Teach.Learn.Share podcast Season 2 round-up
Sometimes all you need to inspire a change in your assessment practices is to hear a colleague speak about an assessment strategy that is both working well for them and helping their students learn. To that end, the December 7, 2023 Beyond Grading: Navigating new horizons symposium (a reprise of the Beyond Grading's inaugural symposium in 2018) brought instructors from across the University together to share their assessment-for-learning-inspired strategies that put student learning first. See a list (PDF) of the more than 30 strategies shared.
As a follow-up to the symposium, Jasmine Parent and I wanted to highlight some of the assessment strategies on the Teach.Learn.Share podcast. Over the course of the five episodes that make up Season 2, we delve into creative, concrete, and transferable assessment strategies centered on assessment for learning. In each episode, we sit down with an instructor to learn more about one of their assessment strategies. We wanted to hear instructors' direct and candid testimonials about what inspired them to implement their strategy, what's working well and where the challenges lie.
We chose strategies that were learning-focused and could potentially be adapted to various course contexts. It was also important for us to speak with instructors from different Faculties and showcase a variety of strategies, including some that involve formative feedback, peer feedback, and "authentic" assignments.
Listen in and/or read on to learn more about each strategy, and stay tuned for bonus episodes of Teach.Learn.Share coming soon!
S2 E1: A different take on two-stage exams: How collaboration can further assessment for learning
Episode 1 explores a two-staged mid-term exam strategy where students do a collaborative version of an exam before trying their hand at an individual exam. For Dr. Laura Pavelka, having students work collaboratively and ask questions in an introductory science course are key to helping students understand how science works, so she designed those elements into her assessment strategy. Easing exam-related student anxiety was another motivating factor. Tune in to hear Laura share her tips on managing in-class time, fostering student collaboration, and galvanizing technology to help run a two-stage exam for a class of 600 students.
• Listen online
• Read the transcript
S2 E2: Flexible formative assessments: How to keep exam preparation focused on learning
Low-stakes quizzes are a tried-and-true way to help students prepare for higher-stakes exams, but do these quizzes allow you to assess the progress of students' learning? To ensure her students' learning is on track, which in this case means thinking critically about the immune system, Dr. Jasmin Chahal has her students design concept maps, draw cartoon diagrams, and write problem-solving exam questions. In this episode, we learn about creative formative assessment tasks Jasmin gives her students, which allow them both to demonstrate their learning in different ways and to prepare for their exams. Jasmin also shares insights into coordinating assessment logistics with TAs and clearly communicating expectations with her students in a large science course. We learned about Jasmin's formative assessment strategies from a former student who still uses some of these strategies!
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• Read the transcript
S2 E3: Leveraging assessment tasks to help students recognize bias
Low or no-stakes assessment tasks give students the opportunity to focus their studying on what they aim to learn and allow them to try their hand at failing. When what they're learning means recognizing implicit biases in themselves and others, it's key that students have multiple opportunities to practice developing this skill. In this episode, Dr. Alissa Levine describes her multipronged approach to assessment tasks that help students recognize bias and understand the impact it can have on their future professional practice as dentists.
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S2 E4: Using authentic assessment tasks and flexible grading schemes in a large science course
In her introductory computer science class, Dr. Giulia Alberini asks her approximately 600 students whether they want to be "code crafters" or "problem solvers." "Code crafters" write two midterms and do a final coding project. "Problem solvers" prepare a technical interview that simulates an authentic real-world experience instead of doing a final project. This flexible assessment strategy allows students to work to their strengths, be it programming alone or interviewing with two members of the instructional team. Listen in to hear how Giulia gives her students opportunities to practice with low-stakes exercises, manages her team of TAs, and meets her goal of keeping students engaged and motivated in a large classroom setting.
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• Read the transcript
S2 E5: Explain it in three minutes: Using micro lectures to help students develop communication skills
Undergraduate students in Dr. Tari Ajadi's political science course may go on to be policy-makers. So, why not have them practice the skill of translating complex concepts and issues into the type of "pitch" policy-makers make? This idea became Tari's three-minute micro lecture assessment strategy, one that he first tried when he was asked to prepare a micro lecture for a conference. As students engage with the task of creating a three-minute audio or video recording, a type of assessment task that is less familiar to them, they reflect on how to effectively communicate their understanding of issues raised in the course. Don't miss this episode to learn the details of how Tari communicates his expectations to his students, helps them manage their unease with a new kind of assessment task, and reflects on the challenges of writing a good rubric.
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• Read the transcript
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