As a few of you know, I’ll be teaching my first online course this semester. In this post, I’d like to share some of the exciting details of an objective and related assessment strategy:

Course name: Fundamentals of Financial Accounting

Learner characteristics: My SFU students are experienced adults who are returning to university under the Continuing Studies program. Typically, these students are highly driven to address knowledge deficits, as they advance to management roles in their respective industries. Hence, they are motivated to learn and utilize all learning tools available to them.

Objective: Establish foundational knowledge of accounting terms and common principles, so practical expertise can be built in more advanced modules.

Assessment strategy: The above objective will be assessed using self-tests, which the students will complete and check on their own (it won’t be handed in). Students will be given clear directions, as well as the self-test, after completing a module in the online course. The directions will state that it is a closed-book self test of 10 to 15 multiple-choice questions and should take about ten minutes to complete. When students check their responses, there will be immediate feedback given on where students can locate the information pertaining to a specific question/concept.

Rationale: I like to maintain a learner focus with everything I do in the teaching world. Since my students take responsibility for their own learning, a self-test approach will be effective. Furthermore, students in my face-to-face accounting classes have mentioned that they would prefer more homework to “solidify” their learning. While the self-tests aren’t homework (they’re optional), this is essentially another low-stakes formative feedback tool for students, in addition to the weekly homework assignment (which they hand in).

However, this assessment strategy is probably not the best approach after the initial few classes (Kelly 2009, Shank 2005). As the course progresses from primarily informative to increasingly practical, students should be assessed in ways which which directly test their ability to make journal entries, T-accounts, and basic financial statements.

Studies show that self-tests are great for boosting learner confidence and helping students regulate their own learning (Shank 2009). Furthermore, this assessment will boost the validity of assessments which are graded for marks (Shank 2005), since students will have seen similar assessments a number of times before.

References

Kelly, R. (2009). Authentic experiences, assessment develop online students’ marketable skills. Assessing Online Learning: Strategies, Challenges and Opportunities. Faculty Focus.

Shank, P. (2005). Developing learning assessments for classroom, online, and blended learning. Workshop Materials. Denver, CO: Learning Peaks.

Shank, P. (2009). Using self-check exercises to assess online learning. Assessing Online Learning: Strategies, Challenges and Opportunities. Faculty Focus.