Coronavirus (COVID-19) Impact on Accreditation and Assessment
Information and resources for maintaining continous learning, teaching, assessment, and accreditation at UNMC.
- On March 5th, Department of Education (DOE) Office of Post-secondary Education released guidance distance education and other issues related to COVID-19. A summary of of the official document is available here.
- The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) has a Coronavirus Update page where they provide information regarding institutional accreditation and HLC programs.
If you have questions regarding the information provided by the DOE or HLC, please contact the Office of Accreditation and Assessment at oaa@unmc.edu
Keep Teaching at UNMC (Faculty and Staff Resources)
Keep Learning at UNMC (Student Resources)
For remote assessment, other methods of assessing student learning may be more conducive to the remote environment than traditional closed-book, secure, proctored exams. It can also be an opportunity for creative and meaningful assessment and interaction among students. Here are some ideas to consider.
- Open book exams, perhaps with more difficult questions that would require use of resources or higher levels of thinking.
- Changing to or adding question types such as short answer or essay. Here is a good resource from Indiana University Bloomington regarding essay exams.
- Alternative assignments can allow for better assessment of higher order thinking* than traditional exams. Consider developing an opportunity for students to write an essay, work through a set of clinical vignettes or problems, create a mind map about a topic, develop a presentation about a topic, compile an annotated bibliography or dictionary of terms, or create an infographic or fact sheet about a topic. For more creative assessment ideas, look here and here for ideas from other schools.
*Note that you will need your UNMC log in credentials for this article.
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