Achieving Quality and Scale in Online Education through Transformative Assessment: A Case Study by
Jacqueline Moloney
Steven Tello
Continuing, Corporate and Distance Education
University of Massachusetts Lowell

Transformative Assessment -

More Art Than Science: The Postsecondary Assessment Movement Today
by Barbara D. Wright, Eastern Connecticut State University

definition of assessment = process of 1) setting goals or asking questions about student learning and development; 2) gathering evidence that will show whether these goals are being met; 3) interpreting the evidence to see what can be discovered about students’ strengths and weaknesses; and then 4) actually using those discoveries to change the learning environment so that student performance will be improved. Then the cycle begins again.

Characteristics of assessment
1. improve student learning is the key - not always believed on campus to be the case.
2. strengthen programs and institutions.
3. to create/find local, more authentic alternative methods.
4. process is as important as product if assessment is to transform the academy into a “culture of evidence.”

when assessment done to evaluate, (to be sure higher institutions are being accountable), value judgements are made, often by people external to the teaching, that often results in negative consequences. Consequently progams have tendency to cover up problems, which is harmful to increasing students' learning. focus on evaluation negatively affects improvement.

assessment is like TQM in that systems, not people are usually the problem.
assessment requires trust and support

not enought to information about the learning, but must take action on data gathered

to improve learning, must focus on student learning, not data like SAT scores, numbers of valedictorians, availability of study abroad or writing across the curriculum, retention and graduation rates, time to completion, GRE scores, salaries of graduates, and so on. Need to ask:
what do our students know? What can they do? At what level of skill? How much do they grow from entry to exit? Is this good enough? How can we improve?

Must observe actual performance and/or student work. instead of tests or quizzzes, create assignments that involve modeling, designing, decision making, problem solving, and other open-ended tasks that require high-level, integrative thinking and meaning making; she also recommends structured discussions that develop students’ metacognitive awareness of argument, including such elements as hypothesis, data, conclusions, and counter-indications.

assessment alternatives include capstone projects, portfolios, performances, and a wide variety of
tasks embedded in everyday classroom procedure. The products that become evidence of learning may
range from computer programs, research papers, business plans, actuarial projections, and engineering
designs to a brochure written during an internship, or a diary of cultural observations kept during study
abroad. Evidence can also include performances, live or recorded, e.g., responding to an in-box exercise,
carrying out a laboratory procedure, giving a recital, teaching a class, critiquing a piece of art, or taking a
medical history.

use rubrics to assist in establishing what to look for and at what skill level.

The next step involves interpreting the assessment results, and using as many different stakeholders as possible, ie, students, profs, graduates, employers, professional staff.

Currently even though assessment being done, it is either not at the higher order of thinking level or little used for improvement. nothing is done with the info.

Assessment: Challenges and Opportunities for Online Learning
by Picciano

assessment has many definitions, but all are about the setting of academic goals, the collection of data, and the analysis of the data to improve student learning.

assessment vs. evaluation: assessment is about goals, objectives and student while evaluation is broader in scope, considering things like outcomes evaluation of faculty expertise, the adequacy of curricula, the nature of the students, the availability of facilities, and student performance.

whoever designs or improves a program should be the one to assess it. diff. between institutional assessment and program assessment. administration will probably establish overall institutional assessment plan but does not individual academic department or program assessment

The Council for Higher Education Accreditation recommends that distance learning programs and courses achieve the same outcomes as traditional offerings, but overall assessment plan should be flexible for better fit and to take advantage of the different delivery formats.

ALN Research: What We Know and What We Need To Know About Contextual Influences
by Hiltz, Arbaugh, Fich, and Shea

immediacy refers to communication behaviors that reduce social and psychological distance between people [51]. In the ALN context, immediacy describes behaviors such as including personal examples, using humor, providing and inviting feedback, and addressing students by name

primary concept in ALN is that the student needs to be active and interactive. students who are motivated, self-directed and confident about having the computer skills tend to be most successful.

learning style is the preferred mode a student has of processing information