What did you do? Did you provide rubrics to your students prior to their activity? Why did you do it? Is it important to set students’ expectation on how they will be graded? What did you find? Is the outcome aligned to the learning objectives? How will you use it? Is the computation of numbers the end of assessment? What is your evaluation of Assessment itself? Do the figures reveal students’ mastery of the subject matter?

These five basic questions were adapted from Academic Assessment: Annual Program Assessment: Analyzing Assessment Result published in Cal Poly. By throwing these questions to yourself, it would definitely lead teachers to effectively organize and analyze the assessment data from alternative methods because assessment data analysis does not stop from merely computing the numbers. To be honest, I myself thought that the assessment is the easiest part of teaching and learning process. I thought assessment of learning is just computing grades with the help of Microsoft excel and putting qualitative value on it. At some point, in traditional assessment, it could be this way. However, not in alternative assessments since there are various methods on how to do data analysis.

 In a study conducted by Tsoukidou (2008) entitled ‘Implementing an Alternative Method of Assessment’ she revealed that the implementation of the method of record reviews—one of the assessment data analysis used in alternative methods, had been helpful for the students. Nonetheless, the teacher needed to gather the writing samples and apply a content analysis. Then, she would save a record of this, with the use of a checklist, so that she could advance more understandings into the students’ strengths and weaknesses, and their progress. From this, I could say that it is really not as easy as abc. This assessment data analysis is so detailed and time-consuming for teachers but they do it anyway to track students’ progress and a possibility of the modification in instructional strategy if the learning objectives are not met.

The example was provided by Linda Suskie, Middle States Commission on Higher Education, June 2005 presentation titled, “Making Student Learning Assessment Work: Creating a Culture of Assessment & Putting Results to Good Use” (Academic Program Assessment: Tools & Techniques for Program Improvement, p.2

Another methods teachers could use are as shown in the figure. We have the Standards-based; Competency-based; and Criterion referenced, Benchmarking; peer-referenced; and norm referenced, Best practices perspectives, Value-added perspective; growth change; improvement; and pre-post; Longitudinal Perspective and Capability Perspective.

Indeed, this may be a difficult job since there are so many things to look into. However, some examples of advantages were documented of those who have taken assessment seriously. They were able to update curricula continuously. They develop new courses and phase out others as needs change. And they can document improvement in student learning (Wergin, 1995; Wergin and Swingen, 2000: The National Academies Press, 2003).

Assessment Data Analysis can be challenging to implement because it requires teachers to reorient their course and curriculum objectives to concentrate on what students learn rather than what faculty teach. Nevertheless, we have to remember that assessment plays a crucial role not only in teaching and learning process but also in the implementation of the curriculum. Through the outcomes of assessment data analysis, a curriculum could be modified, changed, or terminated.

References:

Analyzing Assessment Data. (n.d) Academic Program Assessment: Tools & Techniquesfor Program Improvement. Retrieved from:https://nbrc.illinoisstate.edu/downloads/C4%20Resource%203.7%20Analyzing%20Assessment%20Data.pdf 

Cal Poly. (n.d) Academic Assessment: Annual Program Assessment: Analyzing Assessment Result. Retrieved from: https://academicprograms.calpoly.edu /analysis-assessment-results

The National Academies Press. (2003) Evaluating and Improving UndergraduateTeaching in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Chapter 5 Evaluation Methodologies. Retrieved from: https://www.nap.edu/read/10024/ chapter/7#75

Tsoukidou, V.  (17th April 2008) Implementing an Alternative Method of Assessment.Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235697520_Implementinganalternativemethodof_assessment