NCEA - Catholic Distance Learning Network
Module 7 Overview: Direct and Indirect Measurement Tools (Click here to download the Module 7 PDF with the supplementary materials)

Aim:

Examine Transactive Assessment and Evaluation tools and theory. Explore polling, Brookfield’s Critical Inquiry Questionnaire, creating objective and subjective tests using a process-oriented approach and harvesting data from the learning community.



Resources and assignments in the Required category:

  • Essential Elements, 87-94
  • Module 7 Podcast (4:47)* by Mr. David Harrison, CDLN course designer (text version)
  • Brookfield Classroom Critical Incident Questionnaire. This is a quick assessment tool asking students to identify their impressions of a given course module or activity.  http://www.ntlf.com/html/pi/9601/backup/article3.htm
  • Forms make it possible to gather data and can be used for tests or quizzes, surveys, polls or just about anything which generates information. Explore these tools for form creation:
 

MS Word

You can use MS Word to create forms.  If you send forms by email attachment make sure people return them not by replying but forwarding them back so the attachment returns to the sender. link

Acrobat

Acrobat 9 has just been released. (Now for the first time Acrobat supports Flash movies inside a .pdf.)  Acrobat has been able to create forms people can fill out online.  The IRS uses acrobat to supply forms that people can fill out online then print, sign and mail. Perhaps the new version will make it easier to generate data online in a form and return the data to the sender’s database. Up until now it has been difficult to fill out an Acrobat form and send it directly to a database.

Blackboard

You can generate tests and surveys using BB test and survey managers. Create a test in Blackboard. Go to add a test.

Online Form Services

SurveyMonkey and Formsite are two online form services where they host the form and gather the data for you. Both are free at their basic level for simple limited forms.

Examples of forms in action:

Kenrick's Course Evaluation Form

CoffeeCup Web Form Builder

CoffeeCup - For $39 you have a Flash based form builder that is easy yet powerful to use.  The form program gathers the data in a database while keeping you informed by email when anyone submits the form.  The tech survey in week one and the evaluation form in our course are examples of what you can do with this little form builder.

Resources and assignments in the Recommended category:

Resources and assignments in the Optional category:

Module Checklist (You'll know you're done with this module when you've completed the following items below.)

  1. Post a 100- to 200-word response to David Harrison's podcast in the Module 7 discussion forum.
  2. Review Stephen Brookfield's Critical Incident Questionnaire, which, while designed for classroom use, could be used in an online course.  Look at the questionnaire and notice what Brookfield is trying to do with this instrument.  Post a short response on the Module 7 discussion forum concerning how you might use this same idea in an online environment where there is no face-to-face contact.
  3. Create a form for any kind of assessment and post a link to it in the Module 7 discussion forum.
  4. Provide details of when you might want to use e-portfolios in an online class.
If you have not received an email asking for a re-submit of any of the above criteria, please proceed to the next module.

*Module Podcasts for CDLN Certification Course by David J. Harrison are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.catholicdistance.org.
Last Updated October 23, 2010. © Catholic Distance Learning Network.