Discussion Announcement 
Dear Colleagues, 
I'm pleased to announce the following Guest Discussion, which will be
held during the week of July 9 (next week!!):
Topic: Assessment in Distance Learning 
Guest Participants: 
Jennifer Rafferty currently works as an independent education
consultant.  Formerly, she worked at the Adult Literacy Resource
Institute at SABES Boston where she held the role of Project Manager for
the Massachusetts ABE Distance Learning Project.  She has worked in the
field of ABE since 1998.
 
Shannon Young is the Program Manager for the Support Center at Project
IDEAL / AdultEd Online and is a Senior Research Area Specialist for the
Program on Teaching, Learning, & Technology at The University of
Michigan's Institute for Social Research. She oversees the Center's work
on curriculum and assessment issues and leads the design team that
creates online tools used to collect student data and support teachers
in member states.  Shannon has conducted education research in k-12 and
ABE settings and been a tutor and writing instructor since 1991.
Recommended preparations for this discussion:
Please consider any of the following questions as catalysts for
discussion.  There is some redundancy with the questions below; however,
the questions are articulated slightly differently and so might provide
people with different entry points of thought.  Also, perhaps
subscribers will find it interesting to view Massachusetts as a sort of
case study given that the issues faced there appear to mirror the issues
faced elsewhere in Distance Learning. 
 
Measures of Progress-Informal and Ongoing
 
In the discussion on pre-assessments for online learning (see Resources
of Interest, below), participants talked about the ways in which they
use various pre-assessments, orientation activities, and technology
training to gauge readiness and prepare their students to become
distance learners who persist beyond the "try-out" phase.  
 
In distance learning, the initial orientation period may be one of the
few times teachers and students are face to face.   The types of
informal, ongoing assessments teachers routinely use in classrooms
(e.g., "reading" students to determine comprehension, redirecting or
expanding discussions, group activities, quizzes, etc.) frequently
aren't available in a distance setting.  So, once we have students in
the distance-learning door, how can we use progress measures and
informal assessments to help keep them engaged? What do those measures
entail?  What does and doesn't work and why?   What role might partner
agencies and/or interested "others" play in the assessment process and
in helping students stay connected and engaged?
 
As a distance teacher, how do you use the results of progress measures
to inform your teaching? 
 
Post-Testing and the NRS
 
In June, the NRS posted its official guidelines for counting distance
learners in the NRS tables.  One of the guidelines for counting distance
learners states that students be post-tested in a proctored setting
using a standardized assessment at intervals designated by the test
developer or by state policy.   Some states follow test developer
guidelines.  Others mandate students be post-tested after a certain
number of days.  
 
*	How do you get your distance learners to take standardized
post-tests?  
*	How do you prepare them in advance to understand the necessity
of post-testing?  
*	What sorts of partnerships have you formed with other service
providers (e.g., libraries, career link centers, etc.) to handle
post-testing distance learners?  What advice would you have for others
interested in forming these partnerships?
*	What do you do when a student achieves his/her goal before the
pre-determined post-test interval?  For example, many students come into
distance programs with specific, short-term goals and study intently for
brief periods of time (e.g., 50 hours of study over a two-week period).
They meet their objectives and are ready to exit a program.  If they
have not been designated as a project-based learner, how do you handle
accounting for these students?  Do you post-test even if they haven't
met the pre-established time-based criteria?    
 
The following questions are based on discussions that have come up with
distance learning programs in Massachusetts:  
 
Questions related to standardized assessments, NRS, and state assessment
policies: 
 
1. What standardized testing instruments do you use with distance
learners in your state?  
 
2. Are your distance learning programs required to follow assessment
policies/guidelines that were created for classroom programs, or has
your state developed a separate set of distance learning assessment
policies? 
 
3. Do the standardized assessments align well with the dl curricula
being used in your state? 
 
4. How successful has your program been with pre and post assessment of
distance learners?  
 
5. What strategies have you implemented to encourage learners to return
for a post-test and which strategies have been the most successful? 
 
6. Has your state developed any remote testing guidelines that would
make it easier for learners to access required assessments without
having to return to the adult learning program? 
 
7. Does your state use a standardized assessment that is
online/web-based?  If so, has having a web-based assessment made it
easier for your program to pre and post-test learners?
 
Questions related to other forms of assessment for dl programs:
 
What other assessment instruments do you use to gauge whether your
learners are appropriate for distance learning delivery? Do you think
that these assessments give a good indication as to whether or not the
learner is prepared for self-directed learning? What skills needed for
dl are not so easily evaluated with inventories and assessments?  
 
Resources of interest:
 
Project IDEAL (Improving Distance Education for Adult Learners):
http://projectideal.org      
 
AdultEdOnline:  http://www.adultedonline.org  (Introduction to distance
teaching and free online self-assessment for classroom teachers
interested in becoming a distance teacher)
 
"Pre-Assessments for On-Line Learning"; Excerpt from Special Topics
Community Literacy discussion; go to:
http://dev.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/assessment/07assess_distance_1.htm
l
The discussion begins with questions regarding early drop-out and
retention issues and asks whether "try-out periods" are integral to
on-line learning processes.  It then focuses on the inclusion of
pre-assessments, as well as pre- and on-going orientation sessions as
strategies for improving retention and success rates.  
 
 
 
 
Marie Cora
 <mailto:marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com> marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com
NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator
http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/assessment
Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection
http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/
 
 
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