A good rule of thumb is to keep the Readiness Assessment Tests geared to the "Table of Contents" rather than tto he "Index." The concepts can be written at higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy(synthesis, evaluation, etc) but it is best to keep them at the knowledge or comprehension level. The questions should not be so simple that students could answer them
correctly without reading the course content. On the other hand, it is critical to determine if students know the content that you will be asking them to use during the application exercises. The
key is to establish the essential (table of contents) content and write the RAT to assess the "essential" content that students must know in order to be successful with application exercises.
Larry Michaelsen has an interesting process he uses to deal with enforced curves. He uses a median split to assign As and Bs (consistent with non-TBL courses). I don't want to misrepresent the process.
Larry?
-Derek
On May 19, 2009, at 3:38 PM, Sweet, Michael S wrote:
Colleagues,
RAT DIFFICUTLY
I am curious what folks' current recommendations to new folks are re: how difficult to make RAT questions. I think at the conference someone (might have been Larry) recommended targeting performance levels of 60-80% for individuals and 70-90% for teams. When you are helping someone new get started, is this compatible the advice you give them?
ENFORCED CURVES
Some folks have curves enforced upon them by their departments or schools. Does anyone out there have experience with setting up their TBL experience so it can "play nice" with an externally-enforced curve? Sophie Sparrow posted about this a while back and I am not sure if the conversation went private or if it just never got picked up.
Even if you don't have experience with fitting your own TBL teaching into an external curve, any help brainstorming the issue or practical advice will be greatly appreciated! :-)
-M
Michael Sweet, Ph.D.
Faculty Development Specialist
Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment (DIIA)
University of Texas Austin
MAI 2206 * (512) 232-1775
"Teaching is the profession that makes all other professions possible." - Todd Witaker
-Derek
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