Assessment
An interesting discussion took place this week with regard to assessment and the various types of assessment such as formative and summative. The discussion regarding the pass mark that applies for medical doctors (it’s only 40%) led me to think about our own assessment requirements. Shortly after the introduction of Moodle as the Learning Management System (LMS) for the organisation it was agreed that all e-learning modules would carry a multiple choice assessment with a 70% pass mark. The students had the option to review the quiz on completion. This allowed them to receive feedback and to redo the assessment if they wished to obtain a higher mark. However there were challenging comments from the management team regarding the level of simplicity of the questions. Recently as we have become more experienced and skilled we have changed the format of our e-learning modules. The module still has a multiple choice assessment but with the option of moving back to the content to look up the answer to the question if the student is not sure. This was to mirror real life experience where the student can access information if they are unsure of the answer. There is no need to learn everything off by heart and indeed the subject of insurance is such that it’s impossible to know it all. As a result of this and in answer to the challenges from the management team we have refined the questions. They are harder but it is possible to access the content to check the answer if the student is unsure. We have also increased the pass mark to 90%. In view of the discussion in class are we being too harsh? Feedback from students indicates that we are. However is it a case that they have been used to the other extreme where the questions have been too easy? Could it be that when they get used to navigating the modules in their new format that they will jump between the quiz and the content and get 100%? Previous e-learning modules had become a tick box exercise where students just entered through each slide, now they can choose their own navigation path through the course and then demonstrate that they understand the content. Is this a departure out of their comfort zone and is this what they are complaining about rather than the assessment? Maybe is it that both the new format and the harder questions are just too much to contend with at the same time. Comparing our pass mark with that of medical students would indicate that maybe it is too high. Apprenticeship students are required to achieve a pass rate of 70%. I think it’s time to reduce our pass mark back to where it was. With the increase in the difficulty of the questions being asked an achievement of 70% is a good indication that there is a sufficient understanding there. I have already alluded to the fact that it’s not possible to know it all so why are we insisting that students should know 90%? Some good news for students is on the way.
October 2011
