EMERGING DIALOGUES IN ASSESSMENT

The setting for this ongoing exploration of assessment technique is Doña Ana Community College, a part of the New Mexico State University system in Southern New Mexico. Specifically, this occurs in a medical imaging (radiography) program that trains students to become well-informed radiographers (x-ray technologists). Students are engaged in the cohort model, in which 20 to 25 students progress through the Program together. After two intensive years of didactic and clinical instruction, graduating students must apply all the knowledge they’ve gained to pass a national licensing exam. 

One of the most notorious didactic subjects reportedly dreaded by the average radiography student is the subject of radiation physics. Radiation physics requires learners to understand electronic circuit components that help produce x-rays and the behavior of electrons due to various atomic interactions. Most students explain that their anxiety toward the subject is a lack of foundational knowledge combined with the complexity of the content. Unfortunately, I have seen students struggle to engage successfully in the course year after year. In other words, traditional assessments usually reveal poor comprehension and may prevent a student from persisting within the program.  

Traditional assessment approach

Throughout the life of this course, instruction has followed a traditional approach; the instructor provided a lecture period, some formative assessment, and a high-stakes exam; and then repeated the process throughout the semester. And this was not working for this complex subject. Not only is it incompatible with the content, but it needs to incorporate more active learning. Additionally, as mental health concerns become more and more commonplace to consider, the high-stakes exam makes less sense to this instructor. So, why not change it? Why not provide segmented, low-stakes assessments that:

• are guided by interactive note-taking and practice application
• are more frequent
• still lead to a single high-stakes grade
• provide more opportunity for testing practice as a strategy to overcome the perception of test anxiety
• provide earlier chances for learning interventions
• incorporate mental and emotional “off weeks” for students

I could not find a reason not to try.

New assessment approach

First, students were assigned weeks-long Note Sheet Assignments (NSA) (Figure 1) in a hybrid radiographic physics course. These NSAs were due for a course grade (see the course grading scheme below [Figure 2] and serve as a study guide for module exam segments. The NSAs are each formatted as a three-column table. The first column is dedicated to a main concept/topic with a row for each Module. Each Module covers approximately five chapters of a physics textbook— as recommended by the textbook authors. In the second column of the NSA, students are asked to write notes in their own words and summaries for each topic; resources for how to summarize are provided. The third column includes practice questions for application and practice of topics.

Each week, in alignment with the segmented NSAs, the instructor provided:

• An in-person lecture divided into 10 minute intervals, separated by 5 minutes for note-taking catch up, questions, and practice question application
• PowerPoints available for students online
• Recorded micro lectures (3-7 minutes) of topics (available through YouTube to allow for closed captioning) (Nilson & Goodson, 2018)     
• Timely, guided feedback on assignments and practice questions at the students’ request
• In-class review of previous material where time permitted.

As students move through the NSAs, aligned module exam segments are given during the in-person sessions of the hybrid class (please see a syllabus schedule outline in Figure 3).

Each exam segment is short (approximately 15 questions). They are not quizzes. They are simply sections/segments of what would have been large, high-stakes module exams. Before each segment is taken by students, a review of the relevant material, using the NSA, is completed in class. The segments typically only take students 10-20 minutes to complete. Students are given their grades for each segment in a timely manner (within 48 hours of taking the exam segment) in Canvas. After all segments (spread out over several weeks) are taken, the various segment grades are averaged together for each student to give them their final module exam grade, which counts toward their final grade. There are typically two versions of each exam segment to avoid threats to academic integrity. 

New assessment approach

Thinking about ways to incorporate equity work into assessment work can start with identifying the campus community members involved in assessment work. Institutions across the nation are doing innovative and inclusive work that reimagines processes, reorients objectives, and redistributes power. Efforts like the Grand Challenges in Assessment Project are bringing assessment and equity professionals together across institutions (Singer-Freeman & Robinson, 2020). It is clear that good equity work begets good equity work, and as more assessment folks engage in an equitable approach to assessment, more examples of ways campuses can engage in equitable assessment will be made available and improved upon. The local steps towards justice are often the easiest to imagine but the hardest to take. Hopefully some of the examples described herein will encourage readers to start, continue, and share their own journeys. Indeed, the field of equitable assessment will be driven by the assessment professionals who, today, are experimenting, revising, and implementing tomorrow’s good practices.