{"id":12418,"date":"2012-11-26t08:00:33","date_gmt":"2012-11-26t13:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/?p=12418"},"modified":"2012-11-25t22:13:14","modified_gmt":"2012-11-26t03:13:14","slug":"getting-to-know-coursersa-assessments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2012\/11\/getting-to-know-coursersa-assessments\/","title":{"rendered":"getting to know coursera: assessments"},"content":{"rendered":"

by katie mcewen, graduate assistant<\/em><\/p>\n

so far in our discussion of common features in coursera, we\u2019ve focused on two methods of presenting content online: video lectures<\/a><\/strong> and video discussions<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 certainly, students (whether online or in the traditional classroom) benefit from coherent, clearly sequenced, thoughtful and thought-provoking discussions and lectures.\u00a0 but, just as certainly, assessing comprehension, application, or mastery online poses a number of tricky questions for both students and faculty.\u00a0 how do faculty ensure rigor?\u00a0 and how do students work to demonstrate successful completion?\u00a0 in this post, we\u2019ll turn our attention to typical methods of assessment<\/strong> in coursera.<\/p>\n

again, though, the question arises: is there be such a thing as \u201ctypical\u201d in this setting?\u00a0 and, once again, the answer is yes.\u00a0 with now over 200 courses across a wide spectrum of disciplines, the coursera consortium offers a global audience of learners access to a dizzying array of possibilities.\u00a0 yet, as we\u2019ve already seen, these courses often share more in common than might be immediately apparent from a course title.<\/p>\n

much of this commonality is engineered by the coursera platform, which supports \u2014 on the level of technology, to say nothing of the level of ideology \u2014 certain formats, while discouraging others.\u00a0 these formats, in turn, reflect a certain approach to teaching and learning (often, as we\u2019ve noted rather teacher centered<\/strong>).\u00a0 despite this, however, coursera does also hold the potential to facilitate innovation<\/a>, not only online, but also in the on-campus classroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

assessments<\/strong> follow this common thread, in that coursera supports a limited number of assessment types: quizzes, programming assignments, and peer assessments.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
modern & contemporary american poetry : quiz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

stand-alone quizzes<\/strong> are the most frequently used method of assessment in coursera courses.\u00a0 across almost all disciplines, weekly (or sometimes bi-weekly) automatically graded quizzes provide students with a quick check-in to test knowledge, get feedback, and further explanation of material.\u00a0 quizzes in coursera support multiple-choice<\/strong> questions (either one right answer or \u201cselect all that apply\u201d), fill-in-the-blank<\/strong> questions (short numerical or free-form text answers).\u00a0 immediate feedback lets students know what they missed and why; multiple attempts (when allowed by the instructor) emphasize mastery of the material.<\/p>\n

here, it soon becomes clear that writing smart, challenging multiple-choice questions is not nearly as easy as it might at first seem.\u00a0 in fact, with basic test-taking skills, i\u2019ve managed to score surprisingly high on a number of quizzes in disciplines in which i have absolutely no knowledge or expertise.\u00a0 given my background in german, i was quite proud of the 50% i earned on a machine learning quiz.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
introduction to computational finance & financial econometrics : programming assignment<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

like the stand-alone quizzes, programming assignments<\/strong> are automatically graded to generate both a score and feedback for students.\u00a0 unlike quizzes, these assignments ask students to actively use their knowledge to create code or analyze data, implementing or applying material learned in lecture.\u00a0 right now, programming assignments are most frequently found in computer science.\u00a0 but by enabling students to submit work in a number of formats \u2014 for example, programming languages and r, mathlab or octave, or even excel spreadsheets \u2014 these assignments are flexible enough to evaluate formatted output in disciplines as various as statistics, engineering, or finance.\u00a0 programming assignments challenge students to apply knowledge and work through complex problems, while still providing the immediate feedback only possible from a computer.\u00a0 and, at the discretion of the instructor, programming assignments may be revised and submitted multiple times, inviting students to gain mastery instead of merely receiving a grade.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
a history of the world since 1300 : peer assessment<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

peer assessments<\/strong> similarly allow students the opportunity to create a wide range of material, from design projects to essays to videos or even music recordings.\u00a0 unlike the other forms of assessment in coursera which can be automatically graded, peer assessments require the input of fellow students.\u00a0 these kinds of assignments thus depend upon a good-faith effort on the part of each student not only to submit original work in the proper format and the proper language (largely still english), but also to then anonymously evaluate the work of others attentively and constructively.<\/p>\n

obviously, rubrics<\/strong> are essential to this form of assessment, as students are asked to provide both quantitative and qualitative feedback to their fellow learners.\u00a0 yet, as we know, grading effectively and fairly is a learned and reflective practice, an art unto itself.<\/p>\n

in light of these growing pains, coursera is actively working to modify and improve peer assessment on the platform, including revising rubrics<\/a>.\u00a0 yet, peer assessments are still both an exciting innovation to facilitate greater student interaction and engagement as well as a sometimes-challenging problem for both instructors and students.<\/p>\n

next time, we\u2019ll continue our discussion of assessments in coursera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by katie mcewen, graduate assistant so far in our discussion of common features in coursera, we\u2019ve focused on two methods of presenting content online: video lectures and video discussions.\u00a0 certainly, students (whether online or in the traditional classroom) benefit from coherent, clearly sequenced, thoughtful and thought-provoking discussions and lectures.\u00a0 but, just as certainly, assessing comprehension,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":12029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[191],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-wp0\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2018\/07\/09154346\/coursera-logo-300x2251.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12418"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}