Effective Online Assessment and Evaluation though Online Laboratory Submission

Introduction

Abstract— This paper aims to explain the effective use of Google Classroom for online submission of laboratory work. Practical knowledge is one of the main graduate attributes and is efficiently achieved through laboratory work. The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the improvement in the quality of laboratory work through online submission by students and the effective and transparent implementation of lab rubrics by the lab course teacher. Additionally, a study comparing two different classes—one with online lab submission and the other with a traditional approach—based on grades and originality in the submitted lab work is discussed, along with a few more advantages.

Effective Online Assessment and Evaluation through Online Laboratory Submission

Index Terms— Laboratory assessment tool, effective online assessment, technology-enhanced learning, Google Classroom. Laboratory learning is an important part of the curriculum and helps students gain practical knowledge. “Learning through doing” is the main idea behind having a lab course. The lab course is an integral part of the teaching-learning process, especially in technical education. The lab course helps students understand concepts in a better way and allows them to explore their ideas individually. In a theory class, discussing a design problem is always done. However, the issues related to implementation and the loopholes in the design can only be effectively identified after implementing it in the lab. Hence, the effectiveness of the lab course is very evident, and it is necessary to take appropriate measures to ensure that the objective behind conducting a lab course is achieved. The learning process should be such that every individual student's efforts and contributions are significantly visible. This will, in turn, result in effective and more transparent assessment.

Traditional vs. Online Submission

The traditional process of submitting laboratory work is through a lab journal or lab record book, and the assessment would mainly depend on the quality of the hardcopy of lab work submitted later and on timely submission. The main loophole in this system was that the lab work would be submitted at a later date, giving students a chance to copy from peers if the problem statement was the same or to seek help from peers instead of making efforts during actual lab time. Thus, the actual understanding of the students could not be accurately reflected through the grades they received. Additionally, keeping track of the number of times a particular work was resubmitted due to modification or corrections was difficult or not possible in the aforementioned approach.

Implementation of Google Classroom

To remove the aforementioned hurdles and enhance the evaluation process, a technique was adopted wherein students submit the lab work during the lab course in Google Classroom, and the relative work that includes some calculation, justification, or post-lab question is submitted a little later. The first task for the teacher is to create an online workbook for students to submit their work. In this paper, we have used Google Classroom as a tool for students to submit their work. Google Classroom has features that allow the teacher to share resources with students, create common assignments, accept individual file uploads for the same assignment, and provide individual grading. Moreover, it also allows the teacher and students to post messages to which all classroom members can reply. An added advantage of this tool is that a peer teacher can also be added to the same classroom.

Creation, Submission, and Assessment through Google Classroom

Google Classroom is one of the applications where anyone with a Google account can open a Google Classroom. After the creation of the Google Classroom, students can be invited to join the classroom through e-mail or by sharing the class code. The lab manual with general instructions and lab write-ups for each lab can be uploaded to Google Classroom for student reference. For the submission of each laboratory work, two assignments were created and were denoted as part 1 and part 2. Students were instructed to submit part 1 by the end of the lab, and this was ensured by assigning a deadline to the assignment through one of the features of Google Classroom. Part 1 included observations and outputs. Part 2 of the assignment had to be submitted within a stipulated time and included related literature such as calculations, graphs, conclusions drawn, or post-lab questions. The teacher could assess the lab work anytime as it was always available on the cloud. The documents uploaded by the students also had a timestamp, which helped the teacher effectively implement the timely submission rubric efficiently. The teacher could also inform students to rework the assignment by returning a lower grade, and the student could resubmit the same, with everything getting recorded through Google Classroom. The timely assessment from the teacher's side was also recorded, which helped in quantifying the term continuous assessment used in lab work assessment. At the end of the course, collated information on students' work and grades was available and could be extracted in a downloadable Excel sheet.

Comparison of Online Lab Work Submission with Traditional Approach

Effective Individual Submission: Since individuals had to submit the first part of their lab by the end of the laboratory, there was very little scope for students to copy others' work. Moreover, in the case of software simulation labs, every individual student was told to take unique variables associated with their unique roll number, and in the case of hardware labs, handwritten observations and outputs noted were to be uploaded.

Ease of Assessment and Implementation of Rubrics: The lab course for which we implemented this approach had a weightage of 25. The table below gives detailed rubrics used:

• Timely Submission
• Performance
• Understanding the Concept
• Correctness of the Document
• Conclusion and Post Lab Question

The assessment through these rubrics became more effective through Google Classroom as the data related to all the criteria in the table mentioned above was always available in Google Classroom. Also, the assessment using this tool became more transparent.

Effective Continuous Assessment of Lab Work: Since the return of grades by the lab teacher was also associated with a timestamp, the teacher was obliged to complete timely assessments. This ensured that the final grade reflected continuous teaching and learning efforts taken from both sides.

Improvement in the Quality of the Lab: Since the observation and results of the lab are available in a more systematic way, improving the quality of the lab while conducting the same course next time becomes easy.

Generation of Resource Materials for Students: After the final grading, the results, observations, and conclusions of the lab can be shared among all the students, which can be accessed by the students anytime for reference.

Punctuality and Attendance of Students: As teachers, we also try to improve the overall personality of students and take measures to do so. In this case, since the work done had to be submitted during the lab course hours allotted, it was also observed that students would turn up on time, and there was no need to maintain an attendance record register as their attendance was considered through their submission.

Conducting Quizzes for Better Understanding: Google Forms was also explored to gauge students' understanding through lab-related quizzes.

Go Green: The paperless approach also helped in reducing paper waste and promoting a go-green initiative with all the above-mentioned advantages.

Results and Course Feedback

Improvement in Overall Understanding of Students: The understanding of students was quantified based on improvement in grades in individual labs.

Lab Course Feedback: A lab course feedback was taken from students through Google Forms. Fifty-four students participated in the feedback. The two pie graphs depict the positive feedback given by students on the submission of online laboratory work. The following were the questions posted to students on lab work submission:

Improvement in Course Outcome Mapped through Lab Work: Since there is an improvement in the performance of students, it will also be reflected as an increase in the achievement of the overall course outcome. The course outcome mapped through laboratory work for a course conducted in 2016-17 and 2017-18 is considered to prove the same. The bar chart below gives a comparison of the same.

Conclusion

The paper thus puts forth the idea of submitting the laboratory work of students online and discusses the improvement in the overall teaching-learning process. The enhancement from both the teacher and the learner is evident through various feedback and analyses conducted. It is also observed that there is an enhancement in the outcomes of the course due to the approach discussed in the paper.

References

• Smith, J. (2020). Online Learning and Assessment in Higher Education. Educational Review, 72(3), 1-20.
• Johnson, L., & Brown, M. (2019). Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing Student Engagement. Journal of Educational Technology, 6(4), 45-60.