Assessment

An extensive exploration of evaluation and assessment is outside the scope of ISWO, but we will explore one aspect of online assessment in this unit: assessing online participation.

Often, online instructors are bound by certain guidelines around assessment in order to achieve some consistency in grading across courses in a program (e.g., many program areas at RRU have minimum/maximums for participation, team, and exam grades).

Evaluating online participation is a special concern for online facilitators (it could be argued that a paper is a paper, but learners participate differently online than they do face-to-face). This week's readings and activities include some resources to help you explore the challenges and consider solutions to assessing online participation.

Success Strategy

Before teaching, review the student assessment strategies and visualize how you will use them to support learner growth and learning. Use the following questions to guide you:

  • What are the program's policies, procedures, and philosophy related to evaluation and assessment that will guide my assessment approach in this course?
  • Are assessment criteria clear and helpful to learners?
  • How can I ensure that my feedback will be clear, consistent, and timely?
  • Is there anything I can add to the instructions or my postings that will support and clarify the assessment procedures used in this course?