know and be able
to do
 Make sure that the information that you’re
testing students on it directly related to this
 Nice-to-know information is great, but that’s
all it is
 Make sure your assessment matches the level
of the objective and is not above or below the
students’ skill level

9. • Evaluation
make judgments based on criteria
• Synthesis
compile information in a new way
• Analysis
break down information into parts
• Application
use information in a new situation
• Comprehension
interpret information
• Knowledge
recall information
Higher Order Thinking Skills
Lower Order Thinking Skills

10. http://cstep.csumb.edu/Obj_tutorial/bloomwheel.html
Thinking skill
Action verbs
Student products

11.  Let’s try coming up with some assessments
for the following objective:
 “At the end of the unit, students will be able to
create and revise a household budget using
Microsoft Excel.”
 How about this one?
 “And end of the course, students will be able to
explain the processes of meiosis and mitosis in the
cells of animals and plants.”

12.  Instead of a multiple-choice test of
knowledge, try an essay test, a file response
test, a project, or a paper
 Instead of a case study, try having students
go out into the field to find their own case
 Provide a problem without a known solution
and ask students to explore possibilities
 Ask students to interpret concepts through
presentations or multimedia creation

13.  Quizzes and tests
 Discussion forums
 Multimedia (text + images, video, etc)
 Presentation tools
 Digital video and audio
 E-books, wikis, blogs

14.  Can be mobile-capable or browser-only
 Can be supported through Respondus
LockDown Browser or RespondusTest
Creator or from other sections
 You can also create tests from scratch
 Test exceptions allow different settings for
different students
 See https://www.pnc.edu/distance/learn-tutorials/
for all videos on tests and
Respondus

15.  Mobile Exams can be created in Blackboard for use
with the Blackboard Mobile Application.
 Question types:
 Multiple Choice
 True/False
 Calculated Numeric
 File Response
 Hot Spot
 Fill in Multiple Blanks
 Short Answer
 Mobile exams are integrated into the grade center,
similar to a web assessment.

16.  Creating a Mobile Assessment
 Test Link
 Test Canvas
 Quiz Settings/Properties

17.  You can grade using rubrics right within
BlackBoard
 Rubrics make your job a little easier when
grading more extensive assessments
 Video tutorials available:
https://www.pnc.edu/distance/learn-tutorials/

18.  https://www.uwstout.ed
u/soe/profdev/rubrics.cf
m
 http://www.cmu.edu/tea
ching/designteach/teach
/rubrics.html
 http://jfmueller.faculty.n
octrl.edu/toolbox/examp
les/authentictaskexampl
es.htm

19.  BlackBoard discussion, blog, wiki, Kaltura media tools
 WebEx: http://purdue.webex.com
 Google Docs: http://drive.google.com
 Prezi: http://www.prezi.com
 MS Office Templates: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/
templates/
 Screencast-o-matic: http://www.screencast-o-matic.
com
 Jing and Camtasia: http://www.techsmith.com
 Wordpress: http://www.wordpress.com
 SimpleBooklet: http://simplebooklet.com/index-edu.
php

20.  Writing good learning objectives:
http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign/objectives/writingo
bjectives
 A great help with coming up with verbiage for your
rubrics: http://rubistar.4teachers.org
 Kathy Schrock’s guide for educators:
http://www.schrockguide.net/authentic-learning.html
 Workshop in scenario-based learning and authentic
assessment examples:
https://sites.google.com/site/workshopctandsblresourc
esite/home

21. Reach us at:
 pncolt@pnc.edu
 Twitter and Facebook: @PNCOLT
 http://www.pnc.edu/distance for all
workshop notes, links, and training needs