The Vermont State Educator – September 2024

Teaching Tip: Equitable Assessment for All Learners

_{Jen Garrett-Ostermiller
Director of the Center for Teaching & Learning Innovation}

Assessment has been on the tip of the tongue in the CTLI, lately, as the VTSU Program Assessment system gets launched this fall. Program Assessment and Classroom Assessment are distinct teaching and learning topics. Program Assessment focuses on aggregate student learning where classroom assessment focuses on individual student learning and progress. However, a sampling of student work completed for Classroom Assessment is often used as evidence for Program Assessment, so there are points of convergence, too.

Let’s take a tangible example. Imagine, during Annual Program Assessment, that the faculty notice that, when persistence rates for the program are deaggregated by demographic characteristics, students who are first-generation in their family to attend college drop out of the program after sophomore year at a significantly higher rate than their peers who have at least one parent that completed a bachelor’s degree. The faculty the examine the courses at the sophomore level and note that there are some common pedagogical choices in course with higher DFW rates:

• Students’ final grades are primarily calculated from multiple choice exams.
• Students’ early attempts in the courses carry the same weight as later attempts and are averaged in the calculation of their final grade.

In this case study, through the Program Assessment process, the faculty identified two common examples of inequity in classroom assessment, and while they did not know for certain that these practices were causing students to drop out of the program, it is a reasonable consideration that shifting to more equitable classroom assessment practices could have a positive impact on the retention of first-generation students through the program.

It doesn’t take an “aha” identified through Program Assessment to implement equitable assessment principles. At VTSU, we have stated values to support this work, including this excerpt from the VSCS Diversity Statement: “We actively … break down barriers impacting access to education and professional growth for all.”

If you are interested in implementing more equitable Classroom Assessment practices today, here are some ideas, drawn from Montenegro & Jankowski (2020):

• Implement Prior Knowledge Checks and then ensure they have appropriate baseline knowledge and skills to be successful.
• Reflect on how students’ social and cultural identities might influence learning and be assets in this assignment or class.
• Ask students what would best support their learning.
• Ask students to review learning outcomes, rubrics, and criteria for clarity and revise accordingly.
• Implement the Transparent Assignment Design template & process.
• Give students multiple ways to complete an assignment or express learning throughout the course.
• Incorporate drafts of assignments and build in revisions.
• Craft rubrics appropriate to the level of learning (e.g., introductory vs capstone), using developmental language.
• Interrogate standards and expectations: Is there bias in the assessment chosen (e.g., is it necessary for a presentation to be delivered orally, which might disadvantage some multilingual students or some students with learning disabilities)?
• Are you assessing social or cultural capital rather than learning?

And if you want to go a step further, consider whether your grading structure may promote inequities. The CTLI fall book group is reading Grading for Growth (see below!) and will give you practical ideas about how to further increase equity through alternative grading practices. We’d love to have you join us.

Reference
Montenegro, E., & Jankowski, N. A. (2020). A new decade for assessment: Embedding equity into assessment praxis(Occasional Paper No. 42). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois and Indiana University, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA).

LinkedIn Learning Available for Faculty, Staff, & Students

LinkedIn Learning is now available to everyone on campus, including students, at no cost!

What is LinkedIn Learning?

LinkedIn Learning provides 24-hour access to high-quality, on-demand, online video courses and collections for professional development and training in specific skills, taught by industry experts. LinkedIn Learning has over 300,000 tutorials and 16,000+ professionally produced videos on a wide range of topics, including:

• Software: tutorials on all Microsoft Office, Stata, SPSS, MATLB, Generative AI tools, Photoshop, and more
• Academic: Study and writing guides, online learning tips, research paper citations and formatting, mindfulness, work/life balance, overcoming procrastination, and time management
• Life Skills: parenting tips, helping children learn online, cooking skills, budgeting, and more
• Leadership: models, styles, skill sets, management, group dynamics, service, impact and influence in leadership, leadership mindsets, goal setting, and others
• Career: job search skills, resume writing, interviewing, management, and job-specific Learning Paths to explore hundreds of professions
• Teaching and Learning: how to engage students in the classroom, communicating with students, student motivation, crafting effective feedback, crafting online courses, Canvas tutorials, and more
• Wellness: health and wellness, managing stress for positive change, ergonomics for online learning, breathwork for stress reduction, and others
• Research: data visualization, writing a research paper, research foundations, qualitative and quantitative research, EndNote, SPSS, and more

Bookmark LinkedIn Learning in your favorite browser and use your VTSU credentials to sign in.

The VTSU license for LinkedIn Learning is available through a recent federal grant for the next two years.

Teaching with AI

Are you interested in learning more about ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI) tools?

The Center for Teaching & Learning Innovation has partnered with the Auburn University Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning to provide VTSU faculty members with an opportunity to participate in the award-winning Teaching with AI, a fully-online, self-paced, asynchronous course especially designed for higher education faculty.

The course, which includes content focused on the technical, pedagogical, theoretical, and ethical implications of AI, should be beneficial to beginners as well as more advanced users of this emerging technology.

What are the goals of the course?

• Learn about AI and its implications for teaching and learning in higher education – especially those relating to academic integrity;
• Consider examples (good and bad) of how to redesign courses for AI;
• Experiment with AI tools, redesign assignments, and get feedback;
• Engage in conversations about your thinking on topics related to AI in the college classroom;
• Access a (growing and evolving) repository of research on teaching with AI;
• Engage your department colleagues in the conversation by modeling best practices and sharing your learning to ensure students in your program have a consistent, comparable learning experience no matter who is leading the class.

What is the time commitment and what do I earn by completing the course?

• The total time for an engaged learner to complete all eight modules is between 10 to 15 hours.
• The VTSU licenses expire on April 1, 2025.
• If you complete one assignment at the end of each module, you will earn an AI Explorer digital badge to add to your CV.

How do I sign-up?

The CTLI has purchased licenses for 100 VTSU faculty members, available first-come, first-served. Please submit the form below to express interest. As long as licenses are available, your login credentials will be created and your enrollment into the course will be initiated. Further instructions and correspondence will be emailed to your Vermont State email address.

Complete the Enrollment Form Today!