Alternatives Methods to Assessment,” an interactive presentation, examines the differences between traditional and alternative assessments; presents the research behind using alternative assessments; engage faculty in sharing their experiences with alternative assessments; and explores how alternative assessments can work in higher education. Faculty and instructional designers will benefit from this presentation.
Are you tired of giving the same exams and research papers to your students? Title V: UNIDOS Grant collaborators from Adams State University, University of New Mexico-Taos, and New Mexico Highlands University will present “Alternatives Methods to Assessment.” This cooperative and interactive presentation explores the research behind alternative assessments in higher education; introduce faculty to alternative assessments, and engages participants in sharing their experiences with alternative assessments. Participants will explore how alternative assessments can work in higher education to challenge and stimulate students and create active learners. The participants will take away at least three alternative methods to try in their classrooms as well as a handout with the research and outline of the presentation.
The benefits of this presentation will be higher education faculty who teach online, blended/hybrid, and face-to-face classes. Instructional designers, instructional support, and K12 faculty will also benefit from this collaborative presentation.
Our goals include:
- To examine the differences between traditional and alternative assessments
- To introduce faculty to the research behind alternative assessments
- To introduce the audience to alternative assessments
- To have the audience share their experience with using alternative assessments
- To have the audience leave with three practices to initiate in their next class
Faculty and instructional designers in higher education will benefit from this interactive presentation by understanding what the research represents and strategies to embark in using alternative assessments. K12 instructional staff may also value the ideas and the experience. The audience will participate by using interactive polling and Q&A. There are embedded web-links in the slide presentation and attendees will receive a handout with the presentation outline that includes URLs to the links and the references. Participants will explore how alternative assessments can work in higher education to challenge and stimulate students and create active learners. The participants will take away at least three alternative methods to try in their classrooms as well as a handout with the research and outline of the presentation.
The Title V UNIDOS Grant Collaboration Team developed this workshop as part of their professional development series that they offer simultaneously to all three partnership institutions through the web-teleconferencing tool ZOOM. The Collaboration Team consists of Alfonso Velasquez, Instructional Designer and Trainer for Adams State University; Peter Snyder, Instructional Media Specialist for University of New Mexico-Taos; Erin Duddy, Distance Education Coordinator for University of New Mexico-Taos; and Cathryn Brooks-Williams, Instructional Design Specialist for New Mexico Highlands University. The grant is a Title V Cooperative Arrangement Project, “UNIDOS: Building Pathways to Access and Opportunity for the Upper Rio Grande Region.” The focus of the grant is to eliminate gaps in an area where geography, distance to education, and under-funding of K-16 education make it difficult for residents to obtain a college education. By hosting the professional development seminars on ZOOM, as well as live at each campus, the UNIDOS Collaborators demonstrate and model to faculty how to use the tools for online and distance education.