Assessment

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Assessment of the course material is divided into three parts  assessment for learning, assessment as learning, and assessment of learning.  While the last in this list is the one that determines a student’s grade, and the first sets the stage in establishing the level of prior knowledge, it is assessment as learning (also called formative assessment) that forms the greatest role in helping the student move to higher levels of understanding and accomplishment.

 

In this regard, the student feedback should be primarily descriptive in nature, rather than associated with a mark of any sort.  The idea is to guide the student by reflecting which learning goals have already been demonstrated, and pointing to specific next steps that the student should tackle to move to the next stage.  Doing so gives the student a specific target, whereas an exhaustive list of what they have not yet done might readily overwhelm students who are behind, or placate students who are already doing well.

 

For example, it is readily possible to give descriptive feedback on the diagrams they produce as part of the lab activities, and let them specific suggestions as how to further their knowledge of the several “right-hand rules” that populate this section of the curriculum.  Summative assessments would be from a written lab report, or most commonly from a written test completed at the completion of this series of lessons.