Suzanne Wakim presented a session entitled “Adaptable Assessment Design” at the Alternative Assessment Institute 2022. Wakim is a biology and honors faculty at Butte Community College in California. Wakim also trains faculty in online course design. They spoke about disasters and the need to shift to online education. Wakim noticed that courses with adaptable assessments seem to have an easier time transitioning. Assessments should be adaptable and accurate in order to assess what we think we want to assess. The first example Wakim shared was a list of terms and the prompt: define and group terms. Wakim also shared a multiple choice question based on relationships between words such as monosaccharide / polysaccharide. The realization that some students are never taught about identifying relationships between terms and this is part of the “hidden curriculum.” The alternative was to identify the learning outcome, let students select the strategy for demonstrating knowledge, and then provide a clear and detailed rubric. Some students produced tables or outlines while others took photos of cards with handwritten notes. One student example shown was a complex concept map. All these products help identify misconceptions beyond wrong options on a multiple choice test. Wakim emphasized that there are choices and constraints. The benefits are that the learning objective is being assessed directly, students focus on the content, and this assignment embraces Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Wakim explained that the instructor should provide examples early in the course and a detailed rubric so that students know what the instructor desires. The second example Wakim shared was a prompt to explain a complex process. Assessment options include multi-media, cases, portfolios, annotations, study resources, and open educational practices! The benefits of these assessments according to Wakim are accurately assessing the synthesis, finding teachable moments, peer review… and writing, if desired. Wakim also encouraged the use of TILT – Transparency in Learning and Teaching framework. Wakim has a worksheet to design adaptable assessments: the process starts with the learning objective and then ways to share the knowledge. I did not get the link to the worksheet, yet I managed to see that it included questions/prompts for the instructor to write the objective, consider options for demonstrating student learning, and think about elements of the TILT framework. The concept of adaptable assessments was new to me and appealing. I want to learn more about Wakim’s system and examples. It does seem to align with alternative assessments.
