Assessment Building

What are you even testing for?

Knowing what you are testing for can make a huge difference in the design of your testing. For example, does the course require a minimum set of skills? If the answer is yes, then building in entry level or novice skills tests and pretests are a must. Are you wanting to see how far the learners have come with the information provided thus far, then practice tests are the key (think chapter tests at the end of each chapter). Are you wanting to see the effectiveness of instructional design, then post-test (or end of year) tests will provide that much needed feedback.

If you recall from the previous post on Learning Objectives writing clear and concise learning objectives are the foundation for most of your instructional design. Never is it needed more than when designing the assessments. How do you transform those objectives into criterion-referenced and norm-based reference testing? Need clarification, watch this helpful video on testing.

The first step in formulating assessments is the selection of the objective style. In other words, what will be the focus format of the assessment. Knowing this information will allow you to build a rubric for grading purposes. There are several to choose from with varying standards. Take a look at the infographic below to sort it all out.

Again, clarification is key. The clearer the learning objectives, the clearer the assessment criteria, the clearer the instrumentation (how you go about gathering the information, ie., observable, vocabulary tests, writing essays, etc.). This is most important when you are evaluating your design. Let's go into example mode...

Ms. Jones' third grade class has been working on a lesson she built involving biology of the frog. Her lesson plan included, life-cycle, vocabulary introduction and building, frog features, three different kinds of frogs and their features along with food consumption information. Her assessments are built using all the assessment criteria formats. She includes activities to promote learning vocabulary, feature identification activities and presentations on three different frogs and what they eat, she brings in pet frogs so the children can observe the daily life of a frog. When many of the children fail the life-cycle portion of the assessment, a quick look at her alignment between lessons and assessments shows a gap! None of her lessons, activities or observable information covered life-cycles.

This is of course an oversimplified example but one you could face as a designer. If the outcomes are not produced you have to find the gap and rectify. If you are not clear and concise with your learning objectives and criteria then this process becomes extremely difficult. Remember, clear, concise, and planning will get you the design you need to provide instruction to your learners. Assessments will ensure that the information you have provided to the learner is present and if not, you have a map of how you built the instruction to locate the gap and fix it.

Video Citation:

Criterion vs Norm Referenced Assessment: Examples & Evaluation. (2017, January 16). Retrieved May 1, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5hJNpO0JPE