Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Making Alternative Assessments the New Norm

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

The cornerstone of this post is a set of five short examples of instructors employing alternative approaches "to design assessment activities that would assess student learning in non-traditional ways." The examples take me back to my school days where my absolute favourite parts were the 'projects' I was encouraged to do (like the one on Ecuador, the one on the Danube River, the closed ecosystem experiment, 'diet for a small planet', and many others). In this respect, university was a step backward. The authors write, "Some recurring themes are alternative assessments provide students with more choice, minimize student stress, and make demonstrating learning more fun and engaging. Let's face it — don't we all learn better when we're having fun?" And also, as they note, "high-pressure/high-stakes exams can be a motivating factor for students to cheat."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Nov 21, 2024 12:33 p.m.

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