This workshop shares best practices and tools for developing an online readiness assessment tool. Facilitators from the University of Memphis will share strategies for curating resources and will discuss assessments that may be used to determine how to best prepare students to learn online. Participants will take the role of instructional designer to analyze and develop an assessment module.
The University of Memphis created Smart Start after the successful use of the SmarterMeasure Readiness Assessment tool. Smart Start is a three tiered initiative designed to address the instructional needs of adult learners returning to school. It is designed to inform students about their academic preparedness to complete online courses at the University of Memphis and it provides current and prospective students with targeted resources to address possible deficiencies prior to the completion of an online course or program. Smart Start includes a readiness assessment, open access preparedness course and online orientation. This initiative was created out a need to streamline content that was specific to our student population and overall online student demographic. In this workshop, we will discuss the rationale and strategies our institutions have used to create readiness tools for our online students. We will further share current outcomes from students who have utilized our Student Readiness tools. Participants will leave the session with tips for getting started with their institutional online readiness solution.