Formative Assessments:
- Formative Learning Activities
- For formative assessments, each subtopic contains one quiz or a question based on an assigned reading/video.
- Each formative assessment will be recorded by a Google Form so that students are able to receive feedback on their progress throughout the course.
- We also plan to include feedback for the formative assessments such that the learners can see where they are making mistakes and how they might improve on them.
Summative Assessments:
- Summative Assessments
- The Summative assessment is a final quiz (Google form) with ~ 20 questions to cover each sub-topic, including one bonus question to be graded according to the grading scheme mentioned below. Passing the class with 50% and above is required. The final grade is dependent on the cumulative calculation of individual formative assessments and the summative assessments combined.
BC High School Grading Scheme:
| A | 86–100% |
| B | 73–85% |
| C+ | 67–72% |
| C | 60–66% |
| C- | 50–59% |
| F (fail) | 0–49% |
| I (incomplete) | 0–49% |
| W | withdrawn |
| P | passed |
Assessment Rationale:
While using a rubric similar to that of the SOLO taxonomy would be best for a learner doing programming, for a course this short, it wouldn’t be feasible to assess students at such a high level of extended abstract or relational (Biggs & Collie, 1982). Furthermore, We decided to go with the BC High School grading scheme because it is something that our target audience is already familiar with.
We did each formative assessment with our behavioural and direct-instruction approach in mind to ensure that they were well aligned with our learning outcomes. Specifically, we used the following assessment styles and rationale for each assessment:
- Programming: Multiple Choice
- Variables: Multiple choice
- Data Types: Multiple choice
- Conditionals: Short Answer
- Operations: Multiple Choice
We also incorporated formative assessments with a lower weight than the summative assessments in order to make the final summative assessment less “high stakes” (Conrad & Openo, 2018).
When designing our assessments and course as a whole, we followed the “learning cycle” (Conrad & Openo, 2018)approach by first teaching each concept, then assessing the concept formatively in relation to the learning outcome, culminating in the summative assessment.
Finally, we want users to receive a certificate after passing the course. Therefore we would aim to have the learners who pass the course be rewarded with a digital certificate which they could display on their LinkedIn profile.
References:
Biggs, J., & Collis, K. (1982). Evaluating the quality of learning: The SOLO taxonomy. Academic Press.
Conrad, D., & Openo, J. (2018). Assessment Strategies for Online Learning: Engagement and Authenticity. Athabasca University Press.
Wayback Machine. (n.d.). https://web.archive.org/web/20150923203449/http://www.cimea.it/files/fileusers/Chapter%202_MCL.pdf#page=16