CEL 590 final posting

This has been quite a journey! I have learned a lot about assessment and evaluation this semester. Ironically, I have also had a chance to learn what more I need to work on in order to hone my skills at assessment and evaluation.

I will evaluate my progress in this course goal by goal beneath each goal. 


PL Goal #1: I will approach this course with an open heart and mind to the various types of assessment and evaluation so that I might learn NEW uses for familiar tools.
I feel pretty good about this goal. I was motivated and excited throughout the course to learn new ways of assessing as well as learning from my peers.



PL Goal #2: I would like to gain a better understanding of multiple choice and other traditional assessment terminology.
While I did gain a better feel for multiple ways to use traditional assessments and multiple choice tools, I continue to need to hone in on my understanding of the terms related to the application of those terms. 

PL Goal #3: I LOVE rubrics! I probably overuse them in my work but I am all self taught so I would like to learn more about the terms for the parts of a rubric and tools to help make mine better. As a part of this goal, I hope to create a few rubrics that are much needed in reference to a project that I have created within my coursework.

I made a rubric for the group project that I have been working on in my courses! I was happy to have this new product to test out the next time I teach a class. I feel as though I made great progress on this goal.

PL Goal #4: As the instructional specialist at my school, I do a lot of work with teachers encouraging them to assess students with something other than a test or quiz thus, I am always looking for more depth of understanding in the areas of Authentic assessment and Alternative assessment.

 I really need more work on this one...I am still looking for ideas BUT I gained a lot of great resources on portfolio use...I would like to incorporate the portfolio concept in my media class in order to students to have a compilation of their work.

PL Goal #5: I am VERY interested in learning about the various types of evaluation as this is an area that I have very little knowledge of. 

 

PL Goal #6: While I am familiar with Kirkpatrick's model of evaluation, I need to gain a better understanding of the model so that I can utilize it in my quest to learn more about class and program evaluation. 

 While I have better understanding of evaluation and Kirkpatricks model...i have much to learn. I have to get a stronger grasp on the different levels of the model. I had a REALLY hard time with the evaluation unit and writing my questions. I am going to need to spend more time looking at examples of the different levels of questions...

PL Goal #7: I want to take all of my learning from this course and apply it to my course planning and preparation in order to ensure a quality alignment in my activities with my learning objectives.

I am planning a new course for the summer and will utilize the activities of this course to better administer assessments in my class.

 

PL Goal #8: I would like to create a course evaluation that I implement at mid and end of course to inform my process:)

I will use my evaluation that I created as a starting point for a mid and end of semester evaluation but I also need to really work on tweaking my questions.  

I would give myself a B overall for this course. I have learned quite a bit from the course and from my peer interaction but I had a difficult time keeping up with the class while trying to finish my dissertation. I hesitated to even take the course this semester but I really did not want to wait for a while year to finish up this program. I know that I was distracted but I did have the opportunity to apply some of my learning as I am planning some teacher professional development. I adapted the course review process to an online professional development program that I am planning using the I NACOL standards. I am hoping to increase the quality of the online coursework that the teachers are planning. 

Anyway, needless to say, even though I was not the best student at all times in the course, I learned. I am looking forward to applying my learning in my future courses.

T-Hand signing out!

thea

Evaluation Blog

This module was another level of challenging for me.  I have had some experience with the Kirkpatrick Model previously but my experience has been more about recognizing specific types of questions and where they fall on the model but writing my own questions was another challenge all together!  I also had a hard time trying to figure out a way to word the different types of reaction questions. I am excited about using my evaluation within my course so that I can garner some feedback from students about the interactivity of my course.

The reason that I chose the standards from the QM rubric that the evaluation tool covers some of my personal learning goals of having my course be more engaging and interactive.  I struggle with creative ways to bring interactivity with my course and I hope that the evaluation tool will give me some feedback into the process. I will utilize the student feedback to better my course from semester to semester.

 I think that this module has helped me down the road specifically in reference to  the personal learning goals listed below.  I did learn more about the evaluation process and kirkpatricks model. I Think that in writing my evaluation questions, I was forced to carefully consider my course alignment in reference to the activities planned.  As for Goal #8, it is a work in progress but getting a jump start on my evaluation ideas within this course has been great!

PL Goal #5: I am VERY interested in learning about the various types of evaluation as this is an area that I have very little knowledge of.

PL Goal #6: While I am familiar with Kirkpatrick's model of evaluation, I need to gain a better understanding of the model so that I can utilize it in my quest to learn more about class and program evaluation.

PL Goal #7: I want to take all of my learning from this course and apply it to my course planning and preparation in order to ensure a quality alignment in my activities with my learning objectives.

PL Goal #8: I would like to create a course evaluation that I implement at mid and end of course to inform my process:)

Authentic Assessment

Hmmm...Authentic Assessment is my favorite:) I always enjoy planning assessments on this nature for my students. While this is an area that I am comfortable with, I think that sometimes I can become shortsighted in my creativity in planning. Nothing made me more aware of this than our discussions this week. I enjoyed reading others' ideas and hearing input on mine. The online community has the potential to become a great professional learning community the way we are using it in this class. I will be honest, I don't always enjoy the discussions in classes as they can be kind of dry and theoretical BUT this class hs just been a pleasure in the professional discourse.

With that said, I was able to think outside of my usual ideas and conjure up news ways to look at my old tricks:) I have a bunch of new ideas and I am ready to keep re-vamping my assessments with some of the ideas I garnered from the class...i LOVE it!
T

Traditional Assessment

This week was quite a challenge for me. I really had to spend some time thinking about how i could incorporate traditional assessment into my world. After the aforementioned conversations with my husband and experiencing susie's pre-assessment, I thought that the pre-assessment concept was going to the be the way to go for me. So I decided to go ahead and create a pre-assessment surrounding the NETS for teachers as an opening activity for my technology class.

Once I had figured out the "what" of my assessment, I had determine how I wanted to deliver it to my students. I decided to use Google forms to create a form that looks more like a survey rather than a "test". I liked that the interface is more casual so that the students could feel comfortable.

The other aspect of the Google form that I liked is that the results backfeed into a spreadsheet which will give me a great opportunity to have the individual results as well as the group results at a glance in order to determine the next learning steps.

I am excited to try this out on a group of my next "unsuspecting" students:)
thea

CEL 590 Personal Learning Plan

So as I begin my journey toward learning more about assessment and evaluation, I believe that the most important thing for me to do is examine my own philosophies and bias about assessment and evaluation.

First off, I am a firm believer in the need for both assessment and evaluation in order to inform the learning process on both sides of the books:) My biases lie within a DEEP adversity to testing or quizzes. I was having a conversation with my husband the other day and basically intimated that I could not see a need for a quiz or multiple choice test pretty much ever. He opened my eyes to some new uses of the tools and because he is practically a genius, I listened:) we talked about how he uses quizzes....not as a gotcha but more as a pre-assessment (like Susie did) to help get a gauge for his students baseline knowledge on the aspects of the content. This was interesting to me as I just always picture vocabulary quizzes and end of chapter multiple choice type instruments. I also know that I have been the subject of much unnecessary stress due to professors trying to "trick me" with excruciatingly difficult multiple choice tests. I am an over analytical person so I can talk myself into almost ANY answer being correct. Just imagine me with a 60 question M/c test in philosophy....enough to give me an ulcer!

With all of that said, it leads to my first and most important goal:
PL Goal #1: I will approach this course with an open heart and mind to the various types of assessment and evaluation so that I might learn NEW uses for familiar tools.

PL Goal #2: I would like to gain a better understanding of multiple choice and other traditional assessment terminology.

PL Goal #3: I LOVE rubrics! I probably overuse them in my work but I am all self taught so I would like to learn more about the terms for the parts of a rubric and tools to help make mine better. As a part of this goal, I hope to create a few rubrics that are much needed in reference to a project that I have created within my coursework.

PL Goal #4: As the instructional specialist at my school, I do a lot of work with teachers encouraging them to assess students with something other than a test or quiz thus, I am always looking for more depth of understanding in the areas of Authentic assessment and Alternative assessment.

PL Goal #5: I am VERY interested in learning about the various types of evaluation as this is an area that I have very little knowledge of.

PL Goal #6: While I am familiar with Kirkpatrick's model of evaluation, I need to gain a better understanding of the model so that I can utilize it in my quest to learn more about class and program evaluation.

PL Goal #7: I want to take all of my learning from this course and apply it to my course planning and preparation in order to ensure a quality alignment in my activities with my learning objectives.

PL Goal #8: I would like to create a course evaluation that I implement at mid and end of course to inform my process:)

Lofty goals, I know but I aim high! In order to complete the goals that I have set for myself in this course, I will engage in the following learning strategies:

Strategy for completion: I will utilize the activities in this course to gain a stronger understanding of assessment and evaluation techniques. I will also take note of ideas presented within the learning community and how I might use the ideas my peers present in my own teaching. As I complete products, I will share them within the learning community for feedback from my peers in order to garner suggestions. Based on the activities of the course, I will begin to create stronger assessment and evaluation tools for my own courses to include rubrics, formative assessments, and a mid/end of course evaluation. Lastly, I will engage in research regarding all assessment and evaluation techniques presented and how I might use them in alignment with my own teaching philosophy.

Here's to a great semester of learning in a community!

Thea