Unit 4: Evaluation of Students on Microsoft Teams
Utilizing Microsoft Teams to Design Instruction
Evaluation
Think About It
Please take time to brainstorm answers to the following questions.
1. What are ways you have/you have seen students be evaluated in the past?
2. Why is it important to evaluate students?
Importance of Evaluation
It is incredibly important to evaluate students. Evaluating Students allows you to make "data-driven decisions" (Larson & Lockee, 2020, p. 211). This allows you to "establish where learners are in their learning; establish where they are going; and, establish how to get there" (Wiliam, 2007, p. 1). "Assessment is an integral part of instruction, as it determines whether or not the goals of education are being met. Assessment affects decisions about grades, placement, advancement, instructional needs, curriculum, and, in some cases, funding. Assessment inspire us to ask these hard questions: "Are we teaching what we think we are teaching?" "Are students learning what they are supposed to be learning?" "Is there a way to teach the subject better, thereby promoting better learning?"" (edutopia, 2008). Without assessment we won't know the answers to these questions.
Activities
Brainstorm an answer to the following question.
- How do you think Microsoft Teams can help you evaluate students?
Further Reading
edutopia, Why is Assessment Important
Dylan Wiliam, Five Key Strategies of Formative Assessment
Rubrics
Why Use Rubrics
"A rubric is a coherent set of criteria for students' work that includes descriptions of levels of performance quality on the criteria" (Brookhart, 2013). It allows for there to be a streamlined system of evaluation. It allows students to see exactly how they are going to be evaluated while also allowing the teacher to be able to reference how they are evaluating students as they grade. Rubrics are a great tool to use to evaluate students.
Activity
Watch the following video
Create Your Own Rubric for an Assignment
- Refer to the video above as you create your rubric.
- If you would rather have a step-by-step guide, click here to access one put together by Microsoft.
Further Reading
Susan M. Brookhart, How to Create and Use Rubrics for Formative Assessment and Grading
Providing Feedback
Why It Is Important to Provide Feedback
Feedback is incredibly important to students. "Professor James Pennebaker from the University of Texas at Austin has been researching the benefits of frequent testing and the feedback it leads to. He explains that in the history of the study of learning, the role of feedback has always been central: “When people are trying to learn new skills, they must get some information that tells them whether or not they are doing the right thing. Learning in the classroom is no exception. Both the mastery of content and, more importantly, the mastery of how to think require trial-and-error learning.”" (Stenger, 2014). Microsoft Teams provides great platform to provide feedback to students.
Activity
Review the Step-By-Step Guide for Providing Feedback from Microsoft
- Click here to view the step-by-step guide
Brainstorm answers to the following questions.
- How will you provide feedback to students using Microsoft Teams?
- Will you use rubrics, or number grades, or a combination of the two to provide feedback to students? Why?
Further Reading
Marianne Stenger, 5 Research-Based Tips for Providing Students with Meaningful Feedback
Next Unit
Once you have done the following you can move on to the next unit where we will be exploring collaboration on the Microsoft Teams platform.
Unit 3: Differentiation of Materials on Microsoft Teams | Unit 5: Collaboration in Microsoft Teams
References
Brookhart, S. M. (2013). How to Create and Use Rubrics for Formative Assessment and Grading. ACSD Express.
edutopia. (2008, July 15). Why is Assessment Important? Retrieved from edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/assessment-guide-importance
Kolk, M. (2020). Assessing Student Project Work. Retrieved from Creative Educator: https://creativeeducator.tech4learning.com/v07/articles/Assessing_Student_Project_Work
Larson, M. B., & Lockee, B. B. (2020). Streamlined ID: A Practical Guide to Instructional Design. New York: Routledge.
Microsoft. (2020). Create and Manage Grading Rubrics in Microsoft Teams. Retrieved from Microsoft Support: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-and-manage-grading-rubrics-in-microsoft-teams-68292a5f-f582-4a41-8ba3-8c96288ec5ca#ID0EAABAAA=Grade_with_rubrics
Microsoft. (2020). Review, return, and turn in assignments using the feedback loop. Retrieved from Microsoft Support: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/review-return-and-turn-in-assignments-using-the-feedback-loop-63e5efdd-be09-47f0-87ea-e8e4bcb45aa4
Stenger, M. (2014, August 6). 5 Research-Based Tips for Providing Students with Meaningful Feedback. Retrieved from edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/tips-providing-students-meaningful-feedback-marianne-stenger
Tholfsen, M. (2020, August 18). How to Create and Use Rubrics for Assignments in Microsoft Teams. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB3LIeJZX2g.
Wiliam, D. (2007). Five "Key Strategies" for Effective Formative Assessment. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1-4.
