Title: TRY THIS: The Art of Interrogation
Section: Day 2 - Tuesday

Let’s say you want to teach someone how to bake a cake. You create a course and write an outcome that goes something like this: At the end of this course students will understand how to bake a cake.

This is a pretty typical outcome, but as a designer of learning and assessment, you have a lot of questions to answer first. Clarity about what you are trying to achieve, with whom, and within what context is paramount to good assessment and evaluation.

What kind of students will you have? | The answer to this question will guide your approach to design. Why are they taking this course? What are their goals? Are they independent, high achieving, or novice learners who need plenty of support? Will you need to incentivize them to do the work? What is their prior experience with assessment and how might that affect how they approach assessment now?
How much experience are they likely to have with baking? | What would you do if a student was required to take your course who was already a star baker? Are your students complete novices, or do you expect they would have some experience? How might you find out? Does it matter?
If a student “understands” how to bake a cake by the end, what would you expect to observe? | In other words, what would success look like, in this context? Writing an essay about cakes? Ordering the steps? Finding the mistake?  Evaluating samples? Answering a bunch of test questions about cake baking? Baking a cake without help? Teaching someone else to bake a cake? Creating a new recipe?
What do learners need to know and be able to do to be successful at this outcome? | There is a lot of background knowledge and fundamental skills that go into successful performance of this outcome - chemistry of baking; history of cakes; measuring and stirring technique; recipe terminology; characteristics of ingredients; following instructions; troubleshooting; inventing…etc. How much of this is required for this level of course? What is most critical? Will you assess these isolated things or just the “authentic” performance of cake baking?
Is this a yes/no competency, or are there different degrees of quality of achievement? | On what criteria will you judge success? Taste, presentation, process, reflection, results on a MC test? How might you delineate different levels of achievement?  What is the difference between an outstanding cake, a good cake, and merely a satisfactory cake? What is the minimum requirement for passing cake baking?
What conditions are placed on the performance of the outcome? | Will you require them to actually bake a cake? Do they have to show you just once, or consistently? What if they need to ask you questions during the performance? Do you need them to memorize the steps? What if they ruin the cake, but can tell you what they did wrong? How long do they have before they have to prove what they’ve learned? Do they need to bake the cake under pressure (like for a client or exam), or can they do it at home and bring in their best result?
How will you support their progress? | How many chances will you give them to get it right? Where are the opportunities for feedback and coaching?
How will you know that the course is going well? | How will you check-in with students to find out whether they are tracking with you? How will you know if you need to change things up mid-course? How will you determine whether your teaching was successful? What will you do if everyone is succeeds in becoming an A+ baker? Is it possible or likely? What if everyone “fails”?

Your turn. Choose an outcome from a course you’ve taught or plan to teach. Using the table above as a guide, interrogate that outcome as far as possible. Based on what you uncover from this exercise, what considerations would you have when designing the assessment?