Formative Assessment - In person, I use a variety of tools to check for understanding as a whole and individually by asking class questions to see responses with regards to the topic/objective/standards/content we are covering. Tools such as exit slips, one-minute essays, and web 2.0 tools like polleverywhere.com are used to gauge whether we are ready to move on or need more time on specific aspects of learning experience. In my classes that are blended, the formative assessments take the form of online journals, discussion forums, and could include the use of items like VoiceThread.
Things to consider: (1) Time. As great as online and blended learning are for allowing students time to work at their own pace, it takes a huge amount of time on the part of the teacher to stay on top of assessments -- much more than what is normal for a traditional face-to-face course. For example, if using a Voice Thread vs. say an exit slip to check for understanding, the teacher needs to be at a computer with internet access. They then need to log into the program, find the voice thread, then listen to and then grade on the fly, all of the responses. You cannot sort them or have a list printed to see what has happened. Compare that to getting the exit slips handed to you, and being able to flip through them quickly (after alphabetizing them if you are even more organized) and quickly turning through them as you mark the grades, writing comments on the back as you go. Less time, more efficient. Time is a huge consideration, not to mention the avoidance of creating grading nightmares that can arise when some of the tools forget to include the ability to sort the responses, or easily see the work of each individual student on an assignment.
(2) Resources. Having all the types of things that students' have to navigate and click on will save them time (and the teacher headaches). Some tools don't embed or play nice with other systems and some formatting options are limited. It is something to think about -- how many different places do you as a teacher expect, and want to have to navigate and troubleshoot and click on yourself, to be able to assess the student learning. If the idea is to use the formative assessments for quick adjustments to the daily lessons, the tools need to be easily accessible and easily monitored quickly.
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTS pose another challenge. These are easier, however, because they are the "show me" stage -- what have you really taken in and don't require as quick turnaround with regards to the daily lesson plans. For the online and blended environment, you have to take into consideration tools and equipment as well as skill levels and access. It is vital to provide ample time for students to work on the projects and for the instructor to have built in time to respond to the needs of the students fully in case they have technical issues. I, for instance, this week was dealing with an student who was taking a semester course through independent study with me and she was having trouble accessing the links for the final exam. When I looked at mu screen, I didn't see a problem, yet she kept emailing me. I directed her to the space on the site, and she still said she was having problems. It wasn't until we ran into each other by accident that we realized that I hadn't turned on access to that part of the website, so she couldn't see what I was seeing in order to be able to complete the coursework.
As tech-savvy as we like to be, I need to keep in mind that if the students are only interacting with me online or online for the blended part, that I have to give lessons on how to use the tools -- even the most tech-savvy of us all have to learn to adapt and new sites and how they operate take a little while to "feel out". In my teaching of technology, I always allowed students to "practice" with the skills and programs first, learn how they worked, figure out the steps that were needed to complete items, become familiar with how to save and the different formats that were needed so the work was transferable, practice with assignments designed to force them to encounter some of the tricky parts of the technology so that when they actually had to produce content on demand and on a time constraint, that they were able to navigate and save as was required. Practice before it really counts.
When working only with blended and online, I need to think about the use of samples so that students have an idea as to what I am asking. It's been great in this course that there are the forerunners who always have items posted so that those of us on the second string can model our assignments after those trailblazers. While most assignments are pretty specific as to what is needed, there is always a need to make sure that students understand the objectives and specifically what is needed to be seen when the assignment is turned in.
With the online and blended environments, planning is another huge element that must be considered. You have to give your students ample time to plan their study and project time and if you are going to make changes to an assignment, you have to do it well before the due date. Although there is some flexibility, if you are truly allowing a student to work ahead, you would really need to stay well ahead of the students. It's never been fun to participate in a class where the expectations and project guidelines change while you are in the middle of working on the assignment.
