Technology in Assessment
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course
Instructor’s Name
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Technology in Assessment
Introduction
The use of technology is taking shape in every industry, and education is not an exception. The efficient use of technology and digital learning tools can improve students’ engagement, and their lesson plans, and facilitate personalized learning. Assessment is an important aspect of education (Young et al., 2019). Assessment is crucial in determining if learning has occurred, the things that need to be reinforced, and the steps that need to be taken. Technology is widely used to enhance various types of assessments in learning institutions. Based on the number of classes and students, developing assessments, grading them, and giving feedback can be rigorous exercises (Young et al., 2019). However, there are several digital tools teachers can use to enhance the process of assessing their students. In that regard, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the use of technology in assessment.
Current Status: Staff and Current Practices
The learning institution is one of the best and largest high schools in the county. The school has more than 2300 students. It has about 200 staff or educators. The school has twice been rated a blue ribbon school of excellence and more recently has been consistently included among the Washington Post’s Top 100 High Schools in the US. The staff makes the most important and powerful factor in the children’s education. It is for this reason that the school has taken serious ongoing teacher development because it is the cornerstone of the school. The staff in the school includes all women and men. One in three of the staff (educators) population are women. Eighty-five percent of the teachers have three years and above experience. Student to teacher ratio is 17:1. All the teachers are full-time certified educators.
There are so many subjects or courses taught in the school and these courses are grouped under different departments. The art department, for instance, teaches several topics that cover visual arts, and performance arts. Topics under visual arts include (ceramics (levels 1,2,3 & AP), drawing (studio art 1, 2, 3 & AP), painting (studio art 1,2, & 3), photography (levels 1,2,3 & AP), fashion (levels 1,2 & 3), and foundations of art. Topics under performance arts include Theatre (levels 1 and 2), music theatre, AP music theory, Jazz band, and others. The department of career and technology introduces students to a wide range of career opportunities in the digital workforce. Others include the department of mathematics, English, and media. Others included apartments for physical education, science, and social studies.
The use of technology is at the core of learning in this educational center. Technology is used both in learning and assessment to enhance the whole process of teaching and learning. Technology is also used in other departments dealing with administrative work (Young et al., 2019). Teachers have shown much interest in working with various types of technology to improve students’ education and learning outcomes. When interviewed, all the teachers admitted that technology has made their work easier and improved the learning and teaching process. Furthermore, most of the teachers are skilled to use technology. Newly recruited teachers (who have worked less than three months) however, complain of a lack of sufficient skills (Zhu & Urhahne, 2018). The institution needs to arrange training for the new teachers to boost their knowledge of the use of technology. Overall, teachers’ experiences with and attitudes toward technology are positive.
The most frequent types of technology currently used in the assessment
Teachers in this learning institution use several types of technology including software for compilation and analysis of results, PowerPoint, and others. However, the most frequently used technology is the Learner Response System (LRS). This technology has other names such as Classroom Response System, Audience Response System, Student Response System, and Personal Response System (Tomaswick, 2017). Teachers use the learner response systems to pose questions to students during learning in a classroom. The LRS are handheld devices that instructors use to receive immediate feedback regarding teaching and learning. The technology uses often used in a formative assessment regarding teaching curriculum, class learning, topics of study, and other areas (Zhu & Urhahne, 2018). The LRS can assess a wide range of areas in education, which makes its application broader.
The Student Response System is an increasingly popular pedagogical tool within the learning institution. It is considered an alternative form of a teacher asking students questions and seeking individual answers (Young et al., 2019). The Learner Response System has been used to assess the learning system. For this technology to work, the teacher begins by asking particular questions, collecting students’ responses electronically, and generating and displaying a graph or a chart of student responses. The charts or graphs representing students’ responses serve as a basic assessment tool for the teacher (Tomaswick, 2017). The results may also be displayed to students to prompt further actions, adjustments, or class discussions.
Most of the teachers in the learning institution use technology in assessment. Most teachers have reported the effectiveness of the learner response system in formative assessment. Teachers have also reported that they use technology more frequently (Vanderbilt University, 2022). It is appropriate to say that the teachers use technology in assessment based on the teacher assessment results. While assessing individual teachers, it has been noticed that they are familiar with the technology. Additionally, all teachers who use the technology are required to make a monthly report regarding how they used it, challenges they encountered, and recommendations to make the system better (Young et al., 2019). Most of the teachers often submit their reports, showing that most teachers are using the technology for assessment.
The data collected through assessment using the technology are analyzed, discussed by the school admin or relevant people, and shared or used to implement policies, programs, and strategies to enhance teaching and learning (Young et al., 2019). For example, if the teacher, throng the assessment, realizes that students did not understand a specific topic, more lessons on that particular topic can be re-scheduled to ensure students grab the concept. On the other hand, if the student’s feedback suggests the need to relook into a program, the responsible team may be consulted and the issue addressed. Therefore, the procedure of using assessment data may differ based on the identified problem to be addressed (Zhu & Urhahne, 2018). Sometimes the data can be shared with students to help them adjust their learning goals.
Enhancement of Current Practices
Just implementing the technology is not enough. It is also important to promote the use of the technology among the staff. As mentioned earlier, the learning institution uses different types of technology but the most common one is the Learner Response System (LRS) (Young et al., 2019). To enhance current practices using the technology, the first recommendation to enhance the use of technology is to make it accessible. Accessibility can be enhanced by purchasing adequate LRS devices so that no student or a teacher can lack them. Another way to enhance accessibility is to make them in reachable places, where the teacher does not need to go through a long process to acquire them (Young et al., 2019). Rigorous processes of acquiring the devices may discourage their use.
Another recommendation to enhance the use of technology is to ensure teachers and students receive adequate training regarding how to use the LRS system. Training is one of the ways of impacting confidence among the users to enhance the use of technology (Young et al., 2019). Teachers’ training should be taken seriously and must be carried out regularly. Training will allow teachers to have the ability to work well with the technology. Additionally, will learn how to display charts and graphs of student answers, how to merge multiple sessions into one comprehensive report, and others (Tomaswick, 2017). Training is also required to educate teachers on the importance of technology in assessment. When educating them about how to use specific technology, it is important for them to first understand the importance of such technology.
Another recommendation is that the school should keep closely in touch with vendors to ensure the LRS is regularly updated. The system update is important to remain per the manufacturer’s standard (Young et al., 2019). The system update ensures a user-friendly interface. It may also include repairing security loopholes that have been identified. Updates ensure that challenges and difficulties experienced by users are addressed as soon as possible. These recommendations will enhance the use.
Recommendations for Learner Response Systems
Several types of Learner Response Systems can be recommended for use in assessment in learning institutions. The first type of LRS is Infuse Learning, which is a free student response system. It works with any internet-connected device and allows teachers to send quizzes, questions, and prompts to students (Vanderbilt University, 2022). The second type of LRS is Quiz Socket, which allows teachers quickly and easily gather feedback from students. Teachers use the Quiz Socket system by sending a code that students enter on QuizSocket.com. The teacher then posts the questions and controls the system (Vanderbilt University, 2022). Kahoot is another student response system for delivering online quizzes and carrying out surveys to the students. The teacher can control the placement of the Kahoot quiz by imposing a time limit for each question. A scoreboard is displayed on the teacher’s screen. Students do not need to have a Kahoot account to participate in the activities (Young et al., 2019). Other student response systems include Verso, Socrative, Poll Everywhere, and Mentimeter.
These Learner Response Systems can handle types of activities including taking attendance directly or indirectly during class. The student response systems can be used in summative assessment for graded activities such as tests and multiple choices (Young et al., 2019). Additionally, the student response system can handle formative assessment, whereby the teacher poses questions to students. The teacher collects the answers for real-time information for both students and the teacher regarding student learning (Tomaswick, 2017). Other activities include homework collection, discussion warm-up, and contingent teaching.
Plan for Assessment of Effectiveness
If a Learner Response System is Purchased, it is important to assess its effectiveness in improving teaching and learning. There are several ways to assess the effectiveness of the system. Types of data to collect include improvement of student’s engagement in the classroom, promote discussion and collaboration during class, and the ease of creating and posting questions (Young et al., 2019). Also, the ability to receive, analyze, and share student feedback. Students’ engagement will be measured by the number of students participating actively in class. The teacher must be keen to determine whether or not students’ engagement improved (Young et al., 2019). Collaboration and discussion activities will also be assessed to observe any improvement. The ease of using the platform to create and post questions, receive feedback, analyze the feedback, and share results. Different data collection strategies such as questionnaires and interviews can be used to gather important data (Young et al., 2019). Teachers and students will be interviewed to assess the effectiveness of the Learning Response System.
Conclusion
The use of technology is increasingly becoming part and parcel of learning systems. Proper use of technology can improve students’ engagement, and their lesson plan, and facilitate personalized learning. Technology is widely used to enhance various types of assessments in learning institutions. In the learning institution, the use of technology in assessment is highly valued. The Learner Response System is the most common technology used in the learning institution. The LRS are handheld devices that instructors use to receive immediate feedback regarding teaching and learning. Educational leaders need to put in place strategies to enhance the use of technology in teaching and learning. There are several types of Learner Response Systems that teachers can use. A proper assessment strategy must also be put into place to ensure the technology is effective in improving the teaching and learning experience.
References
Tomaswick, L. (2017). Assessing Student Learning – Student Response Systems. Kent State University Center for Teaching and Learning. http://www.kent.edu/ctl/educational-resources/assessments-student-response-systems/
Vanderbilt University. (2022). Classroom Response Systems (“Clickers”). https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/clickers/
Young, N. D., Michael, C. N., & Smolinski, J. A. (2019). Captivating classrooms: Educational strategies to enhance student engagement. Rowman & Littlefield.
Zhu, C., & Urhahne, D. (2018). The use of learner response systems in the classroom enhances teachers’ judgment accuracy. Learning and Instruction, 58, 255-262. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2018.07.011