Below are ideas gathered from an UPCEA discussion on asynchronous assessments (requires UPCEA access).
Auto-graded high-quality multiple-choice questions
- Use various question types, incorporate multimedia where applicable.
- Resources for support:
- Multiple choice questions, but geared toward case studies and new scenarios for application of knowledge
- Quality automated feedback, attached to specific questions if possible
- Explain why an incorrect answer is incorrect, affirm why the correct answer is correct, possibly reference lessons/resources within the course to revisit in order to fix-up the learning
- Allow unlimited re-takes on quizzes until a designated level of mastery (score) is reached.
- Self-assessments and holistic feedback--picture a more rigorous version of a Buzzfeed quiz with a paragraph at the end that starts out, "If you scored between 1 and 8, this suggests you're more oriented toward XYZ than ABC. As a next step, consider..."
Reflection Assignments
- Offer a rubric for learners to self-assess after they have provided a written response
- Requiring a post to a discussion forum with a specific reflection question. The post itself is the trigger to close the course/award the badge. No one is evaluating the post at that time (so they could just post their grocery list if they thought about it) BUT the post is open to all students with their name on it (so social pressures to avoid posting foolish things). Go back every few months to excerpt out great responses and put them back in the class so others can benefit from the thinking (and future respondents see this as a potential outcome as well).
- Encourage reflection by starting with with an activation activity where they reflect on what they already know about the topic. Then, as they go they can take notes and do a final reflection showcasing their growth and how they connected back to what they learned. Learners could turn this in just for accountability, but it is a good way for students to measure their own learning.
- Incorporate reflection activities using a conditional release that, once the reflection is submitted, allows the learner to review an instructor-provided example of reflection that highlights the main points of the content.
- Train AI chatbots to provide interactive feedback based on answers to reflection questions.
- We are not ready or equipped to do this just yet, but this is an incredibly powerful idea!!
Collaboration Tools
- Collaborative note-taking tools like Hypothesis and Perusall
- Things to think about:
- Badge meta-data, being able to show how learners proved their learning
- Level of thinking involved in the assessment
Perfect summation of this effort
"Perfect? No. Better? Perhaps!"