Online Assessment and Instruction Plan

“Take-away” exams, in which you set the questions or tasks virtually and ask the students to submit their responses electronically within a set period of time. 

Convert your test or in-class quiz into a Quiz in Sakai with randomized questions and a time limit.

The final exam could be replaced by an individual culminating essay.

Where final exams do not amount to a significant percentage of the final grade, or where the assessment of relevant learning outcomes are covered elsewhere in the course, a formal exam might be cancelled and the course assessment re-weighted accordingly.

Because students have access to materials, the design of questions
may need to be reframed to move away from recall-based tasks to questions that require students to demonstrate how they use information rather than reiterate what they have learned. It will be important, therefore, to provide guidance for students in the change
in orientation of the task.
It is also good practice to re-run any changes to question formats through the usual moderation processes.

 To deter cheating you could advise students that you will run ‘spot checks’ or mini-vivas with a sample of the student population, where you will discuss their reasoning for the answers they’ve provided.

Designing Remote Final exams – Recorded Webinar (25 min)

Ask students (individually or in groups) to submit a narrated presentation in electronic form which can then be tutor-marked and peer-reviewed.

PowerPoint is familiar to most students, and offers a slide-by-slide voice-narration recording facility

Have students submit video recordings of their performances, presentations, or projects using their phones, Zoom, Screencast-o-matic, or Quicktime (on Mac only) 

Ask students to prepare a podcast on the topic to be submitted electronically.

Take account of the fact that, given the recorded presentation format, students can have multiple opportunities to prepare the item they are submitting, rather than having to cope with the one-off nature of a live presentation.

Where seminar presentations are key to a course, consider how other work could be substituted

Where these have been partially completed already, assessors will have to use professional judgment to decide whether sufficient evidence of achievement of the learning outcome has been achieved already by the time of university closure.

For some students without ready internet access or lacking digital confidence the move to e-portfolios might be quite challenging, and they may need extra guidance.

Assessed seminars, group discussions and other similar activities.

Grading rubric for asynchronous class discussion 

Grading rubric for asynchronous discussion participation 

Lab work

It may be possible to replicate some aspects of lab work through simulations in which students are presented with data sets and required to interpret them. Often this means focusing on interpretation of data rather than working in the lab to achieve the results personally

Consider if there are other parts of the lab experience you could take online (for example, video demonstrations of techniques, online simulations, analysis of data, other pre- or post-lab work).  Students can ‘see’ data produced elsewhere and be asked to comment/interpret.

Categories of Examples of Quick Questions:

Student Interest:

• Without looking at your notes, what was most memorable or stands out in your mind about today’s class?
• What was the most surprising and/or unexpected idea expressed in today’s discussion?
• Looking back at your notes, what would you say was the most stimulating idea discussed in today’s class?
• For you, what interesting questions remain unanswered about today’s topic?

Relevance:

• In your opinion, what was the most useful idea discussed in today’s class?
• During today’s class, what idea(s) struck you as things you could or should put into practice?
• What example or illustration cited in today’s class could you relate to the most?

Attitudes/Opinions:

• Would you agree or disagree with this statement: . . .? Why?
• What was the most persuasive or convincing argument (or counterargument) that you heard expressed in today’s discussion?
• Was there a position taken in today’s class that you strongly disagreed with, or found to be disturbing and unsettling?
• What idea expressed in today’s class strongly affected or influenced your personal opinions, viewpoints, or values?

Analysis:

• What did you perceive to be the major purpose or objective of today’s class?
• What do you think was the most important point or central concept communicated during today’s presentation?  
• Conceptual Connections:
• What relationship did you see between today’s topic and other topics previously covered in this course?
• What was discussed in class today that seemed to connect with what you are learning or have learned in other course(s)?

Discussing Readings, Other Texts or leading General Discussions 

1. “Quotes to affirm & Quotes to Challenge”
   • Students choose quotes from a text (e.g. class reading)  that they wish to affirm (thin it is correct, confirms a belief) and quotes they wish to challenge (disagree with, believe to be inaccurate). 
   • Students can form small groups online and individuals take turns talking about their quotes to affirm and then their quotes to challenge.  Groups chose 1 quote and report back to the whole class (break out groups in LMS can support this)
   • Alternatives
     • Groups can be predetermined by instructor (if used as synchronous activity) and students can post to a chosen online forum, WhatsApp etc. 
     • Students can respond to each other’s quotes in writing, on a predetermined online forum
2. “The Circle of Voices”
   • This activity is a great discussion format for ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard at least once at the start of the session. It can be easily used to run a discussion via Zoom or adapted for asynchronous purposes.
     • Give students up to three minutes silent time to organize their thoughts. During this time they think about what they want to say on the topic once the circle of voices begins.
     • After this silent period the discussion opens with each person having a period of uninterrupted air time.
     • During the time each person is speaking no one else is allowed to interrupt.
     • People can take their turns to speak by going round the “circle” in order or volunteering at random.
     • After the circle of voices has been completed, and everyone has had the chance to say their piece, then the discussion opens out into a freer flowing format.
     • As this happens a second ground rule comes into effect: Students are only allowed to talk about another person’s ideas that have already been shared in the circle of voices.  A person cannot jump into the conversation by expanding on his own ideas; he can only talk about his reactions to what someone else has said. The only exception to this ground rule is if someone else asks him directly to expand on his ideas.
3. Tips for what to do when class discussion stalls