I am freaked out by the Christopher Sessums piece about online and brick and mortar college cheating. The image in the piece was shocking, was it for real, or a mock-up? That many students cheating in one auditorium?
His descriptions of the invasive security measures used for online tests (which could still be gotten around, I'm sure), made me reflect on the online and in school tests I'd taken. Yes, assessment is the big problem. Teachers want a measure thats easy to score and a rubric that stands up to scruniny. Don't we all? I fully appreciate that multiple choice tests (scan-tron) are very poor metrics to assess knowledge. And the questions are often ridiculous. Teachers that don't want to work hard and that don't care about student learning use them....everyone (students anyway) knows that! Why is it a surprise to educators? Jeff Sessums said that he could have heard a pin drop. Perhaps they did not know that everyone else knew that the Emperor was wearing no clothes? Impossible.
Your Sessums thoughts were a pleasure to read and a good reality check. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI am sure that teacher know that scantrons are not the best way to assess learning, what are teachers supposed to do when they are assigned a huge number of students and no TA’s. I recently had college course that was based on entirely on three 50-question scantrons exams, each question had only 4 choices, and you could eliminate two right of the bat. If you analyze the test questions carefully they would provide clues to other questions. I enjoyed these tests because it was like trying to solve a puzzle.
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