Category Archives: assessment
Making online quizzes using Moodle
Frequent in-class quizzes have been associated with positive learning outcomes including increased student achievement, attendance, and confidence (Ruscio, 2001; Wilder, Flood, & Stomsnes, 2001). Frequent quizzing reportedly maintains student study effort and promotes course engagement (Smith et al., 2000; Sporer, 2001). In general students rate the quizzes favorably and believe they are helpful in preparing for in-class examinations. Practice tests help students evaluate their learning and focus study effort accordingly (Maki, 1998).
Energize your e-learning courses
Energize your e-learning courses with Engage—a quick and easy tool that lets you create lean-forward experiences that learners love. The ability to produce dazzling interactions that turn passive viewers into active learners makes. Click here for the main features of presenter 09
Here is one I prepared earlier
How to…. guide – for making quizzes through Articulate quizmaker
This section gives instructional short video clip instructions on how to compelte various taks using Articulate Quizmaker
Getting Started
How do I create a question with customised feedback?
How do I create quiz with random questions taken from a database of questions?
How to insert my quizmaker quiz into my LMS?
How do I insert hints into my quizmaker questions
Overview of Form View vs. Slide View
How do I set up branching in Articulate Quizmaker
Three things you should know about scoring in Articulate Quizmaker
How do I turn on/off quiz results, or customize my results slides, in Articulate Quizmaker
More advanced features
How do I format my text of my questions
How do I bring in pictures and other media bit by bit – part one – animations
How do I bring in pictures and other media bit by time – part two – timeline
How to use images instead of text in your multiple choice questions
How to use multi “hotposts” within a image in a question
How do synchronize closed captioning and call out graphics with video in Quizmaker
Video-based quizzes in Quizmaker & using Sequence Drop Down for Mad Libs style learning activities
There is also an on-line forum made up from Articulate users throughout the world. It is well worth a visit
Creating on-line quizzes for your e-learning courses – Articulate Quizmaker
Quizmaker ’09 has a range of easy to use features. These inlude:
- Quickly group and randomize question pools—without separating questions that should appear together
- Include images, Flash, and audio—even create a scenario that develops over several screens
- Branch quiz takers to different slides depending on how they answer each question
- Animate objects and adjust their timing on the click-and-drag timeline
- Choose from a wide selection of professionally designed themes or create your own
- Give your quiz takers specific results and feedback based on their scores
- Get quiz results through e-mail, your LMS
Rubrics for assessment
SLEDcc_orange_rubrics_semifinal_draft (Photo credit: Fleep Tuque)
A rubric is an attempt to communicate expectations of quality around a task. A rubric can also provide a basis for self-evaluation, reflection, and peer review. It is aimed at accurate and fair assessment, fostering understanding, and indicating a way to proceed with subsequent learning/teaching.Please find abelow a variety of rubrics that I have encountered from various workshops and courses that I have attended. Please give the authors of the rubrics the appropriate recognition if you decide to spread these on to your colleagues.
Peer Assessment Rubric – based on a design by Richard Felder
Sharon Flynn from NUI Galway very kindly shared rubric that she uses for On Discussion participation
Oral assessment – Dolan School of Business, Fairfield University
As a student on the Learning Innovation Network special purpose award “Teaching and Learning”, I received feedback in the form of a rubric on a seminar paper that I submitted to the course instructors, led by Marion Palmer, IADT.
There is also a good discussion in this article on rubrics for student blogs
I would be really interested in your comments on rubrics and would be delighted if you would be willing to share rubrics that you have came across throughout your education. I have also found great websites on assessment that can be accessing by clicking http://www.diigo.com/user/markglynn/assessment
Related articles
- Rubric Resources (aquillam.wordpress.com)
- Blogging Rubric (evenfromhere.org)
- Making peer evaluations work in Online Learning (onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com)
Podcasting – some useful resources
why podcasts can be useful in teaching, what tools can be used to make them, and how they can incorporate them into their Google Sites. The links below includes a video, downloadable notes, and some useful resources for additional information all orientated around podcasting.
Prezi – the alternative to powerpoint, an ideal tool for group work for students
Prezi Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I had a go at Prezi today – www.prezi.com. It takes a little getting used to but it is a nice alternative to powerpoint. Just like powerpoint you can spend more time messing about with the various settings changing the way things look on your presentation. So take my advice and remember that your target is to get the information across, not have it flash across the screen in bright colours and flashing lights.
Have a look at this prezi video to get yourself started
Audio Feedback
In order to optimise any assessment, continuous or otherwise, in terms of a learning experience for the student, feedback is crucial (Race, 2007). Group work and peer evaluation will reduce the lecturers workload to a certain extent, however the challenge of issuing timely feedback is still an issue. Descriptive feedback, given directly after an assignment has been completed, informs our students of strengths and areas in need of improvement and allows them to address these items before they embark on the next assignment or final draft. Lecturers reported that this eliminates the need to correct similar items in consecutive assignments/drafts and saves both the student and the lecturer time and energy. Nevertheless, planning time for giving students effective feedback is an important and challenging aspect of the teaching and learning process. Read the rest of this entry
Group work and Peer Evaluation
There certainly are benefits to students’ learning through social interaction and there has been a strong employability argument about the need to develop the portfolio of skills necessary to successfully work as a member of a team; there have also been pragmatic, logistical reasons, as student numbers have risen disproportionately with staffing. Group work has the potential measurably to improve student engagement, performance, marks and retention and usually succeeds in achieving this potential provided that there are associated assessment mechanisms that leverage appropriate student learning behaviour (Jaques, 2000). In the absence of such assessment mechanisms these benefits may not materialise. Allocating a single group mark to all members of a group rarely leads to appropriate student learning behaviour, frequently leads to freeloading, and so the potential learning benefits of group work are likely to be lost. In fact the assessment of group work is arguably one of the biggest sources of student dissatisfaction, largely because it is often perceived as unfair. Houldsworth and Matthews (Houldsworth & Matthews, 2000) also describe a ‘sucker effect’ in which the most hardworking student gradually reduces their effort in order to avoid being taken advantage of by the freeloaders.
Assessing presentation skills
Many of the courses in higher education focus on the development of competencies, such as written and oral communication, leadership, and teamwork (Kerby & Romine, 2010). However, the practical logistics of assessing students on these competencies can sometimes be inhibitive. For example, first year science students in IT Tallaght were required to make a presentation as part of their assessment. However, with over 80 students, even limiting the presentations to five minutes each, this one assessment takes an excessive amount of class time. The time involved can be reduced by making it a group presentation, however group work presents its own challenges in terms of assessing individual student contribution and effort (Perdigones, García, Valiño, & Raposo, 2009). Two different technologies were utilised to address these challenges; screen casting and google docs.
Technology Enhanced Learning 