Abstract:

Over the past several years, those involved in higher education instruction have witnessed curriculum being moved from the traditional classroom to online forums. In the case that the course moves to an online forum, the course content may have several structures, either wholly online where in all course instruction and content is delivered online, or hybrid where in various class portions are delivered online while other portions are delivered in the traditional classroom setting.
The course hybridization offers several opportunities not afforded to the traditional classroom. Primarily, a hybrid course style permits the class to be an extended, i.e., individual or group work not requiring the direct supervision or involvement of the instructor can be administered during the student’s “out of class time” via the online platform. Thus, a greater portion of class time can focus on content and student difficulties.
This presentation seeks answer to several questions in this discussion: 1) Which of three online content assessment methods produces the greater content mastery, a. one open book assessment, prior to instruction, b. multiple open book turns at an assessment, prior to instruction and averaging the individual students results, c. multiple open book turns at an assessment, prior to instruction and taking the individual student’s highest results. 2) Which of three online content assessment methods produces the more student stress a. one open book assessment, prior to instruction, b. multiple open book turns at an assessment, prior to instruction and averaging the individual students results, c. multiple open book turns at an assessment, prior to instruction and taking the individual student’s highest results, 3) Which assessment mode, hybrid or paper/pencil, yields the higher content mastery.
Researchers gathered data from a university language classes, administered content specific assessment using the three given methods, and used standardized scores to analyze the assessment results. Each assessment contained two components, information and application; the application component evaluated content mastery. At the beginning of each assessment, students used Likert Scales to report stress levels.
Researchers hypothesized that hybrid assessment methods produced similar content understanding as did paper/pencil assessments methods and that student content understanding increased most via assessment methods 1b & 1c over any single assessment with assessment style 1b producing the highest level of content efficacy; however, that student report both assessment styles (1b and 1c) producing greater stress and anxiety, with (1b) producing the highest level of stress

Keywords:

Hybrid Courses, Online Courses, Teaching, Assessment, Paper/Pencil Assessments, Online Assessments, Stress, Content Mastery.