performance assessments & Learning Analytics
Today's digital world creates learning spaces where multiple tasks are required in student learning. To prepare students for future learning we must begin to teach students how to function in a dynamic organizational systems. These skills involve invariable adjustments to setting priorities, performing multidimensional tasks, evening out workloads, adjusting timeframes, prioritizing tasks and navigating networks. In the near future, skills will become less teacher-directed and more student-directed.
Teachers in the past have taught standardized skill sets in a static system within a structured format. This delivery format took on the model of breaking down tasks and asking students to explicitly complete very defined units of information, such as do as I do and you will learn. A typical classroom instructional practice for delivering standardized skill sets would include: record my notes from the board, write your name on your paper directive, or complete your assignment on time. To provide feedback in the traditional classroom setting teachers grade the assignment based upon the exactness of answers provided by the student during exams, quizzes or completed assignments. To move away from the traditional approach of measurement means to devise new methods of assessment.
Just recently, a new term has surfaced forming a new meaning to the student assessment model. The term learning analytics was first reported as an approach in making sense of learners' activity. In a more sophisticated form, educators expanded the term into what is now known as data-driven decision making. With data becoming increasingly intelligent (semantic or linked data), learner data, profile information, and curricular data can be brought together in some reliable format. These are the assessment formats that provide a truer picture of student performance as it is measured within the zone of proximal development.
To define learning analytics from an educational prospective is to collect and use learner produced information to monitor student progress and performance. To this definition education students must first create a product of their learning as it is measured against a performance task. Traditionally, these types of performance based assessments have been established through the development of rubrics as the rubric is matched to the requirements of learning. It has also been understood through traditional practices that learning is modified to meet individual learning needs when assessments show a lower than student performance. In constructive learning, teachers are encourage and accept student autonomy and initiative. The data collected from student produced artifacts are the primary source for teachers to construct new and relevant tasks for student learning. These tasks are associated with cogitative terminology that follows higher order thinking skills like "classify," "analyze," "predict," and "create."
Teachers in the past have taught standardized skill sets in a static system within a structured format. This delivery format took on the model of breaking down tasks and asking students to explicitly complete very defined units of information, such as do as I do and you will learn. A typical classroom instructional practice for delivering standardized skill sets would include: record my notes from the board, write your name on your paper directive, or complete your assignment on time. To provide feedback in the traditional classroom setting teachers grade the assignment based upon the exactness of answers provided by the student during exams, quizzes or completed assignments. To move away from the traditional approach of measurement means to devise new methods of assessment.
Just recently, a new term has surfaced forming a new meaning to the student assessment model. The term learning analytics was first reported as an approach in making sense of learners' activity. In a more sophisticated form, educators expanded the term into what is now known as data-driven decision making. With data becoming increasingly intelligent (semantic or linked data), learner data, profile information, and curricular data can be brought together in some reliable format. These are the assessment formats that provide a truer picture of student performance as it is measured within the zone of proximal development.
To define learning analytics from an educational prospective is to collect and use learner produced information to monitor student progress and performance. To this definition education students must first create a product of their learning as it is measured against a performance task. Traditionally, these types of performance based assessments have been established through the development of rubrics as the rubric is matched to the requirements of learning. It has also been understood through traditional practices that learning is modified to meet individual learning needs when assessments show a lower than student performance. In constructive learning, teachers are encourage and accept student autonomy and initiative. The data collected from student produced artifacts are the primary source for teachers to construct new and relevant tasks for student learning. These tasks are associated with cogitative terminology that follows higher order thinking skills like "classify," "analyze," "predict," and "create."
Performance assessment
A performance assessment can evaluate students who are demonstrating their skills by performing certain tasks, or it can evaluate products that students have produced to demonstrate their knowledge. According to the CCSSO (Council of Chief State Officers),“performance assessments are ways to measure students’ knowledge and skills that go beyond asking them to answer multiple-choice or fill-in-the-space questions. Typically, students are asked to complete a hands on task that can take 40 minutes or can be completed over several class periods. For example, students might be asked to research and write a magazine article or to conduct and explain the results of a scientific experiment.” Performance assessments can be activities such as science experiments and lab procedures, essays, speeches, computer programming, and so forth. Constructing performance assessment rubrics and applying these assessment strategies to the school program will enable students to demonstrate their basic skills through a real-world application.
Before constructing a performance assessment, the designer must decide on the time length for the assignment, which could range from one class period to a week, or even a month for assessments that require extensive research. Next, the designer must select the performance modes that the task will require, such as speaking, writing, problem solving, and so forth. The designer must also decide how the students will participate in performing the task, for example, individually, in pairs, or in small groups.
The actual process of designing performance assessments varies depending on the complexity of the task and the availability of time. The Designing Performance Assessment template, along with the performance assessment worksheet will help assessment designers to create their own specific assessments. It should be noted that assessment techniques can be designed by using either traditional or alternative methods of assessment. Alternative assessment refers to new assessment techniques that require students to construct a response to an open-ended problem or task. In the case of both tradition and alternative assessment, the task and the assessment should be closely aligned to the Common Core Standards. Below are resources to help you construct both formative and summative assessments as both are first defined. Difference between the two (formative and summative) is the frequency of and information which is assessed.
Before constructing a performance assessment, the designer must decide on the time length for the assignment, which could range from one class period to a week, or even a month for assessments that require extensive research. Next, the designer must select the performance modes that the task will require, such as speaking, writing, problem solving, and so forth. The designer must also decide how the students will participate in performing the task, for example, individually, in pairs, or in small groups.
The actual process of designing performance assessments varies depending on the complexity of the task and the availability of time. The Designing Performance Assessment template, along with the performance assessment worksheet will help assessment designers to create their own specific assessments. It should be noted that assessment techniques can be designed by using either traditional or alternative methods of assessment. Alternative assessment refers to new assessment techniques that require students to construct a response to an open-ended problem or task. In the case of both tradition and alternative assessment, the task and the assessment should be closely aligned to the Common Core Standards. Below are resources to help you construct both formative and summative assessments as both are first defined. Difference between the two (formative and summative) is the frequency of and information which is assessed.
Formative assessment is a self-reflective process that Intends to promote student attainment [1]. Cowie and Bell [2] define it as the bidirectional process between teacher and student to enhance, recognize and respond to the learning. Black and Wiliam [3] consider an assessment‘formative’ when the feedback from learning activities is actually used to adapt the teaching to meet the learner's needs. Nicole and Macfarlane-Dick[4] have re-interpreted research on formative assessment and feedback and shown how these processes can help students take control of their own learning (self-regulated learning). In the training field, formative assessment is described as assessing the formation of the student. Facilitators do this by observing students as they:
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Summative assessments are cumulative evaluations used to measure student growth after instruction and are generally given at the end of a course or unit in order to determine whether long term learning goals have been met. Summative assessments are not like formative assessments, which are designed to provide the immediate, explicit feedback useful for helping teacher and student during the learning process. High quality summative information can shape how teachers organize their curricula or what courses schools offer their students. Summative assessment occur over a longer time between the mapped points of the curriculum as they are designed to assess more information. A more formal process gauging where students are at a point in time. Although there are many types of summative assessments, the most common examples include:
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