Deborah Rhodes

Value added assessment can be made in many instances, and can be beneficial.  This is particularly useful in online education as student growth can be identified.  Working with rubrics can be beneficial to everyone as it gives students knowledge of what will be graded (often not the specific answer, but how it was presented) and gives instructors places to point out strengths and weaknesses of a given answer.  

Having revised two courses in very different circumstances, all types of evaluation are valid.  Instructors need to be constantly evaluating the student population (it changes from class to class) response and… >>>

Creating meaningful assessments are critical to successful learning.  Grading, even with rubrics, can be diffiult if the student writes a successful essay but it is against the instructor's personal fellings on the topic.   As instructors we need to be cognizant of biases.  We need to select the proper style of assessment for the objectives.  

Bloom's Taxonomy has been changed over the last few years.  I see that "synthesis" has been removed (combined into Analysis and Evaluation) and "Create" added to the top of the pyramid. It is good to see evoluation in the concept.  Formative and summative assessments are important, but can be overdone.  It is important to understand why the assesssments are being done and what will be done with that information.  

STudent achievement can be assessed with many tools.  Select the one that best provides student and intructor with desired feedback.  

Assignments and assessments need to be relevant to the learning objectives/outcomes to help students become more enthusiastic about doing them successfully.  Encourage students to work together (in groups or in response to others), but be cognizant of the situations of the course's student population.   Do they work shifts around the clock?  Do they live in reasonable proximity to each other, or are they spread around the state(s) or world?  Are the technological requirements of the institution sufficient to accommodate your materials, etc.

There are many media strategies, but an instructor should be cognizant of what is relevant to the students, the technical environment of the class, the logistics of the students (are they all living in the same "local" area, or are they all over the world, do they have work schedules that have them working "aroud the clock?"), the material to be covered/learned.  The more relevant the assignment/assessment, the more enthusiastic students are to engage in it and have a successful learning experience.

Relevance is key in developing questions and topic delivery.   Encouraging learners to "practice" and "think out loud" help to develop their ability to think critically as well as accept constructive criticism/encouragement.

There are many ways of engaging students in the material, some more effective than others.  Students have their own preferences for information acquisition and using several methods helps reinforce the material.   My experience is that asyncronous discussions are more effective than synchronous as it gives people a chance to really think about their response.  "Read and respond to at least two other learners with substantive responses" is extremely effective to reinforce material, especially if you don't agree; professional disagreement and discussion follows.

Onlline learning is getting respect in both the "real world" and academia.  That may be one of the positive outcomes of the COVID fight we have been in for the last couple of years.  Instructors are learning thst it isn't the same as face-to-face and students are learning is isn't as easy as they thought.  

To me the real keys are to know your students and meet them where they start.  Strong support and providing alternative tools for learning are also important to the process.