COMPARING STUDENT OUTCOMES IN GENERAL EDUCATION GEOHAZARDS COURSES THROUGH SUMMATIVE AND FORMATIVE ONLINE AND IN-PERSON ASSESSMENTS

As the demand for flexibility in student schedules increases, universities are encouraged to offer not only more asynchronous online courses but maintain their existing synchronous in-person courses. With this diversification of course modalities across sections of the same course, instructors that teach in-person classes are continually asked by their students to offer additional flexibility. Recognizing the needs of today’s students, some in-person instructors have adopted alternate formats for summative and formative assessments.

The data presented in this study was collected at Temple University from students enrolled in a general education course: “Disasters: Geology vs. Hollywood.” This is a large (60+ students) course with 8-10 sections of both in-person and synchronous-online courses running each semester. The student population of this course ranges from freshman to senior levels with various, usually non-STEM majors. This study focuses on how each section approaches assessments and evaluates student outcomes throughout the semester.

Because high volume courses tend to evolve by section, a course coordinator initially designed the course content, lessons, and assessments during Spring of 2021. This coordinator maintains instructional consistency across sections and course modalities via random reevaluations of each instructor’s formative and summative assessments. While course content is maintained across sections, how instructors choose to administer their assessments is up to their discretion. Online courses exclusively perform their assessments through Canvas (Temple University’s LMS), allowing students to complete coursework when/where it fits their schedule. Conversely, in-person instructors are allotted more flexibility in how these assessments are administered. Some instructors follow a more traditional approach and have students complete various assessments during class time, while others have students to complete assessments though Canvas. Understanding how the difference in assessment delivery and its effects on student outcomes is the focus of this study.