Educational Assessment:
Assessing Student Learning in the Classroom
Instructor Name: Dr. Karen Lea
Phone: 509-891-7219
Office
Hours: 8
a.m. to 5 p.m. PST Monday - Friday
Email: karen_lea@virtualeduc.com
Address: Virtual
Education Software
23403 E Mission Avenue, Suite 220F
Liberty Lake,
WA 99019
Technical
Support: support@virtualeduc.com
Welcome
to Educational Assessment: Assessing
Student Learning in the Classroom!
Curriculum, instruction, and assessment work together to support student
learning. Students are provided with opportunities to learn the skills,
concepts, and work-study practices necessary to be successful in classrooms.
Assessments measure student progress toward the standards, help teachers
identify each student's instructional needs, and inform parents about what and
how their child is learning. The assessments also help to gauge how well
schools are supporting the achievement of all students.
However,
no matter how many assessments there are, without educators able to use
assessments, those assessments are worthless. As educators, we must know how to
conduct the assessment, interpret the data, and develop priorities for action.
We also must take into account data from other
sources, notably the parents and psychologists. We then have
to put all this information into some organized format and make the
information clear to colleagues and parents.
In order to do this, we have to bring our
skills and knowledge about the subject matter into play while answering these
questions:
• What is the prerequisite knowledge for this area of the curriculum?
• How important is the particular area?
• Would having a "less than very high" level of competence in
one area predispose the child to failure in other areas?
• How much time should be spent on a particular topic?
• Should we consider
an alternative area?
This
computer-based instruction course is a self-supporting program that provides
instruction, structured practice, and evaluation all on your home or school
computer. Technical support information
can be found in the Help section of your course.
Instructor: Dr. Karen Lea
Publisher:
Virtual Education Software, inc. 2005,
Revised 2010, Revised 2013, Revised 2016, Revised 2019
Academic Work
Academic
work submitted by the individual (such as papers, assignments, reports, tests)
shall be the student’s own work or appropriately attributed, in part or in
whole, to its correct source. Submission of commercially prepared (or group
prepared) materials as if they are one’s own work is unacceptable.
Aiding Honesty in Others
The
individual will encourage honesty in others by refraining from providing materials
or information to another person with knowledge that these materials or
information will be used improperly.
Violations
of these academic standards will result in the assignment of a failing grade
and subsequent loss of credit for the course.
Assessment
of learning is a complex process and it is important to be clear about the
purpose of the assessment. At the conclusion of this course students will be
able to:
·
Articulate the purpose and types of
educational assessments
·
Create high quality assessments for the
classroom
Course Description
This
course will cover many areas and topics on educational assessment. The
following is an outline of the topics that will be discussed in each chapter of
the course.
Chapter 1: Overview
Course
Overview
History
of education assessment
What
is educational assessment
Discrepancy
gap
Effective
assessments
Validity/Reliability/Accuracy
Common
Core and assessments
ELL
and Special Needs Students
Chapter 2: Formative vs. Summative
Summative
assessments
Formative
assessments
Chapter 3: Types of Formative Assessments
Performance-based
Portfolios
Rubrics
Checklists
Learning
centers
Other
types
Chapter 4: Feedback & Writing Questions
Multiple
Choice
True/False
Essay
Short
Answer
Feedback
As
a student you will be expected to:
·
Complete all four information sections showing a competent understanding of the
material presented in each section.
·
Complete all four section examinations, showing a competent understanding of
the material presented. You must obtain an overall score of 70% or
higher, with no individual exam
score below 50%, and successfully complete ALL writing assignments to pass this
course. *Please
note: Minimum exam score requirements may vary by college or university;
therefore, you should refer to your course addendum to determine what your
minimum exam score requirements are.
·
Complete a review of any section on which
your examination score was below 50%.
·
Retake any examination, after completing
an information review, to increase that examination score to a minimum of 50%,
making sure to also be achieving an overall exam score of a minimum 70% (maximum
of three attempts). *Please note: Minimum exam score
requirements may vary by college or university; therefore, you should refer to
your course addendum to determine what your minimum exam score requirements
are.
·
Complete all course journal article and
essay writing assignments with the minimum word count shown for each writing
assignment.
·
Complete a course evaluation form at the
end of the course.
At
the end of each section, you will be expected to complete an examination
designed to assess your knowledge. You may take these exams a total of three
times. Your last score will save, not the highest score. After your third
attempt, each examination will lock and not allow further access. The average from your exam scores will be
printed on your certificate. However,
this is not your final grade since your required writing assignments have not
been reviewed. Exceptionally written or
poorly written required writing assignments, or violation of the academic
integrity policy in the course syllabus, will affect your grade. As this is a self-paced computerized
instruction program, you may review course information as often as necessary.
You will not be able to exit any examinations until you have answered all
questions. If you try to exit the exam section before you complete all
questions, your information will be lost. You are expected to complete the
entire exam in one sitting.
Writing
Assignments
All
assignments are reviewed and may impact your final grade. Exceptionally or poorly written assignments,
or violation of the Academic Integrity Policy (see course syllabus for policy),
will affect your grade. Fifty percent of your grade is determined by your
writing assignments, and your overall exam score determines the other fifty
percent. Refer to the Essay Grading Guidelines which were sent as
an attachment with your original course link. You should also refer to the Course Syllabus Addendum which was sent as
an attachment with your original course link, to determine if you have any
writing assignments in addition to the Critical Thinking Questions (CTQ) and
Journal Article Summations (JAS). If you
do, the Essay Grading Guidelines will
also apply.
Your writing
assignments must meet the minimum word count and are not to include the
question or your final citations as part of your word count. In other words, the question and citations
are not to be used as a means to meet the minimum word
count.
Critical
Thinking Questions
There are
four CTQs that you are required to complete. You will need to write a minimum of 500
words (maximum 1,000) per essay. You should explain how the information
that you gained from the course will be applied and clearly convey a strong
understanding of the course content as it relates to each CTQ. To view the questions, click on REQUIRED
ESSAY and choose the CTQ that you are ready to complete; this will bring up a
screen where you may enter your essay.
Prior to course submission, you may go back at any point to edit your essay,
but you must be certain to click SAVE once you are done with your edits.
You
must click SAVE before you write another essay or move on to another part of
the course.
Journal
Article Summations
You are
required to write, in your own words, a summary on a total of three
peer-reviewed or scholarly journal articles (one article per JAS), written by
an author with a Ph.D., Ed.D. or similar, on the topic outlined within each JAS
section in the “Required Essays” portion of the course (blogs, abstracts,
news articles or similar are not acceptable). Your article choice must relate
specifically to the discussion topic listed in each individual
JAS. You will choose a total of three relevant articles (one article per
JAS) and write a thorough summary of the information
presented in each article (you must write a minimum of 200 words with a 400 word maximum per
JAS). Be sure to provide the URL or the journal name, volume, date, and any
other critical information to allow the facilitator to access and review each
article.
To write
your summary, click on REQUIRED ESSAYS and choose the JAS that you would like
to complete. A writing program will
automatically launch where you can write your summary. When you are ready to
stop, click SAVE. Prior to course submission you may go back at
any point to edit your summaries but you must be
certain to click SAVE once you are done with your edits. For more information
on the features of this assignment, please consult the HELP menu.
You must click SAVE before you
write another summary or move on to another part of the course.
Instructor Description
Karen Lea holds a Ph.D. in education, has TEFL certification, and is Project Management Professional certified. Dr. Lea has fifteen years’ experience teaching at the K–12 level and another seventeen years’ experience teaching education and leadership courses at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Currently she is an Assessment Developer at Western Governor's University. Dr. Lea has been professionally published over fifteen times and has served on more than a dozen panels and boards, including serving on the NCATE (CAEP) Board of Examiners.
You may contact the instructor by
emailing karen_lea@virtualeduc.com
or by calling (509) 891-7219, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
PST. Phone messages will be answered
within 24 hours. Phone conferences will be limited to ten minutes
per student, per day, given that this is a self-paced instructional program.
Please do not contact the instructor about technical problems, course glitches
or other issues that involve the operation of the course.
If you have questions or problems
related to the operation of this course, please try everything twice. If the
problem persists please check our support pages for FAQs and known issues at www.virtualeduc.com
and also the Help section of your course.
If you need personal assistance then email support@virtualeduc.com or call (509)
891-7219. When contacting technical
support, please know your course version number (it is located at the bottom
left side of the Welcome Screen) and your operating system,
and be seated in front of the computer at the time of your call.
Minimum
Computer Requirements
Please
refer to VESi’s website: www.virtualeduc.com or contact VESi if
you have further questions about the compatibility of your operating system.
Refer to the addendum regarding Grading
Criteria, Course Completion Information, Items to be Submitted and how to
submit your completed information. The addendum will also note any additional
course assignments that you may be required to complete that are not listed in this syllabus.
Bibliography (suggested reading)
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tool for creating rubrics: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
Course content is updated every three
years. Due to this update timeline, some URL links may no longer be active or may
have changed. Please type the title of the organization into the command line
of any Internet browser search window and you will be able to find whether the
URL link is still active or any new link to the corresponding organization's
web home page.
3/27/19 JN