Bringing TOPkit Digest to You
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This month's TOPkit Digest content is brought to you by Susan Jardaneh, M.A., MFA, who earned her Master of Arts in Instructional Design & Technology, e-Learning from UCF, and her Master of Fine Arts from UNC-Greensboro. Her research interests include quality online instruction, diverse and inclusive teaching, and active online teaching and learning strategies. She works at the Center for Distributed Learning, University of Central Florida (Susan.Spraker@ucf.edu). Susan discusses the topic of authentic assessments.
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Contents of this Digest:
- Video Tip: The Role of Authentic Assessments in Instructional Design
- Top Tips: How to Get Authentic when Designing Assessments
- Must-Read Announcements: Florida ID Network Events, Call for Contributions
- From the Community: Engaging Conversations and Practical Advice for Instructional Designers and Faculty Developers
- Top Community Topics
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The Role of Authentic Assessments in Instructional Design
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In this video about Authentic Assessments, you will see a short overview about authentic assessments and examples of its use. |
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MUST-READ ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Upcoming Florida Instructional Designer Network (IDN) Events - Visit the IDN website for details.
- 2:00 – 2 :50 p.m., March 16, 2022 - Register Now
“Seeing Green” Student Mental Health Series: Handling Anxiety During Transition Time
Guest Speaker: Ritzy Ettinger, University of Florida - 2:00 – 2 :50 p.m., April 11, 2022 - Save the Date
Age, Gender, and Cultural Biases on Online Courses
Guest Speaker: Tina Calandrino, University of Central Florida
- TOPkit wants to feature your practices or strategies on TOPkit.org to recognize your efforts and empower your faculty development colleagues with professional tips from you! Complete this Call for Contributions by April 1, 2022.
- Last week TOPkit Workshop 2022 empowered state, national, and international faculty development professionals with a variety of intriguing sessions. Badges were issued to participants engaging in this live, virtual event.
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How to Get Authentic when Designing Assessments
Facilitating Student Learning with Authentic Assessments |
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Even before the COVID pandemic, academic integrity and assessment were problematic in online learning. The shift to emergency remote teaching and learning revealed that while remote proctoring technologies had gotten more sophisticated, lockdown browsers and visual surveillance of test-takers also had disadvantages. These disadvantages settled around equitable design for all students in an online course, such as students' access to technology, test anxiety, privacy, and security concerns. When designing assessments, the established focus is on student learning rather than controlling students. Authentic assessments are an alternative because they require applying what students have learned. Grant Wiggins, a forerunner of authentic assessments, asserts that authentic assessments use complex real-world situations that allow students to practice and get feedback on their performances. Here are suggestions for implementing authentic assessment for instructional designers and faculty developers:
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#1 - Break it down. Many students get overwhelmed easily, so the design should incorporate small steps for a project or assignment. Scaffolding a project into smaller tasks or skills, modeling skills, and giving time for practice can all help students take control of their learning.
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#2 - Work backwards. Many instructional designers already understand the idea of Backward Design that comes from Wiggins & McTighe as one that starts the design process with the final assessment in mind. By knowing the desired learning outcomes, the design can plan more purposefully the activities and assignments best fitted for those outcomes.
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#3 - Get creative. Authentic assessments design has students create something with their learning that applies to a real-world context. While these assessments require more planning, they can also tap into students' interests and motivations more easily. Some examples of authentic assessments are case studies, simulations, portfolios, project-based learning. These kinds of assessments allow students to immerse themselves in the complexities of their content, have substantive conversations about problems and situations, and work in higher-order thinking. | |
#4 - Ensure rigor. Authentic assessments value learning by practice and feedback, activities that call for testing, experimenting, and revision so that the process can be messy for those reasons. Using well-crafted rubrics can help be a planning tool for instructors and students as it guides both through the project. Create rubrics with the learning goal/objective in mind: what should students be able to do? When designing rubrics, the focus should be on identifying what good performance looks like with this activity and the required evidence in the activity.
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#5 - Reflect, reflect, reflect. Reflective activities help students identify their learning process and how they overcame challenges, managed misconceptions and complexities, a. Rather than building reflections only at the end, design the authentic assessment to reiterate reflection.
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Engaging Conversations and Practical Advice for Instructional Designers and Faculty Developers
Implications across Multiple Communities of Practice - Moving from Research to Application |
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These resources explore the ways in which designers and developers from different environments are implementing evidence-informed practices in their work. |
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Designing a Virtual Community of Practice (vCoP) for Faculty Professional Development
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References and Works Consulted
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Bowen, R. S. (2017). Understanding by Design. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/understanding-by-design/ Develop Critical Thinking Skills through Online Simulations Created with Blackboard’s Testing Tool. (2020, August 25). Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository. https://topr.online.ucf.edu/developing-critical-thinking-skills-online-simulations-created-blackboards-testing-tool/ Indiana University Bloomington. (2022). Authentic Assessment. Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/assessing-student-learning/authentic-assessment/index.html Miller, A. (2011, February 28). Criteria for Effective Assessment in Project-Based Learning. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/effective-assessment-project-based-learning-andrew-miller Schaffhauser, D. (2014, August 27). 6 Tips for Using Open Educational Resource. S. Retrieved February 22, 2022, from https://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/08/27/6-tips-for-using-open-educational-resources.aspx Schroeder, R. (2021, February 26). Vaccinate Against Cheating With Authentic Assessment. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/vaccinate-against-cheating-authentic-assessment Silverman, S., Caines, A., Casey, C., Garcia De Hurtado, B., Riviere, J., Sintjago, A., & Vecchiola, C. (2021). What Happens When You Close the Door on Remote Proctoring? Moving Toward Authentic Assessments with a People-Centered Approach. To Improve the Academy, 39(3). https://doi.org/10.3998/tia.17063888.0039.308 What is authentic assessment? (2022). New Jersey Institute of Technology. https://www.njit.edu/ite/authentic-assessment Wiggins, Grant (1990) “The Case for Authentic Assessment,” Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation: Vol. 2, Article 2. Retrieved May 18, 2020, from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/pare/vol2/iss1/2
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Developer and Editor
Bren Bedford, MNM, Web Project Analyst, Center for Distributed Learning, University of Central Florida
Editor
Florence Williams, Ph.D., Associate Instructional Designer, Center for Distributed Learning, University of Central Florida
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