Tag Archives: Assessment

Flipping the assessment

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You have probably noticed that great motivational speakers have neat answers for world’s questions.  Great writers, however, take these answers and turn them into complex questions.   This is one of the things that make great writers great, as straight answers are sometimes hard to come by if we look closer and longer.   Things are often messier than they appear, if we step a little further.   Yet when we realize that situations are more complex than they appear, some discovery and learning have taken place.

In most formal education settings, professors teach, and then give tests or other types of assessments to students.   Both professors and students are comfortable with this mode of teaching and learning.   However, this does not always mean that learning outcomes reach their optimal level.

A recent faculty focus article suggests that it sometimes helps to have learners design questions themselves.   The article suggests a number of benefits for involving students in the design of questions, for instance:

  1. It helps students answer “what-do-I-need-to-know-for-the-exam?” question;
  2. It deeps their understanding of the subject matter;
  3. It helps them to think more precisely during the question design process.

This may sound like a lazy solution, but actually writing good questions is hard work and  it would really get students to process your instruction more thoroughly.   Here are some suggestions:

  1. Use a class wiki/discussion post/Google Docs etc, to have students come up with a questions or test items;
  2. Edit these questions with them and explain why you make the changes;
  3. Use a portion or all of these questions in a pool;
  4. Add your own questions into the pool;
  5. Build tests based on the pool;
  6. Re-use these questions semester after semester.   Have future classes add more questions into your pool.
  7. Review and repeat the process above.

Students may also feel motivated if they get to write some questions that are eventually used in this or future classes.

I hope someone can give this a try.  If you are doing so already, please share your story with the North Institute.   Thanks a lot!

 

Collaboration in a new way!

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GoogleDocs Image that OC has shifted to Google apps the North Institute has been looking heavily into Google Docs and their advantages for Teaching and Learning. One distinct advantage has been the idea of collaboration. The North Institute has had several sessions on how these Google Docs can be shared real time, with most sessions focusing on student to student and possibly student to teacher collaboration. But another way these docs can be worked on collaboratively is colleague to colleague.

From time to time we receive requests in the North Institute to help professors take an assessment (typically a Word document) and convert it to one that could be used in Blackboard.

Here is an example of a short quiz (T/F, MC, and Fill in the Blank) that could be converted to a Blackboard quiz very easily. Essay questions are also very doable.

  1. Columbus discovered America in 1493. a. True b. False

  2. 2x+1=25 a. 24 b. 26 c. 13 d. 12

  3. What color is the RED ball I am holding?

With slight formatting adjustments this quiz could be easily converted into a BlackBoard quiz. If this assessment was created in Google Docs then the professor could just share it with someone in the North institute and in real time we could show them what needed to be done to convert it and if changes needed to be made they could be done real time.

In addition, when  a mistake or omitted information is found or if clarification is needed then corrections can easily be made through the sharing and comment features of Google Docs thus speeding up the process and improving accuracy. All of these issues in the past have caused emailing of attachments and

Bb Image

saving of different versions on several computers to be troublesome in the least. It is fairly tedious and confusing at times. Now it all can be done collaboratively in real time sharing one file. After the assessment is formatted then it would be downloaded and put through Respondus to fully convert it to a BlackBoard test or quiz. Look for follow up BLOG Posts to help you through the whole process.

Clearing Browser Cache

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Having now monitored a number of Blackboard tests, we’ve discovered a simple step that can help students (and faculty!) avoid problems: clearing your browser’s cache. This sounds much more difficult than it really is. You only have to do it once (though it’s not a bad idea to clean things out periodically). Below you will find instructions (including screenshots) on how to clear cache in four popular browsers used at OC. Click the link corresponding to the browser you use to jump to instructions for that browser.

Clearing Cache in Safari

  1. Click the Safari menu.
  2. Click “Empty Cache.”
  3. Click “Empty” on the pop-up prompt.

Clearing Cache in Firefox

  1. Click the Tools menu (note, if you have your menu bar hidden in Firefox for Windows, press the ALT key to display the menus).
  2. Choose “Clear Recent History” from the menu.
  3. In the “Clear Recent History” box, make sure the check box to the left of “Cache” is ticked.
  4. Click “Clear Now.”

Clear Cache in Chrome

  1. Click the wrench button and choose “Options.”
  2. Click “Under the Hood” from the left side navigation.
  3. Click “Clear browsing data…” button.
  4. On the window that pops up, make sure “Empty the Cache” is selected.
  5. Click “Clear browsing data” button.

Clear Cache in Internet Explorer

  1. Click the “Tools” menu.
  2. Click “Delete Browsing History”
  3. Select “Temporary Internet Files”
  4. Click “Delete”

Getting Ready for High-stake Tests

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There are many benefits for using Blackboard to conduct your tests, especially in the time it would save in grading them later on.   Scan Tron may provide some help, but then you have to deal with cases in which students who do not fill out their ID numbers correctly or fill in two bubbles for the same answer, and all such fun stuff that get you stuck before the Scan Tron machine.  For short-answer and essay questions you will have to grade, by using Blackboard you can avoid handwritten notes that are sometimes hard to read.

However, thorough preparation before a test is extremely important to make your Blackboard test experience as smooth as possible.   Here are a few suggestions to get you ready for conducting tests online:

1.  Take the test like a student:

There is no better solution to mistake-proof your test than to take it yourself beforehand, in the format you want students to use.  This is essential for high-stake tests with large classes, or lengthy tests to be taken over an extended period of time.  Turn your edit mode to “off” so that you can take the tests yourself beforehand (the tests would need to be temporarily available for such purpose).  Grades for tests instructors take will not be recorded in the Grade Center.  Isn’t that great news!   ;-)

Edit mode

As you take the tests yourself, record the mistakes you saw and then proceed to step 2 below.

2.  Check the content:

To make corrections to your test content, such as wrong answers and typos, some of which (answers especially) would be difficult to change once students have started taking them, click the option icon (>> upside down), select “edit the test” , and then edit specific questions with whatever errors you have caught.

Edit the Test

3. Check the test parameters:

Check the test options to make sure you have set it up properly.  This involves a lot of options which you can customize, such as availability of your tests, timer, method for presentations etc.  For really high stake tests that you suspect a possibility of student being logged out in the middle of the tests, I would recommend not using the option for “force completion” or “auto-submit”.  If students are forced to complete in one sitting, you will need to clear their attempt in the Grade Center before they are allowed to come back to the test in case their computer froze.  Of course, if you would prefer to clear their attempt for them to take it again, that would be fine too. It is up to you to make the choice either way.

4. Deploy a trial test before a real one:

If you have a high-stake test to conduct, especially if you want to use Lockdown Browser, try deploying a simple one-question “trial test” that you won’t actually grade so that students can make sure their computer is ready for the tests.   Of course you can give extra credit for those to take this test.

5. Consider assignment tool for lengthy writing:

Blackboard tests allow you to include essay questions.   However, for essays of some length, there is the risk that computer problems may cause students to lose their work while writing it.   To minimize such risk, as you are designing the tests, you may ask yourself whether this is something you’d want students to do using the test format.  Is it better to use “assignment” to submit, say, a one-page response to a question, while letting the test to handle other standardized questions?

Make sure you consider all of these factors sufficiently in advance.  Do not wait for the last minute to make changes, as you might not have time, or you might not be able to make  any changes once students have started.

You can also ask the North Institute to check the settings of your tests for you (not the content though).  Please feel free to contact us if you need such assistance.

Respondus for Tests from a Publisher

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If you are a user of Respondus (OC has a site license for faculty to use), and you use test banks from a major publisher, you might be interested to hear that Respondus now allows you to search, use, edit and publish tests based on publisher test banks.  The only requirement is to adopt the textbook and register it with Respondus.  It isn’t a complicated process, but it may take a while for the publisher to verify your information.   Other than this, this solution should make it easier for you to use test banks from the textbook publisher.  Please watch the following video for more details:

Lockdown Browser

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Lockdown Browser

Lockdown Browser is an application that students can use to take exams in a secure environment. When this is used, it will kill other applications that may threaten the integrity of the test results.

Setting up the test:

Here is how to set up a test using Lockdown Browser.

  • Create your test in Blackboard (This can also be done through Respondus, a test-generating software)
  • Include the test in a content area, for instance, under “course content”, “assignment”, wherever you want students to go to take the test in Blackboard;
  • Go to “Control Panel” on the bottom left side;
  • Go to “Course Tools”;
  • Click on “Respondus Lockdown Browser” (If you do not see “Respondus Lockdown Browser in the list, check “customization — tool availability, and check the box beside “Respondus Lockdown Browser” and then click on “submit” to save the change.)
  • Click on “Modify settings” for the test you are giving;
  • Check “Require Respondus LockDown Browser for this test”;
  • Give a password for the test if needed;
  • Give an “exit” password for the test if needed.  (The exit password is used to help students get out of a frozen test screen.  Use it only when absolutely necessary.  Sometimes refreshing the page will help unfreeze a screen.)
  • Click on “Submit” to complete.

Student Instructions: You can send this link to students to get them to get their computer ready for the test BEFORE the test takes place.

Common Problem:

  • Students have errors trying to launch the application:  Students may sometimes find that the application reminds them to update to a more recent version but when they try to do that, Lockdown Browser sometimes does not allow such downloading to happen.  To solve the problem, ask them to download the application from http://ed.oc.edu/lockdown to reinstall it.   This error will not appear if students have checked their program as described above.
  • Password won’t work:   If you want to set a password for a Lockdown browser-enabled test, set the password from “Control Panel –> Respondus Lockdown Browser –> Modify settings”. If you find your password does not work, try resetting it from the above-mentioned location.   This password will be encrypted in Blackboard.   Do not set or change the password by modifying the test options at the location where you have deployed the test (for instance, “assignment”, “course content”, etc.)    If the latter is changed, it would mess up the original password.  You will have to overwrite this change by setting a new Lockdown Browser password from “Control Panel–>Course Tools –> Respondus Lockdown Browser-> Modify settings”.

Tip:

It is very helpful if you ask students to test the Lockdown Browser before they go to the classroom to take the test. It will waste class time if they try to install or reinstall the application in class.  You are also encouraged to set a “practice quiz” with Lockdown Browser enabled to get students ready for the test.

Please contact the North Institute for assistance if needed.