Assessment of students' learning progress
Edyta Nalewajko-Sieliwoniuk
Faculty of Chemistry, University of Bialystok, Poland
Challenge and goal
Assessment at the end of the course does not give the look inside the students' learning process but only allow a teacher to determine whether students have achieved the intended learning outcomes. When student obtain the low grade from the exam it is usually too late to find out what are his/her knowledge gaps. On the one hand, lecturers who would like to assess a students' progress may do not know what tools should they use. On the other hand, some teachers may not be convinced to this type of assessment.
Topic of the user case
Assessment of students' learning progress
Local context (specific)
Analysis of the results of student of chemistry (BSc and MSc study programs at Faculty of Chemistry, University of Bialystok) evaluation surveys of academic teachers work showed that students quite often complain about their assessment. One of the reason of this could be the fact, that the teacher assumes in advance that the student who starts the course already has a certain level of knowledge. For example, BSc students come from different cities from the region and different secondary schools, what results in their big variety of knowledge and skills. As a consequence some students could feel lost during following the content of the course, fail the exams or obtain the low grades which causes them to become frustrated because they think that they deserve a higher mark. There is the need of discussion between the teaching staff about if they prefer to use standards based assessment or they want to evaluate the students’ progress, because the marks obtained by students so far does not always show the progress achieved by them but only their current state of knowledge. The problem is that the university does not provide systematic training for teachers on student assessment.
Local CPD goals
Increase the awareness of lecturers about the need to evaluate students' progress.
Equipping teachers with tools to assess students' progress.
Needs defined in STEM-CPD Roadmap
Competences
Attitudes
Activities
CPD activities at the local university
- Teachers are provided with links to MOOCs about how to assess students' progress.
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Local meeting where the problem of the assessing students' progress is discussed with the teachers.
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Organization of practical workshops at the Faculty of Chemistry with a qualified trainer.
Teaching and learning materials
- MOOCs
- Materials provided by the trainer
Sustainable implementation
All materials will be internally shared on-line with all teachers from the Faculty of Chemistry.
Expected impact of the CPD User Case
Acquiring by academic teacher new skills that enable to assess students' progress.
Plans for eventual continuation of the CPD within the same topic
Updated after the implementation of User Case.
Developing confidence in sound course design (type P1-1)
This CPD scenario describes a User case in which lecturers develop their competence in sound course design and develop attitudes in supporting student development and enabling students’ well-being in a learning process and inclusivity.
The approximate duration of a User case that follows this scenario is several months.
In this CPD scenario the participants are using a very short open online course, a micro mooc (μmooc) and professionalize in a close connection to their own teaching practice (at their workplace) and meet in person on location with the training staff and with other participants.
Competences
Attitudes
Activities
Learning environment
Time
Several months
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