Title: Assessment Formats and Student Learning Performance: What is the Relation?,
Abstract: Although compelling assessments have been examined in recent years, more
studies are required to yield a better understanding of the several methods
where assessment techniques significantly affect student learning process. Most
of the educational research in this area does not consider demographics data,
differing methodologies, and notable sample size. To address these drawbacks,
the objective of our study is to analyse student learning outcomes of multiple
assessment formats for a web-facilitated in-class section with an asynchronous
online class of a core data communications course in the Undergraduate IT
program of the Information Sciences and Technology (IST) Department at George
Mason University (GMU). In this study, students were evaluated based on course
assessments such as home and lab assignments, skill-based assessments, and
traditional midterm and final exams across all four sections of the course. All
sections have equivalent content, assessments, and teaching methodologies.
Student demographics such as exam type and location preferences are considered
in our study to determine whether they have any impact on their learning
approach. Large amount of data from the learning management system (LMS),
Blackboard (BB) Learn, had to be examined to compare the results of several
assessment outcomes for all students within their respective section and
amongst students of other sections. To investigate the effect of dissimilar
assessment formats on student performance, we had to correlate individual
question formats with the overall course grade. The results show that
collective assessment formats allow students to be effective in demonstrating
their knowledge.