Assessment | pamschmelzportfolio

Teaching Improvement Efforts/Classroom Assessment

I am always striving to find ways to improve my classes. One way I do this is by trial and error. I will setup a class based upon my course template. The majority of my courses include components such as Discussion Forums, Assignments, and Exams. When I am choosing assignments and questions for assignments for a class I have not taught, I have to make a guess as to what will be appropriate. Once the class has run, I find out quickly if a particular discussion question wasn’t as interesting as I thought or that a particular assignment didn’t work properly. In my next revision of the class, I will make changes to those components where I have identified issues. I have done this with exams as well.

My main method of improvement, however, comes from suggestions from students. I want them to tell me what they would like to see in a class. For example, for several semesters, I had twenty posted office hours which included Sunday-Thursday. One student always did work on Fridays and felt that I would not respond if asked a question on that day. Because of that feedback, I have fixed it so that I have stated office hours, but also have the note in my instructor information that I am online most of the time, and if I am seen on Google Hangouts, the students can ask me questions. I also make sure to let students know that I will try my best to respond to their questions within 24 hours through the entire seven day week.

Another improvement I have made came from feedback from another student. This was for an online class, and while I had specific case projects, hands on projects, and discussion questions, the student felt like additional learning materials were needed. Because of this comment I now make sure to include at a minimum, the PowerPoint presentations. I also include extra helpful links, like the link to the OWL at Purdue. More recently, I have added YouTube videos, additional external reading, and other resources in my courses. I had another student during a fall, 2017 class request that a quiz had the time limit removed and the times taken moved from two to one. The argument of the student was that about half of the questions were essay questions, and the time limit was difficult to work with and properly answer the questions. I thought this was a good idea, so I made the change. Many times when you design classes, you think something might be a good idea, but in practice it doesn't work out so well. This is why listening to students is so important.

One more example I will give is regarding feedback for a face to face class. I had a student that felt we were not doing enough hands-on activities. The class in question is a class that uses simulation software as the hands-on component, but it’s just not the same. Due to the very technical nature of the course, we don’t have the appropriate or enough equipment for twenty students to do many of the suggested hands-on labs. However, the next topic in the class was about wireless networks. I was trying to figure out how to do a wireless lab without the equipment when I remembered the connection I have with a local computer non-profit. I called them and was able to borrow enough wireless cards for the students to search for the drivers, get inside the computer to install the cards, and connect to the wireless network. I will make sure to try to do more of these types of activities as equipment and time allow. Other student feedback can be found by clicking the oval to the left.

Classroom Assessment/Making Students Think

I use several different methods of assessment in both my face to face and online classes. In a typical week, I will have the students do a case project, a discussion, chapter review questions, and a hands-on assignment. I have periodic exams and a final. Sometimes I am able to have the students do a group project. I have the students do these assignments in a way that helps them use more than just a word processor. I’ll have them create presentations and do diagrams and charts. Having these different types of assessments gives students many ways to earn a grade in class.

Discussion Questions

I have students participate in a discussion forum roughly every other week. This is an online activity that can happen at any time throughout the class week. It applies to both online and face to face modalities. The purpose of this type of assignment is to get students to practice writing and communicating in an online environment. This assignment is typically ten percent of a student’s grade. I expect the students to answer the question with at least 100 words and respond to at least three other postings. I also participate in these forums and ask follow up questions to initial student posts. An example of a discussion question is: Define a secure facility. What is the primary objective of the design of such a facility? What are some of the secondary objectives of the design of a secure facility?

Case Projects

The case project is another type of assessment I have. These types of projects usually describe a scenario that is either specific to the chapter, or continues throughout the textbook. The students have to demonstrate critical thinking skills and use the information learned in order to give solutions or solve problems for fictional companies. These assignments might require the student to write a memo, proposal, or describe some technology. At other times a presentation or diagram might be needed. An example of a case project is: Research network diagramming products on the market and write a two page report of your findings. The research should include three products and a comparison of the technical specifications, ease of use (if available), price, availability, and product ratings (if available). Use MLA or APA format. Refer to the Resources link in your class for MLA and APA formatting assistance.

Hands-On Projects

For many students there is no better way to learn than by practicing, or by doing hands-on assignments. This allows the student to practice with the technology and to apply what was learned in the chapter. Many of these hands-on activities lead to the students being able to earn industry certifications. An example of a hands-on project is: There are several FTP clients available for Linux. Research these clients and provide the names and URLs for at least three of them. Choose one to install on your system. Answer the following questions with at least 200 words: why did you pick the client you did? Was it easy to install? Describe the steps you took to install the client.

Chapter Review Questions/Exams

I make use of the end of the chapter questions as review assessments for students. This type of assignment typically consists of multiple choice, true/false, multiple answer and fill in the blank and/or short answer questions. The exams are made up of similar questions. I have provided a sampling below.

A(n) ____________________ is a computer that is connected to more than one network and can forward packets between networks.

Describe the two-part organization of a packet.

The loopback interface exists as a physical device. True or False

If you are running a Linux kernel earlier than 2.6, you have to look in the ____ file to see the network interfaces.

/proc/net/netstat

/proc/net/dev

/proc/net/packet

/proc/net/route

Products of Student Learning

I have demonstrated various ways of assessing students in my classroom. Now I will demonstrate how I evaluate these different types of assessments.

Discussion Questions

During discussion weeks, students have to provide an initial answer and multiple other responses. If they do this, they get full credit. If not, they get partial credit and a comment about how to improve. I provide examples of these comments below:

I gave you partial credit because you didn't add anything to the conversation with your second post. Think about the response and how you can add or point out something to further the conversation.

Keep working on creating better peer response posts. "I agree", or "good advice" does not move the conversation along.

Case Projects

Below is case project feedback for a small assignment worth 15 points. The requirement was to answer in 200-300 words. The student’s answer was:

I would tell them the IP protocol would work best for this situation. This is a connectionless protocol and in this instance would work best. It would work the best because the computers are not in the same building or area so, therefore, they would need a connectionless protocol. It can cover more than one LAN segment, and that would work the best. They could also use IPV6 addressing. This has proven to be the best way to address and has almost made IPV4 obsolete.

My feedback:

You are correct in that TCP/IP would allow the communications, but you missed on the word count. To help with this, restate the problem in your own words, then the solution and why. Give supporting documentation by either quoting or paraphrasing from your textbook or other reliable source.

Score 14/15

The following is feedback for a perfect answer for a 15 point assignment where the student had to use some sort of graphical program, like PowerPoint to draw a simple network with routers, switches, servers, and workstations and then show the communication path between two workstations:

Student, you did a nice job of clearly laying out where the different pieces of hardware should be and how the workstations will communicate. Great work!

I have included in the link to the left examples of a graded assignment for three different students. Student one earned a perfect score. Student two missed a couple of points, and student three had some issues. I give a summary feedback comment in the grade book. I edit the paper when necessary and provide comments in the paper.

At times I also use rubrics. I have provided an example of a rubric I use in my Networking class for a case project below.