Authentic Assessment
Five Standards of Authentic Instruction
"What types of instruction engage students in using their minds well? A framework developed at Wisconsin's Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools may be a valuable tool for teachers and researchers attempting to answer this complex question."
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Authentic Assessment
"Traditional assessment has placed an emphasis on efficient tasks and tests that are perceived as
demonstrating the student’s educational abilities. Authentic assessment has become increasingly popular,
as a perception has grown that there is a need for more holistic approaches to evaluating students.
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The Case for Authentic Assessment
"Assessment is authentic when we directly examine student performance on worthy intellectual tasks."
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Re-organizing Freshmen Business Mathematics II: Authentic Assessment in Mathematics Through Professional Memos
"In this paper, we discuss our assessment tool, the business memo, as a venue for students to apply mathematical skills, via mathematical modelling, to realistic business problems."
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Different Ways of Assessing Knowledge
Offers examples for alternative assessment that may lead to more authentic assessment of knowledge.
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Principles/Ethics of Assessment
Nine Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning
Ethics in Classroom Assessment Practices: Issues and Attitudes
"This study focuses on defining ethical behavior and examining educators’ ethical judgments in relation to assessment."
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The Ethics of Educational Evaluation
"The evaluator's values are made clear in the choice of the evaluation task, the criteria for assessing the attainment of the task, and the procedures for applying the criteria to individual students' work."
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What's in a Grade? An Ethical Dilemma
"An essay is presented on grading standards of students in the U.S."
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The Ethical Limitations of Online Grading Systems
"Increasingly, colleges and universities in the U.S. are mandating that grades be entered online...there are security concerns, but there are also...security concerns with paper grade rosters."
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Fairness Reviews and Code of Ethics
"This chapter considers the ethical aspects of constructing language tests."
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Designing Tests and Exams
Allaying Students' Anxieties about Tests
"You can reduce students' anxiety and enhance their performance by taking care in how you prepare students for an exam, how you administer and return the test, and how you handle makeup tests."
link to websiteQuizzes, Tests and Exams
"Many teachers dislike preparing and grading exams, and most students dread taking them."
link to websiteExam Questions
"Examinations are a very common assessment and evaluation tool in universities and there are many types of examination questions.
link to articleMultiple Choice
Designing Multiple Choice Questions
"A multiple-choice question (MCQ) is composed of two parts: a stem that identifies the question or problem, and a set of alternatives or possible answers that contain a key that is the best answer to the question..."
link to articleShort Answer
Constructing Short Answer Questions
Tips for designing short answer questions.
link to websiteEssay
Preparing effective essay questions
"Although essay questions are one of the most commonly used methods for assessing student learning, many are poorly designed and ineffectively used."
link to articleOpen-book
PCs in the Classroom and Open-Book Exams
"...how do we allow students to keep their computer during an open-book/open-notes exam without opening the door to wide-spread cheating..."
link to articleOpen Book Tests and Student Authored Exam Questions as Useful Tools to Increase Critical Thinking
"Open-book exams, sometimes used in courses more associated with math, have been touted as an evaluation method that promotes more active learning."
link to articleOral
iPods and Oral Exams
"This year, instead of a traditional exam for the WWI unit, I had students prepare for an oral exam."
link to websiteSpeak Up! Oral Examinations and Political Science
"The assessment of undergraduate political science students is predictable and stagnant. A missing, yet valuable assessment tool that can contribute to repertoire of political science is the oral examination."
link to articleGroup
Group Exams in the Higher Education Classroom: Strategies and Support for Successful Implementation
"Group exams have been proposed as a means to improve student learning and provide balanced assessment in the higher education classroom."
link to articleBetter Understanding the Group Exam Experience
"The article presents a study which elicit the reflections of students who participated in a fairly lengthy group exam experience."
link to articleSelf-assessment
Student Self-Assessment
"One type of assessment that has been shown to raise students’ achievement significantly is student self-assessment..."
link to documentClassroom Assessment in Science
"Much of students' learning is internal..."
link to articlePeer-assessment
Peer and Self-Assessment in Language Training
"One of the ways in which students internalize the characteristics of quality work is by evaluating the work of their peers."
link to websiteIn Search of Quality Criteria in Peer-Assessment Practices
"Fifty-six teachers using peer assessment rated several quality criteria as relevant to their teaching practice. "
link to articleDesign Principles and Outcomes of Peer Assessment in Higher Education
"This study was aimed at finding effective ways of organising peer assessment of written assignments in the context of teaching history at university level."
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Designing Assignments
Assignment Design - Checklist
"Other considerations may be required for your specific assignment, but this will give you a great start, no matter what type of assignment you plan to give."
link to articleSequencing Assignments
"The goal of assignment sequencing is a stepwise development of students’ skills (i.e., movement from preliminary to higher level critical thinking or disciplinary skills) through a progression of assignments that all fit together to produce a larger end product."
link to articleEssays
Responding to Writing Assignments: Managing the Paper Load
"One way to give students the learning benefits of writing without burying ourselves in paper is to shift from mostly high-stakes writing assignments to more low-stakes writing
assignments.
link to articleDesigning Essay Assignments
"Students often do their best and hardest thinking, and feel the greatest sense of mastery and growth, in their writing. Courses and assignments should be planned with this in mind."
link to articleJournals
Using Journals for Learner's Reflection and Self-Assessment
"Learning journals are powerful tools for learning. More than being mere collections of required tasks and assignments, they can be used to empower learners to take charge of their own learning process by reflecting upon it on a regular basis and by assessing their own progress over time."
link to articleJournals in the Classroom
"Journal writing is an incredibly flexible instructional tool, useful across the entire curriculum."
link to websitePortfolios/ePortfolios
Electronic Portfolios: Engaged Students Create Multi-Media Rich Artifacts
"This paper briefly summarizes the implementation of a university-wide electronic portfolio requirement."
link to articleElectronic Portfolios: A Path to the Future of Learning
"If we truly want to advance from a focus on teaching to a focus on student learning, then a strategy involving something like electronic student portfolios, or ePortfolios, is essential."
link to articleAssessing Adult Learning Using Portfolios
"Interest is growing in portfolios as a form of assessment that can provide a more authentic, student-centered experience and growth-oriented interactions between learners and instructors than tests and final assignments."
link to articleGroup Projects
Implementing Group Work in the Classroom
"...without careful planning and facilitation, group work can frustrate students and instructors and feel like a waste of time."
link to articleHandling Problems During In-Class Group Work
"...when your students do not respond as you had hoped they would, here are some ways to respond."
link to articleIndependent Work
Independent Studies: A Four-Step Process
"As a means of better understanding the processes involved in this mode of study, the following Tips Sheet outlines key components of four key stages to independent learning..."
link to articleIndependent Studies Resources
A list of books to assist with independent studies planning.
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Rubrics and Grading Criteria
Assessing Papers, Journals, Reports
Grading
"There are no hard-and-fast rules about the best ways to grade."
link to websiteCreating Rubrics
"Reviewing, reconceptualizing, and revisiting the same concepts from different angles improves understanding of the lesson for students."
link to websiteFast and Equitable Grading
"Whether you’re grading assignments, essays, lab reports, or exams, there are some general strategies that can help you save time and ensure that you’re being equitable."
link to articleRubrics: Useful Assessment Tools
"Rubrics are excellent tools to use when assessing students’ work for several reasons."
link to articleAssessing Group Work
Methods for Assessing Group Work
"Students should be made aware of assessment before starting the project..."
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Providing Feedback and Constructive Criticism
Receiving and Giving Effective Feedback
"Feedback can reinforce existing strengths, keep goal-directed behaviour on course, clarify the effects of behaviour, and increase recipients’ abilities to detect and remedy errors on their own."
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Citations and References: Helpful Assessment Techniques
MLA Format Rubric
To assist with marking MLA citations.
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Contracts and Learning Agreements
Learning Contracts
A guide to formatting a learning contract.
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Learning Contracts
"This book is designed to introduce learning contracts..."
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Using Learning Contracts in the College Classroom
"Education has to be an active rather than passive process. To be active, students must participate in the process of education and become more independent and responsible for their own learning."
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Supervising Theses/Projects
Patterns for Supervising Thesis Projects
"Thesis projects are a challenging task for students as well as their
supervisors."
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Trends in Assessment
International Trends in Assessment
"Globally, over the last 20 years or so, there have been major changes in assessment practices."
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Current Trends in Assessment
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There have been many changes in the approach to assessment in the last 15 years."
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National Trends in Outcomes Assessment
"Peter Ewell, one of the nation’s foremost authorities on outcomes assessment, summarized the state-of-the-art of assessment."
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PLAR - Prior Learning Assessment Review
Academic Honesty
Policy and Best Practices
Seneca Academic Honesty Policy
Seneca Libraries Best Practices for Students
Tutorials/Online Guides
Seneca Libraries Academic Honesty Plagiarism Tutorial
Seneca Libraries Resources for Students - Other Plagiarism Tutorials and Resources
Seneca Libraries Guide to Citing Sources (MLA, APA, Turabian, Chicago Style)
SafeAssign
Creating a Safe Assignment in MySeneca
Submitting a Safe Assignment in MySeneca
Cultural Differences and Intellectual Property
Uncovering 'Blind Spots': Culture and Copying
"In writings on international students and plagiarism, and in both formal and informal conversations on the subject amongst academics, arguments that relate to students from Chinese traditions are prominent."
link to articlePlagiarism as a Cross-Cultural Phenomenon
"University students in China (PRC), Latvia, Lithuania, and the United States were surveyed to see how they regarded the concept of plagiarism and how their perception matched actual
academic practices."
link to articleESL Writers Discuss Plagiarism: The Social Construction of Ideologies
"The current study explores group discussions among ESL students and teachers, demonstrating that, through interaction with more experienced peers and instructors, students can negotiate and co-construct their notions of plagiarism by working in their zones of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978)."
link to articleInternational Students and Plagiarism: An Analysis of the Reasons for Plagiarism Among International Foundation Students
"Plagiarism is regarded as a serious academic offence, although more often than not it results from misunderstanding rather than a deliberate intention to cheat."
link to articleTrends in Academic Honesty
It's Culture, Not Morality
"What if everything you learned about fighting plagiarism was doomed to failure? Computer software, threats on the syllabus, pledges of zero tolerance, honor codes -- what if all the popular strategies don't much matter?"
link to websiteCheating Goes Global as Essay Mills Multiply
"The author profiles the company Essay Writers, which sells custom essays that allow students to specify the topic and length. These essays are notable in that they are undetectable by plagiarism detection software."
link to articleAcademic Integrity and Student Plagiarism: A Question of Education Not Ethics
"It is suggested that the true source of the problem is a lack of education in the nuance of what is intellectual property and proper citation standards and calls for better instruction are given."
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Bev's Teaching Tips
