[Smt-talk] Course Assessment Design

[Patrick Tuck]

Dear Collective Wisdom,

What follows is a delayed (summer) response to what was the (Anti) Hero thread. Any experiences that any of you have with the assessment issues mentioned here are VERY welcome as I prepare for another year.

Terrific discussion! The year that I do not work on improving the assessment aspect of my teaching and professional development is the year before I begin fishing for a living!

To Jeff Perry’s point: Kaplan’s law always guides my thinking as I tweak and sometimes make substantial changes to my testing and homework concepts. This spring was one of those substantial changes made with my department head’s cooperation and guidance.

We were both interested in adding a “bell ringer” component to the 8AM - yes - 8AM freshman theory course. I was worried that daily bell ringers would not be academically useful and would also result in a PILE of assignments and quizzes on my desk. WHEW!! The pile did not materialize and I was actually more efficient in my returning of graded materials to students. Attendance and tardiness improved and we are now tweaking the design. Making the assessments academically useful requires constant attention.

My current plan for this coming fall is four assessments per week (two homework and two quizzes). Each homework assignment and quiz is brief enough to be graded effectively including providing written advice to students. This goal will take some work. With 50 to 60 assessments providing the foundation for grades, it is possible to focus on one or two topics per assessment, gauge student needs, and address them in written advice and follow-up lectures.

We started the bell ringers in February and I ended up with just over 40 assessments for my each of my freshman and sophomore integrated theory and aural skills courses.

As the courses are integrated, I use the quizzes for both aural skills and written assessments. Aural skills quizzes can be dictation or performance based. I provide students with a tentative semester schedule for textbook chapters, worksheets, and a portion of their performance and dictation quiz materials. Quizzes are based on realtime lecture experiences for each class. I am attempting to base the quizzes on main points and/or student needs from the previous day’s lecture. One of the things that I enjoy about this design is that I am teaching AND testing everyday and course materials remain fresh year to year. It is most assuredly a challenge to come up with worthwhile assessments. 

Final projects or exams make up 20% of the course grade and all other assessments are taken together as 80%. A good portion of July and August will be spent building my grade sheets and course materials on our newly-acquired Angel LMS.

I am also considering a similar quiz and homework design for my music history and core seminar courses.

Best,

pt


Patrick Tuck, PhD
Assistant Professor of Music
Music Theory and High Brass
University of the Cumberlands
Williamsburg, KY 40769

patrick.tuck at ucumberlands.edu
606.539.4332
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