ANGEL Assessing Learning

Description

ANGEL can be used to assess learning in various ways by using the following tools:

Drop Box: Provides an area for students to submit assignments electronically. Instructor can have a grading rubric attached to the assignment. Student submissions can be reviewed and graded within one central area and can be tied to the gradebook.

Game: Ability to create a crossword puzzle or quiz show game to challenge students’ learning.

Assessment: Ability to assess the progress of student learning in an online environment and outside of class time. Contains several different questions types including fill-in-the-blank, matching, multiple choice, multiple select, short answer, true/false, algorithmic (variety in numerical questions), and essay. Ability to set settings/advanced features to align questions to objectives, use a pool of questions, etc.

Survey: Ability to survey the student using the mechanisms similar to an assessment. Surveys are anonymous in the current version of ANGEL.

Features

Drop Box: Collect assignments digitally and option to integrate a grading rubric directly tied to the same item via the Drop Box feature.

Game: Assess student learning in a game format via crossword puzzles or quiz show game via Game feature.

Assessment and Survey: Collect formative and summative assessments via Surveys and Assessments.

Pros

Drop Box: Ability to use settings to restrict availability of a drop box to a range of specific dates and times. By default, students cannot see what other students place into a drop box; however, you may choose to permit peer review on the Review tab of the drop box settings. Ability to allow multiple submissions for an assignment, disable the ability for students to upload attachments or use the message box. Ability to attach an applied grading rubric directly within the ANGEL interface. Helps being environmentally cautious due to eliminating the paper equivalent.

Game: Ability to add a game-based assignment directly within ANGEL.

Assessment: Ability to provide instant feedback, automatic grading, reuse of test materials, environmental benefits of reduced paper usage, answer data is compiled for easy analysis, ability to give tests outside of class, students can take exams that best suit their time schedules, potential improved accessibility for students with disabilities if done correctly.

Survey: Ability to get feedback from students anonymously and look at aggregated results as a whole.

Cons

Drop Box: Potential for student complains / excuses for late work due to perceived or realistic technical problems.

Game: Grading scale provided by ANGEL for games is not intuitively known and students get interesting numerical results based upon partial credit.

Assessment: Only accepts certain question types, the possibility for student cheating although numerous preventative measures can be added, students cannot ask for clarification in the middle of the test, and potential for student complains / excuses for late work due to perceived or realistic technical problems.

Survey: No direct functionality to see if students completed survey or not (e.g. ability to give bonus points for student completion).

Best Uses

Drop Box: Electronic collection and grading of the assignments, peer review for written papers, setting due dates that fit within students time schedules (e.g. midnight), using grading rubrics to allow predescribed detailed feedback and a breakdown of the overarching numerical score.

Game: Crossword puzzles can be used to test a student’s vocabulary of terms used in a lesson. The quiz show option can test a student’s understanding of lesson items using a format similar to a TV game show.

Assessment:

Assessments can give students practice on basic terms, concepts, and principles.
To get students to do homework problems, read the chapter, or consider expectations, have them respond to assessment questions with a deadline a couple hours before class time.
Auto-select the highest assessment score for grading. Alternatively, just give credit for taking the assessment and scoring above a specified percentage.
Provide a few critical thinking questions. View submissions to see what students have learned and determine deficiencies.
Use a “”Wake Up Brain”” assessment to test preconceptions before students read the chapter.
Inform students that a specified number of the assessment questions will appear on a test or in-class assignments.
Provide an ANGEL quiz with a set of questions to guide students in their reading. The kinds of questions you ask can show students the difference between reading to locate specific information, skimming for main ideas, and doing a close reading for the purpose of textual analysis. Administer an open-book, out-of-class assessments that target the things you wants your students to get out of the assigned reading. You can make these available online for a given time prior to class and takes them down just before class begins. You can limit students to one try or let them take the assessment several times, counting only the last score.

Survey: Surveys can be useful to collect student input about the progress of a class, assess student attitudes on a relevant issue, or assess what the students know about a particular topic. Also ability to be used as an optional self-assessment for students to test their progress of learning for their own intentions. Use for a course evaluation technique for any course modality especially at the mid-course point and end-of-course.

Pedagogical Goal

Assessing student learning
If set-up creatively can assess remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, and evaluating

Getting Started

Training Available

ITS Training Services:

Live Training
- ANGEL: The Basics
- ANGEL: Using ANGEL to Enhance Your Course
- ANGEL: Accessibility within ANGEL
Resources

Local Contact for More Information

Instructional Designer’s Contact List

Delivery Mode

Out of class
Web-based
Hybrid

Individual or Group?

Individual

Shareable with Others?

Private
Shareable with selected individuals/group
Shareable with class

Confidentiality of Data

Access – Courses and groups are initially open to selected individuals at Penn State with a Penn State Access ID:
- For courses – The Instructor and the students have access to their courses only. Anyone with a a Friends of Penn State Account, or a Short Term Access Account (STAA) may be added to a course by the instructor or an individual with course editing permissions. Only the instructor or an individual with course editing permissions has full access to all gathered student data.
- For groups – The group creator and group participants have access to their groups only. Anyone with a Friends of Penn State Account, or a Short Term Access Account (STAA) may be added to a course by the group owner or an individual with group editing permissions. Only the group owner or an individual with group editing permissions has full access to all gathered data.
Data Storage – All data is stored at Penn State.

Synchronous or Asynchronous?

Asynchronous

Best for Class Size of

Learning Curve for Instructors/Creators

Medium

Required Level of Expertise

Medium

Assessment/Tool/Criteria

Rubric, integration of grading within the specific tool

Cognitive Activity

Remember
Understand
Apply
Analyze
Evaluate

Equipment Required

Browser

Type of Tool

Online

Accessibility Issues

Directions on how to view ANGEL in more accessible mode: http://accessibility.psu.edu/angel

Main additional issues are if you include images, tables, and/or chemical/mathematical aspects. If so, follow guidelines at http://accessibility.psu.edu/angel and http://accessibility.psu.edu/math.