Assessment Strategies & Data-Informed Design

Module 4: Assessment Strategies & Data-Informed Desgin

Good assessment isn’t just quizzes and grades—it’s about gathering the right data to help learners see what’s working and what needs a tweak. In this module, we explored formative checks, choice-based summatives, and simple dashboards that respect privacy and ethics. 

We differentiated formative vs. summative formats, designed a choice-based summative assessment, and prototyped an ethical analytics dashboard. We created a one-page infographic visualizing each assessment option (quiz, paper, infographic, video), its format, alignment to the four Module 4 outcomes, and relevant UDL checkpoints.

One key data-privacy and ethical challenge when collecting and displaying learner data is protecting learner identity while ensuring meaningful feedback. For example, if you use a dashboard that tracks PE progress (fitness scores, quiz results, or participation data), there’s a risk that personally information could be unintentionally exposed if dashboards are shared publicly showing names alongside scores). Learners might feel embarrassed if their scores are visible to peers, which could reduce motivation rather than support it. Even anonymous data can sometimes be re-identified if there are only a few learners with low performance patterns.

References

References

CAST. (2018). Universal Design for Learning guidelines version 2.2. http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Ferguson, R. (2019). Ethical challenges of learning analytics: Privacy, consent, and transparency. Journal of Learning Analytics, 6(3), 25–42. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2019.63.2

Pardo, A., & Siemens, G. (2014). Ethical and privacy principles for learning analytics. British Journal of Educational Technology, 45(3), 438–450. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12152

Roberts, L. D., Howell, J. A., Seaman, K., & Gibson, D. C. (2016). Student attitudes toward learning analytics in higher education: “The Fitbit version of the learning world.” Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1959. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01959

Trust, T., & Pektas, E. (2018). Using universal design for learning to support digital equity. TechTrends, 62(4), 413–421. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-018-0281-4