Describe and evaluate an innovative assessment approach or technology.

Concept mapping is an innovative assessment approach to learning and when coupled with recursive student feedback, students are put in the "driver's seat" as knowledge makers and their learning is not restricted to simply a regurgitation of the instructor's lectures and the assigned textbook with respect to new concepts presented in the course. In responding to a project activity of concept mapping with student feedback, students have multiple sources (includiing their experiences) with which to respond to and create the concept map.

What is conept mapping? According to Educational Technology & Mobile Learning, "Concept mapping is a learning strategy that involves visualizing relations between concepts and ideas using graphical representations. It is a form of graphic organizer that consists of various circles or boxes (called nodes) each of which contain a concept and are all interlinked through linking phrases. The role of these linking phrases is to ‘identify the relationship between adjacent concepts’ (McClellan and Broggy, 2009)."(educatorstechnology.com, n.d.).

The instructor provides the students with a focus question that students must use to create the concept map. Variousl iterations of a concept map can be provided to students, such as partially complete maps, words that might be included or should be considered, or other iterations in order to enhance student learning. Various free and fee based mapping software are available to use to support this type of innovative assessment.

According to the University of Waterloo Centre for Teaching Excellence, assessment can be accomplished through a rubric that is given to the students at the onset of the group activity. (See https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/sites/ca.centre-for-teaching-excellence/files/uploads/files/rubric_for_assessing_concept_maps.pdf ) for an example of a concept map rubric.

"Another method of assessing concept maps, proposed by Novak and Gowin, is based on the components and structure of the map. This approach awards points for valid propositions (1 point each), levels of hierarchy (5 points for each level), number of branchings (1 point for each branch), crosslinks (10 points for each valid cross-link), and specific examples (1 point for each example). The number of hierarchical levels addresses the degree of "subsumption," the number of branches indicates the differentiation, and the number of cross-links indicates the extent to which the knowledge has been integrated."(https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/assessing-student-work/grading-and-feedback/rubric-assessing-concept-maps, n.d.). 

Using recursive student feedback based on a rubric will help students mprove the concept map to its final form and gives both the student and instructor a better assessment as to whether the student actually learned the concept presented through the concept map. During the recursive process, the student will review student feedback based on the rubric to research areas not clearly understood in order to correct or modify the map to resubmit for additional peer feedback. 

References:

1. University of Waterloo, Centre for Teaching Excellence website at https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/assessing-student-work/grading-and-feedback/rubric-assessing-concept-maps

2. Educatorstechnology.com. (January 18, 2018). 9 Great Concept Mapping Tools for Teachers and Students. Accessed on March 16, 2020 at https://www.educatorstechnology.com/2018/01/9-great-concept-mapping-tools-for.html