Design Task Directions

For this design task, you will create a design plan for a single assessment that you and your instructional design consultant can use to later build the assessment. Please note that we are NOT expecting you to develop the assessment. Rather, we ask you to only document the design decisions that you have made about the assessment. Later on in this seminar, you will work with your instructional design consultant to build this assessment, as well as other assessments. This course design task will help you achieve the following learning objectives:

E1. Explain the difference between summative and formative assessments.

E2. Determine which of the four general types of assessments that you will use in your course.

E3. Identify the tools you might use to deliver your assessments.

E4. Identify any potential issues or problems you may have by using online tools to deliver your assessments.

E5. Create effective solutions to issues or problems related to online testing.

E6. Design individual or group assessments that will effectively measure the course- and module-level learning objectives (constructive alignment).

E7. Apply the Quality Matters Standards to the design of your assessments.

Please follow the steps below to generate a rough draft of a design plan for this specific assessment.

Step 01. Review the general assessment plan that you submitted previously in this module. This plan contains the general types of assessments you will use in your course, as well as a listing of specific kinds of assessments you might use. Select one of these specific types of assessments that you would like to design.

Step 03. At the top of the page, write a generic working title for the assessment or, if you have a good idea of what the title will be, write a more specific description. After the title, write the amount of time you expect students to spend on this assessment in parentheses. Note the following examples.

Chapter Quiz (10 min)

Formal Essay #1 (9 hours spread out over 3 weeks)

Unit Exam (50 min)

Step 04. Below the title, answer the questions for the first three keys of assessment quality. This information will promote accurate assessment results and help you meet the following Quality Matters Standards:

3.1 The assessments measure the stated learning objectives or competencies.

3.4 The assessment instruments selected are sequenced, varied, and suited to the learner work being assessed.

If you don’t know the answer to a question yet, that’s okay. You and your instructional design consultant may discuss the possible answers in your next meeting. However, if you know the answer, please write down a sentence or two explaining the design decision that you have made. If you want, you may answer several questions for a key in a single sentence. Some prompts are written after each question to help spark ideas about possible answers.

Key Characteristics of Effective Assessment

Key #1: Clear Purpose

1. Why is this assessment being given?

• • It’s a formative assessment meant to promote learning.
  • It’s a summative assessment used to measure student achievement of the learning objectives.
  • It prepares students for professional exams or graduate school exams.
  • It motivates students to complete other assigned coursework, such as readings or practice activities.

2. Who will use the results?

• • You
  • The students
  • Your department
  • Your college
  • Other stakeholders

3. How will the results be used?

• • Assign grades based on performance (summative assessments)
  • Give feedback to students about their progress (formative assessments)
  • Determine what revisions are needed to the instructional strategies or materials
  • Compare student performance with other students
  • Formal research on teaching and learning

4. How will students use the results?

• • To assess their learning progress
  • To correct mislearning or errors in performance
  • To practice recall and promote retention of important content
  • To build confidence in their mastery of knowledge and skills

Key #2: Clear Learning Targets

1. What are the learning objectives?

• • List one or more general, course-level objectives
  • List one or more specific, module-level objectives
  • List other goals you might have

2. Are they clearly stated?

• • If yes, how do you know they are clear to both you and the students?
  • If no, how could they be simplified or clarified?

3. Are the learning objectives appropriate for this type of assessment?

• • If yes, how do you know the learning objectives will be appropriately measured by this type of assessment?
  • If no, how would you revise the learning objectives or the assessment to make them appropriate?

4. Do students understand the learning objectives?

• • If yes, how do you know they understand the learning objectives?
  • If no, what else would they need to know to understand the learning objectives?

Key #3: Quality Assessment

1. What method will be used?

• • Selected response test
  • Written response
  • Performance assessment
  • Personal communication
  • A combination of the above
  • The tool(s) used to administer the assessment
  • The problems and solutions addressed by the method

2. Are the questions of high quality?

• • If yes, how do you know the questions are of high quality?
  • If no, what revisions would need to be made to make them high quality?

3. Is sampling of the students knowledge and skills adequate?

• • If yes, how do you know the assessment has a sufficient number of high quality questions or performance criteria to accurately measure the depth and breadth of student knowledge and skill?
  • If no, what revisions would need to be made to adequately sample a student’s knowledge and skill?

4. Are sources of bias avoided?

• • If yes, how do you know the assessment avoids sources of bias?
  • If no, what revisions would be needed in order to avoid different forms of assessment bias?

5. Will students self-assess?

• • If yes, how will they do it?
  • If no, how will you get students to reflect on their test results and use them to advance their learning?

Step 05. Next, answer the questions for the last two keys of assessment quality. This information will promote effective use of the assessment results and help you meet the following Quality Matters Standards:

3.2 The course grading policy is stated clearly.

3.3 Specific and descriptive criteria are provided for the evaluation of learners’ work and are tied to the course grading policy.

3.5 The course provides learners with multiple opportunities to track their learning progress.

Again, if you don’t know the answer to a question yet, don’t worry. You may discuss the possible answers in your next meeting with your instructional design consultant. As before, some prompts are written after each question to help spark ideas about possible answers.

Key #4: Effective Communication of the Results

1. How will grading take place?

• • Automatically graded by the learning management system
  • Student self-grading
  • Instructor grading
  • Teaching assistant grading
  • Checklists or rubrics
  • The timing of individual and group assessments

2. How will feedback be provided to students?

• • Immediate feedback during or directly after the assessment
  • Delayed feedback several hours or days after the assessment
  • Scores and feedback within the grade book and learning management system
  • Instructor feedback through embedded comments in the assessment or other messages (e.g., email)
  • Peer feedback as ratings or comments in a discussion board
  • Publisher assessment tools that accompany the textbook

3. How will you use the information to plan the next steps for the students, or to plan revisions to your instructional strategies and materials?

• • Students required to ponder assessment results and adjust their learning strategies
  • Instructor plans for improving the learning activities or materials
  • General assessment results shared so that students can compare their own progress with that of their peers

4. How will students let you know the results have been successfully communicated?

• • Require regular checks of assessment results in the grade book
  • Email you if they don’t receive feedback by a certain date and time
  • Email you if they don’t understand what the results mean
  • Office hours appointments to review performance on major assessments (especially for summative assessments) and discuss student grades

Key #5: Student-Involved Assessment During Learning

1. How will you make the learning targets (learning objectives) clear to students?

• • State them in the syllabus, module introductions, assessment directions, etc.
  • Require students to explain what the learning objectives mean and ask questions about any unclear objectives
  • Offer a discussion board forum for answering questions related to the learning objectives

2. How will you involve students in assessment development (as appropriate)?

• • Weekly homework assignment for students to submit one or more test questions, the correct answer, and an explanation of why the answer is true
  • Ask students to identify unclear or especially difficult questions
  • Ask students to evaluate and rate the test questions
  • Have students take the test as a group after they take it individually, then have group members discuss how they can improve their test performance

3. How will students set goals for learning and then assess and track their progress?

• • Students will set weekly goals for learning
  • Have students use a spreadsheet throughout the semester to track progress toward achieving the objectives

4. How will students communicate with you and with each other about their learning?

• • Announcements after tests
  • Regular assessment review sessions with students
  • Online office hours
  • Messages about assessments in the grade book or embedded in the assessments returned to the students
  • Email
  • Phone calls
  • Discussion board exchange between students
  • Web conferencing

Step 06. Write down any other information that you want to include in this plan. For example, you might write down the potential sources of questions (you, the students, previous tests) or directions on how to access the quiz question pools created by the textbook publisher. In addition, you may wish to consider documenting any or all of the following:

1. The average amount of time students will need to complete the assessment.
2. Step-by-step directions for all of the tasks students must carry out to complete the assessment. Explain how the assessment should be completed (individually, in groups, etc.).
3. Due dates and/or deadlines for completion of the assessment.
4. The format of the assessment (quiz, paper, report, etc.).
5. The kinds of thinking that should be exhibited during the assessment.
6. Resources needed to complete the assessment and where to find them.
7. How to turn in the assessment. Although you may have this outlined in your syllabus already, a quick reminder may relieve you of unnecessary emails from your students.
8. The grading criteria or a rubric. Students need to know how the assessment is linked to their course grade.
9. How and when you will give feedback on the assessment.
10. Where they need to go if they need further clarifications on how to complete the assessment. For example, do you want them to go to their peers first or to you? Do you want an email or a call?

Step 07. Prepare to share this assessment design plan in your next meeting with your instructional design consultant. You will want to go over the plan and talk about how it might be developed. Feel free to revise this plan during or even after your discussion. You will use this document later in the seminar to develop a working prototype of the assessment.

Step 08. Use the assignment link below to submit this draft of your design plan for this assessment. You may simply submit the web link to this document and add any comments for your instructional design consultant.

Please note that you will most likely not need to write up this detailed of a plan every time you create an assessment. Rather, you’ll use the same plan for similar assessments. For example, if you wrote this design plan for a reading quiz on a particular chapter in your textbook, then the same plan could be applied to all of the other reading quizzes.

Though not required, if you found this exercise useful, you are encouraged to employ the same thoughtful planning for each assessment in your course.

Here’s a Worked Example of an Assessment Plan

Printable PDF of the design task activity directions

Optional Assessment Design Template – Make a copy and rename it with your course number.