In this section we present approaches to formative and summative evaluation that can be used/adapted to different onsite and online settings and different types of teaching.
Pre- and Post Tests
Tests can be used as a formative assessment tool to monitor student learning and provide ongoing feedback to help students improve.
Pre-tests are used before the introduction of an activity to establish baselines, while post-tests are used afterwards to assess changes. As well as providing a tool for assessing the impact of teaching, the use of pre-tests allows students to engage with the topic and recall what they do and don’t know about it. By making connections with their long-term memory, they will be more receptive to the learning content.
Technical solutions
Online quizzes are a user-friendly way to create and administer such tests. Online polling solutions such as Mentometer or PollEverywhere are convenient, but usually require a subscription. Alternatively, you can use Google Forms (How to create a poll in Google Forms). Most online collaboration and communication platforms, such as Zoom, MS Teams or BigBlueButton, now have built-in solutions. If your school uses a course management system such as Moodle, you can use the activities available there. An attractive cross-platform alternative is H5P, which is integrated into many e-learning platforms. H5P offers a variety of tools for engaging with learners that can be easily shared and reused. The examples section on the H5P website gives an overview of the activities available.
Here are three H5P activities that you can use as a template for your own activities.
Question Set
Fill in the Blanks
Drag and Drop
Drag each item into the left or right brain hemisphere.
Generating questions
AI tools make it easy to generate questions. There are several dedicated websites, but in many cases freely available generative AI tools will suffice.
The questions used in the previous Quiz and Fill in the Blanks activities were generated using ChatGPT. The text was taken from Paul Burn’s book “Entrepreneurship and Small Business”. This was the prompt used:
Analyse the following text and create 10 multiple choice quizzes, each with 4 choices. The target audience is university students enrolled in an entrepreneurship course. In your answer, highlight the correct answer.
Making learning visible
“Activity without reflection is not learning.” (John Hattie)
Large parts of the Endorse Entrepreneurship course will usually include group activities and the use of student-centred methodologies that are relevant for the development of transversal skills relevant to entrepreneurship, such as collaboration, creativity, problem solving, etc. When planning these activities, it is important to foresee space and tools for reflection in order to make these intrinsic learning outcomes visible.
Rubrics
Rubrics are a good tool to provide structure in the evaluation of project-based and similar learning methods. A rubric is a scoring tool that identifies the different criteria relevant to an assignment, assessment, or learning outcome and states the possible levels of achievement in a specific, clear, and objective way ([NCSU](https://teaching-resources.delta.ncsu.edu/rubric_best-practices-examples-templates/)). Rubrics are also very helpful in organising student self-assessment and peer assessment.
PBL Works offers a set of rubric templates for schools that can be easily adapted to tertiary level education. These cover five areas:
- Collaboration
- Critical thinking
- Complex communication
- Self-directed learning
- Creativity
Retrospectives
Retrospectives are deeply embedded in software engineering approaches, such as as agile development. Wikipedia defines retrospectives as a meeting held by the project team at the end of a project or process (often after an iteration) to discuss what was successful about the project or time period covered by the retrospective, what could be improved, and how to incorporate the successes and improvements in future iterations or projects.
Retrospectives should also be used in learner-centred methodologies, such as project-based learning. In the context of the Endorse Entrepreneurship course, its use makes sense as it is a valuable tool to know in entrepreneurship and team management.
The website Agile Retrospective Resource Wiki provides plans, tips & tricks, tools and ideas to help us get the most out of our retrospectives.
Feedback
Feedback is a powerful learning tool, especially, when the process is not limited to the teacher but also includes the students. For the process to be effective, teachers and students need to develop skills in giving and receiving feedback. For example, introducing a set of rules can be very helpful, for example,
Metodes.lv suggests the following principles:
For the person giving feedback:
- Talk about your own feelings and your observations. Say “I…” or “Me…”.
- Talk to the person, not about him/her. Say “You…”, not “He…”.
- Be specific, describe what happened. Do not judge the person. Do not interpret or generalise.
- Offer the opportunity to learn both from positive and negative actions. Be honest.
For the person receiving the feedback:
- Listen and try to understand.
There are many ways to structure the feedback process. The most important is to establish it as an integral and regular part of the training in order to build trust between participants and to develop the necessary skills.