Presented by Donna K Czarnecki, Lead CBT, Data, and Core Coordinator, University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Medicine
In order to fully gain a clear picture of student learning, both formative and summative assessments must be taken into consideration. This presentation will focus on strategies for using ExamSoft to deliver formative tests and quizzes in small group settings such as problem-based learning, team-based learning, and case discussions. Opportunities for incorporating short quizzes or assignments into small group instruction will be defined. This webinar will also include discussion around best practices for configuring settings appropriately and preparing students and instructors.
ExamSoft for Low-stakes, Formative Tests and Quizzes
1. EXAMSOFT FOR LOW-STAKES, FORMATIVE
TESTS AND QUIZZES
Donna K. Czarnecki, BS
Lead Computer-Based Testing, Data and Core Coordinator
University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Medicine
2. What is the difference between
formative and summative
assessment?
3. Summative Assessment:
• Evaluate student learning
• Compared against some standard or level
• Usually high stakes - high point value
• Types:
Midterm/Final exams
Term paper
Project/Presentation
4. Formative Assessment:
• Monitor student learning
• Provides feedback to students to improve their
learning
• Provides feedback to instructors to improve
their teaching
• Usually low stakes - low or no point value
• Types:
Quizzes, pretests, posttests, iRATS, gRATS
Concept maps
In-class polling
Practice questions
5. Formative Assessment:
•Timing - Can take place before,
during and/or after class time
•Usually done during small group
type activities
7. Formative Assessment:
Clinical Case Discussion (Case Conference)
What is it?
•Student groups of 8 or less discuss a
written case with presiding faculty
facilitator during a 50 minute session.
•Faculty act only as moderators
•Student driven
8. Formative Assessment:
Clinical Case Discussion (Case Conference)
•Case and objectives given to students to
prepare before session.
•Short, multiple-choice quiz given at the
beginning of session
Prepares student for session discussion
Determines level of understanding prior to
group discussion
Used to help form key learning issues
during group discussion
9. Formative Assessment:
Clinical Case Discussion (Case Conference)
How is it done?
• Secured 3-question quiz created and posted in
ExamSoft a day or two before session
• Password provided to the facilitator - given to
students once they are all in attendance in the small
group room
• All students must show the Green Congratulations
Screen to ensure upload of answers
• A few paper copies of quiz given to facilitators as
backup
• Group discussion of quiz and case materials
10. Formative Assessment:
Clinical Case Discussion (Case Conference)
Posted with the following settings:
Made available to the students a day or two
before the session
Available for download until 10 min into the start
of the session
Upload deadline by the end of the session
Remote Delete off of device shortly after the
session ends
11.
12. Formative Assessment:
Clinical Case Discussion (Case Conference)
•Technical Problems
• Have students report to the ExamSoft
administrator after session if unable to
complete and upload exam
• Device Log
13. Formative Assessment:
TBL (Team-Based Learning)
What is it?
•Student preparation outside of class
•Application of knowledge in class
•Students divided
into teams of 5-7
14. Formative Assessment:
TBL (Team-Based Learning) – Module 1
How is it done?
• Module 1 - Readiness Assurance Process,
or RAP session
• Assigned reading done outside of class,
before first session
• iRAT - Individual Readiness Assurance Test
• gRAT - Group Readiness Assurance Test
• Appeals
• Mini-lecture
15. Formative Assessment:
TBL (Team-Based Learning) – Module 2
• Module 2 – application activities
• Teams work on a significant problem that
requires them to make a significant choice
• All teams work on the same problem
• Report their answers
simultaneously
• Process repeats with
additional problems until
the session time is over
16. Formative Assessment:
TBL (Team-Based Learning) – Module 1
•iRAT and gRAT posted with the
following settings:
Made available to the students to download a day
or two before the session
Password given out right before for each
assessment during session
Available for download until 10 min into the start of
the session
Upload deadline by the end of the session
Remote Delete off of device shortly after the
session ends
17. Formative Assessment:
TBL (Team-Based Learning) – Module 1
•iRAT/gRAT posting differences:
Only one student per group completes the
gRAT through ExamSoft
Immediate review available after group test; use
same password as used to start gRAT
18. Formative Assessment:
TBL (Team-Based Learning) – Module 1
•Technical Problems
• Paper copies available for iRAT
• Have students report to the ExamSoft
administrator after session if unable to
complete and upload exam
• Device Log
19. Formative Assessment: POPS
(Patient-Oriented Problem Solving)
What is it?
• Similar to TBL:
Student preparation outside of class
Application of knowledge in class
• Students divided into diverse teams of 4
• Formative assessment at beginning and
end of session.
20. Formative Assessment: POPS
(Patient-Oriented Problem Solving)
How does it work?
• Objectives and Pretest given to students ~ 3-4 days
before session
• Pretest completed individually by each student prior
to session
• Students form into groups of 4 at the session
• Pretest answers reviewed together
• Group works through 4 clinical problems together
• Posttest completed individually by each student
• Posttest answers provided with rationale as to why
each is correct or not
21. Formative Assessment: POPS
(Patient-Oriented Problem Solving)
•Pretest posted with the following
settings:
Made available to the students a day or two
before the session
Available for download until the start of the
session
Upload deadline by the end of the session
Remote Delete off of device a few days after
the session ends
22. Formative Assessment: POPS
(Patient-Oriented Problem Solving)
•Posttest posted with the following
settings:
Made available to the students at the end of the
session
Available for download until midnight of the same
day.
Time limit set at 30 min to complete since test will
be graded
Upload deadline by 20 minutes past midnight
Remote Delete off of device a few days after the
session ends
23. Formative Assessment:
•Tips for Success
Planning
Start with a course you know well and start simple
Practice first
Allow for extra time
Implementing
Share your plans/intent with students so that are ready for
the process
Make sure the activity is not burdensome – to you or the
students.
Feedback
The reason for the formative assessment
24. Questions???
My contact info:
Donna K. Czarnecki, B.S.
Lead Computer-Based Testing, Data and Core Coordinator
Office of Medical Education, College of Medicine
University of Nebraska Medical Center
402.559.4043 I dczarnec@unmc.edu
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Notes de l'éditeur
The goal of Summative Assessment is to evaluate student learning. This usually take place at the end of an instructional block or semester.
The student results are compared against some standard or level to determine if they have learned the required material. This can be the traditional grading scale of A-F, or for example at UNMC, we use a 5-year lowest passing average as the Minimum Passing Score for the course.
Summative assessments are usually worth a majority of the points for a course, therefore making it high stakes for the students. If they don’t perform well on the summative assessments then there is a good likely hood they may not pass the course.
A couple of types of summative or high stakes assessments include Midterm/Final exams, Term papers and Projects/Presentations.
The goal of Formative Assessment is to monitor student learning. This usually takes place frequently throughout the instructional time frame.
Formative assessment provides feedback to students to identify areas that may need improvement
These types of assessment are also helpful to instructors to identify the concepts that students may not be understanding and to address them at the time.
Both types of feedback help in making sure that there are no surprises at the end of the instructional time frame when the summative assessment takes place.
Unlike summative assessment, formative assessment is usually low stakes with small point values, or sometimes, none at all. They can be used to count towards a student’s grade or to assess their personal knowledge as well.
I have listed serval types of formative assessments used on our campus, but there are many more types that you may want to explore on your own.
Here at our institution, we use ExamSoft and formative assessment before, during and after class time. These activities usually take place during some type of small group activity.
Here are a few examples of small group activities we do here at UNMC.
Student groups of no more than 8 per faculty facilitator meet for a 50-minute discussion session with one student acting as discussion leader, on a rotating basis. Faculty act only as moderators to keep the discussion moving and focused and to act as an information source, or to provide a different perspective not considered by the students. The conferences are very much a student effort and follow a format of answering a set of supplied questions.
The case and objectives, or questions, are given to the students in advance of the session.
A short quiz is given to the students at the beginning of the session. This ensures that the student is prepared to discuss the case, can determine if they mastered the main points of the case, and work on learning issues that they do not understand.
The quizzes are done in a secure manner so that they, and the cases, can be re-used each year once created. This reduces the time faculty need to spend in setting up this type of session.
They are posted for the students to download ahead of time to prevent any traffic problems with WiFi.
Students are not given access to the quiz until they are in the small group room with faculty present.
Uploading the quiz before the session ends ensures that the questions do not leave the room and remain secure.
As mentioned previously, the quizzes are posted a day or two ahead of the session to help with any WiFi traffic issues. It is also helpful to trouble-shoot any problems a student may encounter while trying to download.
Allowing for the download to take place 10 minutes into the session can also help any students that might be experience trouble with their device.
Setting the upload deadline ensures that students only get credit if they complete and upload their quiz during the session. This prevents a student present at the session from remembering the password and giving it to a student, who was not in attendance, after the session.
And lastly, setting the quiz to Remote Delete after the end of the session also prevents students from trying to cheat after the session is done. They can’t use a remembered or written down password on a quiz that is not available to them anymore.
If a student has trouble completing and/or uploading their quiz during the session, the paper copy takes care of it temporarily and allows the group to proceed un-delayed with their discussion
The problem with an open or not uploaded quiz is the possibility of a student being able to recover the quiz and obtain the questions at a later time. Usually restarting their device will bring them back into an open assessment. If this is not able to be completed during the session then having the student do this in the presence of the ES administrator would be best. The administrator can ensure that the quiz is closed properly and then it will remote delete shortly off of their device.
If the student does not have enough time in between classes to see the administrator, they should be told in no uncertain terms that if there quiz happens to reopen before it self-deletes off of there device that they should immediately close the quiz and report the problem to the administrator.
Telling your students that a device log is tracking their ES keystrokes is usually a very good deterrent against cheating. Even though we cannot see the log unless they successfully upload their assessment, they don’t know that, and we haven’t shared that little tidbit of information with them. Hopefully they will not be perusing the ExamSoft webinar site to find this presentation.
If a quiz does happen to get out somehow, the case can still be re-used. Only the 3 quiz questions will need to be rewritten.
Team-based learning (TBL) is a structured form of small-group learning that emphasizes student preparation out of class and application of knowledge in class. Students are organized strategically into diverse teams of 5-7 students that work together throughout the class. Before each unit or module of the course, students prepare by reading prior to class time.
In the first class of the module, students participate in a “Readiness Assurance Process,” or RAP.
Students complete a test individually (the “Individual Readiness Assurance Test,” or iRAT); and then complete the same test with their group members (the “group Readiness Assurance Test,” or gRAT). The group assessment is made available to all students to download, but only one student in the group needs to complete and upload the test. Students note who their group leader is so that all student in the group will receive the correct group score.
Both the individual scores and the group scores contribute to the students’ grades. The tests are typically multiple choice.
After the students complete the group test, the questions and answers are reviewed and the instructor encourages teams to appeal questions that they got incorrect. The appeals process encourages students to review the material, evaluate their understanding, and defend the choice they made.
To conclude the Readiness Assurance Process, the instructor gives a mini-lecture that focuses on concepts with which students struggled the most.
Application activities require the teams to make a specific choice about a significant problem.
Importantly, all teams work on the same problem and report their decisions simultaneously. Reporting their answers simultaneously prevents groups from being influenced by the choices other groups might make.
This structure requires teams to articulate their thinking, and gives teams an opportunity to evaluate their own reasoning when confronted with different decisions that other teams may make. Peer evaluation is an important part of team-based learning; it is essential for keeping students accountable to their teammates.
Most of the posting settings used and their rationale are the same as when doing a clinical case session.
All students complete and upload the individual assessment on their own.
When all students are done with the iRAT, one student from the group takes the group assessment. Only one gRAT needs to be completed through ES for the group.
TBL also uses the Immediate Review setting when posting the group assessment. We allow the students 10 minutes to review the group test. This allows them to see how they performed and prepare for the appeals process.
Paper copies of the individual assessment are available from the instructor if a student cannot complete and successfully upload their iRAT during the session.
Since all students should have download the group assessment too, if the one taking it for the group experiences problems, another student can access the gRAT and complete and upload the test.
If a student experience trouble with one of their assessments and is unable to resolve the problem before the end of the session, similar procedures can be followed as were done with the case discussions – see the ExamSoft administrator and or device log information
The patient-oriented problem-solving (POPS) system is similar to Team-Based Learning in that it permits students to work in small groups to solve clinical problems, promotes self-learning, encourages clinical reasoning and develops long-lasting memory.
The students prepare outside of class and apply that knowledge in class.
Smaller group size than TBL – only 4 students per group.
In addition to a formative assessment at the beginning of the session, there is also one at the end of the session. This allows the student to see their increase in knowledge and to identify any areas that still require review.
The student materials are distributed 3 or 4 days prior to when the groups are scheduled to meet. The student receives learning objectives, which they use in preparing for the session. They also receive a Pretest with 8-10 questions that need to be answered before arriving at the session. We email the password to the student after the test has posted.
At the start of the POPS session, in groups of 4 students, each student is supplied with only part of the pre-test answers and explanations. The students must share the correct pretest answers with each other through discussion prior to the groups beginning work on the clinical case problems.
Each student has one of the four clinical problems, and solution to their assigned part only, so the student must act as discussion leader to encourage resolution of their clinical problem by the rest of the group. Each part of the solution contributes to the approach of the overall problem. The use of textbooks, journal articles, and other resources, during the group session is encouraged.
Faculty remain immediately available to act as resource persons during the exercise, but do not actively participate in the group discussion.
SIDE NOTE: This form of small group activity requires only a few facilitators if held in a large room with all of the students together. At UNMC we hold this in our computer lab which has 22 tables all on the same level. We are able to host the entire class of approximately 130 students with only 1 or 2 faculty present as opposed to 15 small group rooms with 15 facilitators.
Feedback on learning is also provided by the posttest, which is taken individually by each student, soon after completing the group session. Some are completed during the end of the session and some are completed after the session, based on the amount of time available to the instructor. If completed after the session, we email the password to the students after the test has posted.
Post-test answers, with explanations, are supplied only after the post-test is completed.
Pretests need to be completed and successfully uploaded prior to the start of the session.
Upload deadline set for 15-20 minutes into the session to allow for any last minute uploads. At UNMC the students are not graded on the pretest since we do not set a time limit and have no way of securely proctoring the students outside of classroom.
Review feedback not set on ES pretest so that students must discuss during the POPS session
The remote delete is set for a few days later just in case a student doesn’t realize that their test didn’t successfully upload. This usually occurs when they go in to do the posttest and receive the error. If they contact me about what happened and I make an exception, I can adjust the upload date and time on the posting and accept their test. If you set the remote delete for right away, you cannot go back after that time frame to allow any more uploads. This decision depends on if you will be allowing any exceptions or not.
Pretests need to be completed and successfully uploaded before midnight of the same day of the session.
Time limit is set on the posttest due to grading of the test.
Upload deadline set for 15-20 minutes past the noted deadline to allow for any last minute uploads.
The remote delete is set for a few days later just in case a student doesn’t realize that their test didn’t successfully upload. This usually occurs when they go in to do another test and receive the error. If they contact me about what happened and I make an exception, I can adjust the upload date and time on the posting and accept their test.
Tips for Success – tying it all together
Planning – make sure that you plan your formative assessment for a course with which you are familiar and only do a little at a time. Make sure to set up some practice tests for both you and the students to make sure things are working as you planned. And make sure to allow for extra time when you go live. There is bound to be something that you did not plan for that may only show up during an actual test.
Implementing – make sure that your students and faculty understand the process and what you hope that everyone gets out of the process. Also make sure that there are advantages to what you are doing and that you are not just doing this out of obligation or requirement.
Feedback – the whole reason for the process, for both you and your students.