Assessing and Evaluating for Learning/A&E Course Assessments

=Course Assessment= '''To meet the requirements and gain credit for this course: Participants must - undertake and successfully complete all assessment activities.''' (To gain credit participants must be enrolled in the course with Otago Polytechnic)

NB: Work submitted later than the due date without an arranged extension will not receive feedback.

If planning to graduate this year all assessed work must be in for marking by November 11th.

There are three assessment activities.


 * 1.	Evaluation of own course assessment (written submission)  	- 5 September 2011
 * Evaluating the assessment in a course you are teaching/facilitating or undertaking


 * 2.	New assessment strategy (written submission)            	- 17 October 2011
 * Presenting a new/revised assessment strategy for a course you are teaching/facilitating or undertaking


 * 3.	Assessment discussions (online discussion)              	- 11 November 2011
 * Participate in discussions online relating to assessment

NB: As an alternative to the set assessment activities there is also the option to plan and develop your own individual assessment to meet the course learning outcomes. Discuss and negotiate this with the course facilitator. This plan must be finalised, agreed to, and signed by the participant and course coordinator by 20 August 2010.

1. Evaluation of own course assessment (written submission)
Assessment Present in a written format of your choice* an evaluation of the current assessment practices for a course you are teaching/facilitating or undertaking.

This in-depth exploration should include consideration of:
 * what assessment is being used
 * the purpose of this assessment
 * the relevance of the assessment tools and practices to student learning
 * whether the assessment is fair, valid, reliable, usable and clear
 * the relationship of the assessment to the learning outcomes for that course

(*)This written format could be any written format including a blog entry, a wiki, an essay/report/review, a powerpoint presentation or any other written form.

Marking criteria

Achievement of the following criteria will result in a successful pass for this assessment:


 * Evaluation of each aspect of the course assessment (the what, why and how)
 * Discussion supported with rationale &/or literature &/or examples

The course outline and assessment information evaluated must be attached or the work will not be assessed

(Word count guide = 500 to 800 words for the evaluation – excluding attached outline/assessment information)

Due Date: submit by or before Monday 5 September 2011

Submit by email (including weblinks if used) or in hard copy to the Course Facilitator

2.	New assessment strategy (written submission)
Activity

Rewrite, modify or adapt the assessment strategy for the course you evaluated in assessment one or develop a new strategy for that course.

Assessment Present the new or revised assessment strategy for the course you evaluated in assessment one as you would present this to students in a course outline/ information document.

In written form critically discuss your reasoning and rationale for this alternative approach and support this discussion with clearly referenced relevant literature.

NB: Critical discussion and reflection involve a depth of thought that considers a variety of perspectives including your own. Critical in this sense refers to reviewing or analysing in depth, it does not mean focusing on negativity.

Marking criteria

Achievement of the following criteria will result in a successful pass for this assessment:


 * A copy of the course outline/information sheet with new/revised assessment information attached that is sufficiently clear to the learners
 * A critical discussion of the rationale and reasoning for the strategy
 * including acknowledgement of learner needs and consideration of diversity
 * Discussion well supported with literature sources
 * Material well structured and presented with consistent referencing (preferably APA style)

(Word count guide for the critical discussion = 500 to 1000 words)

Due Date:

submit by or before Monday 17 October 2011

Submit by email (including weblinks if used) or in hard copy to the Course Facilitator

3.	Assessment Discussions (online discussion)
Activity

Participate in the online discussions on the Blackboard discussion board for this course, sharing your thoughts and experiences related to the topics that are discussed. Assessment

Whilst participating in the online discussions you will be assessed on 3 of your postings relating specifically to your comments on the topics:
 * Moderation
 * Cultural diversity
 * Feedback in assessment

Each must meet the two marking criteria below:

Marking criteria

Achievement of the following criteria will result in a successful pass for this assessment:
 * Acknowledge relevance to your own teaching context
 * Be supported with literature &/or examples

Due Date:

all contributions to meet above criteria must be posted on the Blackboard discussion board by Friday 11 November 2011

Everyone’s postings open the potential for further discussion. I would encourage you to read and comment on other postings but this is not part of the assessment.

Grading:
As the emphasis is on learning process rather than outcome there are 2 grades only in this course:  passed or not passed

=Referencing=

The final assessment requires you to include references to some of the extra material you have been reading.

The following links take you to some useful resources to help with referencing.

Citation Machine is a great website that takes you through all the steps of adding the information required for a reference then produces the formatted reference for you. You can then cut and paste it into your document. Very handy.

APA Referencing Guide is a great website that clearly describes all the information you would need to produce APA references. I'd particularly recommend the sections on in-text citations and the reference list sections. Quick access buttons for these can be found at the bottom of the first web page.