TPE Blog

Assessment and Online Learning

Many schools are using online grading systems for reporting to parents “how their kid is doing.” However, the grades often don’t tell you much. Let’s say my student is getting 79% correct in daily assignments in math. What does that really tell me? Technology tools are making it possible to link specific performance on key concepts to online grading and reporting systems. But this can only happen if there is enough forethought and design put into the content delivery and grading technologies. Often they don’t “talk to each other.” You need to be able to have access to learning content that matches the key concepts you want the students to learn AND that can capture important data about the student performance. Then your parents will have access to meaningful data that can help inform them about what additional skills or knowledge their child needs to work on. And isn’t that what grading should be about anyway?