The Many Faces of Evaluation
As I look at the three kinds of evaluation, I am most familiar with summative. As a teacher I have given students tests to evaluate what they have learned and as a student, of course, I have taken many. Although I see the purpose of formative evaluation I can see why it might be skipped in the development process. I wonder where you would find test groups to evaluate the different aspects of the instructional design especially if you keep revising and reevaluating. I would find myself more likely to depend on SME's. However even though I say that I have asked a small group of deaf students (who answered my surveys) to preview my website and make suggestions. When you do formative evaluations do you look at individual parts or at the whole? Summative seems the simplest to accomplish. It provides a built in audience to test.
Looking at the difference between relative and absolute standards I would expect that educationally and for job skills training you would be more interested in absolute standards evaluations because you want to see the proficiency of the students. I would think relative standards would be most useful in formative evaluations. The normal bell curve would show that learning is occurring at an average rate. If the greatest percentage was in the lower scores, assuming the tested population is able to learn the subject matter, then the assumption could be made that there is a problem with the Instructional Design and it needs revision.
Developing Evaluation Instruments
Of all the evaluations reviewed in chapter 11 I am least familiar with portfolios by name. Growing up we never had portfolios that followed us through school. Each year teachers would keep samples of work through the year but they did not get filed to compare to future years. Composition writing is where I have seen portfolios used the most. It truly shows improvement through the years. I noticed that they say students should choose what to include but in my experience the teacher or even the district determines what is included. All the students have the same papers in their portfolio. Sometimes they may be allowed to include one or two of their own choice. Many parents keep unofficial portfolios of their children's work because they save work through the years.
I liked the tips for good and bad questions and answers. Test questions require a lot of care to make sure answers are exact ant not ambiguous.
Cheryl Briggs December 5, 2001