The ideas in Angelo and Cross’s work still apply to teaching practice today. As more and more college and university students engage in online coursework, it is important to consider how these CATs translate to the online classroom. The use of blogs, wikis, backchanneling, and other web-based tools allow CATs to work for online students as well. Presented here are several original CATs proposed by Angelo and Cross with their technology-enhanced suggestions for use in online classrooms:

• Muddiest Point: In this CAT, students provide information about what is the most confusing or least clear aspect of instruction, whether it is an assigned reading, a podcast or video, an assignment, etc. Creating a backchanneling site such as Wallwisher allows students to post brief notes to identify their muddiest points. Creating a Muddiest Point wiki allows students to interact with one another in an attempt to resolve muddiest points, sometimes even before the professor becomes involved.
• Word Journal: In the Word Journal assessment, students summarize a lesson, concept, or text in a single word, then write a short narrative explaining their word choice. Encouraging students to write blog posts for their word journals provides a relevant and wider audience for their selections and allows classmates to comment on one another’s ideas. The professor might then collect the word journals and create a word cloud such as Wordle to visually display comment themes and elements from the responses.
• Chain Notes: To use this CAT, the faculty member poses a specific question about a lesson, concept, or topic and elicits responses from students. If the public responses are desired, the question can be posted on a backchanneling site or wiki; if more private responses are desired, the question can be posed using survey tools such as Google forms (docs.google.com) or SurveyMonkey .
• Misperception/Preconception Checks: Survey tools are also useful for this assessment technique, in which the faculty member elicits information about what students already know and understand about a class topic before beginning instruction. Links to surveys can be emailed to students or embedded into the online classroom, and the faculty member can choose to collect identifying student information or allow responses to remain anonymous.

Consider bringing CATs into your online classroom. The use of technology tools does not take too much time to plan or implement, but the information gained is very valuable and can positively affect the teaching-learning process in your online class.

Reference
Angelo, T. A., and Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Dr. Jacqueline Mangieri is an experienced online professor, faculty developer, and curriculum developer.

• Provide course orientations: A faculty member might create a brief screencast to provide a welcome and visual orientation to a class. This can be especially helpful for new online learners. The instructor might log into the online classroom as a student and record a “tour” of the class, including how to submit assignments, where to check grades, and other important student tasks.
• Deliver instructional lectures: Screencasting also allows the professor the opportunity to provide some direct instruction in the online classroom. Imagine a math teacher’s screencast that demonstrates her working a problem while narrating an explanation of the steps. Or perhaps a computer teacher can explain a complicated process while visually showing in the screencast what is occurring.
• Provide student feedback: Screencasting can be a highly effective tool for giving feedback. It’s a great way to have an asynchronous “conference” with students about their work. The ability for the instructor to provide narrative comments while showing corrections on the computer screen appeals to a wide variety of learning styles and preferences.
• Encourage student sharing: An important online learning opportunity in many classes occurs when students are encouraged to share their work, and screencasting can take this sharing to a powerful level. In a screencast, students can articulate what they have learned and can explain their work process. Furthermore, the students who view these screencasts can learn even more from the explanations of their peers, and the instructor can gain valuable formative assessment information from these screencasts as well.

Students respond positively to the use of screencasting in their online classes. They believe it adds an important dimension to the course, and they enjoy the more personalized approach screencasting can offer.

To explore some free screencasting tools, visit the following online resources:
Jing – http://www.jingproject.com/
Screencast-O-Matic – http://screencast-o-matic.com/
Free Screencast – http://freescreencast.com/
ScreenToaster – http://www.screentoaster.com/
ScreenCastle – http://screencastle.com/
uTIPu – http://www.utipu.com/app/download

Dr. Jacqueline Mangieri is an Associate Professor in the School of Education and in the Student Success program at American Public University System.