Assessing and
Teaching at the Same
Time with Survey
Software
Meredith Farkas, Portland State University
Kate Rubick, Lewis & Clark College
At PSU - The problems
• Time constraints
• Sometimes have to teach in
“traditional classrooms”
• Assessment often benefits future
students
• Sometimes students don’t know they
need help with research
The solution
Web-based pre-assignments that teach
and assess
The specifics
• Qualtrics survey software
• Text and video that teach skills
• Students have to do research on their
own topic, so they immediately
practice what they’ve learned
The secret sauce
• The pre-assignment is required (for a
grade)
• Instruction session is developed
based on the results of the worksheet
The challenges
• Having enough lead time
• Getting faculty on-board
• Having time to analyze the results
Tools to make this happen
• Qualtrics (what I used)
• Google Drive (forms)
– For video, go to Insert  Video
• Survey Monkey
– Only the pay version offers video
embedding and HTML styling
The results
• My understanding is increased
• My instruction is more tailored
• I can cover more ground
• Students are more engaged
• Students directly benefit from the
assessment
A case at L&C
• A Sociology/Anthropology Methods
class scheduled into a 60-minute
(instead of the customary 90-minute)
timeslot
• How to do the same amount of
library instruction with less time?
Solution
• Assign hands-on learning outside of
class time
• Use Google Drive (forms) to create
four web-based pre-assignments
Logistics
• Students divided into four teams
• Members of each team assigned one
form (required, ungraded)
• Forms completed prior to library
instruction
• Results displayed during library
instruction
Benefits
• Extend learning
• Engage students
• Focus precious prep and class time
• Generate discussion and illuminate
common (mis)understandings
Considerations
• Works best if your institution has
Google Apps
• Easy to use but limited in options for
themes/templates
• Quantitative questions work best for
visualizing results
Questions?