The Discussions in this course include several components. You may not be able to address all of these questions in a single post. You will need to plan to return to the Discussion several times during the week to weigh in on the questions. Please make sure you do so as part of both original posts as well as in replies to your classmates. Remember that your grade for the Discussion Board comprises both original postings and your contributions through replies. Both are great places to introduce new information, opinions, links, etc.; and both are equally important to your grade.

Professional Development Plan

Sometimes you have the best intentions of keeping up with a particular field, or following through on some future plan, but your day-to-day responsibilities intervene. Having a written plan that you can periodically refer to can help alleviate this. Thus, in the final unit, you will create a very brief plan for your future professional development in the area of assessment.

Post your responses to the following questions:

1. How do you want to continue using classroom assessment techniques in the future?
2. How do you plan to interact with colleagues about assessment?
3. What are three (or more) websites about grading/giving feedback, classroom assessment techniques, classroom research, the scholarship of teaching, or related topics that you want to use as future resources?
4. What two (or more) journals or organizations that publish articles on these topics or related ones might you want to read on a regular basis in the future?

DISCUSSION 2

Review the instructional video on how to use regression in Microsoft® Excel® (if you have forgotten from Week 2).

Input your data into Microsoft® Excel® (data and years).

Create a scatter plot.

Insert a polynomial trendline with degree of 2. Make sure to show the equation and the R-square value. Also make sure you label each axis and give a title to your graph. Then repeat this process for a linear trendline in a new Microsoft® Excel® worksheet.

Answer the following questions in 175 to 260 words in the same Microsoft® Excel® worksheet as the graph:

• Which of the trendlines fits the data better? How can you tell?
• Compare and contrast the shape of the linear regression trendline with the shape of the quadratic.
• Which do you think will eventually grow faster?  Thinking about the type of data you have, do you think your data will grow quickly over time? 
• Which (lines or quadratics) has a minimum or maximum value? Thinking about the type of data you have, do you think your data has a minimum or maximum?

ASSIGNMENT 3

Course Project – Assessment Planning Portfolio

Purpose

Throughout this course, you have assembled several installments towards creating an Assessment Planning Portfolio for a course you now teach, or would someday like to teach. Now you will assemble all parts of the portfolio as your Course Project and post your completed work to the Final Dropbox. Remember to include all of the requirements listed in the Final Project Directions located in Unit 1 as some of the Social Media installments required only one of the 2 outcomes, assessments, and learning activities. Your project is due by midnight Saturday of Unit 6.

Instructions

Your final version of the Assessment Planning Portfolio should include the following sections:

• Introduction – Preface your portfolio installments with a few introductory paragraphs introducing the reviewer to the purpose of the plan and what you have gained as being the significance of its use in the assessment of student learning.
• Installment 1 – Course Description, Rationale, Goals, and Demographics.
• Installment 2 – 2 Learning Outcomes with 2 Sub Outcomes each.
• Installment 3 – 2 Assessments using one technology.
• Installment 4 – 2 Learning Activities.
• Discussion – Portfolio assessment should also offer an opportunity to reflect on past experiences, and so it is important to step back and evaluate your performance so that you can further assess the learning experience. As a conclusion to your portfolio, please compose a final section entitled “Discussion” that evaluates the strengths of your work, your own appraisal of what you do well and what you might still need to work on, and a summary of your thoughts on the learning activities. In doing so, you might want to address the following points:
  • What was your best entry?
  • What revisions did you make along the way? Are there improvements or changes that you want readers to notice?
  • What does your portfolio illustrate about you as a writer, a learner, and a critical thinker?
  • What have you learned about assessment of student learning?
• References – Include a properly APA formatted list of all sources cited throughout the portfolio.