Any assessment done the basis the learning power the student

OUTCOME-BASED ASSESSMENT PROGRAM FOR COMPUTER CLASS

ABSTRACT

3. Challenges posed by present assessment strategies 6

4. Assessment goals and objectives 8

8. Controlling Plagiarism in Computer education 17

9. Conclusion and Recommendations 18

It is to be remembers that any assessment task is a goal oriented activity, which demands that student should use background knowledge and skills to achieve the learning targets as set. Assessment tasks are often smaller constituents of assessment strategies. A good example is the portfolio assessment where certain assessment tasks such as designing slogans and posters, oral presentations, etc. may be included. It has been suggested by Morgan, Dunn, and Parry (2004) that while designing assessment tasks, teachers need properly consider students’ diversity. Teachers should consider the student assessment load, frequency and value of assessment tasks in respect of students of different needs, etc. Each assessment activity must be capable of demonstrating and highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of students as well the needs so that they have the opportunity to direct their efforts in the right direction of improvement in learning. Chapman and King (2005) argued that such a effective classroom will help in making the assessment a productive experience for students. There has been an introduction of several models to incorporate differential assessments. Some of these models are the problem-based model, curriculum compacting model, the contract model and the project model. As explained by Berry (2008), the compacting model can be used for accelerating the learning process or introducing remedial learning. Here the teaching content, learning activities and assessment tasks are selected and adjusted to meet the needs and requirements of students’. The contact model is advised to be used in combination of this model. Teachers who give importance to the principles of good assessment are expected to better addressing the diverse needs of their learners in their assessments,

3. CHALLENGES POSED BY PRESENT ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

4. Does the student have good technical knowledge about the computer.

Assessment is also made to know the basic requirement of the student in understanding the computer education because sometimes the assessment is done on the basis of the quality of the education provided to them but it is not necessary that each and every person will understand through the same process. Assessments are also done to know that the student is comfortable with the theoretical or with the practical approach. As some students can understand more easily with the practical demonstration and some students feel comfort in theoretical class in understanding the computer education. Here Assessments help in making the group of the people according to their learning and on the basis of power to learn in which format they feel easy. Assessment also help in the creation of a good learning environment and try to build the positive attitude in the learning environment and feel positive to the people.

1. Purpose of the assessment: what is the requirement of the assessment? , what they want to know through the assessment? .sometimes assessment is done just to know the impact of the knowledge on the student. How it can be improved the impact of the computer education?

2. Approaches to the assessment: after getting the purpose of the assessment clearly the teacher can assess the students in group or may be individually.

Mission and Goals

Mission

• To develop graduates who are able to succeed in competitive professional environment. Students are required to be well prepared to demonstrate a good understanding of basic as well as complex concepts related with software and hardware development and maintenance along with testing and quality assurance.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Capability of effective communication

• Develop problem-solving skills along with information literacy to support life-long personal and professional development.

Now it’s the time to move forward to put practicality in the assessments by knowing them that what is the basic thing which is required in the assessment of the students. A practical approach is one in which the expert group ask the students regarding the problem in the learning of the computer. The problem may be of many types such as some student are not able to understand the languages (C++, JAVA) , some unable to understand that how to write in the excel sheet, some may have problem in using the different software in the computer, may be they want to know about the hardware of the computer, may be because of that they are not able to install the software, may be because of different writing styles in different languages. After collecting all the needful information from the assessments the experts may evaluate the problem and try to find out as many as possible solutions. After the evaluation of the different alternatives, the expert may select the best alternative to solve the problem. The next step is to implement the alternative and then check that if there is any deviation in the learning process of the students than the expert follow the process again or try to find out the solution of which causes the deviation in the plan.

6. A PRACTICAL APPROACH MODEL SUGGESTED TO ASSESS THE CAPABILITIES OF THE STUDENTS OF COMPUTER CLASS.

Survey of Alumni of the institution

The alumni of the institution will be surveyed in order to determine the outcomes of the graduates. The survey will follow an approach where the short-term success of recent graduates will be measured after their entering the technical environment. Some specific question scan be identified and included to form the questionnaire to survey the recent graduates in order to receive important data input for the assessment program.

Assessment system suggested for Senior Students

The above discussed system of assessment can serve the purpose of a successful assessment of knowledge and skills of junior level students where the knowledge of basic concepts is foremost necessary. However, for the students of senior classes of computer education it is advised to follow another approach where a practical approach will be followed to measure the competencies of these students. Senior students are expected to demonstrate skills related to planning, designing building testing, and presentation of solution to a hardware or software based computer problem. Under the system instructors will rate each student on achievement of certain specific competencies. The rating will be based on the direct observation by instructor and the results will be recorded on a competency evaluation sheet. All the learning outcomes discussed in the previous section will form the part of the evaluation sheet and students will be judged on the basis of achieving all those learning outcomes. A sample of such evaluation sheet is depicted in Figure 1.

7. MOTIVATION AND LEARNING DERIVES FROM NEW METHOD

The new method must provide the motivation and the learning environment to the student so that he can work effectively in the organization and also for the mutual growth. As student also get to know through the counseling that in which type of compute working will he be able to do and also try to motivate himself and encourage his own morale towards the computer work. The practical approach presented in the above discussed sections can contribute towards motivation and learning of students in the following ways:

8. CONTROLLING PLAGIARISM IN COMPUTER EDUCATION

Most of the Universities use Turnitin as an effective way of improving referencing and writing practices followed by students. However, Savage (2004) argued that electronic detection might not prove to be successful in differentiating between ‘inept citation’ and ‘deliberate plagiarism’. Many a times plagiarism may be unintentional due to poor citation practices used by students, inadequate paraphrasing, and vague referencing. Such problems often arise more in case of international students as compared to those from home country. There are cultural differences between students of a particular class and the requirement to write in a second language may result in unintentional plagiarism. In contrast copying is an acceptable option for many students to which they give reasons such as fear of failure, lack of time, etc. It is not enough to tell the students about plagiarism until they need to be applied to an assessment. It is advised to give a second chance to students whose work is found to be plagiarized. It is necessary to consider the effect of cultural and educational background while judging the plagiarism in a student’s work. Students should be made familiar with the techniques of finding the information, searching the relevant material and guidance on summarizing the appropriate information from various identified sources. Student should also be made aware about what constitutes plagiarism so that they can avoid the practice. The checking of through electronic detector makes plagiarism education more relevant to the individual student as they are able to use their own work as an example. In addition, the instructors are not required to fear the draconian consequences in case they are able to know that the work submitted by students was not written by them. However, it is advised to treat electronic plagiarism detector with caution while ranking reports of students as per the amount of plagiarized work and follow manual inspection along with the electronic method.

• Time saving : one of the most important benefit of the computer education is time saving as students and employees can perform different type of work at only one computer without making different entries in different books or registers. As computer can save the work more quickly and can also search the work when it will be required because in computer we can search any type of information in minimum time.

REFERENCES

Knight, Peter (1995), Assessment for Learning in Higher Education, Routledge.

McDonald, Mary E. (2002), Systematic Assessment of Learning Outcome, Jones and Bartlett Publishers.