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- The nature of remote assessments
Remote teaching has not only transformed pedagogical activities but has also provoked a review of how assessments are delivered. At a time of successive lockdowns, in-person assessments were not an option so institutions deployed online examination solutions, sometimes with difficulties, but always with a strong desire to ensure educational continuity. Today, some exams are still being taken online. What are the lessons to be learned, depending on the nature of the assessments implemented ? In order to choose the most suitable method, it is essential to identify what you are trying to assess and to inform your students of the methods chosen as early as possible.
ORAL PRESENTATION
Generally done in groups, oral presentations allow you to make the learners stakeholders in their training and to encourage the use of content/resources in a new situation, one to which the group must respond. In addition to practical application, it requires conviction. It concludes a piece of group work.
Remotely, presentations can be made both synchronously and asynchronously. In the first case, at Audencia, they take place mainly on Blackboard Collaborate but can also be organised on Teams. Depending on the size of your cohort, make sure that the presentations are not too long or else organise them over several sessions if you have this option. The challenge is to get the audience involved in listening to the presentations. You can introduce a peer review using a scoring grid circulated in advance and/or require the audience to ask questions. The relevance of the questions asked can also be included in the scoring.
In order to lighten the sessions or to optimise time, you can also ask the groups to produce asynchronous presentations. In this case, they are recorded and presented as videos. Students can register on Collaborate, either in the virtual classroom or through groups that you have created in advance on Blackboard Learn that provide them with a private space. If they have post-production work to do, other tools are generally used (iMovie for smartphone recordings; OBS). Depending on the objectives, you can also launch a voting campaign open to the public, which has the advantage of introducing an additional challenge that is sure to engage students.
QUIZ/TEST
Quizzes allow you to assess the basics of your course and are appropriate if you want to check that the knowledge you have imparted has been acquired, especially if they can be set as multiple choice questions and/or answers. In addition to using quizzes as final exams, you can implement short quiz sessions throughout your course, so that you can monitor learners’ progress. This is a good way for students to assess themselves.
Tips for building an effective quiz and preventing cheating :
- Vary the nature of the questions (true/false; matching; short answers)
- Write short questions to ensure optimal display
- Introduce questions with “free text” answers to encourage reflection
- Create pools of questions of equivalent difficulty to allow a random selection from the pool
The main advantage of quizzes is the speed of marking. Unlike homework, answers are not (or only rarely) open to interpretation. It is a more objective form of grading but also limited in what it can assess. Combined with a homework assignment, the assessment is usually more complete.
- Display one question at a time without the option of going back
- Choose to display the answers in a random order
- Test the quiz to ensure that it is a good way of checking the learning objectives seen in class
- Définir une durée de quiz qui soit 3 fois supérieure au temps passé par une personne experte du sujet (30sec pour un expert > 1’30 pour l’étudiant) mais pas plus
ASSIGNMENTS
The assignment allows you to assess the learners’ ability to grasp elements of the course content and to use them appropriately in a given situation, different from the one proposed in class. This can take the form of case studies/business cases, a synthesis, the production of articles, an execution plan/model, etc. It mobilises both knowledge and interpersonal skills, as the answers require them to take a step back from a given context. It meets the higher requirements in Bloom’s taxonomy in terms of analysis, production of new solutions and/or advocacy.
Depending on expectations, the assignment can be done in synchronous mode over a limited period of time or over a given period of time, to be done alone or with others. In the first case, the time constraint contributes to the assessment: is the learner able to analyse a problem, to produce relevant recommendations under pressure? In the second case, the assessment will take into account the learner’s ability to deepen/support their proposals.
Tips for building an effective assignment on the LMS :
- Share clear instructions on your expectations and the marking scheme
- Provide an outline into which students can insert their work to ensure consistency in their submissions
- Remind students not to write their name or any other indication of their identity (to keep the papers anonymous when marked)
The main advantage of the assignment is that it provides a more accurate measure of the student’s ability to grasp the content and the originality of the production. They are also good indicators of the learner’s “way of doing things” through writing, especially if the assignment includes a critical analysis. On the other hand, in addition to the time required for correction, marking can be more subjective, hence the importance of sharing the assessment criteria beforehand.
In any case, whatever option you choose, it is important that you set aside time for feedback with the learners. This can be the subject of a final session if you can organise it after the exams. Otherwise, for presentations, feedback can be given by different means; for quizzes, feedback can be given through the mark schemes that will have been detailed beforehand on the LMS (for more info, go to the“Methodological advice and practical illustrations” section of this topic).
Finally, even remotely, it is important to preserve formative assessments, those that enable learners to situate themselves over time in their learning. In the digital age, they also have the advantage of making the sessions more dynamic. Share beforehand the way in which you are going to mark their piece. In synchronous mode, you can regularly use chat so that learners can react to a slide or a comment; this is also possible in asynchronous mode with the use of a discussion forum. The methods used in face-to-face training remain valid: a summary of the main lesson points at the end of the session, reminder of the main elements of the previous lesson at the beginning of the session. In short, assessments are an integral part of the course and the difficulties raised by distance should not be a reason to prepare them at the last moment.
