Module Components

• Overview
• Assignments

Topics

• Assessing Learning Outcomes
• Testing
• Competency Assessment
• Learning Contracts
• Portfolios
• Conclusion

Nurs 791 - Instructional Strategies and Assessment

Module 8: Assessing Learning

Overview

Paul Dressel (1976) defined a grade as "an inadequate report of an inaccurate judgment by a biased and variable judge of the extent to which a student has attained an undefined level of mastery of an unknown proportion of an indefinite material.”

In this module we will change our focus to assessing learning outcomes. Up to this point, you have learned about teaching, the teacher, and a continuum of instructional strategies. That is not the end of the process! How do you know if, and indeed what, the learners actually learned?

As a teacher, you will want to know the answer to this question. You will be called upon to document learning outcomes whether your learners are students, consumers/patients, or peers. In this outcomes focused-world, this aspect of the teaching-learning process garners major attention, so the topic is highly relevant for all teaching roles. In Module 8, you will be introduced to various ways of assessing learning outcomes. We will be focusing on multiple ways of testing and Module 9 contains foundational information on basic measurement theory and concepts that you will need. Elements of test construction are contained in Module 10 and Module 11 deals with test interpretation and grading.

This is the eighth module in this course and first of a series of four modules focusing on assessment of learning outcomes. You will refine a definition of assessment, explore testing, competency assessment, learning contracts, and portfolios as mechanisms that can be used in assessing learning outcomes. You will consider the various uses of learning assessments in teaching in nursing and health professions.

Objectives

At the conclusion of this module, the learner will be able to:

• define assessment and distinguish it from related terms;
• describe selected approaches to assessing learning; and
• incorporate knowledge of learning objectives into consideration of appropriateness of selected mechanisms for assessment of learning.

Required Readings

• Oermann, M.H. and Gaberson, K.B. (2017). Evaluation and testing in nursing education, Fifth Edition. New York: Springer Publishing Company. Chapter 1

OR

• Oermann, M.H. and Gaberson, K.B. (2014). Evaluation and testing in nursing education, Fourth Edition. New York: Springer Publishing Company, Chapter 1

Directions

Read the module and suggested readings within the module. Then complete the assignment for the module.