Digital Assessment Techniques with Edpuzzle

Edpuzzle is at the center of formative assessment in my flipped classroom.  From syncing with Google Classroom to quick checks for understanding, Edpuzzle is my go-to tool for assessing students' learning with video lessons. I have used Edpuzzle to flip my Back to School Night, blend with paper texts while reading audiobooks, and deliver instruction in professional development workshops.

I can quickly record my own screencast or locate a video on  one of their popular channels, such as YouTube, Khan Academy, National Geographic, TED Talks, Veritasium, Numberphile, and Crash Course. It is easy to upload the video, crop if needed, add voice or typed directions, and insert questions. Multiple choice questions are automatically scored, and teachers can provide feedback with the answers to provide students with follow up instruction. Scoring of students' typed responses is easy as well: teachers can give a numeric score out of 100 and typed comments to the student.

For today's post, I want to share my workflow for providing typed feedback on students' open-ended responses.  Teachers know that assessment is a time-consuming, but vital part, of the learning cycle. For my EDpuzzle lessons, I will predominantly use multiple choice questions so that students are given immediate feedback, and I can quickly check and add scores to my gradebook using my OSU Rubric. So as to hold students accountable for the work, but not overly penalized for mistakes during formative assessments, students earn a grade in the gradebook based on where their raw score falls in the ranges below.

While providing immediate feedback with automatically scored multiple choice questions is very efficient, providing typed feedback on open-ended responses can be time consuming. Typed feedback, though, builds rapport with students and solidifies connections between the teacher-student and the student with the content. To speed up my typed feedback, I use a comment bank that I keep in Google Docs.

On a Google Doc, I type up feedback that I give to the students. Many make the same pattern of errors (need to elaborate, need to cite sources, etc) so I am often retyping the same sentences for multiple students. The copy/pasted feedback serves as the base of my feedback for I will add more personalized commentary (student's name, specific phrases from his/her response, etc) to the comments in Edpuzzle.

Quick steps:
1. Create a Google Doc comment bank
2. Split your screen: Comment Bank is open in one side, Edpuzzle open in the other.
3. Copy/paste the feedback to the Edpuzzle comment area.
4. Add personalized wording
5. Click COMMENT and give the student a score.
6. Repeat

So that I am not bogged down scoring open-ended responses, my Edpuzzle lessons are predominately multiple choice questions with one or two open-ended responses at the end of the video lesson. I am purposeful in the design of the lessons so that when students type open-ended responses, they are utilizing higher order thinking skills.

No matter the edtech or paper-based platform, the design of the lesson must align with the function of the lesson, and assessment techniques must be efficient and effective for all.