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The pandemic introduced a rapid shift to digital course solutions and in both synchronous and asynchronous classrooms. As such, educators' reliance on digital tools increased dramatically, as did their need for strong student assessments. When done correctly, assessments can provide instructors with critical information on how well students have learned the material as well as highlight where students are struggling. This is especially true in a post-COVID classroom, where instructors don’t always have the face-to-face interaction that lets them know students may be struggling.
Frequent quizzes and other assessments were one of eight instructional practices identified as contributing to more effective online teaching and learning, according to Digital Promise. When college undergraduate students were asked about practices they’ve encountered during remote instruction, 64% of students reported that they had frequent quizzes and/or assessments in their online class -- more than live lectures (60%) or working in groups (25%). Those are some of the many reasons that Macmillan Learning continues to invest in building out the assessment functionality in our new digital platform, Achieve.
Before we begin a new academic year with an expected mix of in-person, hybrid, and virtual learning, let’s review the ways the pandemic has impacted student assessment.
According to Ferralli, Macmillan Learning will continue to watch how instructors are using assessments and also talking with them about their future plans. “Knowing this will help us determine how our tools must evolve to support the variety of ways instructors and students use assessments in their course.”
Beginning this summer Achieve will allow instructors even more flexibility with assessments, enabling them to both edit our questions and create their own questions. This will allow instructors to add in their own feedback that aligns to their course instruction even more, or create questions that perhaps target a specific learning misconception.
For more information about Achieve, click here.