Learning Team Assessment Strategies - Research Paper Example

? Learning Team Assessment Strategies Paper and Presentation Learning Team Assessment Strategies Paper and Presentation Introduction Flexnet course, being one of the best flexible course designs, means that the learners can always log in online anytime for the classes and complete their coursework within their own pace (Jackson, Jamieson, & Khan, 2007). It has helped in cases of diverse students as they all can log in at different time, study and finish their work on time without any worries. The only deadline that the students have is that when the class ends, all the assignments should be done and completed at that time. In some cases, they are flexible and they can only attend the physical lectures at least once. When it comes to assessment, it presents a challenge, especially for a course where the students enrolled are diverse, like in our case (Mayer et al 2007). That means each of the students has different and varying learning styles, and the experience in the healthcare is varied, so do the ethnic and cultural backgrounds of each of the five students who are employees at different hospital with different systems. The evaluation and assessment methods that we shall use will not be different from the ones held in the physical campus. Assessment Methods for FLEXnet course With the class having five different students, each one is expected by the end of the course to have been able to identify patient confidentiality issues, various types of work-related harassment and the consequence of such actions, as well as to relate the need to maintain confidentiality of patient information and proprietary organizational information to work-related situations. Therefore, various method of assessment can be used to know whether the objectives have been achieved or not (Michaelsen, 2008). Some of the assessment methods that can be used for this course include: Timed Tests: For the timed tests to be administered, the learners have all to be online as the tests can only be offered on the Learning Management System platform. With the timed tests, the students will not have assignment deadlines, instead, they will only sit for the exams when they are ready and once they start the exams, there is a limited time they are expected to finish the test. The timed- tests normally consist of multiple choice questions, questions that require short answers, true or false questions and even matching questions. For example, the types of work-related harassment would be very appropriate for this type of questions as most answers required will be short and precise and also the aspect of true or false questions can be relevant in this case (Jackson, Jamieson, & Khan, 2007). Since most of the time will be spent online and the course itself is offered online, the administration of questions and even grading is done automatically with the Learning Management System which will mark each student’s work automatically. This means that it will be very convenient and can be adopted and implemented very fast, especially since the instructor will spend little time grading the tests done by the students thereby reducing the time spent by the faculty in assessment instrument development and grading. The test scored will be done objectively without the aspect of human subjectivity and error. For a group, it will be appropriate to use this in some units in the course. The main disadvantage will be basically measuring the students’ ability superficially and, therefore, will not match the specific objectives of the course (Jackson, Jamieson, & Khan, 2007). In cases of the five different students, it will not be easy to check the changes that would need to be made for the objectives to be achieved just by referencing to the timed test. Projects: When a project is given, the main objective will be to help the students in learning and understanding a concept. The instructor can decide to give the students different numbers of responsibilities that they need to research; for example, the students would be told to research on the patient confidentiality issues and will use the hospital as the places of research interviewing both the patients and the doctors. The main purpose of the project will be to enable the students to analyze the information given and go ahead and think even outside the box and finally they will present their work in a structured manner in this case the project will be written, compiled and submitted to the instructor (Michaelsen, 2008). Projects as a mode of assessment mean that the project will have to be either handed in personally during the physical session or they can be sent over to the instructor. By using the projects, the instructor will be able to get the students’ perspectives in the learning process on the given assignment. As such, it is student-centered and, therefore, the students will be motivated and active when doing their own research. The project on the downside can be costly for the students and time consuming as it requires a lot of labor while doing the research; in the end, it becomes quite intimidating to the students. In addition, it will require training on how to conduct the research on the instructor’s part (Mayer et al 2007). Writing Essays: Essays can be set in such a way that every topic that is taught during the course can be assessed. In the five students’ case, the topics like work-related harassment will require an essay. By writing an essay, the main activities that the students will do will be research and also participate in thinking critically on the said topic as much as they will be expected to possess effective writing skills. By having the writing skills, the students will be assessed on the basis of their skill level and also the mastery of the topic and the unit given. The submission of the essays will mostly be through the email or the FLEXnet platform that the faculty is using. The students will be creative when it comes to essay writing as the essay will be summative or formative, depending on the scope required by the instructor. The essay on the instructor’s part will have to be meticulously designed if it is used to assess the student’s learning outcome. Consideration should also be given on the student’s ability; therefore, the instructor should not be subjective. Quizzes: For the course, quizzes will also be relevant as they will be testing the students’ knowledge, especially after a portion of the units and course given has been completed. The quiz will be shorter than the timed tests and their purpose will be to allow the evaluation of the student’s learning by the instructor; as for the students’ part, they can use the quizzes as a way of self-assessment to know how well they have learned and understood the area set in the quiz. When the student scores a low grade on the quiz, the student will know that a particular topic was not well understood and, therefore, he or she can go back and read the said topic or the chapter taught previously. This will give the student an opportunity to prepare for the timed test when the unit has been covered. Just like the timed-tests, the instructor’s time is saved and the work is reduced as he or she has to do minimal mark in terms of grading and setting the exam because the quiz is marked automatically by the FLEXnet platform software. Evaluation of the students on an individual level For Maria Sanchez, who is fluent in English and Spanish, essay writing would be the most appropriate mode of assessment during the lessons as she has mastery of the language and the prior health care work experience will offer her vast opportunities to put the experience in a written perspective for the instructor to gauge her skill level of understanding. The projects will be relevant too; with the experience she has it will work to her advantage as she is able to interact with staff members in the healthcare sector that she has worked in. Maria is able to analyze given topic objectively. With Olga Bartold being new in the United States and furthermore coming from a German speaking country with no experience of working in the healthcare environment, special attention will have to be given to her. This is further made by the sense that Olga is not fluent in English but fluent in German. If the course has no extra language option, it will imply that in the beginning emphasis will be laid on the quizzes and timed tests for her. The quiz will be simple and so will be the timed tests, especially the true or false/ yes or no questions. Furthermore, the online tests will have to be manually changed in order to give Olga ample time to complete the exams. With time, the essay will be introduced with simple topics and areas for her to cover. If there is a language option, then it will be prudent to provide the lessons in both the English and German languages for her. Projects will be complicated unless submitted in German since it will look intimidating for her. With Dr.Ranzin having experience in the healthcare environment, it will be easier when it comes to the assessment of Dr.Ranzin. This is made better by the fact that the language of instruction will be English and Dr.Ranzin knows the language very well. By the virtue of the experience that the doctor possesses, the most appropriate method of individual assessment will be through project work as that data can be collected from the healthcare work station that he used to work in. Essay, too, will be relevant after each and every portion of work done. Joe Antone will not have a language problem apart from the fact that he does not have prior working experience in the health care environment. Therefore, he will have difficulty in getting the correct concept of essay writing and project writing. More time will have to be given to him in relation to that but it will be appropriate for him to attend and sit for the quizzes and timed tests even without prior experience as the answers are normally short and some are provided in the multiple choices. Just like Dr.Ranzin and Maria Sanchez, Martha Scott is also experienced when it comes to working in the healthcare environment. Therefore, it will be relatively easy for the concept to be taught to them as they all know what it entails in the healthcare systems differently. As for the language factor, since she is from Midwest, she should be fluent in the English language and, therefore, any method of assessment whether by quiz or project it is expected that Martha will be able to tackle the assignment given without any difficulties. Conclusion When it comes to assessment methods, several factors have to be put into consideration. In our FLEXnet course, the language and the experience will be a factor on how the course will be offered and since the course is supposed to be flexible, each student’s needs will have to be considered for an equal learning outcome in each and every given unit. This is to enable all the objectives set to be achieved. References Jackson, N., Jamieson, A., & Khan, A. (2007). Assessment in medical education and training: A practical guide. Abingdon: Radcliffe. Mayer, I., Mastik, H., & International Simulation and Gaming Association. (2007).Organizing and learning through gaming and simulation: Proceedings of Isaga 2007. Delft: Eburon. Michaelsen, L. K. (2008). Team-based learning for health professions education: A guide to using small groups for improving learning. Sterling, Va: Stylus. Read More