Topic 8

Interaction, Feedback and Assessment

 Contents 

Overview

Source materials for this topic

Designing for interaction

What is interaction?

Why is interaction important?

What activities are typical in learning materials?

How do you make learning materials interactive?

What kinds of feedback are needed?

Strategies for assessing learner performance

Why assess?

Who should assess?

How can formative assessment help learners?

When to assess?

How to assess?

What are the external requirements?

Practice exercise

            Interaction and assessment

 1. Overview 

These materials support a discussion on the topic of designing materials that encourage learner interaction, and that provide learners with appropriate and timely feedback on their performance.

1.1 Source materials for this topic

Jenkins, J. Course development: a manual for editors of distance-teaching materials. 2nd ed. Cambridge: International Extension College, 1987.

Kember, D. Writing study guides. Bristol: Technical and Educational Services Ltd., 1991.

Lockwood, F. Activities in self-instructional texts. London: Kogan Page, 1992.

Lockwood, F. (ed.) Materials production in open and distance learning. London, Paul Chapman, 1994.

 2. Designing for interaction 

2.1 What is interaction?

Interaction is an essential aspect of open and distance learning materials, as follows.

·       Learners in distance learning courses generally have limited opportunity for interaction with their tutor or other learners, and the course materials must take on some of this role.

·       Learners always interact with print materials, simply by reading them and thinking about what they say.

·       Distance learning materials also seek to build in additional interactive features, in particular, activities asking learners to think about something or to do something.

2.2 Why is interaction important?

Interaction in learning materials is important for some of the following reasons:

·     An interactive approach can make up for the lack of other kinds of interaction and reduce the learner’s sense of isolation.

·     An interactive approach can personalise distance learning materials and bring the writer closer to the learner.

·     An interactive approach is likely to stimulate deep rather than surface learning. A ‘deep’ approach to learning refers to an intention to develop one’s understanding and to challenge ideas, while the ‘surface’ approach is the intention to memorise information and to follow instructions.

·     Interaction can stimulate many learning events, such as focusing the learner’s attention or encouraging performance.

·     Interaction is essential if print materials are to meet requirements for a ‘learning dialogue’.

·     Interaction can encourage active learning and ensure that learners try things out for themselves.

·     An interactive approach can help learners to process new ideas and link them with their existing experience and so help to anchor learning.

Discussion: Ask your participants for additional reasons why interactive approaches are valuable in designing open and distance learning materials.

2.3 What activities are typical in learning materials?

Discussion: It is useful for the sections that follow to have sample course materials available from which to draw examples of activities, feedback, and assessment strategies.

To be effective in fostering interaction, activities must make explicit the active nature of learning. Activities should suggest to learners some of the more successful strategies they may adopt to achieve a particular objective.

These activities must:

·       be relevant to the learner’s own objectives;

·       be worth doing because learners are busy people;

·       be inherently challenging and interesting; and

·       include a variety of opportunities for interaction that will suit diverse learning styles(as discussed in Topic 2 (Principles of Instructional Design)).

2.4 How do you make learning materials interactive?

Possible methods

Learning materials can be made more interactive by including the following:

·       activities that focus a learner’s attention on the subject;

·       activities that encourage learners to reflect on their existing knowledge and experience that may be relevant to the subject;

·       activities that suggest ways in which learners can apply what they are learning;

·       problem solving activities;

·       project work; or

·       a question and answer approach, exploring a subject through a series of questions which encourage learners to carry out their own analysis.

Encourage learners

Ways to encourage learners to make the most of activities include:

·       explaining why the activities have been included;

·       describing the advantages of an active approach to learning;

·       explaining the purpose of each activity;

·       highlighting the benefits that activities will offer learners;

·       integrating activities into the course assessment;

·       creating a range of types of activities; and

·       avoiding activities that require large mental leaps away from the line of thought pursued in the materials.

2.5 What kinds of feedback are needed?

Designing activities that encourage interaction is one side of the coin; the other side is providing feedback to learners so they will know whether they are on the right track.

Mechanisms for providing this feedback include:

·       incorporating self-assessment exercises with sample answers into the print materials, either directly after the question or at the end of a unit;

·       providing the page numbers of the set texts or other readings where these questions are discussed, answered, or both;

·       providing sample answers on audio cassette;

·       suggesting that learners contact the tutor to discuss their answers;

·       asking learners to send their answers to their tutor so the tutor can give them prompt written or oral feedback; and

·       designing face-to-face tutorial sessions that actively engage learners and provide them with immediate feedback on their performance.

 3. Strategies for assessing learner performance 

3.1 Why assess?

Assessment in open and distance learning may have any of three main purposes:

·       formative assessment: to give learners feedback on their progress so that they know how well they are doing and can, if necessary, change the way they are tackling the course;

·       summative assessment: to provide the basis for marks that may contribute to the learner’s eventual certification; and

·       as part of the overall evaluation process: to help the open and distance learning institution to monitor the effectiveness of its courses.

3.2 Who should assess?

Assessment may be carried out by any of a number of people, including:

·       the learner him or herself: generally called self-assessment;

·       other learners: called peer assessment;

·       the learner’s tutor: often through tutor-marked assignments that are built into the course;

·       examinations: an examiner or assessor, as may sometimes be the case with summative assessment; and

·       course evaluations: someone else does the assessment, perhaps a researcher evaluating the course.

3.3 How can formative assessment help learners?

Formative assessment can help learners learn in a number of ways:

·       diagnosing learning needs: early on in a course, assessment can help learners decide which parts of the course they need most, and may form the basis of a learning contract;

·       checking progress: self-assessment questions during or at the end of study units enable learners to check how they are getting on and provide immediate reinforcement of learning;

·       increasing motivation: reinforcement helps to keep learners going;

·       providing feedback: tutor comments on tutor-marked assignments ensure the learner knows what to do next;

·       encouraging a deep approach to learning: particular types of assessment such as questions that call for reflection, analysis, or application; projects; and practical assignments can help learners improve their approach to learning;

·       facilitating contact between learner and tutor: tutor-marked assignments are often the main point of contact between a learner and his or her tutor, and are therefore an invaluable way of reducing learner isolation; and

·       increasing learner control: giving learners the means to assess their own progress can increase their control over their own learning.

3.4 When to assess

In deciding at which times during your course assessment is appropriate, here are some points to bear in mind:

·       Early in the course, learners may not have learned anything significant enough for testing.

·       On the other hand, an early assignment provides an opportunity for early interaction and feedback and thereby builds the relationship between learner and tutor.

·       Relate assessment to major sections of content.

·       Spread assessment evenly to spread the load and generate regular feedback.

·       Keep in mind the turnaround time and capacity of your tutors.

·       If an assignment is prescribed very late in the course, learners are unlikely to receive feedback before any end-of-course examinations.

3.5 How to assess

Learning can be assessed using a number of possible methods, each appropriate for testing certain kinds of aims and objectives.

Assessment Methods

Assessment	Assessed	Advantages	Disadvantages
Essay questions in exams (learners do not see questions before sitting the exam)	Memory for facts, understanding ideas, ability to organise material, ability to develop an argument, original thinking	Easy to set	Time consuming to mark, marking may be unreliable, limited coverage of syllabus, favours fast and fluent writers
Pre-set essay exams (learners are given questions in advance of the exam)	Same as for essay questions. Ability to use references in preparation, sustained reflection	Produces better level of thinking	Same as for essay questions. More difficult to assess validity
Open-book essay exams	Same as for essay questions. Use of reference skills	Reduces emphasis on memorisation	Same as for essay questions. Heavy emphasis on speed
Essay or term paper in mid-course	Same as for essay questions. Use of reference skills	Life-like task if carefully set. Reduces stress on memorisation	Same as for essay questions. Possibility of collusion, plagiarism, or regurgitation
Short-answer written questions	Memory for facts. Understanding of ideas, theories	Broad coverage of syllabus, fast marking, more reliable marking, more feedback to learners	Limited opportunity to show argument or originality
Multiple-choice questions	Memory for facts, understanding of ideas, application of principles, analytic thinking	Fast marking, reliable marking, broad coverage of syllabus, more feedback to learners	Difficult to prepare without faults, cannot assess skills of organising or originality
Oral assessment of tutorial contributions	Oral fluency, assess reasoning behind personal thought, assess personal qualities	Flexible, useful to confirm other assessments, more valid in subjects with oral components	Very time-consuming, low reliability of marking, difficult to standardise questions, ‘halo’ effect introduces bias
Practical exams	Practical (manual) skills, application of principles	Only valid method for assessing skills	Time-consuming, difficult to standardise questions
Field-work	Field-work skills, application of principles	As for practicals	As for practicals, only more so
Projects, theses	Ability to plan original work, ability to seek relevant information, ability to develop an argument, ability to draw appropriate conclusions	Develops important skills in the learner, reveals depth of thought	Difficult to assess objectively

 3.6 What are the external requirements?

As a learning materials designer, decisions in assessment are frequently not in your hands alone. You may also have to take into account:

·       institutional policies and procedures on assessment: for example, the requirement that an invigilated examination be given for every course

·       requirements of employers: for example, a requirement for demonstration of competence in some particular skill

·       policies and other requirements of accrediting agencies or associations: for example, accountancy designations, nursing registration, and teachers’ certification

·       examination boards: for example, in the British context, gcse (General Certificate in Secondary Education) and ‘A’ (Advanced) level examination boards, nvqs (National Vocational Qualifications)

Discussion: Ask your participants for examples of external requirements that they may have to meet in assessing their learners’ performance.

 

 4. Practice exercise 

4.1 Interaction and assessment

Instructions: Divide participants into several small working groups, no more than five to a group. Give each group a sample unit from a course that is relevant to their circumstances and interests. Ask each group to examine their sample unit and determine:

·         the extent to which the unit was designed for interaction;

·         the assessment strategies that were used; and

·         whether these design features were appropriate and adequate.

Ask each group to be prepared to report their findings to the group as a whole.

Timeframe: Approximately an hour including report back and discussion.

Materials: Sample units.