Section A

There are a number of issues that an instructor must consider related to assessing student learning. A few such issues are student learning styles, frequency of assessments, types of assessments, size of the class, and time spent grading. For example, if you have a large lecture class of 200 students, you probably would not want to have an essay exam and grade all of the exams yourself; even if each exam only took 10 minutes to grade, that would be 200 exams x 10 minutes = 2,000 minutes or 33 hours. How might you effectively assess student learning while maintaining a reasonable workload?

For this Discussion review and study this week’s Learning Resources. Then consider the following scenario: You have a class of 30 students in an introduction to psychology course. Think about what face-to-face assessment strategies you would use and why they might be effective. Finally, reflect on the time commitment involved with the type of assessment you selected.

With these thoughts in mind:

Post by Day 4 a description of the assessment strategies you might use based on the scenario provided, the frequency of assessment, and an explanation of why you think they might be effective. Then explain the time commitment involved for the type of assessment you selected. Be sure to defend your response with references to the Learning Resources.

Be sure to support your post with specific references to the Learning Resources. If you are using additional articles, be sure to provide full, APA-formatted citations for your references.

Section B

Why choose one assessment method over another? What might be the challenges of the assessment method you chose? There are a variety of factors to consider when selecting an assessment method. What might be the benefits of an essay test over a multiple-choice test? Are you evaluating a student’s ability to retain facts or apply concepts and principles? These are only a few of the possible areas of assessment you might choose when selecting an assessment method. In this week’s Assignment, you will add an example of some methods of testing to your Teaching Portfolio. Consider the strategies discussed this week as you develop your exam and prepare the correct responses.

For this Teaching Portfolio Assignment, review and study this week’s Learning Resources, including Griggs’s Psychology: A Concise Introduction textbook to help in the selection of your assignment topic. Select a new topic or use the topic you selected in Week 4 as the focus of an exam that you will design for “your” introductory psychology class.

Assignment (5–7 pages, APA format where appropriate)

Your exam must include the following:

• An explanation of the topic you selected, referencing the chapter in the Griggs Psychology: A Concise Introduction textbook you consulted
• Five multiple-choice questions (identify the correct answer with boldface type)
• Three fill-in the blank prompts (include the correct response in boldface type following the question)
• One essay question (include, in boldface type, a list of elements that you will be looking for as you grade).
• A determination of points for each of your questions and a calculation of the percentage for each question of the total 100% available. For example, if your multiple-choice questions are worth 10 points each and there are 100 points available in the test, one multiple-choice question is worth 10/100 = 0.10, or 10% of the total 100%.

Resources

Readings

• Ashton, P. (2004). Testing: If you’re going to do it, do it right. In R. M. Cordell, E. M. Lucal, R. K, Morgan, S. Hamilton, & R. Orr (Eds.), Quick hits for new faculty: Successful strategies by award-winning teachers (Ebrary version, pp. 35–36). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Griggs, R. A. (2017). Psychology: A concise introduction (5th ed.). New York, NY: Worth.

  Note: While you do not have a specific reading assignment for this text, it is to be referenced when appropriate for the selection of introductory psychology topics in Discussions, Assignments, and the Final Assignment.

• Society for the Teaching of Psychology. (2010). Best practices: Assessing teaching and learning in psychology. Retrieved from http://teachpsych.org/conferences/bp/index.php

  Note: Review the Abstracts of Keynotes, Workshops, and Symposia document located in the Conference Schedule section of the web page to choose the presentation files you would like to review. Be sure to make note of the first author’s name. Then click on the “Access Presentation Files, by last name of first author” link at the top of the web page to find the files for the presentation you selected.