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Assessing the Impact of Technology-Rich Spaces on Student Learning


Frequently asked questions:

How do I define technology?

The four levels of thinking that will help you to define technology are:

Examples of taxonomies of technology developed by others:

How do I define student learning outcomes?

Student learning outcomes can be defined as statements that specify what students should know (cognitive), do (e.g., behavioral skills), or think (e.g., attitudes, affective behavior). An important question to keep in mind throughout the learning assessment process is "What does good performance in each of these areas look like?"

Questions you can ask to help you define student learning outcomes are:


What tools are commonly used to evaluate technology's effects on learning?

The aim of assessment goes beyond simply auditing technology's impact on learning and begins to move toward educating and improving student performance. A variety of tools or methods can be used to assess technology's impact on learning. These include both direct and indirect methods and data can be drawn from a variety of sources, including people.

Direct:

Indirect:

Database sources :

People Who Can Provide Feedback:

Where can I access/develop these tools?

There are a variety of places to access tools and resources that can assist you in developing new tools for assessment purposes:

Our annotated bibliography will allow you to find citations of other's work related to assessment of technology. This site will allow you to search for specific assessment methods (direct vs indirect), type of technology used or academic discipline.

Our resources webpages are designed to connect you to a number of different resources associated with assessing the impact of technology on student learning. While these resources are by no means exhaustive, they show the wide range of activities that can be used to explore and assess the interconnections between enriching learning through technology.

The Learning Technology Dissemination Initiative at Heriot-Watt University has created an evaluation cookbook. This practical guide is aimed at lecturers who are interested in evaluating materials for their effectiveness in achieving specific learning objectives.

The Authentic Assessment Toolbox site is a tutorial for learning about authentic assessment, in general. It is presented with hypertext and features creating authentic tasks, rubrics and standards for measuring and improving student learning. What is authentic assessment? Why do we need it? How do you do it? Answers to these questions as well as information on Standards, Rubrics, Portfolios, and Examples can be found here. Educators at all levels will find this site useful.

WebAssign can be used as one type of assessment tool. This homework delivery system harnesses the power of the Internet and puts it to work. Collecting and grading homework is the province of the WebAssign service.

We have compiled some examples of surveys for your use.

What resources are needed to help me assess learning (e.g., personnel)?

While this is dependent on the type of assessment you are doing, some information is available on throughout this website.

A team of professionals and faculty is the ideal situation to develop a comprehensive assessment process. This team could include faculty who are interested in using technology to improve their students' learning; instructional designers to help design appropriate tools; pedagogy experts to help address how best to teach with technology, and assessment professionals to help faculty to assess the effectiveness of the developed course and technology on student learning.

At NC State, faculty can find instructional designers through the Learning Technology Services of DELTA, pedagogy experts at Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, and a list of NCSU assessment professionals on our UPA website.

Our resources webpages are designed to connect you to a number of different resources associated with assessing the impact of technology on student learning. While these resources are by no means exhaustive, they show the wide range of activities that can be used to explore and assess the interconnections between enriching learning through technology.

What are common criteria that are used to determine improvement in learning from using technology?

Is technology having an impact on student learning?

Whether or not technology is having an impact on student learning depends on multiple interrelated factors including the technology itself, characteristics of the classroom, instructor, and individual learner, and how the technology is being used. All these factors create the learning environment and impact what and how well students learn.

Based on the complexity of measuring technology's impact on student learning, our review of the literature (see the annotated bibliography) shows that the results are mixed, but generally describe the impact as positive. While much of this literature is based on indirect assessments of student and faculty evaluations of how technology positively impacted learning experiences, there is a growing literature on the direct impact of technology on student learning.

A few systematic studies from this literature reveal some specific findings. In regard to critical thinking skills, there is some evidence to suggest that students in on-line courses think more critically about material when they have time flexibility to reflect on the materials and discussion points. Using technology to access real-time data and create authentic learning environments can also promote student engagement over longer periods of time. Personal response systems (also referred to as real-time transmitters or clickers) can encourage collaboration, student engagement, and ownership of knowledge creation. Despite these findings, the most important lesson that is reiterated across the literature is that technology can positively impact student learning, but only if the use of technology is accompanied by sound pedagogy.