Week 6 - How you doin'?

Blog 6 Assessment vs. Evaluation – How are they different?

This blog is dedicated to the wonderful Joey Tribbiani for his unfailing assessment:

1.     What is the difference between assessment and evaluation?

According to the readings set us this week by Dr. Newberry, the main difference between assessment and evaluation is that evaluation carries a judgment of quality, establishment of value or worth along with communication about the significance of the student performance.

In searching for additional documentation, I found this explanation from Duke University that generally meshes with what Dr. Newberry said. The one big difference here was that to them, assessment was not graded.

In my own practice, I have found assessment to jive strongly with Dr. Newberry’s definitions with the following additions/modifications:

1)    I am ALWAYS in assessment mode; the same cannot be said of evaluation. (I am very careful to develop this understanding amongst my students because most feel judged the moment they enter math class.)

2)    I may or may not grade assessment pieces; it will depend entirely on the task at hand. This will even vary to the extent that what is graded in one class may not be graded in another with the same class title.

2.     What are the challenges to assessment and evaluation in eLearning?

The greatest challenges to assessment and evaluation in eLearning, to me personally, are 1) being able to guarantee that the work done was actually a product created by the student being evaluated and 2) being able to guarantee that the student is able to successfully complete the necessary work without external aid (notes, books, Internet queries, etc.) as math is (unfortunately) incredibly performance based. While there is certainly an argument to be made that we live in an age of easy reference, they still need to internalize certain skills.

3.     Explain the possible use of an online portfolio in eLearning.

An online portfolio might be best used in an eLearning situation when students are required to complete a number of individual and team projects. Through the progression of the course, students have an opportunity to build and include a) examples of their work, b) self-evaluations, c) peer evaluations, and d) evaluations completed by the instructor to build a case and show what they have learned and whether they have met the course objectives.

Three benefits of an online portfolio in eLearning are:

1)    A nicely built portfolio allows students to showcase work from various career stages in addition to obtaining reference information,

2)    Portfolio assessment more closely mirrors the type of evaluation students will see in the workplace and prepares them for this eventuality, and

3)    Portfolio assessment lends itself more readily to the type of work that students must produce themselves, not copy from the Internet or peers.

I think the most important phrase used by the author of our text was when she characterized the use of portfolios being best in a student-centered learning environment. This portfolio idea would not work well with much of what you see in a traditional math classroom. Trying to have each student complete the same worksheet with the same tired, old problems would not make for high quality portfolios.

4.     Identify at least two ways to measure student participation in an online class and explain how you think these methods can factor into the students' grade in the course.

Method 1: If using a portfolio in the class, one way to measure student participation would be to have a rubric for grading the quality of the portfolio. A grade is assigned for the quality of each portfolio item, the organization of the portfolio, and for the overall quality of the entire portfolio according to a Numeric Grading Scale like the one below:

10 Excellent Quality Work ·            Far exceeds course requirements ·            Demonstrates superior effort ·            Course content mastery	8—9 Good Quality Work ·            Exceeds course requirements ·            Demonstrates commendable effort ·            Good course content knowledge
6—7 Acceptable Quality Work ·            Meets course requirements ·            Demonstrates acceptable effort ·            Acceptable course content knowledge	0—5 Unacceptable Quality Work ·            Fails to meet course requirements ·            Incomplete or unacceptable effort ·            Poor course content knowledge

Since my first class, I have really appreciated Dr. Newberry’s rubric scale of grading our weekly participation within the framework of our engagement with the material and each other. While I am not sure it would motivate every one of my students, the differentiation between the 10 (perfect score) and the 8-9 good quality work pushes me to delve deeper into the material and engagement than I might otherwise because I want the top score. As the expectations are clear to students they can work to achieve at their desired level and impact their grade in that way.

Method 2: Self-evaluation of their performance in the course – team project. Having students answer a question like, “What is the most important thing you contributed throughout the course of this project?” allows students to synthesize the work that they have completed; what they share as their most important take away allows you to see what they truly learned over the course of the project and evaluate their contributions to the team as a whole.

When combined with peer-evaluations and the components of the work that the team pulled together over the course of the project, this component of the grade makes for an additional fair way to assess participation.

5.     Define peer evaluation and describe its advantages and disadvantages.

Peer evaluation: a structured process by which students participating in the same course evaluate alone, in pairs, or in teams the work of another student or set of students.

One of the advantages of peer evaluation is that peer evaluators often have more time to give quality feedback. (This is especially helpful when the class size is large. Yay for me as I have 85 students in my AP stats class next year… 3 cheers for peer evaluation!)

Hip, hip, hooray!                          Hip, hip, hooray!                                Hip, hip, hooray!

                                 

Peer reviews, especially when structured in the online environment, allow students to take their time and put together thoughtful, well-articulated feedback.                        

Disadvantages of peer evaluation arise when it is structured into teamwork as many times, students object strongly to any part of their grade being determined by the work of another.

6.     Describe a possible group assignment for an online class and explain how to evaluate student performance in the group assignment.

Assignment for AP Statistics:

Consider what we have studied in regards to evaluating data sets both in isolation and in comparison to one another. You are going to write the lead story in a newspaper on a topic of your choice. With your teammates, you will collect a minimum of two real sets of data that you will present in both diagram form and interpret for the reader. It’s your job to convince the reader that a) the topic matters to them, b) the topic is newsworthy and c) that it is presented in a way that they understand the applications of the data to themselves and/or their family members. Be sure to cite the sources of your real data in your write up. All diagrams should be professional quality, remember they are the main source of the data trends of which you are trying to convince your readers.

You will be evaluated on the final product, the quality of the writing, relevance of the data chosen, and the creativity of presentation.

Additionally, each team member will fill out a self-evaluation and a peer evaluation.

Your self-evaluation will answer the question: what did you contribute to the success of the group? Rate your work according to the rubric below:

10 Excellent Quality Work ·            Far exceeds course requirements ·            Demonstrates superior effort ·            Course content mastery	8—9 Good Quality Work ·            Exceeds course requirements ·            Demonstrates commendable effort ·            Good course content knowledge
6—7 Acceptable Quality Work ·            Meets course requirements ·            Demonstrates acceptable effort ·            Acceptable course content knowledge	0—5 Unacceptable Quality Work ·            Fails to meet course requirements ·            Incomplete or unacceptable effort ·            Poor course content knowledge

Your peer-evaluation will answer the question: what did each of your group members contribute to the success of the group? Rate the work of each teammate according to the rubric below:

10 Excellent Quality Work ·            Far exceeds course requirements ·            Demonstrates superior effort ·            Course content mastery	8—9 Good Quality Work ·            Exceeds course requirements ·            Demonstrates commendable effort ·            Good course content knowledge
6—7 Acceptable Quality Work ·            Meets course requirements ·            Demonstrates acceptable effort ·            Acceptable course content knowledge	0—5 Unacceptable Quality Work ·            Fails to meet course requirements ·            Incomplete or unacceptable effort ·            Poor course content knowledge

7.     Create an online test.

Go to http://quizstar.4teachers.org , create a student account and search for the class name “AP Stats – Period 3”. I am listed under Michelle Romanek-Beyronneau and it’s a sample quiz for title. For your convenience I have screen captured the quiz image below:

8.     Create a rubric or other grading aide for an online assignment.

One of the most challenging aspects of the AP exam is the face that each of the distractors from the correct answer is SO well thought out. One of the key skills that I need to develop in my students is the ability to evaluate each of the available answers and understand where they may be coming from. This short answer quiz will be graded according to the following rubric:

1 – correct identification of an incorrect answer; poor or incorrect reasoning/argument/explanation for choice

2 – correct identification of an incorrect answer; weak reasoning/argument/explanation for choice

3 – correct identification of an incorrect answer; moderately well reasoned argument/explanation for choice

4 – correct identification of an incorrect answer; exemplary argument/explanation for choice