The importance of a research-based, valid and reliable assessment we feel is not understood and it is often overlooked. Most program administrators would want to give a valid and reliable pre-post assessment if they understood the importance of doing so. Here are five critical reasons why a valid and reliable assessment is necessary for the success of your program:
1. Identifying
The first step is identifying what program participants know and don’t know. This step will avoid covering topics that the participants already know. This will also help the administrator decide if the course standards are appropriate for the participants. This leads us to # 2.
2. Targeting
An assessment that ties into the curriculum you plan to use will help tie instructions to the needs of the Participant. The best way to engage your audience is to teach them what they need to know, not what they already know- or worse yet, what they do not need to know. Think of a course on the internet. Would you want to sign up for a course that you already possess the knowledge that the course will cover? Of course not, it is a waste of your precious time, not to mention the lack of motivation to complete the course. This leads to # 3.
3. Motivating
Motivation is driven by a want and need to learn something. If your participants already know the topics in the course, or do not see the relevance of the course, why would they be motivated to stay the course? Without motivation there is no commitment. This leads us to # 4.
4. Committing
Did you ever wonder why your course participants do not show commitment to learn the material in the course? Today’s learners want a clear reason to learn new things. If they do not see a connection to need to learn then they will not want to learn. Both motivation and commitment are essential for learning. How do you boost motivation and commitment? The only way I know to do this is to create a goals for learning that are relevant to your program participants needs. This leads me to # 5.
5. Setting Goals
When you think of an assessment, its purpose to measure something, the goals for your course. When participants understand and see the goals of your valid and reliable assessment it creates motivation and commitment to learn. Your assessment needs to be both valid and reliable for your desired purpose. Validity and reliability should always be considered when using a assessment. They indicate how well a test measures the knowledge you are targeting in your course. Validity is the extent to which results measure what they are supposed to measure while reliability is the extent results can be reproduced.
At Conover we take assessments seriously. We understand that assessments drive instruction. Our valid and reliable pre-assessments drive instruction and our post-assessment document skill gain.
So choose wisely! Choose Conover Online. Schedule a demo with us today for more information.
