Designing for Hybrid LearningAdapt Assessment & Prioritize Feedback

Assessment in Hybrid Courses

As we learned during Remote Learning, some of the ways we assess students need to change when school moves online. During closing meetings, members of the Math Department raised the possibility of giving oral exams in place of paper exams and members of the Religion Department discussed how to adapt their use of journals as ongoing formative assessment. These are only two of the many ideas we captured after reflecting on our experience.

No doubt each of you has considered ways assessment and feedback will need to be adapted to support student learning and practice and to measure student achievement in a hybrid environment. The goal of this lesson is to share research-based recommendations, resources, and possibilities to make the process of adapting your plan for assessment a little easier.

Top 10 Recommendations from Research

1. Variety

Think photo album, not snapshot when planning assessment. As Jay McTighe noted in a recent webinar, “Sound assessment requires multiple sources of evidence collected over time” (2020, April). Also plan to vary the opportunities for and delivery of feedback: student self-assessment, peer feedback, teacher feedback, whole class or group feedback, individual feedback delivered via text, audio, video, and via in-person or through auto-generated tech modalities (e.g., an auto-graded Canvas quiz).

2. Relevance & Clarity

We need to explicitly connect the assessment and practice we design to the course/unit learning goals. Making the “why” of an assessment clear and “worthy” to learners can lead to higher rates of student motivation, engagement, and success, and a lower incidence of academic dishonesty (Nilson & Goodson, p. 50). Additionally, the “success criteria” for every assessment needs to be clear and explicit. Assessment criteria, shared by rubrics or other means must, as Nilson & Goodson advise, "clearly delineate what a student product should accomplish, what elements it should contain, and what questions it should answer” (p. 83).

3. Feedback

Make your course feedback-rich. Prioritize narrative feedback that "feeds learning forward" or assessment “as and for learning,” not simply “of learning.” This will help “coach” students through the learning process in a positive, growth-oriented way. Timely (ideally within 1-2 days for quick formative assessments & 1 week on larger summative assessments), specific feedback is experienced as a form of teacher presence for students and helps boost motivation and engagement and improve learning.

Quick Tip: Build in two-way feedback, where learners can reply to the feedback you share (and so you can be responsive about any feedback they share with you). Be sure to use a variety of formats/modes to communicate feedback (narrative, video, audio, teacher, peer, in-person conferencing, etc.)

4. Improvement

Keep in mind that, according to research & experts in the field, the fundamental purpose of assessment is to improve teaching and learning (McTighe). Consider how you’ll use formative feedback and low-stakes practice to adjust instruction and meet the needs of your variable learners. Also, consider ways to regularly gather student feedback and use it to adjust your class. This is a good way to model using feedback to “feed learning forward” for our students and to reinforce our responsiveness as a teacher.

5. Authentic

Consider ways to tie assessment to the real-world, for instance by leveraging challenges, contests, a “live” audience, a simulation, real-world application, an expert panel, or a meaningful product (e.g., see this National History Day contest or the various contests hosted by the New York Times Learning Network). As Jon Mueller notes, authentic assessments ask students “to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills” (check out his Authentic Assessment Toolbox for ideas).

Quick Tip: Fink encourages us to think of it as “forward-looking assessment” that leverages a real-life context, either real or simulated, to make it more authentic for students:

Forward-Looking Assessment incorporates exercises, questions, and/or problems that create a real-life context for a given issue, problem, or decision. To construct this kind of question or problem, the teacher has to “look forward,” beyond the time when the course is over, and ask: “In what kind of situation do I expect students to need, or be able to use, this knowledge?” Answering this question makes it easier to create a question or problem that replicates a real-life context. The problem should be relatively open-ended, not totally pre-structured. If necessary, certain assumptions or constraints can be given (2005, p. 4).

6. Timing

More frequent, shorter, iterative assessments work better in online and hybrid learning. Set clear, realistic deadlines. Timing is also crucial to providing feedback to students (see #3 above on this). Delays can signal that we are not present, so build in a variety of ways to make the “lift” of providing regular, timely feedback easier (for ideas see #1 above).

7. Choice & Voice

Provide options or different menus or pathways for students (instead of assigning one option or "recipe" all) so students have a variety of ways to show what they know and can do as a result of their learning. Also, consider giving students a say in what the assessment will be and to articulate why “it matters” as part of the learning process. Evidence shows that this increases intrinsic motivation and makes learning more purpose-driven for students. The experts at PSU's Open CoLab encourage teachers to rework assignments & assessments to make them "choice-friendly." They offer a few techniques for designing-in student voice & choice as part of their "ACE Framework" for hybrid learning since inviting students "into the process of designing course goals, assignment details, and overall schedule of work" makes your course more flexible and adaptable to the needs of your students (ACE Framework: Student Design & Choice).

8. Scaffolds

Scaffolding provides support for students as they build their understanding and gain independent learning skills. With assessment, we can do this by breaking assignments and longer-term projects into manageable chunks with “micro-deadlines” and check-ins, as well as by providing examples of what success looks like and sharing targeted feedback to help them learn & improve along the way (McTighe). Darby & Lang note that “chunking” complex tasks into manageable pieces help “students pace their work and feel confident that they are performing to your expectations” (p 43).

9. The Big 6

Principles of neuroscience that we use in our on-campus teaching are even more important in online learning. The Learning Scientists always have great ideas and strategies for integrating effective evidence-based practices into classroom instruction. See also the examples shared in this short article, 5 Easy Ways to Infuse Learning Science into Remote Teaching. And, as always, turn to Sarah Eslick for support on infusing The Big 6 into your courses.

10. Metacognition

Integrate weekly reflection and regular opportunities for self-reflection and self-assessment. These metacognitive strategies teach students to think about their own thinking & learning and help to develop independent, self-regulated learners (see these suggested activities). Here’s a tip from Nilson & Goodson: “Consider making a follow-up assignment in which students paraphrase or summarize your feedback back to you," then apply it on the next assignment or assessment (p. 84).

Importance of Feedback

When adapting assessment for hybrid learning, emphasis should be on creating lots of low-stakes practice and formative assessment opportunities that provide regular information about where students are at in the learning process. Even more than in on-campus learning, feedback should be constructive and specific, targeting ways students can close the gap between their current and desired level of performance against the learning goals (Nilson & Goodson, p. 83). The same principles of high-quality feedback also apply in online and hybrid learning. As Grant Wiggins explains in “Seven Keys to Effective Feedback,” feedback should be:

Goal-referenced
Tangible and transparent
Actionable
User-friendly (specific & personalized)
Timely
Ongoing
Consistent (2012).

Your design should include at least 1 formative assessment per week (e.g., a quick quiz, problem set, or writing task) and 1 additional narrative feedback opportunity (e.g., teacher comments in response to an exit ticket, an audio recording with feedback on a class discussion, or peer feedback in an online discussion forum) since timely, targeted feedback on frequent small assignments and assessments help students feel “teacher presence.”

For weekly activities, in-class “practice," and quick formative assessments, feedback should be delivered to students as quickly as possible, ideally within 1-2 days (see recommendation #1 on Variety above for tips on how to make this manageable). For larger summative assessments, aim to respond to student work (with feedback & a grade) within 1 week. If you need additional time to assess student work, consider sending some form of whole-class communication on “what you’re seeing so far” so they know that individual feedback is still in process.

Time Saving Tip

From How to Give Your Students Better Feedback With Technology:

Use rubrics whenever possible. A rubric is helpful, not just for your own grading, but also to give students a clear understanding of the evaluation criteria before they even begin the assignment. Your grading is more transparent to students, and less prone to bias, when you use a rubric (Fiock & Garcia, 2019).

NOTE: To make this process easier for you during the “build” process in Module 2, we will include some pre-made rubrics in Canvas for discussions and assignments that you may opt to use or adapt for use in your classes.

Resources & Ideas

Here are some resources that might help you adapt assessment and create a feedback plan for the year ahead. If you know of additional resources or have ideas to share, please add them to our “crowdsourcing” Google Doc.

Time to Design!

The Design portion of this section will be completed and submitted as an assignment as a final step in Module 1. Click here or on the Next button below to see the instructions for this assignment.