Questions on Assessment
In this module, I gave a lot of thought to different methods of assessment; mainly if I should use student self-assessment strategies in my course design. During this class, we are self-assessing all posts and blog entries as well as peer assessing posts. I know that I am my own biggest critic and try to be very objective when grading myself or my work; however I question whether or not my students would be the same.
I was intrigued by what Bill Pelz described in his article, “Three Principles of Effective Online Pedagogy,” with his student self-assessment strategy of students grading their own homework assignments. This is something I thought I might be able to explore using because he explains that it is good for classes where homework problems are assigned. One of the assignments I use in my course design is for students to answer reading response questions from the assigned textbook chapters. I’m not sure if these are the type of questions that would provide the best self-assessment opportunities for students since many of the answers are written in the text; however I can see this method working later in the course when I cover menu math because I could give the students problems to solve using the formulas we learn (this would be more in line with what Bill describes since his is a Statistics course).
I still have reservations about employing this strategy since I question the validity of student self-assessments, but Bill also addresses this concern when he describes the activity to his students: “If I agree with your self-evaluation, that is the grade you will get. If I don’t, I’ll discuss it with you in your Private Folder.”
I did some research to look into this further and found this article, “Student Self-evaluation: What Research Says and What Practice Shows” by Carol Rolheiser and John Ross. The authors explain the theory behind self-evaluation and describe the benefits it holds for both students and their teachers. I found the FAQ section and the tips to be very helpful; the question that I had about self-assessment was answered. The question is wether or not students will grade themselves fairly and the answer was that if students are taught how to evaluate themselves and made a part of the process (by contributing to the evaluating factors and criteria), this is less likely to happen. They also suggest that teachers maintain a shared responsibility for the grading so students have less motivation to inflate their own grades (again, something that Bill did in his course).
The authors describe that self-assessment may be a challenge for some teachers to use because it requires them to rethink their role in the classroom and give up some of their power as authority figures; which is also true of online teaching in general: the roles are being reversed. We have seen this over and over again in the readings and research of this course; we (instructors) must relinquish our power and control in order to enable our students to take control of their own learning.
Once students take control of their own learning, they then can be comfortable and confident in helping their classmates to learn as well, participating in peer assistance and peer assessment activities. I have to admit I don’t enjoy peer assessing my classmates’ posts in our discussions and sometimes I feel the need to be generous or nicer to my classmates so I don’t ’hurt anyone’s feelings’ or create enemies in the virtual classroom.
However, I like the idea of peer assistance; another strategy that Bill Pelz utilizes in his classrooms and describes in the above article. Another way for students to be more involved in the teaching and learning process. I am going to use a student driven question forum at least once in my course.
I think my biggest challenge is not letting go of the control but having the faith and confidence in my students to give them the control. (Is that the same thing? )
-Jess (3)
