Language Testing and Assessment (Course Evaluation)

Question 1

 a.) Three things that I liked about the course:
 i. The discovery of new stuffs or tools that can be used in education such as xtranormal, voki and google doc. I had so much fun!
 ii. The opportunity given to develop and administer our own tests.
iii. The knowledge shared regarding the marking system (rubric) and the scoring types (analytic and holistic). They were so challenging!

b.) Three things that I felt could be better improved: i. Time (lectures and tutorials). ii. Assignments (No individual or pair assignment given). iii. The resources (books and articles). 

Question 2

 I’ve learned the differences between testing and teaching. Besides, I gained the knowledge about test design and its types such as achievement, diagnostic, proficiency test and so on. In addition, I’ve also learned about the validity, reliability, practicality and washback of a test as well as the relationship between teaching and assessment. Not forgotten the types of scoring and the rubric design. I really enjoyed all of them! 

Question 3 

As for me, the learning tools used were helpful in guiding us to do the tasks given and most importantly to understand what we were supposed to gain in this course. Of course, as we progress to the 8th semester in this program, I really hope that there will be more learning tools used to assist our learning as well as to equip ourselves with skills as future teachers. I prefer various kinds of learning tools; I am willing and ready enough to explore my hidden skills through the tools and to adapt knowledge that I should have as an educator (in future). About the learning environment, I am beyond happy for we were given the chance to get to know to new things that hidden in the Internet. We read articles, shared our reactions about them, posted them in the forums, gave comments and spoke up our mind, those are so meaningful to me. The face-to-face kind of interaction also has helped me to notice my weaknesses and it’s much easier for us to ask question directly to the lecturers on the spot. This Blended Learning Environment should become a habit so that we are able to familiarize ourselves with those kinds of ways in learning not only as TESL students but also as future teachers. 

Question 4 

Honestly, I would prefer individual or pair work also if possible. I do enjoy group assignment but still I think there is a need for me to be assessed individually. Having said that, it’s better to have individual, pair and group assignments simply because of our desire to see clearly how capable we are in different assignments with different numbers of work force and to integrate all of them (individual, pair, group) would be great since there were some group members who were not sensitive enough regarding group assignment such as they tend to do it (their part) last minute which inevitably has caused trouble for the assignment given to be completed on time and has affected the time to do proof reading. Therefore, it’s so unfair for those who were seriously into the task given. However, it has been a wonderful experience to work in group for some assignments given in this course. Even so, Dr, how about giving us individual assignment or pair assignment next time? And of course group assignment is still a must. 

 Question 5 

So far I think the rules of engagement (requirements) of the course is just fine and honestly there’s nothing much that I want to comment. I have no problem with that. Lecturers were very understanding with those students who couldn’t access the Internet under the sun. So, the opportunity given in term of time to complete the tasks given especially in SmartUMS and the blog (E-Portfolio) has actually helped to lessen the students’ stress. Even though we only have 15 credits this semester somehow it felt like 20 something, for we have projects to do and many assignments also from other lecturers. Talking about the assignments, they were so challenging enough for us to do them, plus, we also able to discover new things such as the rubric, the scoring types and the experience to design our own tests. Students-students and students-teacher engagement was superb! I am beyond satisfied about that. Honestly, the course has been done very well-organized that I could follow the flow of the learning module smoothly. I do hope that next semester there will be a course or two or three courses that is under Dr. Lee again! And not forgotten Ms. Yoon too!

Question 6 

Honestly, this course has helped me to understand some areas that are not clear enough for me. Firstly, I enjoyed doing the rubric even though at first I felt like “This drives me crazy” since it was totally an alien to me. But now, I would say that it is quite easy to understand actually. I failed to create a proper rubric at my first attempt during the assignment 1, but thanks to Ms. Yoon for kindly spent her time to explain it to me and the others. I also discovered many ‘precious treasures’ online such as xtranormal, voki and goggle doc. I didn’t know that those kinds of sites exist in the Internet all these while. I also ended up this semester with a blog even though I am not into it due to restricted opportunity to update it regularly simply because of Internet connection. But still, I enjoyed it so much and once again thanks to Ms. Yoon for that. In addition, I also gained a valuable knowledge on how to create a test and how to assess students’ products by using either holistic or analytic scoring. Having gone through the test design project has opened my eyes that language testing is not as easy as ABC especially when it required me to do some calculations. It’s not that I hate Mathematics but I actually weak in that subject ever since I was in primary school until I finished my pre-U. Yes, I admit it. I knew that I got no choice that by hook or by crook, I have to refresh my memory of that subject. Even so, my brain was not into it. That’s the hardest part of the course I would say personally. Somehow I liked it when Dr. Lee explained those things by connecting them to real teaching out there that made my brain to try its best to understand those formulas. Overall, it has been a very meaningful and fruitful course and it’s the most wonderful experience ever! Thank you Dr. Lee and Ms.Yoon! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Hope to see you both again next sem! ^^