Summative assessments allow students a chance to see how well they learned the material at the end of a lesson, course, etc. This can be sort of a wake-up call for students if they are not doing well. It can provide a look into areas where improvement is needed. It is important to ensure the material is thoroughly covered to give students a fair chance at performing well. It is also important to provide students with feedback.

I really like the use of objective assessments. It simplifies the information for the students. I teach a lot of medical terminology courses and this helps student with the thousands of terms that they have to learn on a monthly basis. Letrice Mitchell

I think that students should take assessments before a course begins and at the end as well. This gives the student an idea of what the course will entail and while taking the course they will be reminded of that question that may have been missed. Mrs. Mitchell

It seems that we generally give objective tests to students in the lower level classes and more subjective tests as the classes progress to the graduate level courses. Is this appropriate? Or should lower level classes also be expected to communicate in writing on subjective tests? What if the student does not go on for graduate level classes? Have we done an injustice to the student by not "forcing" the student to communicate in writing? I use the word "forcing" because students do not want to write papers. Although I am a CPA and deal a lot with numbers, business communication explaining the numbers is probably even more important. Jean Riese

Why are grading rubrics important to have for all types of grading assessments?

I think that there should be many different assessment tools in a classroom. For example, students need to write papers (even though they don't want to)to give them experience in written communications in the business world. Also, multiple choice quizzes on the course content give instant feedback to the student since they can be arranged to be computer graded. The discussion board allows students to communicate in a written form and respond to others. This is important practice for the student to learn how to communicate to others in a more formal way than just e-mail. Lastly, at least one assignment needs to require a Power Point presentation to give the student experience in creating Power Point presentations in case they need to have one for a business meeting. With a mixture of each type of assessment, the student gets a more hands on approach to learning and communication delivery which is valuable to their future in business.

How do we insure that online courses provide measurable objectives and framework for authentic assessment?

What kind of feedback would you provide in a summative assessment? Austin

How can one determine the other effectiveness of a rubric?

In our curriculum authentic assessments are the most important evaluation tool that we have. The students need feedback as to their ability to perform exercises, teach exercises, modify and progress exercises, and also connect with a potential client. The on-line environment has created many challenges, but we are learning to use technology more effectively. For example having the students record themselves demonstarting exercises and then submitting recordings. Does anyone have any suggestions as to alternatives for authentic assessments for a fitness-based curriculum? Best practices?

Should involving students in the development of rubrics be a consistent activity or can you decide based on the class whether to involve students or not?

What are the levels of details that you include in your Rubric?

I am trying to get my staff to use more rubrics however they think that I am adding paperwork. I hope that they will see the light once they start to use them.

When do Rubrics become too cumbersome?

When assessing the use of technology assessment tools in an online learning environment, what do you believe are the three most important things to consider? I would say that the most important things to consider in the online environment and assessment are first, make sure that you are assessing on what is being taught. I have noticed that often the assessment doesn't match the curriculum and have been able to help change a few courses so that it lines up and matches what is being learned. Next, I would say that you need to make sure that the students have the information needed to be successful and that the instructions are clear on the assessment so that they won't get mixed up with the technology or textbooks, etc. Finally, I would say that the instructor and facilitator needs to be there along the way and assess throughout a course so they will know where a student is and so they can know how to help them.

I will be using more reubrics now that I know what it does.

Rubrics comes in handy if you have a list of things you need the student to do for one project.

Are rubrics always necessary and if so, when should the students be involved? Terry

I have never used an online rubric generator do they really work well? Tery

I am not sure how well Self-assessment or peer-assessments work. What is everyone elses feeling on these? Terry