Consistency vs Variety in Online Assessments: is the balance important?

I received an email last week from a college professor who had a good question. She is designing her second online course and was wondering what my opinion was on the types of assignments that work best online. Specifically, she wanted my opinion about whether predictability and variety were important facets in good assessment schemes for online courses.

Yes – I vote for predictability and variety; however, there is more than one way to skin the cat. Let me give you a few examples:

Scenario 1:

Assignment 1: Due Sunday of Week 3
Assignment 2: Due Sunday of Week 6
Assignment 3: Due Sunday of Week 9
Assignment 4: Due Sunday of Week 12
Online discussion: weekly
Final Exam: Week 14

In Scenario 1, the student can clearly see the pattern and predict the workflow from week-to-week as the course progresses through a semester. How about variability? Well, there are two types of weeks in this course: i) weeks with two deliverables (i.e. assignment and discussion) and ii) weeks with only one deliverable.

Scenario 2:

Assignment 1: Due Sunday of Week 2
Assignment 2: Due Sunday of Week 3
Assignment 3: Due Sunday of Week 4
Assignment 4: Due Sunday of Week 5
Assignment 5: Due Sunday of Week 6
Assignment 6: Due Sunday of Week 7
Assignment 7: Due Sunday of Week 8
Assignment 8: Due Sunday of Week 9
Assignment 9: Due Sunday of Week 10
Assignment 10: Due Sunday of Week 11
Assignment 11: Due Sunday of Week 12
Online discussion: weekly

In Scenario 2, like Scenario 1, students can clearly see the pattern and predict the workflow from week-to-week throughout the semester. For variability, there isn’t any. Every week is the same.

Scenario 3:

Assignment 1: Due Sunday Week 6
Term Paper proposal: Due Sunday Week 7
Online discussion: Weeks 4-8
Final Term Paper: Due Sunday of Week 12

In Scenario 3, it’s more difficult for students to see a pattern and they can have difficulty predicting the workflow as the course progresses. For variability, it’s pretty high. Some weeks have one deliverable, others have two deliverables and still other weeks have no deliverables whatsoever.

Scenario 4:

Mid-term Exam: Week 7
Final Exam: Week 14

It’s easy to see that Scenario 4 is highly predictable by students but the overall variability in the course is low.

So, given these types of scenarios, which is the ‘best’? In an online course, good course designs must strive to create student engagement. Over time I have learned that the best way to engage students is to provide them two things: 1) a balanced yet consistent level of predictability and variability in the coursework, 2) a balanced level of student-to-student and student-to-instructor interaction. I’ve dealt with the interaction piece before (here or here). So let me just stick to the predictability and variability component for this blog post.

Now if you re-examine the four scenarios above you might come to the conclusion that Scenario 1 is the most balanced as far as variety and predictability are concerned. Can it be improved? Consider Scenario 5:

Scenario 5:

Discussion 1: Due Sunday of Week 2
Assignment 1: Due Sunday of Week 3
Discussion 2: Due Sunday of Week 5
Assignment 2: Due Sunday of Week 6
Mid-term Quiz: Due Sunday of Week 7
Discussion 3: Due Sunday of Week 8
Assignment 3: Due Sunday of Week 9
Discussion 4: Due Sunday of Week 11
Assignment 4: Due Sunday of Week 12
Final Exam: Week 14

What do you think about Scenario 5 for an online course? Is it better or worse than Scenario 1? What do you think about the entire idea of predictability and variability in assessment schemes? Please leave your comment below.

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