Designed for a New Faculty Workshop at Austin Peay State University, this presentation addresses assessment strategies to reduce the likelihood of academic dishonesty, improve student learning, enhance the sense of classroom community, and measure not only student performance but also the effectiveness of course delivery.

1. ASSESSMENTS
APSU New Faculty Workshop
Gray Kane, Ph.D.
kanej@apsu.edu
(931) 221-7638

2. Introduce yourselves to your neighbors.

3. Which of the following do you most agree with?
A. Assessment strategies can reduce the likelihood of
academic dishonesty.
B. Assessment strategies can improve student learning.
C. Assessment strategies can improve the sense of classroom
community.
D. Assessments measure not only student performance but
also the effectiveness of course delivery.

4. Assessments
and
Academic Dishonesty

5. Which of the following do you most agree with?
A. Early assessments can reduce the likelihood of academic
dishonesty by encouraging students to plan study time for your
course right from the start.
B. Early assessments can reduce the likelihood of academic
dishonesty by enabling both you and your students to identify
and remediate weaknesses before they prohibit student success.
C. Diverse assessment methods (tests, projects, papers,
participation points …) can reduce the likelihood of academic
dishonesty by enabling those with anxieties or deficiencies in
one assessment method (e.g., test anxiety or writing
deficiencies) to demonstrate proficiency in other ways.
D. Avoiding high-stakes assessments (for example, an exam worth
40% of the final grade) can reduce the likelihood of academic
dishonesty by providing students with room to fail.

6. Which of the following do you most agree with?
A. Frequent assessments can reduce the likelihood of
academic dishonesty by structurally encouraging
students to study regularly.
B. Process-based assessments can reduce the likelihood of
academic dishonesty by granting the instructor greater
oversight over students’ creative process.
C. Frequent comprehensive assessments can reduce the
likelihood of academic dishonesty by decreasing the
perception of “disposable knowledge.”

7. Assessments
as
Learning Opportunities

8. Which of the following do you most agree with?
A. Students can learn effectively through high frequency, repeatable
quizzes that draw random conceptual questions from online test banks.
B. Auto-graded online quizzes or clicker activities can improve student
learning by providing instant feedback.
C. Assessments that require multiple senses (visual, auditory, and
kinesthetic) can improve student learning by stimulating different parts
of the brain.
D. Peer grading can provide enough emotional distance between students
and the assessment to enable them to evaluate questions and answers
more clearly.
E. Self-grading can improve metacognitive thinking (reflecting on one’s
own thinking process).

9. Assessments
and
Classroom Community

10. Which of the following do you most agree with?
A. Group assessments like team projects not only provide social
learners with an opportunity to acquire and demonstrate
knowledge, but also enhance students’ relationships with each
other.
B. After an assessment, acknowledging and discussing common errors
not only provides students with feedback, but also can decrease
students’ sense of isolation by showing students they are not alone
in their mistakes.
C. Peer grading provides students with evaluation opportunities, but
it also enhances the sense of classroom community by helping
students think of their own performance in relation to their peers.

11. Assessing to Improve
Course Delivery

12. Which of the following do you most agree with?
A. You can use assessments to identify and overcome common
student misunderstandings.
B. You can use assessments to determine the effectiveness of
specific learning opportunities.
C. You do not have to assign points to every assessment.
D. Assessments measure not only student performance but
also the effectiveness of course delivery.

13. Which of the following do you most agree with?
Assessments can …
A. reduce the likelihood academic dishonesty
B. serve as an additional learning opportunity
C. improve the sense of classroom community
D. help you improve course delivery
E. ALL OF THE ABOVE

14. Selected Bibliography
Angelo, Thomas A. and K. Patricia Cross. Classroom Assessment Techniques: A
Handbook for College Teachers; Second Ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1993.
Freeman, Scott and John W. Parks. “How Accurate Is Peer Grading?” CBE Life Sciences
Education; 9 (4): 482-488. American Society for Cell Biology, 2010.
Nilson, Linda B. “The Truth about Learning Styles.” Keynote at the International Lilly
Conference on College Teaching. Oxford, OH. November 18-21, 2010.
Sadler, Philip M. and Eddie Good. “The Impact of Self- and Peer-Grading on Student
Learning.” Educational Assessment; 11 (1): 1-31. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Inc., 2006.
Wehlburg, Catherine M. Meaningful Course Revision. Boston, MA: Anker Publishing
Company, Inc., 2006.