Formative and Summative Assessment
With mid-terms over, you are probably steeped in the second half of the semester. Was the mid-term the first assessment in your course (test, paper, etc.)? These mid-terms often reflect a summative assessment in your course used to certify student competence. Did student learning reflect what you had expected? If yes, what informed your expectations? How did you know about these students and their learning this term?
These mid-terms are an assessment of learning. Formative assessments are frequent, low stakes assessments that you can use to revise your teaching and for students to improve their learning. Additionally, formative assessments paired with feedback move learning forward, and this is what makes them especially valuable (Wiliam, 2011).
The catch is this: What do you do if your formative assessment reveals a gap in student learning or that a large portion of students missed a concept?
If student learning is what we value, then we need to use this data to inform our teaching and adjust or adapt.
Here are a few popular sites that have some good examples:
Classroom Assessment Techniques from Vanderbilt University
Classroom Assessment Techniques from Iowa State University
If formative assessments are not currently part of your teaching repertoire, try to incorporate two formative assessments between now and the end of the term in one course. If you do, we’d like to hear from you about your experience via email.
If you’re interested in learning more, consider joining the upcoming webinar “Classroom Assessment Techniques” on November 19, 2019 from 11:00am – 11:50am. Learn more and RSVP.
Registration and Call for Proposals are now open for the 2020 STAR Symposium
Time: 8:30am – 4:00pm
Date: February 28, 2020
Place: Virtual Conference
Cost: Free
The STAR Symposium celebrates excellence in teaching and learning by providing an avenue for individuals to share best practices, ideas and resources with colleagues. This virtual one-day conference will consist of presentations that focus on post-secondary pedagogical approaches including delivery via face-to-face, blended, flipped, and online classrooms.
Presentation tracks include:
• Teaching and learning
• Faculty Development and support
• Course design and delivery
• Grading, assessment, and feedback
• Student engagement
• Technology integration
• Other innovations…
Submit a Call for Proposal – Deadline is November 30, 2019.
Register and find more information.
Board of Trustees Awards – Revised Guidelines and Forms now Available
The Guidelines* and Forms for the 2019-2020 Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees (BOT) Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in University Service are now available on the BOT Awards Connect Topic. Log in using your StarID@MinnState.edu and password.
At an awards luncheon on April 22, 2020, the Board of Trustees will honor all Outstanding Educators and Educators of the Year from our colleges and universities, all Outstanding Service Faculty and a Service Faculty Member of the Year.
Send forward your outstanding faculty so that the Board may publicly recognize the extraordinary teaching and service being provided at our colleges and universities and proclaim, on behalf of the entire system, their high esteem for the dedication and accomplishment of Minnesota State faculty.
Award nominations, including the nominees’ portfolios, are due January 6, 2020.
*Please note the guidelines have been revised. This is in response to feedback from campus committees, nominees, and review committees about the excessive time commitment and work load associated with compiling and evaluating each portfolio as well as expressed greater need to highlight equity and inclusion, both in the criteria and eligibility for these awards.
Changes are focused in four areas:
• portfolio content and length
• responsibility of campus nomination committee
• inclusion of part-time/contingent faculty as eligible for nomination, and
• rubric language and additional criterion in rubric.
Details of the changes can be found in the Addendum on the BOT Awards Connect Topic.
2019 Educators of the Year: Kevin Haglin, St. Cloud State University; John Sinko, St. Cloud State University; Megan Jones, North Hennepin Community College; Jacqueline Semaan, Lake Superior College; Tanya Hoting Mrazek, Central Lakes College; and Kimberly Hansen, Riverland Community College. Not pictured is the 2019 Service Faculty Member of the Year Kari Peterson, Minnesota State University Moorhead.
Interested in November’s NED events?
Check out what’s going on here.
Questions? Contact Catherine Ford.