Stage 1 >  Lesson 3  > Page 2  > Step 2  of the Planning Sequence (Backward Design)

Theory
Learning Activity 1: Create Informal Assessment using Blackboard quiz tools
Learning Activity 2: Plan a variety of Assessments

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Theory

How will we know if students have achieved the desired results and met the standards?

In this step, we consider the range of assessments methods available to determine if the students have reached the desired level of understanding.

In the classroom, we have several ways of getting information from students whether they've learned -- from informal checks to quizzes to projects.

Similarly, online courses can be designed to have a variety of ways of collecting data on the students' level of understanding. 

Self-Assessments

It is important for online lessons to contain opportunities for the students to check his or her understanding.

These self-assessments take the place of the informal assessments that classroom teachers do when they ask students questions.

Continuum of Assessment Methods

Backward design approach encourages lessons designers to first think like an assessor before designing the lessons. 

When planning to collect evidence of understanding, we should consider a range of assessment methods:

• Informal checks for understanding --
• Observations & dialogue
• Quiz & test
• Academic Prompts
• Performance task/ project

We should consider the following 4 dimensions when applying each type of the assessments:

• Range of difficulty: from simple to complex
• Time Frame: from short-term to long-term
• Setting: from computational to applications
• Structure: from highly structured to non-structured

Good online lesson design has a variety of opportunities for students to provide information about their understanding.

The assessments of understanding should be thought of in terms of a collection of evidence over time instead of one single test at the end of instruction.

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Learning Activity 1: Create Informal Assessments using Bb quiz tools

Create an informal assessment at Blackboard for lesson 5 of Exponential Functions (EMOL1). The assessment should provide the students immediate feedback upon completion of the quiz. In this exercise, the quiz would be during Lesson 5 (graph of exponential growth). 

Learning problem: 
First year EEE students have difficulty interpreting graphs of exponential functions. 

Learning Objective:
First year EEE must be able to graph and interpret exponential functions without notes with 100% accuracy.

You may use one or more of the following assessment types that offers at Blackboard:

• Multiple choice
• True/false
• Fill-in the answer
• Multiple answers
• Matching
• Ordering
• Short essay

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Learning Activity 2: Plan a variety of Assessments

Create an assessment plan for each section of content that you have identified for your online project. 
REVIEW THE PLAN WITH YOUR PROJECT PARTNER.

Topic:
Lesson #:
Self-assessments:
Submission of Progress:
Preparation for Exam:
Graded Examination:
Performance task or project:

You may use the following table to guide your planning of assessment components:

Traditional Quizzes and Tests	Academic Prompts	Performance Tasks and Projects
Multiple choice	Short-essay explanations	Multiple-step project: collect data categorize and interpret data  provide a report on procedures and outcomes provide an analysis of a solution
Matching	Graphing and interpretation of graphs	Research on methods used in the field for solving similar problems
Ordering	Multi-step problems	Students teaching their classmates
True-False	Solving intermediate and challenging problems	Presentation of solution to a challenging problem
Solving basic problems
Graphing basic problems
Suggested Used: self-assessments and progress submissions so that you can track students' progress	Suggested Used: self-assessment,  progress submissions,  preparation for exams,  and  end of section graded exams	Suggested Used: end of section/unit evidence of understanding, and  preparation for direct application to students' other courses.

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