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Creative Assessment for

Deeper Learning

Eva Wong & Kevin Downing

City University of Hong Kong

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Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session you will be able to:

Analyse the diverse goals of assessment in Higher Education

Generate ideas for assessment tasks which meet these goals within the OBTL framework at City University

Reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of at least four assessment methods

Identify one electronic method of grading student performance against CILO’s

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What is Assessment?

Pairs/small groups to

consider what

assessment is-a

definition?

What does it involve

for the student?

What does it involve

for the assessor?

Why do we assess?

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What is assessment?

Generally, assessment is the systematic basis for making inferences about the learning and development of students.

More specifically, assessment is the process of defining, selecting, designing, collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and using information to increase students' learning and development"

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Three important goals for

assessment

What do we want our students to achieve?

How do we help our students achieve them?

How do we know our students have achieved them?

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Achieving the goals within an

OBTL framework

1. What do we want our students to achieve (aims/goals & outcomes)?

2. How do we help our students achieve them (learning & teaching processes)?

3. How do we know our students have achieved them (assessment)?

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Constructive Alignment

Aligning learning outcomes, learning and teaching activities and the assessment. Adapted from Biggs(1999) p 27

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Why do we Assess?

To provide ‘objective’ evidence of student attainment

To maintain institutional/national/international standards

To demonstrate professional competence for accreditation

To provide benchmarks of educational level

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How Do We Add Value To

Assessment?

Thinking and

cognition

Metacognition:

Thinking about

thinking

Imagination and

creativity: Student

and teacher!

What is a fair test?

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Some Basic Terminology

Formative Assessment: Pre-tests and Diagnostic tests.

Summative Assessment: Testing that follows instruction/learning and assesses achievement.

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Traditional Assessment

Traditional Assesment:

‘Objective’ Testing

Advantages and

disadvantages?

Essay Testing

Advantages and

disadvantages?

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Type Advantages Disadvantages

Short answer Can test many facts in short time.

Fairly easy to score.

Difficult to measure complex learning.

Often ambiguous.

Essay Can test complex learning,

assess thinking process/

creativity.

Difficult to score objectively. Uses a

lot of testing time. Subjective.

True/False Test most facts in shortest time.

Easy to score. Objective.

Difficult to measure complex learning.

Difficult to write reliable items.

Subject to guessing.

Matching Excellent for testing

associations and recognition of

facts. Objective.

Difficult to write effective items.

Subject to process of elimination.

Multiple

choice

Can assess learning at all levels

of complexity. Can be highly

reliable, objective. Tests large

knowledge base in short time.

Easy to score.

Difficult to write. Somewhat subject

to guessing.

Advantages and Disadvantages of

Different Traditional Test Items

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Alternatives to Traditional

Assessment

Alternatives to Traditional

Assessments:

Authentic Classroom

Assessment

Portfolios and

Exhibitions

Posters, Presentations

and Performances

Informal Assessments

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Formative and Summative

Assessment

Formative Summative

Time During a learning activity/unit At the conclusion of a learning

activity/unit

Goal To improve learning To make a decision

Feedback Return to material/ learning

issues

Final judgement

Frame of

reference

Always criterion (evaluating

all students according to the

same criteria)

Sometimes normative (comparing

each student against the others)

Sometimes criterion (evaluating

each student according to the same

criteria)

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Criterion vs. Norm Referenced

Grading

Criterion Norm

Time During a learning activity/unit

at the conclusion of a learning

activity/unit

At the conclusion of a

learning activity/unit

Goal To find out if a student has

reached a certain criteria on a

skill, ability and behaviour

To find out the characteristic of

the individual

To compare the students in

relation to their peers

To find out a student’s ability

in relation to others

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Timing Assessment

Avoiding the

Assessment Balloon!

Frequent

Assessment

Timely Assessment

Cumulative

Assessment

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Examples of Assessment for

Deeper Learning

Use a real-life case

Set-up scenes

Set up appearance in classroom ‘court’

Follow the real-life processes

Decide on what outcomes you are assessing and prepare a rubric

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Conclusions

Be aware of and respond to student differences.

Specify clear learning outcomes.

Use formative assessment to monitor progress.

Ensure students are aware of criteria for success on summative assessment.

Provide varied forms of assessment.

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Assessment of Students’

Achievement of CILOs

Narsi Bolloju

Department of Information Systems

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A Missing Link

Define CILOs

Design Syllabus &

TLAs

Select ATs & Map to

CILOs

Conduct TLAs

Assess Students

Grade Student Perf.

wrt ATs

Grade Student Perf.

wrt CILOs

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Suppose we get to know…

Apply

SADM &

OO

Knowledge

(10)

Relate

SA to

other

areas

(10)

Gather

system

req & eval

options

(10)

Devise

effective

models

(6)

Critique

and

improve

IS

models

(9) Grade

Grade

Point

A- B+ B B- B- B 3.12

A- A- A- A- A A- 3.76

A- A- B A- A- A- 3.54

B B B+ B+ B+ B+ 3.17

A- A- A B+ A- A- 3.71

A- A- B+ A A A- 3.71

B B- B- B B B 2.87

.. … … … … … …

… … … … … … …

B+ B+ B B+ A- 3.23

CILOs

Individual student performance

Class average

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Grading Support Tool

Built using the macros facility of MS-Excel 2003

Currently being used in 4 courses in IS dept

Developed as part of a project funded by the office of VP-UE

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Key features

Supports entry of grades for assessment task components using letter grades (A+, A, A-, …) or numeric marks out of a set max (8, 9.5, 13, …)

Computes grades for assessment tasks & for the course taking component weights into consideration

Computes student performance wrt to CILOs using the CILO-AT mapping data

Generates a grade report with CILO attainment for the class

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Student Performance wrt

Assessment Tasks

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Student Performance wrt CILOs

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Detailed Mapping between

CILOs and ATs

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Using this tool…

1. Enter student list (Copy and paste from

iCMS spreadsheet)

2. Specify course information including

CILOs, ATs, and CILO-AT mapping

3. [Initialize all] to generate grading sheet

4. … enter grades for ATs …

5. Generate final report

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Step 1: Enter student list

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Step 2: Specify course info

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Step 2: Specify course info

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Step 2: Specify course info

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Step 3: Click “Initialize all”

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Result of Step 3

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Step 4: … enter grades …

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Step 5: Click “Generate Report”

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Result of Step 5

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Thank You

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