Real Time Assessment in Online Classes

As a Distance and Instructional Services Librarian, I teach students both online and face to face.  For my online classes, I usually have about 45 minutes to give a PowerPoint presentation through Blackboard Elluminate.  It’s a lot of information to cover in a short amount of time, so I often feel like I am trying to cram in as much information as possible which doesn’t often lead to the best learning environment.

I’m also a firm believer in the idea that I am not really teaching if no one is learning.  As a grade school teacher, I would give weekly quizzes aligned to the standards and objectives I taught that week.  Students would graph their mastery of each standard to track their process, and I would know if I needed to reteach something I had covered. 

In the way I’m currently teaching my online classes, I’ve been struggling with the fact that I have no way of knowing if the students are learning.  I ask them to use the smiley face emoticon periodically to make sure that they are engaged and understanding the content, but if a student overestimates his or her ability or is too shy to ask a question, I won’t know. The students also take a standard survey after the class, but it is focused more on their perception of the class rather than their understanding of the material.

I wasn’t sure how to integrate assessment of student learning into an online class, so I was very excited to read Shannon R. Simpson’s article “Google Spreadsheets and real-time assessment: Instant feedback for library instruction” in the October issue of College & Research Library News.  I’ve linked to the article, as I definitely recommend reading it.  If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, Simpson explains how she is able to receive instant feedback about her students’ understanding of what she is teaching.  For example, after demonstrating a search strategy she has students recreate her strategy for their own topic and record the search results in a Google Spreadsheet.  She includes a very helpful example spreadsheet in her article.  Based on the example Simpson included in the article, I've started brainstorming which categories I might want to include in my own spreadsheet.  I will most likely have to cut down the number of columns, but as I am just brainstorming for now I'm including quite a few.  You are welcome to view and make comments on the spread sheet here.

As Simpson mentions in her article, one of the best outcomes of using this method is receiving feedback in real time. This is most likely the only time I will work with a student, so it’s important that I address any misconceptions right away.  By viewing the Google Spreadsheet as students are filling it out, I hope that I will be able to identify any breakdowns in understanding and clarify as needed.

Another benefit of having the students fill out a Google Spreadsheet is that it can be used as a part of active learning.  I’ve also been struggling with ways I can integrate active learning into online classes, so  I’m hoping that the Google Spreadsheet will offer a way to monitor and guide the students during active learning time, even when I’m not there physically. Additionally, the students will hopefully have an end product from the class which they can refer back to and use for their project.

I’m very excited to try real time assessment in the coming semester.  My biggest concern is timing.  I believe I will need to streamline my presentation or get creative about the way I explain things in order to make sure the students have enough time to search for a source and enter it in the spreadsheet.

I will update you all on how it goes next semester.  Has anyone tried using this method for receiving instant feedback in a class?