Many faculty have been asking about different ways to assess student learning as we approach the end of the academic year. You might want some new, fresh ideas because your traditional final won’t work well in Blackboard, or because the term paper you originally assigned seems like a heavy lift for students this semester, or because your in-class formative assessments aren’t translating well to the remote format.
You’re in luck! We’ve pulled together some great resources for considering alternate ways you can ensure your students are meeting their learning outcomes.
Alternate Assignments and Assessments Webinar
If the embed above is not working, or you simply want to save the video for later, you can find the recording here. Additionally, you can also access the support materials for the video including:
Exam Alternatives for Remote Teaching
Next, make sure you check out the post by Jenn Kelley on her blog about alternate assessments. Here’s the full post as it appeared on the Teaching, Learning and Practice website. It’s full of additional information and resources for building assessments for remote teaching that can be particularly useful as we hurtle towards finals. Here’s an excerpt:
COVID-19 and Alternative Institutional Operating Procedures have thrown us all for a loop and here we are marching steadily toward final exams. If you’re feeling unsure of how to assess your students’ learning this semester, you’ll find some ideas ranging from “easy to implement from scratch” to “a bit more challenging, but potentially useful adaptations of existing assignments.” Consider suggesting your own alternative assessments in the comments below or add them to the COD Faculty Guide to Remote Teaching Best Practices & All Around Good Ideas. We’ll update this guide with good ideas as we get them!
While you’re there, make sure to also check out the post called Empathy and Assessments, which can help you ensure you’re finding the middle road between student stress and learning outcomes in these trying times.
Outside Resources
While there are a wealth of resources inside our college, there are also some great places to get information outside of it as well. Here are some good reads for those interested in developing alternate assessments.
- 7 Approaches to Alternative Assessments (ASCD) A really useful set of ideas for adapting your current assignments and assessments for remote learning.
- Alternative Assessment Strategies (University of Minnesota) A basic overview of the types of alternatives to multiple choice you may want to consider. Basic, but a good place to start.
- Formative Assessment in Distance Learning (Edutopia) More K-12 focused, but still helpful in thinking about ways you can assess students outside of the usual test.
Jenn’s post linked above also has a number of great outside links for alternate assessments!
Other Resources
Finally, if you’re in search of some basic help with building assessments in Blackboard, we have that, too.
- Remote Assessments: A Guide to the Basics of Testing in Blackboard
- Remote Teaching Webinar Recordings We’ve got recorded webinars all about Quizzes/Tests in Bb.
- Proctored exams are available if you feel that your courses require this. Learn more about Proctor U.
Questions? Need Blackboard help? We’re here! Email us at learningtech@cod.edu. For help walking through potential assessement solutions, you can also email Faon Grandinetti at grandinettif@cod.edu.
