How can an online feature provided by Google Classroom bolster assessment? In my first adventure using the Google Quiz feature in Google Classroom, I created an online formative assessment based on the Assessment Design Checklist (A.D.C.) that I had developed to build all future assessments and to revise assessments that I have already created. The five aspects that I wanted to be certain were present in the online Google Quiz were: 1) Are the assessment goals specific? 2) Does the assessment meet the goals of varied students? 3) Does the assessment require students to practice self-regulation? 4) Is the feedback for this assessment timely, and 5) How will the assessment inform my teaching going forward? Practicing a backwards design process, I began by reflecting on the learning goals for this assessment and also the affordances of the Google Quiz format.
To start, I thought that it was important to position the assessment considering what the students had already learned, and also to provide some direction for future application of what will be learned in the assessment. In the format for the assessment, these two goals are placed in bookend positions. The center of the assessment requires students to respond to questions based on readings and videos that are embedded in the assessment. Following the A.D.C. Checklist, the first aspect of design was clearly supported.
The Videos used in this assessment each include a closed captioning option that can be activated by the students. The ChomeVox option for the student Chromebooks or the TalkBack option for mobile devices support the use of the online quiz by diverse learners. This affordance of the Google Quiz meets the second requirement for assessment suggested by the A.D.C. checklist.
The topic for the assessment, Phase Changes, follows directly after students have learned about covalent bonding and naming of covalent molecules. While phase changes occur in diverse substances, the approach to this assessment is tied to phase changes in water, a covalent molecule.
The assessment purposely does not receive a grade. Each question is devised to assist student learning. The Google Quiz format affords the use of multiple choice questions, short answer questions, paragraph answer questions, drop down questions, check box questions, and linear scale questions. The variety of questions and responses affords the use of embedded images and videos to inform questions and to support feedback. The feedback to students is immediate. Students may view the results of the quiz immediately and act within the quiz feedback to further develop understanding of the learning goals.
The design of the online assessment requires significant forethought as responders follow different options according to the correctness of each choice. Students not only watch videos for learning, but also encounter videos as supportive feedback for responses that reveal a need for more support of the learning goals. The Google Quiz design includes the opportunity to add sections wherever the designer wishes, supporting the addition of multiple feedback resources. To complete this online quiz, students participate in significant self regulation, listening for content in feedback videos, considering what aspects of the topic were not clearly understood, listening and reading for new information, and revising understanding. This process meets the third A.D.C. design goal.
A final set of questions were specifically constructed to challenge students to share their level of confidence with the learning goals, and to propose an extended learning focus. In this final portion of the assessment, the fifth A.D.C. checklist is met. The students and the teacher are both involved in thinking about where the learning from this assessment will lead. Both teacher and student gain significant insight based on the assessment design.
Some of the constraints that were found in the development of this Google Quiz included limited font choices. Also the addition of sections provides a challenge to construct. There are no apparent systems in place for students to add videos or documents to their responses. The Google Quiz sharing is by g-mail address which acts as a student ID for the teacher. If the ID is consistent with a district standard model including, for example, graduation year, first initial and last name, this is not a problem. But the students address could easily become a challenge if the address is only a number. However, looking at the benefit to students, and the ease of the set up, the Google Quiz is an amazing feature in Google Classroom.
Click on the link below to view a two minute Youtube video describing the Google Quiz. and select the image at the left of the blog post to view a sample.
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