Get Your Students Hired
I see the value of both. My experiences have been more to the objective methods (ie Flight ttraining).
Both objective and subjective assessments can be used as a part of a complete formative assessment.
I learned that I have always used the assessments described in this unit however I haven't always thought of them using these terms.
Both norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessments are important for student learning. As a nursing instructor, I need students to be compared to a standard when performing skills. However, they also must be compared to large groups so a norm-referenced assessment is also helpful in preparation for taking a national board exam.
There are different ways to determine a student's understanding of the subject matter. Objective is more black and white with clear right and wrong answers, it would be helpful in summative assesments. Subjective definitely gives a little more maneuverability to understanding the student's perspective, it could be helpful when utilizing formative assessment.
I learned that I am much more comfortable with criterion-referenced assessments. As a student, I hated it when a teacher graded on a curve and I am not a competitive person by nature. I was intrigued by the idea of looking at individual test questions and evaluating who got it right and who got it wrong. I think this would be an important tool for knowing how to reach individual students and how to make a test better.
Nancy Tosh
I have learned that as an intructor we must provide feedback to students not just marking right or wrong with no feedback, it is imperative that feedback be a consistent part of any assessment. Student's will understands what areas needs improvement.
These assessments can be a little confusing. I'm glad they have great descriptions and examples but I do find it hard identifying which is which
I have used and taken both the Norm and Criterion-referenced assessments and never knew they were different. I know, now, I deffinately will use the Criterion-referenced assessments in my course.
I've learned that there is a difference between norm and criterion based assessments. Criterion based assessments seem most useful in the context of my courses, but norm based assessments could be useful for helping me to determine the perfomances of current students vs prior cohorts to see if they're better grasping the material (or not).
In this module I learned that objective information is fact based and subjective is based on personal opinions or different points of view.
This module provided a review of objective vs subjective assessment and their inherent uses and functions. It emphasized the importance of determining test validity and reliability for accuracy and effectiveness of assessment, as well as the advantages of using norm-referenced vs criterion-referenced assessments. Our students sit for a final competency exam that is norm-referenced, however, I find that in my course classes, especially in labs, I more often use criterion-used assessments as a checklist to indicate mastery of necessary professional skills.
It's good practice to establishing within your course what method of assessment best suits the needs of your students and the class as well. Personally, I prefer to use objective assessments as it is easier to get a baseline of the class's understanding of the material that has been presented.
Im learning that test of all kinds can be used in combination to benifit the students, to know where they are in a group, what they know in the group and what they need to do to improve.
Objective assessments are necessary and should be used to determine whether students have mastered the content. However, objective assessments should not just be right or wrong answers. Feedback should be provided for objective assessments so that students understand why their answers are wrong or right. Additionally, subjective assessments should be used when you are trying to determine the perspective of the student in reference to the content being covered. Last, I can apply what I learn in this module by ensuring my objective assessments are rigorous, meaningful and avoid incorrect answers. Second, I can use subjective assessment as another form of checking for understanding with students via essays or short answer quizzes.
Take away from this session. Instructors have several choices to use as assessment tools. The validity and reliabity are important aspects of the tools and should be considered when designing an assessment.
It is important for online instructors to keep in mind that all assessments must be sound, free from bias and distortion.
I learned that I need to be better when making tests for my students. It needs to be valid and reliable at all times. I try to make some tests tricky but it may not be in the best interest of the kids since it can cause the quiz to have ambiguous questions.
There are difference ways of creating objective and subjective assessments. The goal for this assessments, though is to make sure that the questions will cover the outcomes/objectives of the course. Providing rubrics to students when doing subjective assessments can help in grading them.
A well written test reveals what students know, what they have been taught, and what they do not know.