The audience should ideally have had some experience teaching at least a live class on campus. The audience should also have a general understanding of what assessment is, why it is used, and the variety of tools which might be used to assess students.

The training is suitable for all levels, though it would likely be more useful to beginner and intermediate online instructors.

• Student should be able to identify best practices in assessment.
• Student should be able to identify a variety of tools and methodologies suitable to a number of assessment purposes.
• Student should be able to determine which assessment tools would best measure student learning with respect to a variety of given learning objectives.
• Student should be able to determine which assessment tools would best apply to his/her online course.

• What information must be included to adequately understand this topic?
• Who are the "experts" and what can they add? Include contact information for each "expert".
• Estimate of time needed to adequately address topic. 

~ Online Assessment, PowerPoint Presentation, Joan McMahon - Towson State University

Online Resources

~ Reviews of Assessment Tools
http://www.swin.edu.au/tafe/eis/indsci/assess/review.htm

~ General discussion paper
http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~tlooms/research.html

~ Evaluation methods for online courses
http://www.cpcc.cc.nc.us/inst-dev/phil/inst-dev/Assessment.htm

~ Virginia Tech site
http://www.iddl.vt.edu/facserv/assessment.html

~ Web based assessment
http://sunil.umd.edu/documents/assess.htm

Print Resources

~ Personal Reflections on Learning: Generic Questions for On-line Discussion, Joan McMahon - Towson State University

~ Online Writing Marathon, Joan McMahon - Towson State University

Exercises

1. Before a quiz or test is administered, ask an independent observer (a non- faculty member) to review the test for clarity, spelling, etc.
2. After administering a quiz or test, ask the students who took the test about the quiz; its content and its structure.
3. Ask a fellow faculty member to review the quizzes and the test.

• Do the Test and Quizzes evaluate the student's true progress?
• Do they help students learn?
• Has the assessment indicated that the components of the course have been clearly understood by all students?
• Based on the results of the assessments, can remedial lessons be implemented for clarification of misunderstood material?
• Were the students motivated by success or failure of the exam?

Discussion Questions

1. What assessment techniques do you use in your online class?
2. In what way is each one of these techniques effective?
3. What are some of the issues/concerns of online assessment techniques?
4. What kind of feedback do you get from your online students about your assessment techniques?
5. Could the same assessment techniques be used in both face-to-face classroom and online classes? Why or why not?

Assessment Strategies

Document prepared by Dave Hinton - Howard CC, Team 11