Organizers/facilitators:
- Koni Stone, California State University, Stanislaus
- Sajith Jayasinghe, California State University, San Marcos
- Kathryn M McCulloch, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Presenters:
Victoria Del Gaizo Moore, Elon University
Dan Dries, Chapman University
Pete Kennelly, Virginia Tech
Synopsis and goals:
ICABL is a group of educators interested in exploring and implementing more effective and inclusive practices for assessing student learning in biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB). Funded by an RCN-UBE grant from the NSF and supported by the American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (ASBMB), ICABL hosts workshops that provide participants with a conceptual background for - and concrete practices in - designing assessments that effectively evaluate students' mastery of defined learning objectives. The four-part ICABL workshop series, whose components may be taken in any order, addresses summative, formative, and alternative assessments, together with inclusive grading practices. Topics covered include principles of question and activity design and rubric development, Bloom's taxonomy, inclusive pedagogy, and backward design.
Centered in alternative assessment, the current workshop is focused on assessment approaches beyond exams. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to do the following:
- Connect with BMB colleagues who are interested in ongoing conversations about BMB teaching and learning, especially related to assessment, at both a regional and a national level.
- Participate in building capacity for an inclusive community focused on high-quality assessment in BMB.
- Engage with workshop participants and experts to explore the following questions:
- What are alternative assessment activities?
- What can alternative assessment look like in the BMB classroom or lab?
- What kind of course learning objectives are best suited to evaluation using alternative assessments?
- In what ways do alternative assessments support more inclusive teaching and learning?
- Begin the process of using backward design to develop an alternative assessment for use in an upcoming course. During this process, workshop participants will:
- Clearly articulate a measurable learning objective aligned with your course learning goals and associated assessment tasks.
- Use backward design and inclusive assessment principles to outline an assessment activity that directly measures the articulated learning objective.
- Outline a rubric that describes measurable performance criteria that align to the learning objective and provide insight into student understanding.
- Engage in iterative feedback with peers to reflect and refine the assessment and rubric.