Assessing Student Learning with Pretests and Post-tests
An important component of assessing student learning is recognizing what students know and can do before instruction and how their understanding changes as a result of instruction. Rigorous pre- and post-testing can be an important part of the design and assessment of an instructional approach. In this workshop, we will discuss an example of the use of pre- and post-testing in the field of Physics Education Research. This will include a discussion of the design of appropriate pretest and post-test questions and ways in which pretesting itself can contribute to student learning. This workshop will be of particular interest to faculty who teach in a discipline in which students are expected to learn a particular body of knowledge or set of techniques.
Norm vs. Criterion-Referenced Tests: A Critical Comparison of Two Grading Systems
There are two common types of grading system used in university level courses: norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessments. The two types of assessment differ in their intended purposes, content selection, scoring process, and interpretation of results. Each type has its advantages, disadvantages, and possible modifications. The purpose of the session is to discuss and understand the pros and cons of the two types of assessments and explore the most appropriate use of each.
Managing Grade Inflation
This workshop will help participants ascertain the nature of "grade inflation," myths and realities about it, and what faculty can do about it. We will discuss the relationship between grades and student study time, the role of grades in students' lives, how grades affect motivation, and various models that universities can use to address grade inflation. This discussion is intended to build upon previous discussions of grade inflation at Georgetown, particularly within the 2007 Provost's Seminar on Teaching and Learning.
Avoiding Technical Flaws in Writing Multiple Choice Questions
Good multiple choice questions (MCQ) are aligned with learning goals, reward deep understanding, discourage rote memorization, and provide an accurate picture of your students' learning. The 'trick' is to construct them so that they target higher-level thinking skills such as application and integration. Such items can be used to efficiently assess a variety of learning objectives; thus, this workshop is intended to serve two audiences:
- the instructor using MCQ during class time to reveal student understanding, check class progress, stimulate thinking, or generate discussion, perhaps along with the Personal Response System (i.e. clickers).
- the instructor using MCQ in order to evaluate student learning, permit progress to the next level of the course or program, and perhaps to assign a grade for unit/module/course.
In this workshop, participants we will discuss some simple steps and technical considerations in designing good multiple choice questions and practice using Bloom's Taxonomy to target questions to the appropriate cognitive level. Participants interested in bringing MCQ projects with them to refine at the workshop are encouraged to do so.
Analysis and Interpretation of Item and Test Scores
In this workshop participants will discuss the analysis and interpretation of item and test scores from automated scoring procedures, as well as raters. Topics will include reliability and validity of items and tests, strategies and methods for optimizing the validity and reliability of tests "developed by committee", testing philosophies (eg, for mastery vs. for discrimination) and other helpful concepts like criterion vs. reference testing; formative vs summative uses of test scores and items, and the implications of these for content, scoring and interpretation. Whether you use existing multiple choice exams, develop your own, and or are just interested in learning more about MCQ assessments, this workshop is for you.
Faculty Peer Review: An Introduction and Overview to the Process
If you are finding an over reliance on student feedback/course evaluations, then consider faculty peer review as an option. "Evaluating teaching is complex and requires many types and sources of evidence. . . Consensus exists among experts that effective evaluation of teaching requires some combination of evidence from the person whose teaching is being evaluated, from that person's students, and from professional colleagues. . . Real peer review - informed peer judgments about faculty teaching for either improvement or judgment purposes - is too often given short shrift." (Chism, N. Peer review of teaching: A sourcebook.). Facilitator Peg Weissinger will introduce peer review as an evaluation process that can help our faculty become better teachers and provide another source of data for promotion documentation.
Easy and Effective Classroom Assessment
Why wait until the end of the semester to find out that your students didn't 'get it'? Participants in this workshop will explore a variety of ways to understand what and how students are learning throughout the semester. We will introduce a number of techniques to use early in and midway through the semester to assess your students' true understanding of material, and will go through an exercise to determine your most important learning goals for a particular course. Participants will also learn how to create rubrics for easy and effective grading.
Grading Accurately and Without Bias
In this session, we will address several main questions: 1) What is your philosophy for assigning grades, and how do you intellectually justify this approach? 2) What do you do to ensure that your grades are accurate? What might you do differently? 3) What do you do to ensure that your grades are unbiased? What might you do differently? Professor Mark Rom will share his work on grading in a large introductory Government course and smaller ethics courses.