The Innovative Design for Effective Assessments (IDEA) course is a three-week online, asynchronous course intended to provide faculty with a variety of innovative assessment strategies to improve student learning outcomes in online, hybrid or in-person classes. This course introduces strategies and emerging technologies to help you build or improve how you evaluate student learning. You will have an opportunity to refine or develop assessment plans for your course(s) or focus on enhancing specific activities and assignments.
Registration is currently closed, please check back for future openings!
Course Delivery
This asynchronous, online course is conducted through Canvas and includes the following topics:
- Week 1: Planning & Designing Assessments
- Week 2: Assessment Strategies
- Week 3: Collaborative Assessment Strategies
We will introduce a variety of topics related to course-level student assessments. Topics include how to align assessments to student learning outcomes, how to design/redesign assignments using the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework, maximizing the use of rubrics to assess learning, strategies to assess group projects, adaptive learning, authentic assessment, and strategies to help promote academic integrity. In addition, this course will provide an opportunity to discuss current issues impacting student learning and assessment with faculty peers.
The course shares some alternative assessment strategies to extend beyond quizzes and exams to assess student learning. Each week, we incorporate project-based learning assessments, and we will model how to select appropriate technologies to enhance student learning assessments.
The IDEA course is facilitated by our Instructional Designers and is designed to allow faculty participants flexibility in the completion of learning activities in three weeks. Participants will be able to share challenges, questions, and assessment strategies with their colleagues from different colleges and departments. This will also be a chance to hear from other faculty as they share their exemplary practices/examples on student assessment.
ITDS also offers workshops focused on how to use specific instructional technologies which serve to complement this course. If you are seeking a foundational introduction to best practices for online teaching, consider completing the Empowering Online Teaching and Learning course first.