Formative Assessments: Reflection

Roberta Graham
I have chosen two formative assessment learning activities for this assignment from the
Organizational Behaviour for HR Professionals course which is a first year, first semester course
in the Human Resources Management Graduate Certificate Program. I chose these
assessments because they are different in terms of their underlying purpose, and one illustrates
an assessment using technology and one illustrates an assessment without the use of
technology.
The first assessment, ‘Does it All Make Sense?’ is diagnostic in nature and used prior to
learning. The activity is designed to introduce the topic of organizational behaviour (OB) to
students and build connections with their prior experience and understanding of workplace
behaviour. This activity allows for self-assessment, collaborative learning, and provides an
opportunity for students to receive feedback from both their classmates and myself as the
instructor. It also provides me with incredibly useful information before any content is
delivered. It allows me to discern what OB knowledge students currently have and what topics
students are excited about – information that I can use to tweak future lesson plans and
learning activities. As this activity is conducted in the first class, it also serves as the first
opportunity for me to assess how students interact and communicate with each-other and to
help facilitate and model respectful discourse.
The second formative activity uses technology (an online discussion forum) and its
primary purpose is to assess students understanding of course material. This activity directs
students to read a magazine article and then to post their views on the significance of the
article, as well as draw connections between the content of the article and OB concepts
previously studied. This activity allows me to ascertain if students are making appropriate
connections to the learning and provides me with an opportunity to deliver individualized
feedback. Should students not make appropriate connections to prior material (that will be
tested on their final exam), I can conduct a review session during the next class. The discussion
forum is also an opportunity for collaborative learning. Once a student posts an original thread
to the discussion forum, they are tasked with providing feedback to at least one other student.
Students will learn from each other and be able to demonstrate essential employability skills
involving communication and respecting the opinions of others. One additional benefit of this
activity is that it encourages participation from every student. Many times in class there are
less than ideal levels of participation which in part may be because some students do not feel
comfortable sharing in front of a large group – with online discussions, these students
(hopefully!) feel more comfortable participating.
The success of these activities in large part relies on participation. To encourage
participation for the first activity, it is essential that I walk around and ask questions to help
draw out students. Ensuring small break out groups should also help facilitate discussion. To
encourage participation for the second activity, assigning marks will help!
In the end, although the activities differ in terms of primary purpose (a diagnostic tool
and a learning assessment tool) and one is delivered on-line and the other in-class, both serve
to connect students to their prior learning/experiences (a foundation of adult learning theory),
provide opportunities for collaborative learning, and serve as a vehicle to deliver feedback.