Assessing Student Learning Online: It’s More Than Multiple Choice
By Elizabeth Reed Osika, PhD

As more and more instructors move their courses into the online environment, one consistent question that arises is, “How do I know what the students have learned?” The answer is not simple, but it can be effectively addressed with some common sense and a little bit of creativity.

How do I know what the students have learned?

The best place to start to resolve this question is your course syllabus. Aligning assessment strategies with your learning objectives allows you to check whether or not students have met the objectives of the course. Any course, online or face-to-face, should have clear, measurable objectives. An instructor need only pick the assessment technique that best matches each learning objective. For example, if the objective states that students will be able to describe a concept, ask them to write a paper, post information on a discussion board, or create a flowchart. If they need to be able to identify or locate particular elements, they can complete an objective quiz, post relevant URLs, or submit digital pictures. If you have taken the time up front to identify clear, measurable objectives, determining assessment strategies becomes much simpler (Florida State University, 2006).

Techniques to assess students’ mastery of your content are as varied as the courses online. Your typical assessment strategies of objective tests are easily administered through the various course management systems. Once online, these objective tests can now incorporate video, audio, and other media. Other assessment strategies commonly used in the traditional classroom can also be easily moved into the online environment, such as discussions and submission of written papers, essays, or reports. With a bit of creativity, effort, and basic technical skills you can add 1) simulations and activities where students can virtually arrange elements, manipulate variables in experiments and equations, and even diagnose virtual patients; 2) group projects where students can address case studies, collaborate on presentations or reports, and develop original programs, lesson plans, or other materials; and 3) participate in role plays where each person has a role, position, or character to represent in course discussions. The possibilities for assessing student learning are limited only by your imagination.

Whatever assessment method you choose, it is important to allow the students the opportunity to practice with the technology prior to a formal assessment. Practice allows the students, and you, to become comfortable with the required technology; thus, results are less likely to be skewed by students’ technical skills.

How can you actively engage students in the assessment process?

Students, like all other people, want to be involved in something meaningful. Assessment strategies are most successful if they replicate something that the student will do in his or her profession, that is clearly relevant to the course, and that is useful in demonstrating his or her knowledge and abilities. This type of assessment strategy, known as authentic assessment, actively engages students and demonstrates to the instructor that they not only understand the concepts but can also apply them in real-life scenarios (Mueller, 2006).

In addition to using appropriate and, when possible, authentic assessments in an online environment, it is important to keep students actively engaged in the “classroom.” This is best accomplished by requiring frequent, small assessments that will require the student to access the course two or three times a week. For example, Wednesday requires a short, objective quiz on the assigned reading material; Friday, a submission of a written summary of this week’s activity and the posting of a reflection of what was learned through the assignment on the discussion board; and finally, Sunday, a reply to a fellow student’s reflection. Frequent, small assessments also allow students to receive continuous feedback on what they have learned. This lets them know how they are doing in the course and provides ample room for improvement or adjustment in study habits, if necessary.

How do you know it’s the student’s work?

One of the first questions a new online instructor always asks is, “How can I be sure that this is really the student’s work?” Unfortunately, there is no guarantee; though if you honestly think about a traditional classroom, you typically can’t be sure there either. How does the instructor know whether or not the essay submitted by Johnny is really his? In fact, since most instructors don’t check for identification at the beginning of the semester, how do you know it is really Johnny sitting in your class? While this may seem like a dire situation, there are ways instructors can limit the amount of dishonesty in their courses.

One of the easiest ways is to assess higher-order and critical-thinking skills and limit the use of objective assessments such as multiple-choice tests. Objective assessments, regardless of whether they are administered online or face-to-face, are the easiest for students to negatively manipulate. Use multiple-choice or other objective questions to assess information that provides a foundation for the course, the information they will have to use later to demonstrate their understanding through an authenticate assessment. For example, use a multiple-choice test to make sure the student has read the assigned chapter or at least looked at the page in the chapter to find the appropriate answer. This allows the instructor the opportunity to make sure that each student is familiar with the most important aspects in the text.

If you choose to use objective assessments as a primary assessment strategy in your course, assume your students will use their books and discuss the concepts with friends and write your questions accordingly. In fact, encourage students to use all relevant resources to complete a test, as this best reflects what occurs in real life. If we are faced with a question we don’t know the answer to, we Google the topic, seek knowledge from others, and, if necessary, pull out texts to determine the answer. Why not encourage this problem-solving strategy in your students by posing complex questions that aim at higher-level thinking skills (Carneson, Delpierre, & Masters, 1996)?

While assessing higher-level skills is very important, another extremely effective strategy is to use a variety of assessments. If you have only one or two large assessments in the course, the pressure on students to succeed is enormous, and many may revert to less-than-honest activities. However, if you provide a variety of assessments that build on each other, the pressure is reduced drastically. This method of using frequent assessment points also allows the instructor to get to know their students’ work and personalities, making the identification of dishonest work easier.

In summary, assessing students’ work in an online environment does not have to be complicated. An instructor simply needs to focus on the learning objectives and provide a variety of relevant assessments to the students in order to develop a full picture of their understanding.

References

Carneson, J., Delpierre, G., & Masters, K. (1996). Designing and Managing Multiple Choice Questions. Available online at http://web.uct.ac.za/projects/cbe/mcqman/mcqman01.html.

Florida State University (2006). Information about behavioral objectives and how to write them. Available online at www.med.fsu.edu/education/FacultyDevelopment/objectives.asp.

Mueller, J. (2006). Authentic Assessment Toolbox. Available online at http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/.

The above article first appeared in Online Classroom, a monthly newsletter that provides practical advice and examples of proven, research-based pedagogical techniques to help instructors and course developers create and teach outstanding online courses. Click here for more information and to subscribe.