Ideas for assessments

I think the whole idea here is to know what the students are learning, did they really understand what they have learnt, can they apply this knowledge in different contexts, and can they use it in constructive way?  

So we need ideas (ways) to measure (Assessments) the output of learning process. I would start with the classifications of assessments “Summative & Formative”.

How can we enhance the formative assessments? 

As you know formative assessments can provide “just-in-time” information on what students know or can do and I would suggest using the following ideas (ways) to achieve that: 

1- Case Study Quiz; ideally you can do it in interactive lecturing model where you can measure the understanding and applying it in real life scenarios. Actually I used this technique in my class where I present them a scenario for some IT company which has some IT requirements and let the students list how they can fulfill these requirements.(problem solving/critical thinking)                                                   

Tip: the instruction should also use many Case-study scenarios to cover the subject matter.                                                                                               

 2- Discussion board; where you can have verbal, written, and face-to-face discussions about certain topics, like the discussion board we have it in Moodle & BbVista.                                    

3- Group Activity; where you can have your class divided to groups and each group participate in collaborative activity, for example I assigned an activity to my class and I called it “Get the best Laptop” which depends on knowing the technical specs of PC parts like the CPU, RAM, Hard-disk, monitor,.., and budget. It was very useful activity (Quiz) for them as it makes them apply what they have studied to select a good laptop amongst variety of vendors.                                

4- Simulation tool; we are lucky as we have plenty of simulation tools in IT field those could be used to assess & train our students, for example I am using PC assembly tool where students reassemble the whole PC and it can be used as a training tool and testing tool as well. 

5-Researches: you can use this type to stress the deep understanding for students for the core concepts.

How can we enhance the Summative assessments?

As you know summative assessments tell us which students are having problems or developing misconceptions during the course or unit (module) and I would suggest using the following ideas (ways) to enhance this type of assessment:                                                                                          

1- Projects: Project-based learning is one of the greatest approaches that can be used with students as it prepare students to working environments through applying long term projects that simulate the real-life scenarios                                                                                                  

 2- Presentations: I think that one can replace the traditional written exams in IT courses in future,  it gives opportunity to the students to stress their deep understanding on core concepts as they need to present/explain it to audience (also anyone of audience can ask the student if she/he is not clearly understanding some point that cover by the student)                                                                                                                                  

3- Lab assessments: this is the favorite type for my students and for me personally, it really stress the hands-on experience for the students and it measure applying their current knowledge in solving problem from real-work industrial scenarios. 

Finally, I think that is fair enough that we teach/present the curricula in creative ways (not the traditional direct instruction lecture) using the interactive lecturing and project/problem based learning before we apply these ideas (assessments should be a reflection to the learning process).