Correct Assessments With Integrity – eLearning Business
Accurate evaluations with integrity
Assessment is important because we need to know what our students are learning.
Dylan Wiliams stated, “Assessment is the bridge between teaching and learning. Only through assessment can we find out whether what happened in the classroom produced the learning we intended (2011, p. 1).”
Assessments give educators our points of action, just like assessments should enable students to take their next steps. As a critical interface between teaching and learning, assessment is a data-rich interface that influences teaching effectiveness and exam design. Since it is important to collect accurate measurements for student learning, it is of paramount importance for student learning outcomes to maintain the assessment with integrity.
Offering a variety of high and low stakes assessments that test different learning components and support a variety of learning styles ensures accurate insights. Multiple-choice, short-answer, and long-answer formats each have their advantages and disadvantages. For example, while multiple choice tests make it difficult to assess higher-order thinking, it is a way to test a wide range of concepts in less time. In contrast, formats with long responses are great for testing a deep understanding of concepts.
Maintaining academic integrity through a culture of academic integrity in your classroom is, of course, also an important component of accurate assessment. Making sure the students’ responses are their own and removing the cloud of suspicion from the assessment will encourage more positive feedback loops.
Information from accurate reviews
Let’s take a look at the information gleaned from accurate reviews:
For teachers:
- Students’ learning skills and knowledge gaps
- Effectiveness of the exam design
- Effectiveness of teaching
- Academic Integrity
For students:
- Feedback to fill student learning gaps
- Encouragement and affirmation of what the students did well
- Next steps to make students feel seen and defused from wrongdoing
A surprising amount of data and knowledge is exchanged within this intersection. And it is important to note that assessment is not an endpoint, but rather a node within the student’s learning journey.
Educators provide timely, actionable, and specific feedback to students throughout the educational journey. In asynchronous learning situations, students should have access to real-time feedback that will make learning easier for them, be it writing, solving problems, or exploring concepts. And post-assessment feedback should focus on student workflows so that not only exams test what is being taught, but also timely feedback loops encourage student growth.
At the same time, article analysis can be helpful for trainers to gain insight into the effectiveness of teaching [1] as well as exam design. Summative assessments therefore do not have to be study-free and can also be useful for future student cohorts.
What can educators do to apply quality assessment data to student learning and curriculum development?
Article analysis is useful for everyone involved, especially in the formative assessment area, where changes in curriculum and exam design can have an immediate and positive impact on student learning outcomes.
For example, if students on a broad front have struggled with a particular question or topic in an assessment, the trainer has the opportunity to return to the students and fill that particular learning gap. Likewise, this scenario offers the trainer the opportunity to examine the question themselves and possibly clarify the exam question. In this way, evaluating and then analyzing the elements can encourage student learning and help them feel seen, which adds to a sense of belonging. A sense of belonging helps mitigate academic misconduct, as a low sense of belonging leads to criminal behaviors such as fraud.
In addition, the article analysis can reveal academic misconduct. Westpoint, the US military academy in New York, was itself involved in a fraud scandal [2] when instructors did an article analysis [3] and found that “[72 cadets] Everyone made the same mistake on part of the exam. “
As we noted earlier, assessments should accurately measure student learning. When the assessment does so, educators have access to extensive data to inform teaching and learning. Often times, the term “academic integrity” refers to the original thinking and ideas of the students. However, in the area of assessment with integrity, accurate assessment is also a joint venture between students and teachers. By ensuring that tests measure what is being taught, are inclusive, are a point of communication, and are a catalyst for change, assessments support student learning outcomes and mitigate academic misconduct. In sum, an assessment with integrity occurs when assessments turn into learning.
References:
[1] This is how you carry out a learning data analysis in order to gain meaningful insights
[2] Backlash for Forbearance at West Point after 73 cadets were accused of fraud
[3] West Point accuses more than 70 cadets of cheating in the worst academic scandal in nearly 45 years
Originally published at www.turnitin.com.
