Formative assessment for online learners

Janet Macdonald

The OU in Scotland

Escalate workshop: Assessment in lifelong learning Nov 27th 2006

OU in Scotland 2004-5

Key

Less than 2%

2-4%

4-6%

6-8%

Over 8%

15,000 students

550 tutors

Course provision at scale

• Over 600 courses• 200,000 students• Pre-entry level course

(Openings)• Undergraduate level

Postgraduate level• Professional

Development

You & your moneyUnderstanding childrenCreative WritingUnderstanding maths

Students from 18 - 80

• majority aged 25-44• Over 70% in full time work• 6% have special needs• Over 20% of students join

without the qualifications required for conventional university study

• 22% transfer credit from previous study

Increasing diversity in students

In 2004/05 9% of new

undergraduates were in

18 – 25 age group

A 25% rise in this age group

since 1999-2000

And not so young –

the 55+ age group growing..

Tutors: the human link

• Students as identifiable individuals

• Blended learning approach: – using online for what it

does best– targeted use of

tutorials

My interest in assessment of online study• 2nd level undergrad Technology course + postgrad

Educational Technology course: feedback from 800 students and 50 tutors over 3 years

• 2nd level undergrad Education course: feedback from 200 students and 12 tutors

• Desk study of assessment design on 4 courses using O/L

• My book – examples of good practice in assessment of blended courses from wide variety institutions (Macdonald, 2006)

• New VLE – how shall we use these new comms tools?

Courses with online elementMany courses make partial use of online media to provide

flexibility and support new pedagogies including :

• extended online discussion

• access to wider resources, including peers

When learning online, students may need to develop:• Information literacy (Candy, 2000; McDowell, 2002)

• New approaches to writing (Goodfellow & Lea, 2005)

• Online communication and collaboration (Salmon 2000, McConnell, 2002)

A more self directed approach“the challenge facing teachers is not whether to give their

online students responsibility for their own learning, but how much responsibility they are going to deny or facilitate, and how they are going to do it.”

Stephenson (2001) p 224

Harnessing the formative power of assessment..

• Checking knowledge & understanding of course content

• Developing the process of online learning

• Developing self direction in learners

Start with simple activity..• Give feedback• Build on existing competencies• Rome not built in a day

Summarise an article on a course topic

Post your summary to online forum

Discuss the issues arising, in the forum

Marks for:• your summary of article

• Three postings demonstrating any of following:

•Timeliness, allowing group interaction before deadline

•Posting which encourages further interaction

•Posting which provides feedback to others

Aligning participation with course aims

• Write an essay on a course issue, drawing on four articles from the electronic resources

• Compare the use of two different search methods used to collect material for your essay, and comment on their usefulness

• Describe three criteria which you used to decide on the relevance and applicability of your chosen articles.

Developing information literacy..

Open assessment criteria

This assignment will be judged on the

following criteria:

1. Understanding of key concepts x, y & z

2. Coherent explanation

3. Good presentation

What does “coherent explanation” mean to you?

Sharing understanding: new approaches to note-taking?• Plenary forum can be a place to describe an

understanding of course materials and relate that to experience

• Electronic concept maps – also useful in same context

Model answers: using forum orwiki

Teacher: How would you answer this question?

StudentsThat’s tricky.

Here’s my attempt

That’s great. I might also have

added….

The E-scrapbook: sharing student writing• Tutor comment:Tutor comment: Every course has its own particular

approach to writing. When planning your essay, remember […] I have put together a few examples from your scripts to illustrate this point. You can learn from each other!

• Student quote 1:Student quote 1: I am going to look at the situated view of learning as explained in the course and give examples of personal experiences which show the connections between [...]

• Student quote 2:Student quote 2: What is a ‘learning situation’? Although in this analysis I use terms such as ‘my personal learning situation’ in order to situate my argument within the context of the course, the truth is [...]

Submit draft to forum

Comment on drafts of two peers, highlighting:

one aspect you liked

one aspect you think could be improved

Amend your own draft

Marks for:

• submitting draft pages to forum

• giving constructive comments to two peers by agreed date

• reflection on use of peer feedback

Participating in assessment

Assessing online learning

• assessment can create learning opportunities at critical points

• assessment can combine online learning development with course content

• online learners can participate in their assessment

Design an online activity linked to assessment

• What are the intended learning outcomes?– (remember information literacy; writing,

communicating, collaborating)• What are the criteria?• What issues will influence the success of your activity?

General comments• Cost effectiveness

• Developing capability for lifelong learning

student learningstudent learningreliability, costsreliability, costs

Learning Development TeamThe Open University In Scotland10 Drumsheugh GardensEdinburghEH3 7QJ

Telephone: 0131 226 3851Email: scotland@open.ac.uk