Tag: Assessment

  • Assessment as Learning (AaL) in Instructional Design and Learning Experience Design

    Assessment as Learning (AaL) in Instructional Design and Learning Experience Design

    Pretty designer thinking at her desk in her office

    A few weeks ago I wrote a post about three types of assessment common in the Ontario school system: Assessment as Learning (AaL), Assessment for Learning (AfL), and Assessment of Learning (AoL). That post described all three and explained their importance. If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest you start there.

    After that post, I have spent a few weeks on this topic, each week breaking down one of the different types of assessment, as it pertains to instructional design and learning experience design. First, I began with AoL, and then AfL. Now I’ll move on to AaL.

    But before I delve into AaL as it is used in instructional design and learning experience design, let’s review where the term came from as it relates to teaching in the primary and secondary school system.

    Description of AaL from the school system

    Just like Assessment for Learning, AaL has a strong focus on the process of learning. AaL is not marked, but instead provides the learner with information about how they are progressing. This allows the learner to make their own personal evaluation about their knowledge and whether they are ready to move on to new content, or if they need to revisit what they have just learned. Additionally, AaL is where the metacognition piece comes in.

    AaL in instructional design and learning experience design

    Unfortunately, AaL is rarely used when it comes to instructional design. But this doesn’t need to be the case, interactive eLearning activities and reflection questions can be effective methods for AaL. Let’s look at some considerations for AaL in instructional design.

    1. Assessment must be based on the learning outcomes

    As with all other posts about assessment, I will begin with the most important piece: it is essential to create assessments that are strongly based on the learning outcomes. At the start of the course design process, you should have written some learning outcomes for the course. These outcomes, the instruction, and the assessment should be closely aligned. For more information on this topic, check out the AoL post.

    Although AaL doesn’t give a score, if the learners aren’t being steered in the correct direction for learning, they will suffer during AfL and AoL. Learners often pick up on the types of questions they are being asked and will focus their efforts in those areas. Therefore, your AaL should be based on the learning outcomes.

    2. Clear purpose and plan

    Ensure that your learners know why you are doing the AaL. Let them know that there won’t be a score for the activity, but that it will help guide them in their learning. Additionally, let them know how they will be receiving feedback and what to do if they want to review certain course material or if they want to continue on with the rest of the course.

    3. Styles of questions

    For instructor-led training, reflection is one of the classic forms of AaL. When done properly, learners not only reflect on what they know, but also how they know those things and how those things related to other things they know. These last two questions can help drive the metacognition piece of AaL.

    One consideration for reflections is the terminology. Many people cringe when they hear the word ‘reflection’ (myself included). If you can disguise the reflection as some other form of activity, learners maybe more invested in answering the questions.

    For example, I recently created a 3-day training course that contained 24 chapters. At the conclusion of each chapter was a reflection activity. However, these were called ‘reviews’. Most people are familiar with the concept of review questions at the conclusion of a chapter, so there is less push-back from the learners. However, the questions were framed in such a way that they prompted reflection and metacognition.

    Other strategies include scenarios and group teaching activities such as jigsaws.

    In an eLearning course, reflection questions are also possible, but there is a wide range of other options available. I like to use super simple scenario questions that have immediate and personalized feedback. These are then followed up with questions about how the learner arrived at the answer they chose.

    For example, I would create a question where two people are discussing an issue and the learner must choose who they agree with. They then receive feedback about whether or not they were correct (this would be AfL). To then push this into the AaL realm, follow-up questions should be included on why the learner chose their answer and/or how this scenario relates to other real-life events.

    4. Feedback

    Similar to AfL, AaL is all about feedback. I recommend checking out the AfL post for more information on providing effective feedback.

    5. Frequency

    AaL works best when done frequently. Ideally after each topic or even sub-topic. This encourages the learners to continually think about the answers they are choosing and why they have picked those answers. Furthermore, it helps pinpoint essential information that they can expect to see on the AfL and AoL.

    Conclusion

    That’s it for the final post on Assessment as Learning, Assessment for Learning, and Assessment of Learning. As I mentioned at the start of the first of these 4 posts, even though I am no longer a teacher, I really love this model of assessment. It takes formative/summative assessments one step further and incorporates reflection and metacognition.

    How would you use AaL, AfL, and AoL in your instructional design or learning experience design environment?

  • Assessment for Learning (AfL) in Instructional Design and Learning Experience Design

    Assessment for Learning (AfL) in Instructional Design and Learning Experience Design

    Businessman hand attending video conference with laptop computer and tablet comouter at desk in office

    A couple weeks ago I wrote a post about three types of assessment common in the Ontario school system: Assessment as Learning (AaL), Assessment for Learning (AfL), and Assessment of Learning (AoL). That post described all three and explained their importance. If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest you start there.

    Over three weeks, I will break down each of the different types of assessment, as it pertains to instructional design and learning experience design. Last week I began with AoL. Now I’ll move on to AfL. Before I delve into AfL as it is used in instructional design and learning experience design, let’s review where the term came from as it relates to teaching in the primary and secondary school system.

    Description of AfL from the school system

    AfL is an informal assessment of what a learner has learned from an individual topic or task. This type of assessment is either unscored or a mark is given simply for the learner’s own knowledge (but it does not count toward a final grade score). In either case, the emphasis is on descriptive feedback.

    The focus of AfL is on the process of learning. The AfL step helps learners identify their strengths and weaknesses, and it ultimately helps the learners focus on what they need to know to succeed.

    AfL in instructional design

    When it comes to the instructional design environment, quizzes, in-class activities, and interactive eLearning activities are commonly used for AfL. Let’s look at some considerations for AfL in instructional design.

    1. Assessment must be based on the learning outcomes

    It is essential to create assessments that are strongly based on the learning outcomes. At the start of the course design process, you should have written some learning outcomes for the course. These outcomes, the instruction, and the assessment should be closely aligned. For more information on this topic, check out the AoL post from last week.

    2. Feedback

    AfL is all about feedback. In some cases, the assessment may be marked, but whether it is or not, the most informative feedback comes in the form of comments. In an instructor-led course, this may mean debriefing after each activity to try to understand why the learners made certain decisions. In an eLearning course, this may mean providing written feedback – ideally feedback that is both immediate and personalized.

    Consider the two examples below. Try getting the answer right and wrong for each question. Which example made you feel more satisfied with your learning? [note that the try again button is there so you can try both a correct and an incorrect response, but it would be removed in an actual assessment, particularly in example 2]

    As you can see from the second example, the feedback is in fact part of the learning process. It is particularly helpful when the feedback is specific to the choice made. In this example, there were 3 different ‘incorrect’ feedback layers, each one was based on a different incorrect answer.

    You may wonder about the learners who decide not to read the feedback. They see the checkmark or X and move on to the next question. Although those learners do indeed exist, not all learners will skip reading the feedback. Therefore, by providing feedback to everyone, we are allowing learners to make their own choice.

    3. Gamification

    In the post of AoL, I skipped gamification because it really works best in a formative assessment capacity. Any time that there are countdown timers, score cards, leaderboards, etc. the stress levels of the learners can increase. Additionally, the learners may become distracted with these extra features and spend less time pondering each question. This is not a conducive environment for summative assessments. However, when learners are still in the process of learning and the assessment is AfL, games can be a nice, light, fun way to perform assessment.

    I recently completed a workshop by Clint Clarkson, who is a master of game thinking in learning experiences. One of his takeaways was that almost everything can be turned into some form of a game (although as an ID or LXD, some discretion is necessary depending on the subject matter).

    My personal preference for gamification is all-encompassing games with a storyline and, most importantly, a purpose. Let me explain my preference with an example of what doesn’t work well, and then compare that to what I would do to fix it.

    When workshopping ideas for a learning-based virtual escape room, someone suggested that learners should answer multiple choice questions about the subject matter each time they tried escaping the room.

    Now, in my opinion, this makes the learning and the game very disjointed. I don’t see the value of the game itself in this instance. The decisions that the learners make related to how to escape are not at all related to the decisions they need to make regarding the subject matter. You may as well just give them the multiple-choice questions and skip the game.

    My idea for learning-based virtual escape rooms is that the learners must use their content-based knowledge to actually escape the room. For example, in an escape room based on ladder safety, the learners would have to select appropriate ladders, inspect them, safely carry them and use them properly in order to get out of the escape room (for example, through a high window). The learning content is 100% related to the escape room game. In these types of instances, the escape room is essentially a massive scenario-based assessment.

    Regardless of the format of the game, without a direct relationship to the content, gamification can seem superfluous or inauthentic. Remember that the point of the game is to assess learning – which means that the content should be upfront and centre.

    4. Scenarios

    In my post on AoL, I discussed the value of scenarios for summative assessment. Almost every point there would apply to formative (AfL) as well. So, I will avoid repeating myself here (although check out this post to see what I had to say about scenarios in AoL) and simply bring in one additional point: consider how you will provide the feedback.

    Scenarios can be built in a variety of ways. One way involves setting up a decision point, which allows learners to branch out to make their choice, but then after giving feedback, the scenario contracts back and continues in the same way, regardless of the choice made by the learners.

    This strategy is simpler and faster to create, and also provides excellent opportunities for immediate and personalized feedback.

    However, in some cases you may want the scenario to be more immersive. In which case each decision leads the learners on a different path, with dozens (or more) possible pathways through the scenario.

    While I generally prefer these types of scenarios, they make it much more difficult to provide immediate feedback unless each node of the branching scenario starts with a very obvious indication of whether the last choice was correct. In these instances, it’s important to remember that feedback is one of the essential components of AfL. Therefore, a thorough debrief should be presented at the conclusion of the scenario, based on the actual choices made by the learner.

    5. Tracking results

    One final consideration for instructional designers is whether or not the AfL will be tracked. Obviously AoL would need to be tracked to determine if learners have achieved the learning outcomes. However, AfL does not have this same requirement.

    While tracking AfL results does add in a layer of complexity in both the in-class or eLearning environment, it can be beneficial to know if learners are struggling long before they reach the AoL. This could provide opportunities for support and coaching. Additionally, when it comes to evaluating the success of the program, it can be useful to know which outcomes the learners struggled with throughout the course (not just on the AoL).

    AfL in learning experience design

    Learning experience design takes instructional design one step further by considering the learner experience. Since AfL occurs within the learning experience, let’s look at a few ways that can we ensure the learner is having a positive experience on the AfL.

    1. Clear purpose and plan

    Ensure that your learners know why you are doing the AfL. Let them know what will be assessed and how the assessment will work – particularly for gamified or scenario-based assessments. Additionally, let them know how they will be receiving feedback. Also, and importantly, ensure that they know if and how they are being marked.

    2. Clear instructions

    There are almost an infinite number of ways to do AfL. Your only limit is your imagination. However, what seems clear and straightforward to you, might not seem so clear to your learner. Let them know how to complete the AfL and what your expectations are. This is true for both instructor-led and eLearning courses. Again, this is particularly important for gamified and scenario-based assessments.

    3. Next steps

    Ensure that your learners understand what their options are after completing the AfL. Considering that AfL is not a final assessment, but rather than internal assessment to verify that the learners are on track, it is worth having a variety of options for your learners.

    For example, learners that successfully complete the AfL may continue on with the course. Learners who just barely miss the passing mark might be able to return to certain sections of the course for review. Learners who are far from passing might need to review everything before moving on.

    Ensure that the learners know what the options are and how to access the different options. Additionally, for learners who decide to complete some review before moving on, make a clear statement about whether and how the AfL will be redone.

    4. Accessibility

    The final point related to learning experience design is to ensure that the course is accessible (particularly with eLearning courses). Since the sky is the limit in terms of AfL choice (gamification, scenario, drag and drop, multiple choice, etc.), you might want to use accessibility standards as a helpful tool for deciding which methods to use.

    Of particular concern are any type of drag and drop, image matching, and any style of AfL that incorporates audio or video.

    Consider your learner analysis and/or learner personas, as well as any company- or government-mandated accessibility standards. All of these can help you pick the best AfL for your learners from the start (and reduce time spent redesigning non-accessible courses).

    Conclusion

    Well, like last week, this post also turned into a long one! If there is one thing to take away from this novel, it’s that AfL is all about the feedback – make sure you know how and when you will provide learners with feedback, and do you best to make it personalized.

    Stay tuned next week for the upcoming post on Assessment as Learning (AaL).

  • Assessment of Learning (AoL) in Instructional Design and Learning Experience Design

    Assessment of Learning (AoL) in Instructional Design and Learning Experience Design

    Close-up photograph of a perfect grade on a scantron test.

    Last week I wrote a post about three types of assessment common in the Ontario school system: Assessment as Learning (AaL), Assessment for Learning (AfL), and Assessment of Learning (AoL). That post described all three and explained their importance. If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest you start there.

    Over three weeks, I will break down each of the different types of assessment, as they pertain to instructional design and learning experience design. I will start with Assessment of Learning (AoL). Even though this type of assessment comes at the very end of learning, it’s the simplest to understand, and the most common form of assessment.

    Before I delve into AoL as it is used in instructional design and learning experience design, let’s review where the term came from as it relates to teaching in the primary and secondary school system.

    Description of AoL from the school system

    AoL is a formal assessment of what a learner has learned by the conclusion of the chapter or course. This is often in the form of a test or exam, although in some cases it could also be some sort of project or presentation. In the school system, AoL is also known as summative assessment or evaluation (not the same as evaluation in the instructional design world).

    AoL in instructional design

    When it comes to the instructional design environment, AoL may look a little different. Quizzes, tests, and exams are common but projects and presentations are rare outside of the school system. The only typical form of authentic assessment outside of the school system is the rarely-used style of workplace experience simulations.

    Let’s look at some considerations for AoL in instructional design.

    1. Assessment must be based on the learning outcomes

    The single most important aspect of creating good assessment, particularly AoL, is creating assessments that are strongly based on the learning outcomes. At the start of the course design process, you should have written some learning outcomes for the course. These outcomes, the instruction, and the assessment should be closely aligned. In fact, if a learner ever had the desire, for each test question they should be able to point to the associated learning outcome and point to the relevant learning content.

    Writing effective learning outcomes is a blog topic of its own, but I’d be remis not to include one valuable piece of information here: choose your action verbs wisely! If you stated that a learner will be able to know, understand, appreciate, or learn something, you’ll never be able to assess this.

    Instead, your learning outcomes should begin with a measurable action verb. Whether you choose to pick a verb from Bloom’s Taxonomy, Marzano’s Taxonomy, or elsewhere, it should be a verb that can actually be assessed.

    Often when creating eLearning, instructional designers feel a bit boxed in. They often feel that they can only use verbs that assess lower order thinking skills. This may be true when using a standard multiple choice test, but if you have the opportunity to include scenarios, you can assess higher order thinking skills as well. I’ll get to scenario-based assessment shortly, but for the time being, I don’t think I can overstate how valuable scenarios can be for AoL. They allow you to assess critical thinking and problem solving. They also are one of the best ways to assess learners on relatively open-ended questions.

    If you’d like more information on constructing learning outcomes, I’d recommend this post from Mohawk College.

    2. Writing multiple choice tests

    Although they’re not my favourite, I’d like to mention multiple choice tests here, because they are so prevalent. Patti Shank and Trina Rimmer each have great articles on multiple choice tests, but here are some brief notes to creating effective multiple choice tests.

    1. Ensure that the stem of the question is clear and brief. Unless the information is absolutely essential, overly long stems can confuse learners.
    2. Ensure that the answer options are also brief and direct. Keep them all approximately the same length and use similar language and style. The answer shouldn’t be apparent from the way the options are worded.
    3. Avoid double negatives. Learners who know the answer may get it wrong simply because they are confused by the wording.
    4. Try not to connect questions. If a learner answers one question incorrectly, it should not affect their ability to answer any other question.
    5. For online tests in particular, consider randomizing the questions and shuffling the answer options to reduce cheating attempts. However, one exception is when the answer options to a question are numbers – in this situation, have the numbers go in order from smallest to largest (or vice versa).

    3. Creating scenarios

    You may be tempted to skip this section if you create compliance training – I urge you not to. Many instructional designers complain that compliance training is only about giving rules and yelling at learners. With that attitude, it makes sense that they only feel that a simple multiple choice test of lower order thinking skills is appropriate for the AoL.

    However, I strongly disagree with these thoughts. I make compliance training for a living. Every single course I create is about rules, policies, and regulations. However, I think that by focusing on why those rules, policies, and regulations exist, you can get to the goal of the instruction. With that goal in mind, it’s easy to build effective training scenarios that assess how learners will use the rule, policy, or regulation in the real world. And that is what will actually make a different in the life of the learner.

    For example, if the training requirements were to teach learners to do XYZ, don’t simply ask the learners ‘What is XYZ?’ or ‘What are the steps to XYZ?’. This really doesn’t assess whether they understand it, or will ever use it. Instead, ask yourself (or your SME), ‘Why do they want the learners to do XYZ?’. Based on this answer, you can build a scenario.

    While I was working on my Master’s of Instructional Design and Technology, I dutifully learned all the theories, principles, and best practices that our instructors told us to learn. But it wasn’t until I came across Cathy Moore’s scenario-based learning design process called Action Mapping that I became truly excited by the idea of designing learning.

    Action Mapping teaches instructional designers how to build a course (or assessment piece) through scenarios. Here is a brief overview. The first step is to identify what the problem is, and how you’ll know it’s been solved. Then, assuming the problem can be solved through training, the process first focuses on what they need to be able to do to solve the problem. The information taught to the learners flows from there (not the other way around). Finally, scenario-based activities are developed that focus on what the learner needs to be able to do, and they allow the learner to ‘pull’ information, as needed, to solve the scenario problems. [for more information on pull learning, check out this article by Tom Kuhlmann]

    Using Action Mapping, or a similar strategy, can help you design AoL that assesses higher order thinking skills and gives you information that more accurately represents whether the learners understood the course content. Even though Action Mapping is based on how learners attain the content in the first place, the same principles and strategies can be used for AoL.

    4. Gamification

    I have included gamification as a heading here to let you know that I haven’t forgotten about it, and am not purposefully ignoring it. I will delve into gamification in the Assessment for Learning (AfL) post.

    This is mainly because, in my opinion, gamification is an excellent way to learn content, but at the end of the day AoL should focus on how well the learner knows the content without the distractions of points, scores, timers, and leaderboards.

    5. Tracking assessments

    My final thoughts related to the instructional design of AoL is that before writing your assessment, you should consider how the scores will be tracked. Are you working within an LMS? For an eLearning module will the scores be collected via the SCORM or xAPI course, or will the questions be LMS-based? Make sure you know the answers to these questions before beginning the design of the assessment, because these considerations could have a major impact what you can and can’t do when designing the AoL.

    AoL in learning experience design

    Learning experience design takes instructional design one step further by considering the learner experience. Since the learner experience doesn’t stop at the end of the course, it continues on with the AoL, let’s look at a few ways that can we ensure the learner is having a positive experience on the AoL.

    1. Navigation

    If the AoL is not within the eLearning module (or even if it is, but it is significantly different than the rest of the module), you may want to provide the learners with some navigation help before they begin the assessment. You could include a short video, images, or simply text describing how to navigate the assessment.

    Unfortunately, I’ve learned this the hard way. While creating my second-ever course during my Master’s degree, I developed a final assessment within the Moodle LMS. Since the assessment environment was significantly different than the course environment, many learners struggled to understand how to navigate through the assessment. This was the number one complaint I received. Since then, I’ve tried my best to ensure that I don’t add to the stress of my learners by familiarizing them with the assessment environment.

    2. Clarity and visual design

    Clarity of an AoL primarily comes down to clear instructions and appropriate vocabulary (that is consistent with the vocabulary used within the course content). Before releasing an AoL to your learners, have another person read through the instructions and check that they understand them perfectly.

    Additionally, it helps to include comments at the start of the assessment related to the required passing grade, the number of questions in the assessment, and an example rubric if rubrics will be used.

    Visual design is mostly of concern for AoL completed within an eLearning module. All of the visual design considerations that exist for the content part of the eLearning module continue to matter on the AoL. Distracting or confusing designs can significantly impact a learner’s ability to complete an AoL.

    3. Accessibility

    Review your learner analysis when preparing your AoL. Although you may consider variety in questions to be important, adding images, audio, or video could be troublesome if you have learners with visual or auditory impairments.

    Additionally, any learners who will complete the AoL on a mobile device and will be in a public place may not be able to unmute the course, so they may not be able to answer questions that rely on audio or video.

    Continuing to consider the mobile learners, try out your AoL on a mobile device prior to releasing it to the learners. You may find that the radio buttons or checkboxes used to answer questions are too small for your fingers to select.

    4. Reduce stressors

    Many learner’s experience test anxiety to some level. Don’t make things worse by adding in a timer or trick questions.

    Feedback for AoL

    As with gamification, I have included feedback as a heading here to let you know that I haven’t forgotten about it, and am not purposefully ignoring it. However, I won’t make it a focus of this post because many learners don’t look beyond their final test score.

    Ideally, all learners would carefully read the feedback and review any concepts they answered incorrectly even though they won’t be re-assessed, but this rarely happens in real life. This means that the feedback given while the learners are learning (AaL) and (AfL), which has the possibility of altering learner behaviour, needs to be filled with meaningful comments. So be sure to visit the Assessment for Learning post to read more about this topic.

    Conclusion

    When I first decided to write this post, I never expected it to be this long! But with learning outcomes, scenarios, navigation, accessibility, and more, there’s lots to consider when creating AoL.

    I’ve only skimmed the surface on some topics, but it should be enough to help you refine your online searching. In the future I might explore some of these topics in more depth. Hopefully, you’ve read at least one thing here that you’ve never considered before.

    You’ll find the same kinds of information (on slightly different topics) in the upcoming posts on Assessment for Learning (AfL) and Assessment as Learning (AaL). Stay tuned for them.

  • Assessment ‘As’, ‘For’, and ‘Of’ Learning

    Assessment ‘As’, ‘For’, and ‘Of’ Learning

    Student filling out answers to a test with a pencil.

    Before beginning my journey as an learning experience designer, I was a teacher for many years. Shortly before I left the profession, the big, exciting idea surrounding assessment and evaluation was the triple threat of Assessment as Learning (AaL), Assessment for Learning (AfL), and Assessment of Learning (AoL).

    Most teachers, especially those who had been working with the former formative/summative assessment model didn’t really like the AaL/AfL/AoL model. I, on the other hand, loved the model. Not only does it include the concepts of formative and summative assessment, but it also brings in the idea of metacognition. Research has shown that learners with strong metacognition skills (i.e., they very aware of their own personal methods and preferences of learning) are more successful in school.

    My love for this model is so strong that even as a learning experience designer, I continue to use it to craft my assessments. So, how does it work? Well, it’s based on three different types of assessment, each with it’s own purpose.

    Let’s start with the one that is the most common, and therefore the easiest to understand.

    Assessment of Learning (AoL)

    AoL is a formal assessment of what a learner has learned by the conclusion of the chapter, module, or course, etc. This is often in the form of a test or exam. Behavioural-based courses may also use a marked branching scenario for the AoL. At the primary or secondary school level, it could also be some sort of project or presentation.

    In the teaching world, AoL is also known as evaluation (note this is different than the term evaluation in the instructional design world). It is also known as summative assessment in the former formative/summative assessment model.

    Assessment for Learning (AfL)

    AfL is a less formal (or entirely informal) assessment of what a learner has learned from an individual topic or task. This type of assessment is either unmarked (contains only feedback), or a mark is given simply for the learner’s own knowledge – but it does not count toward a final grade score. This is often in the form of a quiz or game.

    As you might have noticed from the name, the focus of AfL is on the process of learning. Assessment is (or at least should be) strongly tied in with the learning process. The AfL step helps learners identify their strengths and weaknesses, and it ultimately helps the learners focus on what they need to know to succeed.

    AfL is also known as formative assessment in the former formative/summative assessment model. In the instructional design world, this is sometimes known as a knowledge check.

    Assessment as Learning (AaL)

    AaL is where the metacognition piece comes in. Just like the AfL, AaL has a strong focus on the process of learning. These types of assessments are not marked, but instead provide the learner with information about how they are progressing. This allows the learner to make their own personal evaluation about their knowledge and whether they are ready to move on to new content, or if they need to revisit what they have just learned.

    In this case, feedback is crucial – in particular, immediate and personalized feedback. This is because the learner is basing their personal evaluation of their knowledge on the feedback provided to them. Having to wait to finish an entire quiz before finding out if they were correct on question number one is not effective. Similarly, receiving general feedback that doesn’t address their own issues is not effective.

    In addition to immediate and personalized feedback, an important aspect of AaL is the frequency of use. AaL is most effective when it is used regularly. For example, following each topic. This helps the learner build competency and confidence when they are progressing well. Additionally, it helps learners target in quickly on their weaknesses when they are getting stuck.

    A final important aspect of AaL is the ‘how’. Without asking learners how they know what they know, you are missing the valuable metacognition piece. Ideally, AaL will engage learners in the learning process by helping them understand where their thoughts and assumptions come from. When done well, it can also help learners understand how they learn best (and no, I’m not talking about the debunked theory of learning styles, I’m referring to things such as how they favour piecing together information, what type of context building works best for them, how they effectively retrieve information from their long term memory, etc.)

    Conclusion

    In my opinion, compared to other assessment models, such as the formative/summative model, the AaL/AfL/AoL is the complete package. When used properly, both the learner and the teacher, facilitator, or content developer are well aware of how the learner is progressing. They are also aware of what steps need to be taken for each specific learner to be successful because they have already zeroed in on the exact stumbling block of the learner.

    Keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks as I delve into each of these assessment types more thoroughly, including how to incorporate them in an instructional design environment and how to adapt them to fulfill effective learning experience design.