At the end of this module, participants will be able to:

• select assessments appropriate for an online class or module
• create a rubric for student performance

We'll not presume here to even begin covering the subject of assessment. It is a huge issue in education, of course, and since the primary audience for this class is the working teacher, we assume that most, if not all, of those reading these words are already experts in this area--and highly experienced experts at that.

So just as our focus in Module Two was to acknowledge the subject of course goals and objectives and try to put them in the context of online learning, so too our focus here will be on putting the issue of assessment in the context of online learning.

But even when online, contexts differ.

Political demands, institutional demands, community demands and/or departmental demands can (to a greater or lesser extent) guide not just the content of what you teach, but how you assess what you teach.

That said and that fully recognized, when it comes to online assessment, to the extent that your assessments can be performance based is likely the extent to which your online class will be successful.

And the extent to which you can create rubrics that assess student performance is likely the extent to which your online class assessments will be successful.

Of course, assessing student performance (especially in Problem-Based Learning approaches) is not nearly so easy as grading how well students perform on objective tests (especially since Blackboard can grade those sorts of tests for you).

But as great as we think problem-based learning approaches and performance based assessments are for online classes, we realize they are not appropriate for all contexts.

Sometimes you just need to test.

And sometimes the old-fashioned multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank type assessments are just the thing.

And if they are, Blackboard makes this extremely easy. Admittedly, it takes a bit of time to set up the tests, but once done, you don't have to grade them. Students take the tests. Blackboard grades them and automatically records the grade in your gradebook.

There is a philosophy professor at Towson who has an online class in introductory philosophy. He uses the Bb testing feature heavily. He says that there is indeed objective information his students should learn, so each week, he puts together a "quiz" that tests for that. He tracks what his students do with the tests, but he does not record their grades. He says he uses the Blackboard Assessment feature purely as a learning activity.

There is a Sociology professor at McDaniel who uses the Blackboard testing feature heavily in her blended classes. She requires every student to make 100% on all 7 of her online quizzes she offers throughout the semester. If they do, they get an extra 6 points on their final grade. The students can take the tests as many times as they want. If they get 98%, that is not enough. They must get 100% for her to record the grade. And they must get 100% on all seven to get credit. The trick is that the tests are timed and are different each time the student takes them. To make that happen, she first created a huge pool of questions and used the Blackboard testing feature to randomly pick from that pool. Do the students look up the answers during or between tests? Sure, they do. But that's the point, she argues. This type of "testing" truly turns an assessment process into a learning activity.

Rubrics are tricky.

In problem-based learning approaches, the trick is to create a rubric that is broad enough to allow students room to discover and explore, but specific enough to meet your learning objectives (as well as the various political/institutional/departmental guidelines to which we are all subject in varying degrees).

Balancing acts again.

At any rate, what we are mostly concerned here with is the difficulty in assessing performance, whether it be a project or a product or writing...these sorts of student outcomes require... well, subjective metrics.

Again, we assume that everyone in this class is experienced in creating rubrics. If not, there are numerous resources on the Web. The University of Wisconsin has a nice resource on rubrics for online assessment geared particularly at K-12 Teachers.

A relatively recent development is creating a "rubric community" of rubric examples and resources and offering a free online rubric "builder."

Rubistar is one of them.

Recently, we've been looking at Rubistar.--primarily because it is connected with a Blackboard Building Block called WAYPOINT (An online demonstration of Waypoint).

At its most basic level, Waypoint is a rubric and assessment tool that makes it easier for faculty to assess student work and provide appropriate feedback to students. But the software also collects and aggregates learning outcome data, which makes it easier to assess outcomes and deliver reports for classes, departments, and/or the intuition.

Aside: The first version of this module is being written in February 2007. By summer 2007, McDaniel plans to install WAYPOINT as a Blackboard Building Block. Once installed, the tools will show up in the Control Panel. Future versions of this Module will be re-written to focus on how to use Rubistar and Waypoint.

In our experience, one of the best online assessment strategies is the digital portfolio--primarily because it is not just an assessment strategy, but a whole pedagogical approach that privileges student performance and reflection on that performance.

For a basic overview of digital portfolios (or ePortfolios or E-Portfolios, or electronic portfolios, or online portfolios), see Lorenzo and Ittleson's Overview of e-Portfolios. For a little more focus on ePortfolios as assessment tools, see their more recent Demonstrating and Assessing Student Learning with E-Portfolios. Both of these articles were published by Educause and are used here by permission.

The Web is full of additional resources on using ePortfolios. Helen Barrett's work has probably been around the longest (though she insists on calling them electronic portfolios, which sounds more like something you would buy at a Radio Shack).

We selected the Assessment Strategies for the On-Line Class: From Theory to Practice because we found it to be full of practical advice on assessment in the online enviornment--advice based on practice, research, and theory. Don't miss the excellent chapter (Nicolay) on assessing group work.

Your Classes

You should be getting close to making your classes available for "delivery" by the end of this week.

Next week, we begin Module 5, which is two weeks long and each person in the class will "deliver" one learning module to selected classmates. Everyone will be an instructor for a week, and everyone will be a student for a week. Details on this process will show up on the announcement section next week.