A Response to AAC&U’s ‘On Solid Ground’ Report on UG Performance
First...
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Category: Rubrics
How Amazon Will Replace Universities
How do we know what anyone knows? For school admissions, for hiring… An experiment in the second category is well under way in US K12. The Common Core has landed, with children and parents boycotting the tough new exams in...
Read MoreThe Ultimate ‘Outcome’
We often use the example of assessing driving skills in faculty development workshops. We like the example because most of us feel that we know a good driver when we see one (and that we’re good drivers!), but it is an...
Read MoreOutcomes Assessment and Grades
A couple of recent articles in Inside Higher Ed caught our eye – one on grades and grade inflation, and the other on the creation of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment. It seems obvious to us that...
Read MoreEffective Peer Review: Leveraging the Learning Management System
Peer review is a widely accepted practice, particularly in writing classes, from high school through college and graduate school. Unfortunately, peer review is often used as a busy-work activity, or a process that takes advantage of conscientious students while allowing others to do superficial work. For instance, many teachers will hand out a list of peer review questions in class, and then give students 30 minutes to review two papers written by their colleagues.
Read MoreAssessing Critical Thinking
Many of our users know about the Waypoint Public Library – a shared library of both Assignments and Elements created by our clients. Each month we’ll highlight a unique approach to assessment and feedback and make it...
Read MoreSophisticated Rubrics and and the Power of Feedback
We recently presented on a simple change to collecting work from students: ask them to include a cover letter, addressed to the instructor, with their submission of work. This cover letter should reflect upon the previous...
Read MoreBlackboard Version 8, Peer Review, and Outcomes Assessment
We were pleasantly surprised to see Waypoint (web-based software for creating and using interactive rubrics…find out more here) featured in Bill Vilburg’s LMSPodcast series. Bill is the Director of Instructional...
Read MoreCourse-Embedded Assessment, Part Two – Closing the Loop
To continue a summary of our presentation at the NC State Assessment Symposium… Our ‘closing the loop’ example was the most detailed of the best practices that we presented because I was personally involved in...
Read MoreBest Practices in Course-Embedded Assessment
We’re just finishing up three day’s at NC State’s Assessment Symposium. 500 educators from around the USA have come together to talk about student learning, “closing the loop,” and accreditation....
Read MoreDesigning Authentic Tasks…
We set out with this blog to create a resource for educators interested in assessment, and particularly authentic assessment. That is, designing tasks that are complex, that require critical thinking and synthesis of...
Read MoreTeaching Efficiency…
As teachers, we tend to focus on pedagogy as the great hope for improvement. We spend our professional development and meeting time talking improved syllabi, new theories of learning, better designed assignments, or improved...
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