Feb 12 2007
Assessment&Evaluation Module 2-1
Evaluation is used to judge programs.
Assessment is to measure student learning
We assess people we evaluate programs.
Assessment begins with education values, what we the students to learn. Most effective when it examines learning in an integrated multi dimensional manner. This should allow the you to see how the student is able to show an understanding of how learned materials impacts their lives.
This to me sounds like the essential questions in UBD.
Assessment should be clear with explicitly stated purposes. You have to consider your goals and students should know exactly how they are going ti be assesses-no surprise surprise.
Assessment should be ongoing not episodic. Knowledge should not be fragmented into different small parts but the learning experience should be relevant to the student and fit together within a big picture. To use assessment without a real purpose, just to get marks, is a wasted effort. You need to examine what the assessment measures from within the learning community. Did the student gain anything from the class?
The contribution that assessment will make is when the instructor and institution value providing outstanding programs, and from the evaluation will show how and where these changes should be made.
The assessment is geared to the individual while the evaluation looks at the course?
Again the structure of the UBD/Mapping initiative supports many of the thoughts raised in the article. I wonder about how assessment is placed within the Mapping Frameworks and how we have added assessment to this framework.
