The Network for Educational Development (NED) provides educational development opportunities that are designed by Minnesota State faculty and staff for Minnesota State faculty and staff. These opportunities help build awareness, develop knowledge, skills, and abilities, and provide space for reflecting and revising.
Grade Smarter Not Harder (Spring 2026)
April 13 – May 3, 2026
Short Course
Description
- Apply key principles of validity and reliability
- Write effective quiz and test questions
- Review and revise your own assessments to support equity
- Strengthen test security
- Give meaningful feedback using the Quizzes tool
Course Learning Objectives
After completing this course, participants will be able to:
- Apply principles of effective assessments to developing test questions.
- Implement strategies to improve test security.
- Utilize different methods of feedback on assessments.
Key Topics include:
- Motivation: This course focuses on assessment strategies for boosting motivation to promote academic honesty.
- Alignment: Use alignment to boost assessment reliability and validity and build motivation.
- Retrieval Practice: A teaching method that uses quizzing for enhancing learning and motivation.
- Writing Effective Questions: Multiple choice, true false are explored, and extension materials for addressing additional question types are offered.
- Quizzes: Focus on D2L Brightspace Quizzes features including question pools, sections, security features, feedback options, and more!
Technical Skill Requirements
- Use a web browser
- Create, save and upload Word documents
- Navigate Microsoft Windows
- Create and send an email using your Minnesota State account
- Evaluate and decide whether or not to use OneDrive
- Perform basic tasks associated with the following D2L Brightspace tools: Content, Quizzes and Assignments
Materials Required
Prior to beginning this course, you should complete the following activities:
- Select a course and related assessments to which you’d like to apply these concepts
- Contact your campus D2L/IT Helpdesk to create a D2L Brightspace “Sample/Sandbox” Course if you do not have one.
Suggested Audience
Faculty (Full-time and part-time), Instructional Designers and Technologists, Faculty Developers/Trainers, and Concurrent Enrollment instructors.
Estimated Time Commitment
Most participants are able to complete this course by committing 4-6 hours per week.
Reflect on your Professional Development
As you progress through this course, please consider how you can use the assignments as a way to highlight your work on your Professional Development Plan. Consider sharing your work with your leadership team.
Course Location
This course is hosted and facilitated using the D2L Brightspace instance of Minnesota State called, MnSite.
Accommodations
The NED is committed to providing universal access to all of our events, we’d like to discover how we can make the event more inclusive so you can fully participate!
Machine generated captions are available in real-time for all Zoom events, however human generated CART (live caption) service and ASL interpretation can be requested with advanced notice (2 weeks) to make the event more accessible.
Please, let us know of any disability-related accommodations that will facilitate your full participation
Questions?
Contact the Network for Educational Development.
Registration Required
Use the RSVP tool below to register. There is a limit of 30 participants per course.
Reminders Coming: We use the email address you provided to send you reminder emails as the event date gets closer, but we suggest you add this event to your calendar.
Register
RSVP to register for this event: 1) select the Going button, 2) enter your details, and 3) select Finish
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