There are a lot of extreme opinions in education on assessments; many teachers quietly keep testing their students in traditional ways, while others advocate radical changes: getting rid of grades, for example. Both sides have strong arguments.

Design thinking, and its simple, powerful principles, provides a practical path forward. This course starts with the core design thinking belief: let’s start where we are, and work with what actually works. From that fundamental premise, you will learn ways to take your existing assessments and improve them: introducing collaboration, combining self-evaluation with evaluation, aligning assessments with deep goals, re-engineering traditional tests to assess more outcomes, and cheat-proofing assessments (invaluable with distance learning).

What you will learn:
• Quiz and test formats that you can plug into any class and any unit that are simpler, more fun, and provide you with more information about the students than traditional formats.
• Going beyond rubrics to assess projects and writing.
• Helping students cope with test anxiety.
• Simple, fair formative assessments that will drive your instruction.
• Ways to differentiate assessments that are fair and inclusive.

How the course is taught:
• Instructor-led or self-paced online course
• 6 Weeks or 3 Months access
• 45 course hours/3 continuing education credits