I am not a fan of the current fixation of educators on assessment. My criticism is based on a couple of points. First, we are so caught up in the work of assessing (work which includes differentiating formative and summative which is a meaningless differentiation) we are reducing our capacity to provide meaningful feedback and students’ ability to understand out feedback. Second, we assume the feedback must be from teacher to student.
We will increase the quality of the feedback we give students, their capacity to take actions based on feedback, while reducing the extraneous cognitive load of providing feedback by changing our language to reflect “feedback” on work and “evaluation” of learning. We can also improve the quality of feedback by structuring feedback and evaluation so that is comes from three sources: experts, peers, and the self. This is an idea that has focused my own course design and my work with other faculty, but I recently found authors who clearly captured the idea. The Triad Approach to Assessment (see figure 8.1) is in my tool box, and I anticipate using it as I expand my work with community college.
I encountered the Triad Approach to Assessment in:
Conrad, D., & Openo, J. (2018). Assessment Strategies for Online Learning: Engagement and Authenticity. Athabasca University Press. https://doi.org/10.15215/aupress/9781771992329.01
It appeared in:
Vaughan, N. D., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. R. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. Edmonton, AB: Athabasca University Press. Retrieved from http://www. aupress.ca/books/120229/ebook/99Z_Vaughan_et_al_2013-Teaching_in_ Blended_Learning_Environments.pdf