Sunday, January 29, 2012

Assessment Plan

Purpose: The purpose of this assessment plan is to identify whether the student has a solid understanding of lawful interview questions as they relate to federal employment laws, specifically: ADA, Anti-discrimination, FLSA, FMLA, OSHA and Title VII.
Learning Outcome: The student will be able to perform a job interview lasting 10-15 minutes demonstrating lawful interview questions and avoiding topics that would be considered unlawful according to federal labor laws.
Assessment Context: The assessment will comprise a 10-15 minute role play interview where the teacher plays the role of the job candidate and the student plays the role of interviewer. During the course of the interview, the student will demonstrate appropriate (lawful) questions according to federal labor laws. They must ask at least one question that relates to each of the six labor law categories taught in the class. During the interview, the teacher will introduce potential unlawful employment topics that the student will need to redirect into a lawful conversation.
Holistic Rubric:

Assessment item
Excellent
Good
Average
Below Average
Lawful interview questions
30%
Student asks only lawful interview questions that are clear and avoid unlawful context
Student asks mostly lawful questions. May ask 1-2 questions that are slightly ambiguous but not direct violations.
Student asks questions that are ambiguous and could be interpreted as unlawful or lead to unlawful discussion.
Student asks obvious unlawful questions or words the questions in an unlawful manner.
Redirecting unlawful interview questions
30%
Student acknowledges unlawful topics in a positive way and redirects them immediately to lawful topics.
Student acknowledges unlawful topics and attempts to redirect, but is unclear or awkward in transition.
Student ignores unlawful topics and continues with other questions or is very unclear on transition.
Student accepts unlawful topics and pursues conversation in that direction. No attempt is made to redirect conversation.
All six labor law categories addressed
30%
All six labor laws are addressed in interview questions.
4-5 of the labor law categories are addressed in the interview questions.
2-3 of the labor law categories are addressed in the interview questions.
0-1 of the labor law categories are addressed in the interview questions.
Time requirements
10%
Total interview time is between 10-15 minutes.
Total interview time is no more than 2 minutes above or below required time.
Total interview time is no more than 5 minutes above or below required time.
Total interview time is more than 5 minutes above or below required time.


Testing Constraints: Students will be advised of this assessment at the beginning of the course. Notes that the student has prepared will be allowed, although outside influence or other student input will not be allowed during the role-play. The interview will take place between student and teacher, with no audience. The interview will be recorded for the teacher to review later when grading, or to refer to if the student challenges a grade.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Thought Process and Rationale

The assignment for this week asks us to explain our thought process and rationale for choosing the test items and essay question to go along with our objectives from last week. I've updated the original post to include the new test items and will give my rationale here in this post.

For my first objective, I created a test item where the student will identify lawful and unlawful interview questions by placing a letter next to each item. This is similar to a True/False test. I chose this method because it was a simple way to assess students' knowledge between lawful and unlawful questions.

My second objective is tested by using matching. As our text reminds us, I considered the order of the lists and ensured that there was only one possible correct response for each question. Although I did include some responses that will be used on more than one question-but this is explained in the directions.

The third objective is tested in a similar fashion to the first objective in that students are instructed to place a checkmark next to applicable responses. This is a quasi true/false test  that identifies correct responses.

The essay item instructs students to identify three labor laws as well as provide examples of scenarios of each. This will do two things: determine that the student can recall three labor laws as well as clearly determine if they understand the laws well enough to provide an example of them.