Transforming Assessment with Direct Evidences of Learning
Farris Child, Cynthia Wong, & Dan Chandler
Brigham Young University
Session Outcomes:
1. Describe the differences between direct and indirect evidences of learning.
2. Identify instances where either direct or indirect evidences would be appropriate.
3. Explain why direct evidences of learning are important.
4. Show how changing the assessment of an outcome can lead to direct verses indirect evidence.
Questions to gather indirect evidence:
Q1 Please select the best response to each statement:
Statement / Strongly Disagree (1) / Disagree (2) / Agree (3) / Strongly Agree (4)I can describe the differences between direct and indirect evidences of learning (1) / m / m / m / m
I can identify instances where either direct or indirect evidences would be appropriate (2) / m / m / m / m
I can explain why direct evidences of learning are important (3) / m / m / m / m
I can show how an outcome can be directly assessed (4) / m / m / m / m
Q2 T/F I can describe the difference between a direct and indirect evidence of learning.
Q3 T/F I can explain why direct evidences of learning are important
.
Questions to gather direct evidence to our learning outcomes:
Q1 What is the difference between an indirect and direct evidence of learning?
Q2 Please describe how you could directly assess one of your learning outcomes?
Q3 Why are direct evidences of learning important?
Q4 How could you change the assessment of one of your outcomes so that you could gather direct verses indirect evidence?
Q5 Give an example of when it would be appropriate to use an indirect verses direct evidence assessment tool.
Q6 If we changed the session outcome to read- Attendees will be able to identify (verses describe) the difference between direct and indirect evidences of learning- than this would be an example of a direct evidence:
Which of the following statements describes the difference between direct and indirect evidences of learning:
m An indirect evidence of learning requires those being assessed to demonstrate their skills or knowledge while a direct evidence of learning captures perceptions or opinions (1)
m A direct evidence of learning is tangible, visible, self-explanatory evidence of what has or hasn't been learned while an indirect evidence captures signs that a student is probably learning (2)
m Direct evidences shows proxy signs that a student is probably learning while indirect evidence requires more clear and convincing evidence (3)
Q7 If we again slightly changed the wording of our 1st outcome to read, “Advisors can identify the difference between different assessment tools which could be used to gather direct verses indirect evidence” then the following question could be used:
Suppose this was one of your student learning outcomes in your office–Students can identify the services offered at their advisement center.
Please select all of the following methods which could be used to directly assess this outcome:
m Ask the student if they can identify the services offered at their advisement center (Yes/No)
m Ask the student to list all of the services offered at their advisement center
m Asking the student to what extent they can identify the services offered at their advisement center (likert scale)
m Give the student a pretest asking them to identify the services, review the services offered, and then giving the student a posttest asking the same question. Then compare the differences
m Looking through statistics which show how many students have been to their advisement center