Session 3 (Continued)
In Summary
This week we continued with the eLearning applications and trends. The learning task LT5 required us to design a complete assessment task to be integrated into our course. I have designed an eAssessment activity for students in my course titled: Talanoa Forum - an online discussion exercise. In this activity students are evaluated using a marking rubric that I had also designed to assess their talanoa forum posting.
An insight into designing these eAssessment activity has advanced my understanding on online assessment and designing rubrics which could be incorporated into the course assessment. I am excited personally in trying to implement these assessment.
However, during the course of completing this course I found out some interesting read on designing rubrics and its limitations to learning as well.
Rubrics contribute to student learning and program improvement in a number of ways— some obvious, others less so. (Wolf & Ellen , 2007)
Rubrics make the learning target clearer. If students know what the learning target is, they are better able to hit it (Stiggins, 2001). When giving students a complex task to complete, such as a building an architectural model or putting together a portfolio of their best photographs, students who know in advance what the criteria are for assessing their performance will be better able to construct models or select photographs that demonstrate their skills in those areas.
Rubrics guide instructional design and delivery. When teachers have carefully articulated their expectations for student learning in the form of a rubric, they are better able to keep the key learning targets front and center as they choose instructional approaches and design learning environments that enable students to achieve these outcomes (Arter & McTigue, 2001).
Rubrics make the assessment process more accurate and fair. By referring to a common rubric in reviewing each student product or performance, a teacher is more likely to be consistent in his or her judgments. A rubric helps to anchor judgments because it continually draws the reviewer’s attention to each of the key criteria so that the teacher is less likely to vary her application of the criteria from student to student. Furthermore, when there are several markers the consistency across these markers is likely to be higher when they are all drawing on the same detailed performance criteria. (Wolf & Ellen , 2007)
Rubrics provide students with a tool for self-assessment and peer feedback. When students have the assessment criteria in hand as they are completing a task, they are better able to critique their own performances (Hafner & Hafner, 2004). A hallmark of a professional is the ability to accurately and insightfully assess one’s own work. In addition, rubrics can also be used by classmates to give each other specific feedback on their performances.
Limitations of Rubrics
While well-designed rubrics make the assessment process more valid and reliable, their real value lies in advancing the teaching and learning process. But having a rubric doesn’t necessarily mean that the evaluation task is simple or clear-cut.
The best rubrics allow evaluators and teachers to draw on their professional knowledge and to use that professional knowledge in ways that the rating process doesn’t fall victim to personality variations or limitations of human information processing.
A serious concern with rubrics, however, is how long it takes to create them, especially writing the descriptions of performances at each level. With that in mind, rubrics should be developed for only the most important and complex assignments.
Creating a rubric that is used to determine whether students can name the parts of speech would be like using a scalpel to cut down a tree: Good instrument, wrong application. Another challenge with rubrics is that if poorly designed they can actually diminish the learning process. Rubrics can act as a straitjacket, preventing creations other than those envisioned by the rubric-maker from unfolding. (“If it is not on the rubric, it must not be important or possible.”) (Wolf & Ellen , 2007)
The challenge then is to create a rubric that makes clear what is valued in the performance or product—without constraining or diminishing them. On the other hand, the problem with having no rubric, or one that is so broad that it is meaningless, is to risk having an evaluation process that is based on individual biasness or preferences. Thus, a rubric-maker faces a major challenge of trying to design a rubric that is neither too narrow nor too broad. (Wolf & Ellen , 2007)
References
Wolf, K., & Ellen , S. (2007). The Role of Rubrics in Advancing and Assessing Student Learning.
The Journal of Effective Teaching, 3-14.
Andrade, H., & Ying, D. (2005). Student perspectives on rubric-referenced assessment. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 10(3), 1-11.
Arter, J. & McTighe, J. (2001). Scoring Rubrics in the Classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Delpit. L. (1988). The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children. Harvard Educational Review, 58(3), 280-298.
Eisner, E. (1991). The Enlightened Eye: Qualitative Inquiry and the Enhancement of Educational Practice, New York: Macmillan.
Federation Internationale de Natation. (2006). Rules and Regulations: FINA Diving Rules 2005-2009. Retrieved January 27, 2006 from http://www.fina.org.
Hafner, J. C., & Hafner, P. M. (2004). Quantitative analysis of the rubric as an assessment tool: An empirical study of student peer-group rating. International Journal of Science Education, 25(12), 1509-1528.
Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with Words. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jackson, P. (1990). Life in Classrooms. New York: Teachers College Press.
Stiggins, R. (2001). Student-Involved Classroom Assessment (3rd ed.). New York: Merrill.
