8.5. Assessment Toolkit

Self-assessment is of having learners identify strengths and weaknesses in their own work and revise accordingly. Effective self-assessment is about learners comparing their work to clearly stated standards and generating feedback for their use about where they need to improve. It is a tool that can enhance learning when used while teaching takes place. Learners should be able to use their feedback to revise and improve their work before teacher’s feedback. Finally, learners self-assess and revise their work and turn it in.

Effective self-assessment involves at least three steps:

1. CLEAR PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES

For self-assessment to be efficient, learners must have clear objectives to work for. Learners must know what counts! Clear criteria for tasks should be made available to learners before work on the task begins. The criteria for the task can be created by the teacher or co-created with students.

The criteria can be arranged in a simple checklist or in a rubric.

2. CHECKING PROGRESS TOWARD THE OBJECTIVES

This is where the actual self-assessment takes place. Once learners know the performance objectives (step 1), they create a draft of the task, compare the draft to the objectives, and identify areas of strength and areas for improvement.

3. REVISION

Using the self-generated feedback from step 2, learners revise their draft, trying to close the gaps between their work and the objective. If learners do not have the chance to revise and improve their work, they are unlikely to take the self-assessment process seriously.

WHAT IS A RUBRIC?

A rubric is usually a 1–2-page document that has two characteristics:

1. Clearly stated criteria or learning objectives for a given task.

2. Descriptive levels or gradations of quality for each criterion, ranging from excellent to poor.

WHY USE A RUBRIC?

A rubric can be a very effective tool for guiding student self-assessment. Because it includes vivid descriptions of what excellent and poor work look like, a rubric can help students get a keen sense of the quality of their work and—perhaps more importantly—provide guidance about how to improve it.

A checklist is like a rubric in that it lists the learning objectives, or criteria (what counts), but it does not include the gradations of quality, which is characteristic of rubrics.

WHEN SHOULD I USE A CHECKLIST INSTEAD OF A RUBRIC?

Rubrics are excellent tools for guiding self-assessment, but checklists can work equally well, or better, depending on the task. For larger, more complex tasks, rubrics typically work best. For shorter, less complex tasks, checklists are often more appropriate.

Peer assessment is learners giving informed feedback to one another on a task. Effective peer assessment is related to clear standards and is supported by a constructive process of critique. Peer assessment is a valuable tool because feedback from peers can be delivered with more immediacy and in greater volume than teacher feedback. Peer assessment should happen during the learning process, on works-in-progress, and be followed by opportunities for students to use the feedback they received to revise their work.

1. DETERMINE THE CRITERIA ON WHICH THE TASK WILL BE ASSESSED (WHAT COUNTS). This can be done by the teacher alone, or preferably by co-constructing a checklist or rubric with learners.

2. THE TEACHER GROUPS LEARNERS INTO SMALL PEER FEEDBACK GROUPS.

Two to four students can be grouped based on ability level.

3. THE TEACHER MODELS EFFECTIVE PEER FEEDBACK FOR LEARNERS.

The teacher may take an assignment and use the Ladder of Feedback protocol to pose clarifying questions, state what he or she values about the task, list what concerns him/her about it, and ultimately make suggestions (not mandates) that may be used to improve the task.

4. LEARNERS RECEIVE A CHECKLIST OR DOCUMENT THAT REMINDS THEM HOW TO DELIVER EFFECTIVE PEER FEEDBACK.

The Ladder of Feedback is a good choice of a checklist for students to use as a quick reference.

5. THE TEACHER CLARIFIES THE TASK FOR THE LEARNERS.

Clarification includes performance to be peer assessed and the timeline for that assessment.

6. THE TEACHER ACTIVELY MONITORS THE PROGRESS OF THE PEER FEEDBACK GROUPS. Learners will need a lot of support when they are first introduced to peer assessment, and less as they become accustomed to it.

7. THE TEACHER MONITORS THE QUALITY OF FEEDBACK.

The teacher ensures that her students are using the constructive feedback protocol (possibly the Ladder of Feedback).

8. PEER FEEDBACK IS CHECKED FOR RELIABILITY.

The teacher may compare his/her feedback on a task with a student’s feedback to check for alignment and provide further support and instruction if needed.

9. THE TEACHER PROVIDES FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THEIR PEER ASSESSMENT.

10. AFTER STUDENTS HAVE GENERATED EFFECTIVE PEER FEEDBACK, IT SHOULD BE USED TO GUIDE STUDENT REVISIONS OF WORKS-IN-PROGRESS.

The Ladder of Feedback is a useful tool to help promote effective peer feedback between students (see topic 9.3.1). It involves four steps.

1. Ask clarifying questions they have about the work. Some ideas may seem unclear, or information may be missing. This step helps peers gather relevant information before they give feedback.

2. State what they value, or comment on the strengths of the work. Expressing appreciation for ideas is fundamental to the process of constructive feedback. Stressing the positive points of the work sets a supportive tone during the feedback session and helps people to identify strengths in their work they might not have recognised otherwise.

3. Raise any concerns they may have about the work. During this step, honest thoughts and concerns are raised in a constructive, non-threatening way. “What I wonder about is . . .” and “Have you considered . . .” are examples of how concerns may be framed.

4. Make suggestions about how the work could be improved. Give suggestions, based on problems identified in the concerns step, which can help the student use the feedback to revise his work and make improvements. There is no guarantee the learner will use the suggestions, nor need there be a guarantee.

Computer-based assessments (CBAs) may take a variety of different forms. The defining feature is that the computer assesses the responses provided by the students. CBAs can be used as part of an online virtual learning environment or in more traditional classroom settings via mobile devices, tablets, and PCs. CBAs often take the form of surveys or diverse types of quizzes and problems – in the latter case, depending on the software, the assessment may be set up to involve flexible learning pathways. CBAs can be adapted to distinct levels of learning and used in different disciplines. CBAs can be used as a tool for assessment, teaching and learning.

CBAs are highly flexible learning tools and therefore can be designed to correspond to the level of learning of the students, the stage they are at in the learning process, and also, in the more advanced versions, can automatically adapt to the level of the learner. Depending on their design, CBAs can be used to support lower and higher levels of learning. The strengths of the format are that it:

• enables learners to work at their own pace and also flexibly depending on the other demands on their time
• enables learners on large courses to do homework on a weekly basis
• encourages learners to work progressively to acquire key concepts
• creates an interactive learning environment
• learners get immediate feedback on their work
• improves reliability for certain kinds of assessment
• ensures impartiality
• enables the educator to monitor the development and performance of his/her learners
• enables the educator to identify potentially challenging aspects of the teaching process and provide general feedback and thus obviates the need for individual feedback
• can be adapted to assess basic knowledge and practice basic skills or to more sophisticated ones
• can be used for formative and/or summative assessment
• enables learners to revisit and revise different material including under timed constrained conditions which might help them prepare for summative assessment
• in more advanced versions can be set up so that learners will be given different pathways to follow depending on their performance
• can be set up so that the tasks become progressively more difficult. Potential challenges are that CBAs are time-consuming to design and set up. Beyond these initial sunk costs, they can run on their own. Learners will need careful instruction on how to make best use of CBAs.

As in all assessments it is important for the person setting up the CBAs to be clear about what exactly is being assessed, how this aligns with learning outcomes on the course and to make explicit what is expected of the students. CBAs are an attractive form of assessment as they encourage self-assessment and learning, enable learners to progress with their studies at their own pace depending on other constraints and to monitor their own progress over time. It may be useful to bear the following in mind when designing CBAs:

• What form will the CBAs take? What are the features of software packages/VLE environments?
• How much time are learners expected to work on CBAs on a weekly basis?
• Is the purpose to assess knowledge or to contribute to the building of knowledge through different developmental pathways?
• Will the educator engage in the CBAs? Will it be a completely autonomous learning experience, or will the educator also send feedback and if so when, what form will it take and how often?
• Will these be formative or summative assessments or both?

•  How do CBAs enable the learners to meet their intended learning outcomes?
• How do CBAs fit with the other forms of assessment on the course?