Online testing with Blackboard Mobile Learn - Formative Assessment
Design Pattern Tags : Academic Skills, Active learning, Mobile learning
Online testing with Blackboard Mobile Learn - Formative Assessment May 2016
Online testing with Blackboard Mobile Learn - Formative Assessment is deployed to reinforce student learning process using a mobile device (smart phone, tablet etc). This activity is designed to modify teaching and learning activities.
Rationale Formative assessment identifies students’ strengths and weaknesses and targets parts of learning that require reinforcement and modification.
Learners/Context Formative assessment does not contribute to the final grade that the learner receives. It is intended to encourage student self-assessment, goal setting, dialogue and reflection. Formative assessment can be undertaken at any point in the course and, ideally, multiple opportunities for formative assessment activities should be included in the course design. Formative assessment can also represent a rehearsal for summative assessment tasks where course grading will be applied.
Mobile formative assessment tests can be very effectively by students to assess progress in building knowledge, comprehension, processes or skills in relation to:
text book study
pivotal lectures
exiting a workshop series
a change of topics
field trips or case study examples
preparing for formal assessments
rehearsal for academic testing.
Mobile enabled tests do not restrict access to mobile devices and can still be accessed through the standard Blackboard Learn.
Alignment Formative Assessment monitors student learning and enables the lecturer to provide ongoing feedback.
Instructions/Processes Prior to Semester
Decide the type of formative assessment in the course and the release assessment dates in Blackboard.
If the tests are designed for student self-assessment, ensure you provide quality detailed and instructional feedback. This feedback may offer guidance about choices made and steer students toward course content or resources for further study or review if needed.
It is important to decide whether formative assessments can be retaken and under what conditions. It could prove motivating to apply mechanics like those used in popular games where students can move on having passed a test threshold (say 70%) or opt to retry until they reach 100%.
Create a mobile compatible test in Blackboard (refer to Resources/Technology) and follow the instruction.
In your Blackboard Learn course, find the “Create Assessment” drop-down and select Mobile Compatible Test.
Fill out the test settings. Be careful to make the test unavailable until you actually plan to launch it.
Consider which question types might be most effective. To make tests accessible to mobile devices you are restricted to the use of certain question types:
Calculated Numeric.
File Response.
Fill in Multiple Blanks.
Hot Spot.
Multiple Choice.
Short Answer.
True/False. For details of how to create each mobile question type refer to The Blackboard Faculty Guide to Mobile Tests (refer to Resources/Technology).
Conditions/Critical Success Factors Understanding of formative assessment.
Knowledge of Bb mobile.
Using Bb Mobile formative tests and quizzes can be delivered randomly to students heralded by a pushed mobile announcement.
Mobile tests can only be created using the standard Blackboard Learn desktop environment. At this time, you cannot create a mobile test from your mobile device.
Resources/ Technology