The Power of Pre-Assessments

Julia.S.167

In the ever-evolving world of online education, instructors continually seek ways to enhance their teaching methods and engage students more effectively. One such strategy is having learners complete a pre-assessment at the beginning of a unit or course. Pre-assessments offer a range of benefits for both instructors and learners.

• Instructors can use pre-assessments to gain valuable insight into learners' prior knowledge, enabling them to customize their course content accordingly.
  
• Pre-assessments allow learners to reflect on their current knowledge and identify gaps in their understanding before starting on the content.

Why Use Pre-Assessments?

• Diagnostic Insights: Pre-assessments provide a snapshot of students' existing knowledge and skills related to the course material. This diagnostic insight allows instructors to identify gaps in understanding and target their teaching accordingly.
  
• Customized Instruction: Armed with data from pre-assessments, instructors can develop personalized learning paths for their students. This customization can involve offering additional resources to those struggling in specific areas while allowing advanced students to explore more challenging material. Customized instruction enhances student engagement and ensures that the course meets the diverse learning needs of the class.
  
• Engagement and Motivation: Pre-assessments can stimulate student interest by piquing their curiosity about what lies ahead in the course. This engagement can lead to increased motivation and a deeper commitment to the learning journey.

Creating Pre-Assessments in Brightspace

• Quizzes: Design quizzes with various question types, including multiple-choice, true/false, and multi-select questions. When using quizzes for a pre-assessment, consider making the quiz ungraded and providing learners with one attempt to complete the activity. Ensure that you give learners access to their scores and the questions they got correct and incorrect so they can identify gaps in their knowledge.
• Surveys: Surveys are a valuable tool for collecting insights into students' expectations, learning preferences, and prior knowledge, all of which can play a pivotal role in shaping course design and instructional strategies. Unlike quizzes, you cannot indicate correct/incorrect answers for a survey question (i.e., there are no point values for questions). However, you have the option of providing learners with feedback, specifying whether their indicated response is correct or incorrect. This feedback feature allows learners to use the survey as a tool to reflect on their existing knowledge before starting a course.
  
• Self-Assessments: Encourage students to reflect on their strengths and areas for improvement through the self-assessment tool within Brightspace. Unlike surveys and quizzes, instructors cannot view learner responses to self-assessments. Therefore, while this tool allows the learner to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses, the instructor will not be able to access the information. Similar to surveys, the self-assessment tool does not allow you to indicate correct/incorrect answers to a question. Therefore, if you choose to use self-assessments, it is strongly recommended that you add feedback to the questions that provide learners with information on incorrect/correct answers.

Based on the previous information, choose the tool that best serves your needs. By incorporating pre-assessments into your course, you can improve the learning experience for your students, promote engagement, and enhance the overall effectiveness of your teaching.

How do you incorporate pre-assessments into your teaching? Have you tried any of the tools discussed? We'd love to hear from you!