Week 6: Evaluation and assessment of learners

Summary: 
Why do we assess learners?

• To make decisions
• About students
• Learning
• Placement
• Degree
• Recognition
• Remediation
• About instruction
• Effectiveness
• Pace
• Material
• Coverage

Start with

• Learning/ performance objectives
• Objectives should be clear, measurable, represent knowledge/ skill gains, not activties

Important consideration: reliability

• Assessment reliability
• How consistently does this measure the thing?
• Examples:
• Bathroom scale: if you gain 20 pounds within one day, then you will question the reliability of the scale
• Driver's test
• Assumption: assessments should be reliable and not subject to the following:
• Error
• Wide range of interpretations regarding what is being asked
• Limitations of observation

Important consideration: validity

• Assessment validity
• How do the procedures and interpretations support our purpose?
• Content: alignment between test and course content
• Dose the bathroom scale measure weight in pounds?
• Criterion: real-world correlation
• Does the number on the bathroom scale provide us with an accurate measure of weight loss?
• Does the number on the bathroom scale provide us with an accurate measure of fat loss?
• Construct: meaning
• What does the weight mean or signify?

Essay:

• Long or short repsonses to a prompt
• Instructions should be detailed
• Question should specify all expectations
• Criteria for scoring should be cleraly established in form of chekclist  or rubric
• Easy to writing, time-consuming to score

Performance

• Demonstration of skill
• Can be speech, project, or other format
• Instructions should be detailed and specify all expectations
• Scored according to detailed criteria in the form of checklist or rubric
• Reliable assessments are difficult to write and time-consuming to score

Personal interview: (eg qualifying exam, conference presentation)

Decision points:

• Why do we need to know this and what do we need to know?
• During instruction (formative)
• Following instruction (summative)
• Remediation opportunities?
• High stakes? SAT--> the purpose is not valid, but the test itself is valid and reliable. Using SAT as an indicator of school performance is a wrongful claim.

Reflection: 
           One of the things I have been missing out is the connection between learning objectives and learning content. There is always a weak link between these two nodes in my lesson plan. In fact, I believe many teachers, especially novice ones like me, oversee this link. Well, instead of saying "oversee this link", maybe I should say that I always determine my teaching content first and then write down my teaching objectives based on that. It is easier for me to design my teaching without setting up the objectives first. 
          I understand that my design order is wrong. I should determine teaching objectives first and then design my teaching content according to that; otherwise, it would be meaningless to set up objectives. Yet, it is really difficult for me to think and design in this order. What should I do? 
         In addition to the instructional design perspective, Dr. L introduced several handy technologies for evaluation and feedback. iRubric is the most useful one among all. I definitely will use it for my future teaching and our final project. StudyBlue seems pretty cool, too. I might try to use it for self-study purpose. Polleverywhere is fun and eye-catching, but it is only useful in large-scale classes. If it is a small class, I can just ask students to respond by raising hands or answer my questions. Another drawback of using Polleverywhere is that it gives students a legitimate reason to take out their smartphones or laptops, which may become a serious distraction in class.