DL Johnston Question 4

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QUESTION 4. What sorts of assessments do you use with distance learning?

Assessment is a key component of all educational programs; used properly it can yield valuable information for teachers, students and administrators. Assessment can be used for various purposes, including placing students into appropriate classes, gauging student progress, and measuring overall educational gains for accountability purposes.

In most states, standardized tests such as the AMES, ABLE, CASAS, or TABE are routinely used to determine student placement and to measure student progress after an extended period of instruction. As a progress measure these tests provide a useful summary judgment-e.g. a single scaled score or grade level rating-that can be used to assess overall progress after an extended period of study.

TESTS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY

It is these tests that are most challenging in a distance setting, because accountability demands that the test be administered in a proctored situation. Taking a test at a distance does not meet the proctored criterion, so some ways need to be developed to have a distance learner come to a literacy center for testing. Usually this is easily done for the pretest, because it is part of a face-to-face intake process where the learner and teacher are trying to decide if distance is an appropriate option for the learner. It is getting learners to return to a proctored setting for the posttest that is problematic. We encourage Project IDEAL states to consider working out a system of satellite testing centers to deal with this problem. I think libraries and local elementary schools could be enticed to provide proctored testing for distance learners that live in their area.

TESTS TO GUIDE INSTRUCTION

But too much attention is given to the accountability measures. Designing a semester's work, or measuring progress along the way, requires more diagnostic information than a test like the TABE can provide. So distance learners (and their supporting teachers) need access to a library of quizzes or tests that can be used to help the learner figure out if they are making progress. Such tests do not need to be secure, because nobody is trying to use them for accountability. Many of the curricula being used at a distance (GED Connection, GED Interactive (McGraw Hill Contemporary), GED Illinois, English for All, SkillsTutor, PLATO, etc.) have quizzes or practice tests built in, and a learner can use them at a distance as often as they want. But more attention needs to be given to this form of testing. We address a number of these issues in a working paper titled "Using Assessment to Guide Instructional Planning." It's available for download at projectideal.org. The paper examines how assessment to gauge student progress can be used in distance education programs for adult basic learners, with a particular focus on using assessment to guide instructional planning.

What experience have you had trying to use assessments to help distance learners figure out if they are making progress? Have you found tools to help you create and post a quiz? How have you dealt with discussing quiz results with the distance learner?

J E R O M E J O H N S T O N
Director, Project IDEAL Support Center
Institute for Social Research - University of Michigan
734/763-3079 (734) 615-6638 (fax) jerej@umich.edu

This question and Jerome Johnston's reply were posted in the context of a July, 2005 discussion on the NIFL-Technology electronic list. The whole discussion will be found at http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/DistanceLearning