Designing Creative Assessments for Online Computer Science and IT Courses

In this panel proposal, the goal is to provide a platform for CS and IT educators teaching online courses, to share their experience on designing creative assessment strategies for content heavy CS and IT courses. In the present postsecondary education, it is difficult to find a college or university that does not offer some form of online learning opportunity. Today's college students have grown up expecting everything to be available online and educational system has responded to these expectations by offering a variety of online options. Many are developing fully online programs designed to meet both student demand and institutional goals while others are offering numbers of courses in online format. The success of many online courses are measured based on how well the students are performing or student assessments. In typical class setting, the word assessment usually refers to long, arduous exam. However, online learning has broadened the possibilities of assessment beyond exams because it gives a wide variety of tools that can be used to help students interact with materials in new and exciting ways. Hence, any task or activity that evaluates students' progress toward a course's learning outcomes can be considered as assessment. Traditional examples include papers, projects, reflective reports, group work, quizzes, and much more. Faculty new to online teaching may feel that assessment in online courses is limited to multiple-choice quizzes. However, through careful design and technology use, one can have other assessment options to effectively assess how well students achieve learning outcomes in an online course. Hence, the purpose of this session is to provide a platform for CS and IT educators, teaching online courses, to share their experience on designing creative assessment strategies for content heavy CS and IT courses.