About this course: Are you a teacher in higher education wanting to get the best out of your students and assessments? Then on behalf of Risbo, Erasmus University Rotterdam, we would like to welcome you to this MOOC on Assessment in Higher Education. In this MOOC we will guide you through the different phases of preparing, creating and evaluating the assessments in your course. After participating in this MOOC, you will be able to: 1. Design an assessment that is constructively aligned (content, level, methods) with the course objectives and activities 2. Apply the quality criteria with respect to validity, reliability and transparency for construction of assessments and assessment items 3. Analyze the assessment output and results, assess the quality of the assessment and make decisions about students’ grades accordingly 4. Formulate future improvements for an assessment For the assignments, you will be working with your own teaching materials. For example you will create your own assessment plan for your course. Next to that you will become part of a learning community with teachers from all over the world. We are offering you instructional videos, interviews, animations and checklists. In addition to these, there will be course activities, such as assessments, and discussion prompts. By participating in this MOOC, you will find answers to the following questions: • What is the role of assessment? • How can you select the right methods of assessment for your course? • What is constructive alignment? • How can an assessment plan and matrix help you in the construction of assessments? • Is it possible to make an absolute reliable and valid assessment? • How can the formulation of good assessment questions have an impact on that? • What is the role of feedback? • How can rubrics help with providing feedback? • What are the things to consider when performing an exam or item analysis? What aspects should you look out for? • How do you draw conclusions from an exam analysis and make plans for future improvements? • If good students fail on certain questions, what does this say about the question… or about your teaching? Are you ready for enhancing your teaching skills? Then take this journey with us.
Who is this class for: This course is aimed at teachers or lecturers within higher educational institutes who would like to improve their methods of preparing, creating and evaluating the assessments created within their courses.
Created by: Erasmus University Rotterdam
Taught by: Marit Nieuwenhuys, Educational Advisor
Risbo
Taught by: Remy Fermont, Educational Advisor
Risbo
Taught by: Mandy Hollander, Educational Advisor
Risbo
Taught by: Kris Stabel, Educational Advisor
Risbo
Taught by: Sanne van Herpen, Educational Advisor
Risbo
Taught by: Berry Nijveld, Educational Advisor
Risbo
| Level | Intermediate |
| Language | English |
| Hardware Req | N/A |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
The role of assessment in higher education
In the first week of this course you’ll get insight in some basic but fundamental questions about assessment. Why do we assess in higher education? What are possible positive and negative effects of assessment? And in what way can we make an effort in choosing the most appropriate assessment method(s). Some leading experts on assessment are introduced to you and might enlighten your thoughts. Additionally, you will be introduced to the Utility formula, which will assist you in making purposeful assessment choices.
7 videos, 3 readings
- Reading: Meet the experts
- Video: Perspectives: Why do we assess in higher education?
- Video: Perspectives: What influence do grades have in assessment systems?
- Video: Perspectives: How can assessment help in engaging students?
- Video: Perspectives: Is the quality and reliability of our assessments robust enough to make high stake decisions?
- Video: Perspectives: Is group assessment a desirable option in higher education?
- Discussion Prompt: Why do we assess?
- Reading: More reading on the role of assessment
- Video: The usability of assessment: Using the utility formula to select a method of assessment
- Video: The usability of assessment: A visualisation of the utility formula
- Reading: Building block for peer review: Assignment about the Utility Formula
The Assessment Cycle
1 video, 1 reading
- Video: Animation on the assessment cycle
- Reading: The assessment cycle overview
WEEK 2
The Assessment Plan
As research shows, assessment plays an important role in steering the learning process. There is, however, not one best method of assessment. So, how can you select the right methods of assessments for your course? Making an assessment plan can help you select the right testing methods and decide on the relative weight of each assessment for the final result of a course. An assessment plan also helps to ensure that the assessment addresses the intended learning outcomes. In addition, it provides a good overview of the test arrangement for a course that will be published in the course manual. This makes an assessment plan a helpful tool for examiners and an important instrument for quality assurance. With an assessment matrix, you ensure that all the selected learning objectives are covered in your assessment. This also helps to ensure that your assessment will be both valid and reliable.
Whereas making an assessment matrix may feel like additional work, using it will actually save you time as you will develop questions and assignments that exactly match your learning objectives and you avoid the risk of formulating too many questions that are aimed at the same content or skill.
12 videos, 12 readings
- Video: Introduction to the assessment plan
- Video: Animation on constructive alignment
- Reading: Constructive alignment overview
- Reading: Optional reading: Constructive alignment - John Biggs
- Reading: Video: on writing learning objectives
- Reading: Manual on how to write learning objectives
- Discussion Prompt: Building block for peer review: Create your own learning objectives
- Reading: Optional reading: Methods of assessment A-Z
- Reading: Activity: Match methods of assessments with their cognitive domain following Bloom’s Taxonomy
- Reading: Optional reading: In-class activities and assessment for the flipped classroom
- Video: Animation on how to write your own assessment plan
- Reading: Assessment plan overview
- Reading: Building block for peer review: Connect your learning objectives to the methods of assessment for your course
- Video: Animation on how to create an assessment matrix
- Reading: Assessment matrix overview
- Reading: Building block for peer review: Create your own assessment matrix
- Reading: Meet the teachers of Erasmus University Rotterdam
- Video: Perspectives: How do students prepare for an assessment?
- Discussion Prompt: How do students prepare for an assessment?
- Video: Perspectives: Could students be involved in your assessments?
- Video: Perspectives: Teachers and their preferences for methods of assessment
- Video: Perspectives: Students and their preferences for methods of assessment
- Video: Perspectives: What kind of methods do teachers use to assess students?
- Video: Perspectives: Best practices according to teachers and students
- Video: Perspectives: Students on easy assessments and time consuming assessments
- Discussion Prompt: What do you think about assessment methods?
- Video: Perspectives: Experiences of teachers in how they select the methods of assessment for their courses
WEEK 3
Feedback & grading design
In module 1 you have learned about assessment FOR learning and the role assessments play in the learning process of students. In this module we will take this to the next step. You will learn why feedback is so important and how to provide feedback using rubrics. Did you know there are different types of rubrics? Depending on the function of the rubric each type has both its advantages and disadvantages. This module will help you deciding what type of rubric suits your needs. In the stage of grading, methods of setting a cut-off score are important. You will learn about different methods of setting a cut-off score and the advantages and disadvantages of these methods.
5 videos, 4 readings
- Video: What is the role of feedback?
- Reading: Building block for peer review: Create your own feedback plan for your course
- Video: What are rubrics and why would you use them?
- Video: Holistic rubrics
- Discussion Prompt: Holistic rubrics and your teaching
- Video: Analytic rubrics
- Discussion Prompt: Analytic rubrics and your teaching
- Video: Single point rubrics
- Discussion Prompt: Which type of rubric works best for your course?
- Reading: How to make a rubric
- Reading: A rubric for rubrics
- Reading: Websites with examples of rubrics
- Discussion Prompt: Setting a cut-off score
Graded: Assessment plan peer review
WEEK 4
Assessment construction
The results of student assessments often have far-reaching consequences for their educational or even professional careers. When we allow our assessments to have such impacts on people’s careers, it is of the utmost importance that we are very sure that our measurement is reliable and accurate and a valid representation of students’ actual abilities…. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. The goal for this module is to help you to apply quality criteria for the construction of assessments and assessment items. Because, if we improve the quality of our assessments, we improve the quality of our education, and we will have a huge impact on the future education and careers of our students.
10 videos, 8 readings
- Video: Introduction to assessment construction
- Video: Perspectives: Teachers and their experiences with multiple choice and essay questions
- Reading: Further reading on assessment construction
- Video: Perspectives: Multiple choice Q&A
- Video: Introduction to constructing multiple choice questions
- Video: How to construct the stem of a multiple choice question?
- Video: How to construct the answer alternatives of a multiple choice question?
- Reading: Checklist for multiple choice questions
- Reading: Further reading on multiple choice questions
- Video: Perspectives: Open ended questions Q&A
- Video: How to construct open ended and essay questions?
- Reading: Checklist for open ended questions
- Reading: Preparing a correction model
- Reading: Further reading on open ended questions
- Video: Perspectives: Group work Q&A
- Video: How to construct group work?
- Reading: Checklist for group work
- Reading: Further reading on group work
Graded: Improve (your own) multiple choice questions
Graded: Improve (your own) open ended questions
WEEK 5
Assessment Analysis and Evaluation
When an assessment has been conducted, there is often a lot of time pressure on grading and publishing the results. However, an important step to take before communicating grades to students is to analyse students’ performance on the different tasks or questions. This will provide you, as an examiner, with invaluable information. Not only about your students’ performance, but also about the quality of your assessment as well as your own teaching. On which aspects did students perform well, and where did they fail? If good students fail on certain questions, what does this say about the question… or about your teaching? You may need to decide on how to fix certain errors or unexpected situations and think about how this affects students’ grades. What are the things to consider when performing an exam or item analysis? What do you look for? How do you draw conclusions and make plans for future improvements?
4 videos, 4 readings
- Video: Introduction to assessment analysis and evaluation
- Video: How to make the most of peer reviews
- Reading: Checklist for peer review of assessments
- Video: Assessment analysis
- Reading: Psychometric analysis
- Reading: Optional readings on reliability and validity in assessment
- Discussion Prompt: What can you use for analysis of your own assessment?
- Video: Assessment evaluation and future improvements
- Discussion Prompt: Do you evaluate your own assessments?
- Reading: Thank yous and attributions
Graded: Assessment analysis & evaluation
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