Get Your Students Hired
This is a general discussion forum for the following learning topic:
Assessment Alternatives for Instructors --> Using Alternative Assessments
Post what you've learned about this topic and how you intend to apply it. Feel free to post questions and comments too.
I really enjoy using alternative assessments, especially during interactive case studies.
I'm thinking about how we can make our case studies more of a problem-based learning activity so students are having to think through the role of a nurse and expected findings related to a disease process. I think our case studies do not really require the students to put the pieces together because the pieces are all presented. A problem based learning might actually help them think through expected findings and appropriate actions.
When developing an authentic assessment consider the task and allow the students to be creative while developing it. Authentic assessments will allow the instructor to refine their instruction based on the outcome of the assessment. Break down the assessment into specific steps to be evaluated. Get input from the students.
There are several types of authentic assessments. Embedded assessments can collect information about the students' learning to determine how to proceed with the next lesson. There may be times when information may need to be reinforced based on the information gained.
Portfolios, case studies and problem-based learning are examples of embedded assessments. Portfolios can present information showing student development of competency. There are several types of portfolios, depending on the purpose. The showcase portfolio will include the best finished pieces of the students' work. Growth portfolios will show the progress of the students' work. Evaluation portfolio is the final type of portfolio.
Case studies are widely used to show a breakdown of a solution to a problem or issue. We use a lot of case studies in nursing school. One type of case study involves having the students act out a scenario to demonstrate their ability to care for a client with a particular problem. We have also utilized reverse case studies. For the reverse case study, the group of students are given a particular set of problems that a client may have. The group of students do the research to create a story including the risk factors, signs/symptoms, treatment, complications, etc. The group will act out the scenario.
While I'm supportive of alternative assessments, they ought to be as rigorous as the normal ones. I think often alternative assessments tend to be easier and designed to move students forward regardless of what they've learned or not.
I would like to use portfolios with my students. They complete so many projects in auto collision. It would be great to have them take pictures of all the projects. They could keep a portfolio of the pictures and scored rubrics to show their growth throughout the course.
So many tech resources in nursing. Getting students to stick to those that are compliant with their particular learning system is the challenge. Older learners have struggled with technology, and I'm not sure how to help with that.
I've been struggling in some of these courses to understand PBL and how it applies to my discipline. This module helped me with this. All of the troubleshooting labs we do are PBL!
Using online technology, such as learning management systems, web conference platforms, social media, and various apps, in the classroom is essential for enhancing student engagement, facilitating communication and collaboration, providing access to resources, promoting personal learning experiences, and preparing students for the digital-age workforce.
Prior to taking this online course, I was not very familier with the rubric process for grading and also other assessments. This will be very helpful in the classroom, and also when in the lab.
For what I teach, Music production throw digital software, Alternative Assessments are great in the sense that are really open for creativity.
I like the idea of using the rubric for grading. Knowing up front what to expect. As a welding instructor I have to visually grade lots of welds and at times there is question of who gets what grade and why. The rubric would make it much simpler.
I am a HUGE fan of alternative assessments. The course I am involved with does not lend itself to formal testing. I leverage discussion posts, video collaboration and project/artifact production to assess student engagement and understanding. We have had a lot of success using open-ended questions to "extract" the connections made by the students with the material. I purposely do not have a "word minimum or maximum" on the discussion posts. The students are free to post as little or as much as they want. I believe this "freedom" has led to richer reflections as the students know there is not an arbitrary number of words they need to post - it's more authentic.
In this module, I learn some ideas on how to use technology to assess students' learning since my institution currently is offerering class virtually.
I didn't realize that Canvas has an e-portfolio option. Having my students work on that over the course of the quarter would allow them to reflect on each individual assignment as it's graded and returned to them beyond just what their final score was. That reflection would hopefully encourage real learning and fewer repeated errors.
I teach an online class of elderly English language learners. I want to incorporate more online tools as mention in this section, but I am not sure how to help my students understand and use those tools. Zoom is already a challenge for many of them. Any advice?
I've certainly employed quite a bit of the online methods mentioned during the pandemic. Since I teach graphic communications, I have students create two kinds of showcase portfolios; one digital and one in print (in different levels of courses). It prepares them for entering the field as well as a great tracker of their progress as designers. I like the idea of incorporating student comments more, to see why they include the pieces they choose for their portfolios.
We will use the concept of student-developed portfolios. The one challenge that I can see for us might be, because of the nature of the portfolios being customized to the students's interests and needs, is coming up with an appropriate way to grade or score them. I will have to take some time to creatively develop a rubric that makes sense and lends to the learning process.