A WEB BASED ASSESSMENT MODULE FOR FACULY AND GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANTS TEACHING INTRODUCTORY GEOSCIENCE COURSES

Many faculty and graduate teaching assistants engaged in teaching introductory geoscience courses realize that assessing student learning is more than simply administering a multiple choice test. Through the use of assessments that continue to engage students in the process of learning faculty and teaching assistants can gather information about what their students are learning, if their courses are meeting their stated goals and objectives and if their institution's programs are effective in producing the content knowledge, attitudes and skills that students need to succeed in the emerging global economy.

A web-based assessment module http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/assessment/index.html housed on the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) server at Carleton College, the module was developed to assist faculty in better understanding the conceptual underpinnings of educational assessment, provide examples of several different types of assessments and provide case history examples of how different assessment instruments can be used in specific learning environments.

Visitors to the site with no assessment background can learn how to begin the process of assessment by aligning learning objectives with assessments. Individuals with more assessment experience may visit either the types of assessment pathway or the learning settings pathway to gain new ideas from the module.