| Faculty Name | Benjy Davies | Year/Term | Fall 2007-2008 | |||
| Course Number & Title | ART 20104 Raster Graphics | Select One: | PLAN | |||
| Assessment Focus Describe the concept or learning activity that is the focus of assessment. ie. class participation, understanding photo- synthesis; or research paper; persuasive speech | Practical Applications skills test-Adobe Photoshop Students are required to combine and manipulate a variety of images using Adobe Photoshop software. Starting files and instructions are given to the students on a networked drive. Students must copy the folder, accurately recreate the provided ÒfinishedÓ example and save, name and submit their version electronically in the correct manner in the allotted time (one class period). All of the concepts and tools required for completion had been covered in previous class exercises and lessons, although they had not been combined in this manner. The students were not given access to the files before the class in which the test was conducted. | |||||
| Assessment Strategy Outline the project. What is your plan for measuring learning? Describe/attach pre- post- scales, instruments, rubrics. | The attached Rubric will be used to assess studentsÕ success at recreating the finished file. | | ||||
| Assessment Result Report and analyze your results. What is your evidence that students achieved the learning objective you identified? Provide quantitative evidence of analysis. | 11 students took part in the initial session, and all eleven completed the assignment in the given time (150 minutes). Four of the students were finished in approximately twenty minutes, four took between 40 minutes and one hour, and the other three took the entire time. Students were also asked how hard they felt the test was. One student rated it as hard, six rated it as moderate, and four rated it as easy. The completed files were assessed using the attached rubric and assigned a grade from 0-10 points. The highest grade was 9.5 points, which four students achieved (these were the four quickest students as well). The lowest grade was 2, which one student achieved, using the entire 150 minutes to complete. The average grade was 7.9. In the following class period, the results were given to the students, and the errors detailed and explained. Students were given time to work with the files to practice completion of the task. In the next class period after that, the students were required to complete the same test, in 50 minutes (one third of the time). The results are as follows: The highest grade was 10 points (again out of 10 possible), which 6 students attained. The lowest grade was 4.5, from the student who had previously scored a 2. The average grade was 9.3. This represents an increase of about 20% overall. | | ||||
| Improvement Strategy As a result of your assess-ment project, what will you do differently in this course? | The improvement the students made on this assignment is hardly surprising and is mostly the result of practice. The students who performed well the first time were all students with previous experience with the software, and the students who performed poorly, were all students who had no previous experience AND who had missed previous classes that covered the necessary material. Although the grades were higher in the second attempt, more impressive was the speed with which the project was completed. Despite having only one third the time, almost all the students said they had more than enough time, and almost all the students rated the test as ÒeasyÓ. This class, as well as almost all of my classes are built around the philosophy of bringing the greatest number of people up to a base level of competence, rather than weeding students out who canÕt perform. This is in response to the pressures of a low enrollment/open selection school. In other settings, I would alter my approach radically. This test was designed to see which students didnÕt understand the material I had already covered in class, and the following review, practice and retesting all worked well at getting the poorer performing students up to minimum standards. Despite my best intentions and strongest urgings, students will not, as a rule, come to the lab during my office hours or during open lab times for tutoring. Therefore, I do it in class. But as time is finite, this comes at the expense of pushing ahead into new material for the higher performing students (who all finished the test in thirty minutes the first time), leaving them Òtwiddling their thumbsÓ (actually, checking their MySpace pages), for a considerable amount of class time. Unless unforeseen changes occur in the economic and philosophical nature of this university, I expect to continue my current course of action. | | ||||
| | | | ||||