Assessment in a Web 2.0 World

I enjoyed listening to the podcast about Assessing Student Learning in a Web 2.0 World very much.   I have not listened to a lot of podcasts, as my visual learning style prefers visual media.  However, I think podcasts drive the conversation to a very ‘big picture’ level’.   Lack of visuals does not support a data driven conversation.  That was actually quite refreshing!

The podcast featured panelists from Hamilton College, Colgate University, and Carlton College.  As the discussion began, a panel member strongly urged any teacher or professor to work through any technology assignment, actually creating a project. They would anticipate issues and learning curves the students will face, plus create a model project to share with students!

The panel spent a lot of time discussing issues assessing and evaluating technology outcomes.  They discussed the difficulty assessing student understanding of   material when the accompanying project was flawed.  The panel expressed different teacher viewpoints.  Some teachers grade the entire project, others only care that the project demonstrated understanding, though the project itself might be flawed.  The panel pointed out the difficulty in separating academic understanding and project understanding.  If we think about it, this basic issue has existed for a long time, though we have had the time to formulate structured answers.  If a student turns in an essay, do we assess the essay based on content only, or do we care about grammar, spelling, and punctuation?  Because we are early in the learning curve for these types of projects, the panel felt that both professors and students need support and training in areas they might not currently have:  visual and spatial literacy.  I was very interested in the thought process that a student’s core curriculum should include basic visual skills.  I thought the idea of professors collaborating across disciplines to support a project was really interesting.  (Ex:  Biology professor and drama professor where students need to produce a film as an assignment outcome.) 

Last, I was glad to hear the panel say that sometimes learning is hard, and that student have to do the work necessary to understand the material.  I thought some of the last comments were most important.  The panel was discussing assessment, and how important it was to have clear goals for the future.  Their insistence that people understand pedagogy was an important part in creating meaningful assessments, and made complete sense to me. Planning the type of assessment gave you the ability to select the tools are relevant.  I felt this was incredibly important to the future success of the students.