Assessments

Context

Regularly reworking assessments is an essential component of quality course design for several reasons. Keeping the content relevant by ensuring assessments are in line with the latest educational standards is key for making sure students learn the skills that matter now. By introducing diverse assessment methods, different learning styles are accommodated, making education more inclusive, and giving the instructor a better view of student understanding. Integrating the latest technology in assessments can make it more engaging for students and help prepare them for their future.

Additionally, despite best efforts, sometimes assessments do not work out in the way they were intended and they must be reworked to best suit the students' needs. Oftentimes collaborating with other faculty or designers can help in rethinking the approach and creative solutions are found. These are all cornerstones of my assessment design strategies.

Design and Development

In the last couple of years, peoples’ approach to learning has shifted dramatically and to reach them and properly assess their gains we have to change as well. Collaborating with a colleague who has since left HCC, we reviewed many assignments to determine the problem areas, and essential alignment areas, then developed ideation goals centered on interactive and creative submissions.

Online HUM1020- Art Analysis: The original assignment required too many selections that distracted students from the purpose and required research that wasn't appropriately scaffolded in the first lesson.
Online HUM1020- Architecture: The original assignment required students to go into their community to take photos of architectural elements in use and label them appropriately which had mixed results but often resulted in poor submissions.
Face-to-Face HUM 1020- Theater and Film Essays: The original assignments were essays that faculty no longer felt were adequately preparing students with useful skills.
Face-to-Face ARH1000- Cultural Connections: The original assignment was an essay that faculty no longer felt was adequately preparing students with useful skills.

Results

Ideating new assessment strategies that were focused and scaffolded, prompted creative engagement with the material. We created the instructions, rubrics, and submission spaces in the Canvas LMS. The following are the newly developed assessments that resulted.

Online HUM1020- AI Art & How Human? Discussion: These are paired assignments in the Visual Arts Module. In the AI Art assignment, students are instructed to create a piece of AI art in a specific artistic style and then analyze the result using the fundamentals of composition that they learned in the lesson. In the How Human Discussion they share their piece with classmates and discuss the ramifications of AI in art and the value of creative human expression. These assignments have resulted in consistently high-quality submissions and increased student engagement.
Online HUM1020- Architectural Design Project: To assess their understanding of architectural fundamentals and their application, students are instructed to design and label a unique structure with a number of materials, elements, and principles in use. Students can use a variety of tools for their submissions. The assignment has been incredibly successful with students regularly creating impressive structures in formats from hand-drawings, to Minecraft, to Sketch-Up.
Face-to-Face HUM 1020- A Storyboard for a Fractured Fairytale: Combing the assessments for theater and film, students have class time to work in groups using a prompt given by the instructor to design the storyboard version for the opening 5 minutes of a fractured fairy tale film. They need to emphasize the use of different shots, angles, and visual elements to convey their original version of the narrative. This was extremely successful with students very engaged and more accurately assessed their knowledge in a way that was personal, up to date, and used diverse methods.
Face-to-Face ARH1000- Cultural Connections Project: In this project, students are asked to create a short video presentation with visual and oratory elements that identify and explain an art period and how it connects to social and cultural influences. The project is scaffolded throughout the semester teaching many valuable technical skills, and has produced wonderful results.