An overview of assessment options in Elentra
Elentra supports assessing and recording student performance in multiple ways. Many organizations will use a mix of the following features to support their assessment needs.
Course Gradebook (includes Assignment Dropbox and Document Delivery)
List different assessments per curriculum period per course and store a record of each learner’s grade
Add a dropbox assignment to an assessment and allow learners to upload files to the dropbox
Assign graders to specific learners to facilitate grading of assignments
Optionally connect gradebook assessments to other features in Elentra
link to an Assessment & Evaluation form to allow for grading using a form within the gradebook
link to a portfolio to allow viewing of portfolio artifacts via a Gradebook assessment
link to Exams or Peer Instruction to automatically pull in grades from those features
Note that there is not currently the ability to connect an Assessment and Evaluation task completed via a distribution to a gradebook assessment.
Assessment & Evaluation Module
Use for behaviour-based assessments of learners
Use for event, course, rotation, or faculty evaluation
Make forms available for use on-demand or send out to be completed at specific times
Optionally connect to other tools in Elentra
link a form to a Gradebook assessment to support grading tasks
Exams (can be used for quizzes, tests, or exams)
Despite the name, this feature can be used for any type of graded assessment (quiz, test, midterm, final exam)
Create and store items in Elentra, then group them together on an exam
Post an exam to a learning event for learners to access
Assign graders as needed to assess short answer or essay questions
Optionally connect an exam to a Gradebook assessment to automatically populate grades
Supported through the Exams module
Deliver iRAT, gRAT and application exercises to learners
Optionally connect to a Gradebook assessment to automatically populate grades
Build items and group into polls to deliver to learners
Learners answer an item and depending on class performance work with a partner to discuss the item and then take the same poll question a second time
Optionally connect to a Course Gradebook assessment to automatically populate grades
Allow learners and assigned faculty members to record meeting notes or upload documents to track learner progress
Can be used to support a coaching/advising model
No connection to a Course Gradebook, nor Assessment & Evaluation forms
Configure a portfolio for a cohort of learners (each cohort may have one portfolio)
Build a folder structure and optionally list required artifacts/entries for learners to complete
Assign portfolio advisors who can view and comment on learners’ portfolio submissions
Optionally connect to a Gradebook assessment to facilitate grading
Competency-Based Education (CBE)
The CBE features in Elentra leverage the existing tools in the Assessment & Evaluation module to allow for assessment of learners; additionally, the CBE features allow for the creation of an assessment plan to set expectations for learner progress and include visual dashboards to display learner progress
The following questions may help users decide which assessment options to use in Elentra.
What is being assessed?
If the assessment is some kind of knowledge check or application of learning, Elentra tools like Exams, TBL, Peer Instruction, or a Gradebook Assessment may be useful.
If the assessment is of learner behaviour, the forms available in the Assessment & Evaluation module will likely be most useful. Note that you can link an A&E form to a gradebook assessment for it to be completed via the Gradebook instead of as an A&E task.
If a learner needs to submit something to be graded or for feedback, a Gradebook Assessment with dropbox, the Portfolio or Meetings are options to explore.
Who will complete the assessment and in what circumstances?
For example, are learners creating and submitting a product, are learners completing a task and being observerd by a clinician, is there a written element to the assessment?
Do you know in advance which faculty will complete the assessments for which students?
If assessment is on the fly, who is responsible to initiating the assessment? Learner or other?
These questions can help you determine whether on-demand tasks or distributed tasks will best serve you.
Where does a record of the assessment need to be kept?
If the assessment contributes to a course grade, you'll need to include it in the Course Gradebook.
If it is important that a completed assessment be available to view by an advisor, mentor or coach, consider the Assessment & Evaluation module, Portfolio or Meetings.
Who needs access to the completed assessment?
Consider if something needs to be accessible to a learner, a Course Director, a coach or advisory, etc.
Visibility of completed A&E tasks is relatively easy through the configuration of course groups and assigning tutors
Visibility of completed Gradebook assessments - Learner Explorer?
How closely do you need to monitor if this assessment is completed and who is responsible for that?
May influence whether an on-demand vs. distributed form is preferred (with a distribution you get a distribution progress report which can make it easier to track which learners have completed assessment tasks).
What kind of curriculum mapping is required for the assessment?
Ask this to know what information to collect and store.
Examples:
assign a curriculum tag to the item or question
supported in Exams, Peer Instruction and Assessment and Evaluation items
assign a curriculum tag to the assessment as a whole
supported in Gradebook assessments
For clinical courses and behavioural assessments, these additional questions may help with planning.
What different forms do you currently use to complete assessments on learners?
Understanding the complexity and variety of forms used will help you identify if the Assessment & Evaluation module can support the items a course currently uses in its assessments.
Does the assessment happen once or is it repeated multiple times (e.g., daily, weekly, twice per rotation, etc.)? If it's the later, is there one 'final' record that is required for grading purposes?
This information can help you decide whether an on-demand or distributed task is best, and what structure your gradebook will require if you are transferring information from Assessment and Evaluation to a gradebook.
Elentra supports peer assessment through the Assessment & Evaluation Module. A learning event-based, date-based or rotation-based distribution can be configured to allow learners to assess each other and themselves as needed. When configuring distributions for the purpose of peer assessment, you should set learners as both the target and assessor in the Distribution Wizard.
A common use of the A&E module for peer assessment is assessment in small groups. For example, for schools using team-based learning or small clinical skills groups, you may have learners assess their peers once or more during a curriculum period. For small group peer assessment, you can set the target and assessors to the small group defined in the Course Groups. Because each course group has different membership, you can create one distribution then copy it for as many groups as are needed. Remember to change the course group on steps 3 and 4 of the distribution wizard.
When using A&E to support peer assessment, pay close attention to the options on Distribution Wizard Step 5: Results. A sample use case could be to restrict learner access to individual tasks, but allow them to run report on themself with commenter names anonymous. This configuration lets a learner view their peer-assessment results in a report and gain insight as to their performance, but not be able to attribute any comments to specific individuals.
Another option on Step 5: Results is to optionally apply a Reviewer to a distribution (this will require that completed assessments are reviewed by a staff or faculty member before they are released to the target). This option was designed to provide the opportunity for learners’ feedback to be reviewed before it’s released to a target. An example of it’s use might be a first year class providing feeback to each other, and the desire for a staff or faculty member to review that feedback before it’s released to ensure that comments are constructive and helpful. Before you use this option please recognize it that in the case of peer assessment this represents a significant number of review tasks that will generate for a staff member.
Currently, peer assessment is not easily supported in a course Gradebook. If peer assessment in a gradebook is absolutely required, an administrator can facilitate it by making all enrolees in the course TAs on the Course Setup Page, then adding all enrolees as graders on an assessment and assigning one learner to each grader. Currently there is a 1:1 relationship between a grader and a learner, so this approach can only support learners receiving peer assessment from one other learner per assessment. Using this approach, once learners are assigned as TAs and graders, they will be able to access a Grading page (similar to faculty) and provide feedback to their assigned peer.