Highlighting Formative Assessments In the Virtual Learning Environment

By Dr. Marquita Hockaday

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit last year, several K-12 school districts found themselves forced to shift instructional practices from face-to-face to online or virtual practices. This abrupt switch was something many school districts were not prepared for and thus, students and parents were all ill-equipped to accommodate the move to virtual learning. When it became clear that the pandemic was not slowing down and schools and universities would continue to operate in the virtual space during the 2020-2021 school year, school boards, leaders, and other administrators began to consider accommodations, professional development, and various strategies that would combat the issues that arose during the end of the 2019-2020 school year.

Some of the accommodations included the issuance of laptops or tablets to all students to ensure they had the equipment needed for online learning. Further, some school districts even took it a step further by providing Wi-Fi hotspots in various neighborhoods. As well as physical arrangements, school professionals had to consider strategies that they could integrate into curriculum, instruction, and assessment to navigate this new virtual frontier. Many of the educators tried to duplicate practices that they would use in the face-to-face classroom in the virtual environment, such as sitting in a Zoom room for a long stretch of time without integrating appropriate online engagement; however, it wasn’t long before it became apparent that online learning and instructional practices professional development would be necessary.

While curriculum and instruction are extremely important, assessing student learning in the online environment is key because this is how educators determine what is working and what strategies must be shifted. So, how can online learning be assessed? For this blog, let’s focus on formative assessments.

Interactive Formative Assessments

There are several ways to use your virtual classroom and engage in formative assessments. Have students use tools like emojis, or thumbs up/thumbs down to demonstrate understanding. They can use the virtual or an actual whiteboard to show answers and share responses. Students can also record videos, take photographs, or make drawings and share them with the whole class or a small group.

Online Journals

Many learning management systems have a journal built in for students to compile their thoughts. This can be shared with the instructor or it can be a private place for students to reflect and keep their questions and thoughts during the course.

Offline Activities - Choice Boards

As mentioned above, some educators have the misconception that online learning means sitting in front of the computer all day. However, the virtual class can consist of mini-lectures (5-10 minutes or 10-15 minutes, depending on the age group), and then students can be given time to engage in offline assessments. Assignments, such as choice boards give students options for learning that do not always involve screen time or sitting in front of the computer for the duration of the school day. This will instead provide offline activities that reiterate objectives they learned during the mini-lecture. For instance, say you are teaching a lesson on the Civil War, you can offer a choice board with activities that allow students to write a poem about the war, create a video about key battles, investigate causes of the war and create a poster denoting those causes. The options are endless and should include different mediums and outlets for demonstrating understanding.

Summative assessments are definitely just as important, considering these types of assessments give us an idea of what students have gained throughout the course or a particular unit. With that being said, perhaps SEG will provide some insight on how online learning can be assessed through summative evaluations in a later post. Stay tuned! In the meantime, see how SEG has been involved with assessment, including this project with Tufts University.

Tools for Program Design

By Dr. Patricia Moore Shaffer

Theory of change and logic modeling are tools that program managers and evaluators often use to describe a program’s design or, simply put, how an educational program is supposed to work. A theory of change allows us to understand the underlying hypotheses of a program by illustrating the program’s outcomes pathway – the activities understood to produce a series of results that contribute to achieving the desired change. A logic model, meanwhile, gives more clarity about the components (i.e., inputs) that need to be in place for the program to work; it also includes visual depictions of how the planned activities will result in specific outputs or products, and outcomes.

At Shaffer Evaluation Group, we often do theory of change and logic modeling exercises in the early phases of an evaluation or capacity-building project to help program stakeholders articulate how their program works. When we worked with Valencia College evaluating its Art of Tomorrow Scholars program, we engaged a broad cross-section of stakeholders, including staff, beneficiaries, partners, and funders, in the development of these models. In addition to producing valuable tools to guide program design, development, and evaluation, stakeholders participating in this process increase their knowledge and understanding of the program. Very often this process leads stakeholders to a fresh perspective on their programs that may lead to changes in program design.

When we engage stakeholders in developing a theory of change or logic model for a program, we keep in mind principles of adult learning to make the experience meaningful and engaging for everyone involved:

• Adults want or need to be involved in how our learning experiences are planned and delivered. We consult with stakeholders about how to organize program model development work. Do they want to organize a day-long retreat or a series of short meetings with interspersed independent group work?

• Adults draw upon our own knowledge and experience when learning. Stakeholders have rich knowledge of how their program works in their community – we facilitate discussion and use other methods of engagement to tap into this knowledge during model development work.

• Adults are active learners, preferring to use reasoning and collaboration to find solutions. We actively engage stakeholders in model development – assigning backwards mapping exercises or small group projects to identify program inputs, outputs, or outcomes.

• Adults want learning activities to be immediately applicable to our lives or work. We take the time to demonstrate how theories and models can be applied to improve programs’ effectiveness.

One resource we use is ActKnowledge’s Facilitator Source Book for Leading Theory of Change Development Sessions, which provides guidance on leading collaborative sessions to craft long-term outcomes and use “backwards mapping” to identify the earliest changes that need to occur. The Logic Model Workshop Toolkit, prepared by the REL Northeast & Islands, provides guidance for facilitating a logic model workshop; resources include a facilitator workbook, a participant workbook, and a slide deck.

The Importance of Education Policy Research

By Dr. Marquita Hockaday

Consider that omnipresent, yet pertinent quote from historians: “It’s important to study history so we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past?” The saying is close to that (Caveat: I did major in history as an undergraduate AND I taught history in grades 6-12 for over eight years, so I really should know this line well…) Whether those are the exact words or not, the sentiment behind the quote is what matters, and that sentiment remains when it comes to studying and understanding education policy research.

First, what is education policy? According to Ballotpedia (2021), education policies are the plans and principles put in place to educate students. Since education has existed in our nation, the goals of education policies have included citizenship, literacy, preparation for college and the workforce, preparation for the global market, diversity, helping students to become critical thinkers, and creating common standards for students across the nation. When reviewing education policy, it is important that some questions are considered--such as what are we teaching and how is that instruction being evaluated? What standards are we using to measure academic success?

Shaffer Evaluation Group (SEG) provides an evaluation service where we assist organizations with answering the question of how instruction (or other outputs, such as assessments and teacher training programs) is being evaluated. Additionally, SEG assists organizations with answering the question of what standards of measurement might be used to measure success. For instance, an organization wants to determine how well they are doing with implementing a new education policy initiative related to COVID-19. The school or district may be working on integrating engaging virtual lessons and reach out to SEG regarding a non-experimental study to gauge the fidelity of their existing programs. SEG’s data collection would include interviews, focus groups, and possible quantitative data (e.g., surveys).

Educators should take the time to research, review, and understand existing policy and its impact on the current state of educational practice. Additionally, it’s important to evaluate the fidelity to which these policies are put into practice. More information about how SEG can assist with program evaluation can be found here.