CEP 813 – Formative Assessment Design 3.0

The final version of my Formative Assessment Design can be found here:

Formative Assessment Design 3.0

My assessment was designed for Paramedic students learning about respiratory diseases and treatments.  I look forward to being able to implement this assessment this fall to see how my students respond.

Regardless of how this one particular assessment goes over, I can honestly say that CEP 813 has significantly changed the way I approach assessment and feedback of student learning.  It is always nice when a class rejuvenates your energy and passion for teaching, and makes you look forward to getting in the classroom and trying new things.

Thanks Spencer and Paul for a great class.

CEP 813 – Best Work

I believe my best piece of work for CEP 813 was my Minecraft Creation.  While I am proud of the end result, it was really the process of getting to the final creation that was very transformational for me in regards to thinking about assessment and assessment design.

My initial exploration in the MinecraftEDU world was not a very positive experience, and as I think was evident in my Minecraft Screencast, I was very skeptical that I would be able to find any value in using the game with my particular group of students.  As I mentioned in the blog post and screencast of my Minecraft exploration I am a very experienced gamer, and the world of Minecraft was initially very frustrating.  I was not looking forward to the process of creating what I initially believed would be an assessment that I could never actually use with my students, but was just creating to get credit for an assignment.  The process I went through in working toward my final creation ended up being extremely valuable.

The feedback I received after my initial screencast provided strong motivation for me to continue to explore and try to find a very practical use for Minecraft in assessing students.  In response to my stated frustrations of the controls within Minecraft, I was asked by my instructor if I would have different problems with a game I was more familiar with.  From this feedback I was able to go beyond the possible constraints I was seeing in Minecraft and think more theoretically about the types of interactions within a game world that would allow my students to apply knowledge and demonstrate learning in a way I could use as an assessment tool.

My explorations in designing tasks within the game world allowed me a way to think about assessment and feedback in new ways, especially in regards to the subject matter and objectives I was using as a base for the assessment piece.  The game world allowed for interactions that allowed student to determine immediately if they were correct in application of knowledge, and the ability to rework the task again if they were incorrect.  The ability to receive the instant feedback, and try the task again without waiting for manual instructor feedback is in my opinion the greatest benefit of digital assessment.

My process of creating the Minecraft assessment was also aided greatly through an excellent online meeting with my instructors and a fellow student.   Through what became an almost collaborative dialogue on my creation, I was asked many questions about how my design would provide me with the information I needed to determine my students understanding of the material.  While we discussed many possible options for interaction with the game world, what I realized as a result of the discussion was that I was still designing assessments resulting in simple right or wrong answers, not gathering meaningful information that would allow me to provide my students with specific feedback to advance their understanding.

While I do not believe my Minecraft creation accomplished all my assessment goals or should serve as an exemplar for a digital assessment piece, through its creation I was able to develop a process of assessment design with a very critical eye towards how the assessment design assesses student understanding, whether the assessment gives me meaningful information on my students understanding, and how the assessment can be used for feedback.  For those with a more traditional education background this may seem rather basic, however this is a large shift in practice from the education culture in my profession that relies on the multiple-choice exam as the epitome of assessing knowledge.

While the entire semester has been very beneficial in regards to expanding my understanding of assessment, there was something particularly challenging about the Minecraft creation assignment that drew me in and caused me to spend many late nights not only placing blocks and levers, but thinking very critically about assessment design as a whole.

CEP 813 – CMS Assessment 3.0 – Screencast

As CEP 813 Draws to a close, I have edited down the screencast of my CMS Assessment to a lean 3:00 minutes.  It is amazing how much time you can cut eliminating unnecessary pauses and a few verbal ticks.  While it can be tedious to meet such strict guidelines on time, I have to admit that the end result is usually the better for it.  While I could go on and on in a lengthy screencast about my assessment, I am sure everyone watching appreciates a more succinct version.  Speaking of going on and on, you have already read too much…here is my CMS Assessment Screencast 3.0:

 

CEP 813 – Digital Portfolios: Sandbox for Professional Growth

A digital portfolio in education can be a valuable tool to demonstrate learning and understanding.  The digital portfolio can also be a valuable tool during the learning process to receive feedback and build upon to gain better understanding of a subject.  At this point in my learning process, my digital portfolio has been a blog website that the majority of my work gets posted to for anyone to see.  When I first began to post to my blog site I was a bit intimidated about sharing my work with the world.  What I quickly became to value was that the purpose of sharing my work was not to post a definitive view on anything, but simply to share my exploration and thoughts on things that may prove beneficial to others simply by watching my learning happen in a public way.  This realization created a freedom that brings a better sense of exploration and deeper thought to assignments I create for my digital portfolio.

In CEP 813 we are focusing on assessment, particularly assessment in digital contexts.  I have used a few different digital means of assessment in the past, but mainly just in replacing the paper forms of assessment with a digital one, with little regard for the additional benefits that digital assessment could bring to my students.  With a foundation on the principles of meaningful feedback and assessment, the assignments and submissions to my digital portfolio have given me the opportunity to play with assessment in ways I would not have done otherwise.  Realizing that my work will be viewed by those outside my particular area of teaching pushes me to try and understand topics and create work that will may be beneficial for all readers and not be narrowly focused on EMS.  I also am afforded the benefit of getting feedback and input on my work by those outside my field as well.

In my practice, when you create an assessment it stays a rather personal thing until you give it to the students and see how it goes, there is no collaboration or feedback from other instructors.  By discussing and creating assessments for assignments in my digital portfolio, it has resulted in much more thought about overall assessment of my students.  While there is the element of feedback, simply going through the process of creating a submission and the thought and personal reflection that goes into that submission forces a much deeper look at the assessment piece I am working on.  I also have the sense that the purpose of my submission is not only to demonstrate my learning, but that it will be part of a continuing learning process at this point.  The creations in my digital portfolio are works in progress, and through the process stand a much better chance of becoming refined through self-reflection and outside comments.

Even beyond this course, I believe digital portfolios can play an important role in professional development, particularly because of the digital format of the material.  Digital portfolios in the form of blogs or webpages have the ability to share current information with a large number of people at low cost.  It also makes it possible for anyone, not just those identified as experts, to share their current practices or ideas.  This can result in increased collaboration between instructors who would otherwise never been given the opportunity to interact.  I personally, and my students, have benefitted from the ability to freely share information and collaborate through digital mediums with educators I would never had met in person.

I know that my blog post is not widely read, and my digital portfolio will never be seen outside a handful of people, but knowing that my work will be available for anyone to read for many years has changed the way I approach assignments.  I have explored options I would have previously dismissed, and been encouraged to explore and create outside my comfort zone.  I know I will never be an expert on these topics, but hopefully my work and time spent may prove useful to someone else in their practice.

CEP 813 – Theory to Practice – Digital Portfolios

Theory to Practice: Digital Portfolios in EMS Education

Throughout a paramedic’s education students will learn from, and demonstrate skills to, many different instructors, lab coordinators, preceptors, and other medical professionals.  It is extremely difficult to assess and track a student’s progress in the many skills they must master since many times these different professionals may only meet once or twice throughout a program.  Attempts to use fill-in assessment sheets, or clinical logs that simply list a procedure and competent or not competent choices to be circled fall flat in providing any meaningful information that can be used to either definitively show competency or provide formative information that the student and instructors can use to move toward competencies.  The matter is only complicated by the fact that the majority of the medical personnel the student’s will be with during patient interactions and skill performance have very little training in education and virtually no training in regards to assessment and feedback.  As an EMS instructor, we then rely heavily on the narrative submissions that students submit, and often become overwhelmed and reduce these to their simplest form of checking off numbers of procedures performed against an artificial number that somehow when performed demonstrates competency.  A possible solution to this would be the use of student created digital portfolios to assess and determine the progress a paramedic student is making toward becoming ready for field practice.

While I do not currently use digital portfolios in my current practice I would like to begin to implement certain aspects that could help me stay more connected with the work my students are doing outside the classroom.  There is a push in EMS education to collect all records of student’s activities, clinicals, etc. in a digital format that can more easily be shared with auditors and accreditors as paramedic programs move toward requiring national accreditation to maintain and raise standards.  While they use the term digital portfolio they are simply moving the check boxes and numbers of procedures performed from paper to electronic format.  This does nothing to promote the kind of student learning that a learner-centered portfolio would.

Paramedic students can be very passionate about their clinical experiences, they all love to tell the story of the patients they encountered, the challenges they faced, and the skills they successfully performed to help the patient.  I believe a digital portfolio that allows the student to document this story in a digital format will increase engagement and excitement during clinicals.  The benefit of the digital portfolio also lies in the ability of the information to be shared with the many people involved in the student’s education.  For example, a student’s narrative of an excellent experience could be emailed to the medical professional they were working with for comment, elaboration, or even to ask the student a question.  That response could then be integrated with the narrative and create an ongoing discussion continuing the learning.  Learning and assessment could be directed more specifically based on what students are either experiencing or not experiencing during clinicals as well.

Digital portfolios of clinical experiences could result in the instructor gaining a much better understanding of how the student is progressing in real-world practice they would not have been able to get from our current paper fill-in forms simply documenting numbers of procedures performed.  The challenge I see is in the time it would take to appropriately monitor student submissions and provide meaningful feedback to the student, or facilitate the involvement of the clinical preceptors in a way to give the submissions greater depth as a learning and assessment tool.  For my own practice, unless I could convince another instructor to take on additional coordination responsibilities, freeing up some time for me to monitor and mentor the students during this process, I worry that the process would not prove immediately beneficial and the effort deemed wasted by students and fellow instructors viewing the project from the outside.  As a positive, my students are already digitally connected with the tools and skills necessary to create a digital portfolio.

While I think digital portfolios would be very beneficial for both assessing and determining student understanding and progress in the program, I believe implementation may take the form of individual assignments that work toward the goal until the time can be spent to design a more complete vision of what the digital portfolio requirement would be.

CEP 813 – Formative Assessment Design 2.0

As we get closer to the end of CEP 813, I now have the second version of my Formative Assessment Design.  Working off of the traditional multiple-choice exam prevalent in EMS education, I have expanded the assessment to allow for a more formative style that can help instructors guide their instruction as students demonstrate the level at which they are understanding the material.  This is only version two, so still in a draft mode.  Version three will be coming soon.

Here is the link to my google doc:  Formative Assessment Design 2.0

Version 2.0 is at the top, and 1.0 is at the bottom of the document.

CEP 813 – Module 6 – CMS Assessment Creation

Following our evaluation of different content management systems (CMS), this week we created an assessment piece within our favorite CMS as an example of what is possible.

I used Haiku Learning to create a sample class to host an assessment that I might use when teaching EMTs about allergic reactions.  Haiku has some nice options for quickly creating assessments, and the flexibility to host more involved assessments as well.

The assessment I created was intended to be used after an EMT student had completed their required preparatory reading of the subject matter.  It could be used for a traditional classroom based course, hybrid course, or one completely online.  The assessment is designed to check a students understanding and retention of what they read regarding allergic reactions.

One feature of Haiku’s assessment system I particularly like is the ability to give the student feedback for both correct and incorrect answers immediately, as well as attempt the assessment multiple times.  This gives the student the ability to review the material and have additional attempts to demonstrate their understanding in a way that will continue to improve their grade.

Here is a direct link to the screen cast walk-through of my assessment: CMS Assessment Creation

CEP 813 – Module 5 – Assessment of Content Management Systems

Regardless of the type of course, traditional classroom, hybrid, or online, digital resources play an important role in enhancing the educational experience of students. Content Management Systems (CMS) attempt to create a central place for teachers and students to access these resources, interact and collaborate with each other, and bring organization through assignment submission, assignment tracking, and grade books.

This week in CEP 813 I examined four different Content Management Systems, and created a comparative chart of features, focused on their ability to assess student learning. As a teacher I currently use Haiku Learning for my hybrid courses, and Blackboard for my classroom based college students. I also explored Google Classroom and Edmodo, two systems I have no experience with. My comparative chart can be found here: CMS Assessment Chart

I believe a CMS needs to be user friendly in regards to navigation and visual appeal. If a CMS looks intimidating and does not become intuitive for the student it can negatively impact their willingness to engage with the material. I also value how easy it is add or update material as the instructor, without spending long hours learning to manipulate the CMS.

After my exploration of the four content management systems, I feel Haiku is the best choice for my students and courses. It definitely meets my criteria for ease of navigation and visual appeal, but I also feel the assessment components of Haiku offer features that provide valuable feedback to students for formative assessment, and provide a solid system for summative assessment. I use a large amount of custom materials, videos and screencasts, and the assessment tool integrates nicely on the page to create a seamless experience. This makes it easy to assess students as they work through material instead of redirecting them to a separate area breaking their focus on tasks.

Haiku has many options for assessment; traditional multiple choice, short answer, surveys, etc. One of the features I particularly like is the ability of Haiku to allow student to get hints if they get stuck, and upon completion of a task you can show justifications for answer choices. The assessment features within Haiku go well beyond simply reporting results to a grade book, allowing students to receive instant feedback on their effort that goes beyond just being told the correct answer.

Haiku stands out in my opinion as having the best-designed set of assessment tools.

CEP 813 – MinecraftEDU – “Triage Challenge”

This week I used the MSU MinecraftEDU server to create a digital game that could be used to assess my students understanding of the START Triage system.

All EMS personnel study and practice with the START Triage system in the event of a large-scale event causing mass casualties that would challenge the resources of any crew or agency.  The START Triage system provides a way to methodically assess and prioritize patients in such an emergency.

The MinecraftEDU server allowed me to create an interactive games that required students to pull levers when deciding what category to place simulated patients they found in the game.  Correct choices had positive consequences allowing the student to progress in the game.

After finishing my demo game and playing it a few times, I realize that there are some changes that could be made to make it more engaging for students.  I was initially skeptical that the complexity of the material I am teaching would require a complex game platform to be engaging.  After my experience with building a game, and my learning this week, I now believe that it is possible to create very simple games that can engage students in innovative and fun ways for students to learn, and when designed correctly allow teachers to assess that learning in meaningful ways.

To see more of my “Triage Challenge” and how I designed it for learning and assessment, please watch my screencast below, or follow the link directly to my YouTube channel:  Triage Challenge

CEP 813 – Module 4 – Minecraft Exploration!

For this weeks assignment in CEP 813, we are looking at digital games as assessments tools.  For this post and screencast, we are looking specifically at Minecraft.  If you are not familiar with Minecraft, the games creates a digital sandbox of sorts that allows you to create and build using blocks of different materials.  Once your world is built, you can control your character and guide them as they explore and interact with the world that has been created.  More information on Minecraft can be found at Minecraft.net.  There are many amazing people that have created very elaborate worlds using the Minecraft platform.

Our Minecraft world this week was a tutorial server hosted by MSU that allows first time users to explore and perform tasks to familiarize themselves with the available options in Minecraft.

My screencast this week is focused on one difficulty I personally have with Minecraft, and my initial reactions to possibly using Minecraft as a tool for assessment of my students.

Here is the link to my YouTube page and this weeks screencast:  Minecraft Exploration

Check back next week for my screencast walkthrough of a world I create specifically for my students.