Today’s higher education teachers are struggling with what are the most effective methods and tools they can use to better assess a student’s online progress. One of the most important factors is mapping the learning interaction methods with the right tools.
“Let us be realistic. A lot of times I talk to faculty and work with faculty and colleagues who say, ‘I'd love to do a more authentic assessment, but I teach a class of 200 or 75 or 50, and there's simply not enough time to have everyone doing rich portfolios.’ I get that,” said Douglas Harrison, Vice President and Dean of the School of Cybersecurity and Information Technology at the University of Maryland Global Campus. However, there are lower level knowledge checks and shorter forms of assessment that instructors can build into assignments that lead up summative assessments, he said.
Here is where choosing the right interactive tool to match the assessment method is important. Harrison then shared some examples of tools instructors to embrace noting that he is not endorsing any of these specifically. Rather he encourages instructors to think about the use and integration of technology tools for teaching and learning purposes that always align to their department, school, and university policies and procedures around the use of technology in and around the classroom, he said.
Mapping Learning Interactions to Tools:
- Self-assessment: LMS self- and peer assessment
- Reflective journal writing: OneNote, Google, Office365 Docs, etc.
- Discussions: Discussion boards, Flipgrid, YellowDig, etc.
- Blogs/Wikis: OneNote, Google, Office365 Docs, etc.
- Peer Assessment: LMS (Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, Angel or D2L), self- and peer assessment
- Electronic Portfolios: Canvas Folio
- Case Studies: LMS (Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, Angel or D2L), student group tools
- Role playing/simulation/games: Zoom, Webex, Flipgrid, Microsoft Teams
- Storytelling: Adobe Spark (in Canvas) and similar tools
- Shared whiteboarding: Jamboard and similar tools
- Group projects: LMS (Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, Angel or D2L), student group tool
- Chat and collaboration: Microsoft Teams, Google hangouts/chats, etc.
“In general, these kinds of tools can help enrich the basic LMS infrastructure that most of us [use],” said Harrison. “Sometimes it is leveraging tools that are deeper within the LMS and sometimes it is about bringing in ed tech tools that can help us,” he said.