Running head: Final Assessment Plan

Final Assessment Plan Adrienne Santiago EDU358 Renae Buss January 13, 2014

Final Assessment Plan

Final Assessment Plan Introduction and Purpose of Assessment: This assessment plan is being developed for an online mathematical course for health care professionals. This course will provide students with the comprehensive skills needed from basic mathematical skills to more complex mathematical operations used in the medical field. Students enrolled in a medical assistant or pharmaceutical technician training program taking this course will be able to understand how to properly calculate the appropriate dosages as prescribed by a physician. Basic skills assessed will include the demonstration of converting between household, apothecary and metric systems. Students will also be assessed on their skills in dosage calculations. Students enrolled in the health information management training program will understand and be able to check the calculated dosages for proper billing of medication. The purpose of this assessment plan is to support the development of a competency based online course where instructors can effectively assess the individual students abilities and provide effective learning activities that support not only the learning goals of the course but also the learning needs of each student. Learning Goals and Objectives of the Course: This course is a six weeks online course. Concepts will be introduced that are aligned with developing skills and attitudes that can be applied to mathematical problems used throughout the health care field. In the article Evaluating Three Elementary Mathematics Programs for Presence of Eight Research-Based Instructional Design Principles, the authors states Studies of core math instruction have found student practice opportunities, such as written exercises and math verbalizations, important for students struggling with mathematics (Doabler, C. T., Fien, H., Nelson-Walker, N. J., & Baker, S. K. ,2012). The learning goals and objectives must be

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assessable and measurable and the results of these assessments will be used to track how well the learner is moving towards reaching these goals and learning objectives. Learning goals identified for the course: Upon successful completion of this course, the student will understand the important role mathematics plays a role in the allied healthcare fields. Since our intention is to make the learning visible (Oosterhof, A., Conrad, R. -M., & Ely, D. P. (2008), we do not want to assume the learner understands the importance of mathematics in the allied health care field. But instead, throughout the course, be able to demonstrate the proper skills that are tied to the reasons they are being taught how to safely calculate medication dosages. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to demonstrate skills in converting within the metric system. The metric system is the system of measurement used to determine volume and weight of medication dosages. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to demonstrate skills in converting between the metric, household and apothecary systems. While the metric system is primarily used throughout the medical field, it is not the system of measurement used in the common homes of Americans. Those living in the United States do not know that 5mL is equal to a teaspoon. It is important for those working throughout the allied healthcare field to convert the medication ordered to common household measurements to avoid medication misadventures. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to calculate the appropriate medication dosage as prescribed by the physician.

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Allied healthcare professionals are responsible to calculating and administering the appropriate medication dosages based on what was ordered by the physician. The physician may order 20mg of a medication when the medication comes in 5 mg dosages. The allied healthcare professional must be able to accurately calculate the dosage to be given.

Formative Assessment: Organizes the instruction by activities, methods, and material used to teach the concepts, skills, or attitudes (Brown, A., & Green, T. D. 2006), In these courses, using math worksheet activities, graphs, working in groups, etc., can be very effective in learning. We will begin with simple concepts and add more complex concepts and idea building on basic skills in mathematics. Additionally, learning is fostered through formative assessments when it succeeds in helping learners identify their weaker and stronger points, and guiding them to overcome their weaker points during the learning process (Van Gog, T., Sluijsmans, D. A., Joosten-ten Brinke, D., & Prins, F. J. (2010). Feedback is will be very instrumental in helping the learner reach the learning outcomes. Through varied levels of formative assessments which offer an opportunity for the learner to reflect on their knowledge, we can help the learner review and learn concepts and skills that may have been initially challenging. Formative Assessments being considered for this online course: To ensure the student is moving towards the learning outcome, upon successful completion of this course, the student will understand the important role mathematics plays a role in the allied healthcare fields, the following formative assessments will be considered: A self-assessment pre-test will be give upon enrollment into the course to identify the level of knowledge the learner has experienced within this topic.

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The self-assessment pre-test will require the learner to list at least three ways math is used in their everyday lives.

The pre-test will also ask the learner to describe how they see the importance of math in the allied healthcare field they have chosen.

For the learning goal: Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to demonstrate skills in converting within the metric system, the following formative assessments will be considered: Daily learning activities where the learner begins with converting up and down the metric scale used for measuring weight. Daily learning activities where the learner begins with converting up and down the metric scale used for measuring volume. Online homework assignments using a software program that not only provides a help tab for completing assignments, but also instant feedback on answers submitted. Using the feedback provided, the student can determine where they need to go back and review certain concepts. The online software program will provide a report to the instructor letting them know where the student struggled, when they pressed the help button, and how they are progressing towards reaching the learning goals. Within the virtual classroom, the instructor will provide practice problems and provide scenarios applicable to using this form of calculations within the healthcare field. For the learning goal: Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to demonstrate skills in converting between the metric, household and apothecary systems, the following formative assessments will be considered:

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Once the student has mastered the conversions, daily learning activities will be assigned where the learner calculates the conversions between the metric and apothecary systems. All assignments will be assessed. Once the student has mastered the conversion within the metric systems, daily learning activities will be assigned and assessed where the learner calculates the conversions between the metric system and household system. Online homework assignments using a software program that not only provides a help tab for completing assignments, but also instant feedback on answers submitted. Using the feedback provided, the student can determine where they need to go back and review certain concepts. The online software program will provide a report to the instructor letting them know where the student struggled, when they pressed the help button, and how they are progressing towards reaching the learning goals. Within the virtual classroom, the instructor will provide practice problems and provide scenarios applicable to using this form of calculations within the healthcare field. For the learning goal: Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to calculate the appropriate medication dosage as prescribed by the physician, the following formative assessments will be considered: Once the student has mastered the conversions, daily learning activities will be assigned where the learner calculates the dosages of medications based on the physicians orders.

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The online software program will provide virtual copies of physicians orders and pictures of the drug and how it is supplied. The learner will then calculate the proper dosages applying the proper conversions. Online homework assignments using a software program that not only provides a help tab for completing assignments, but also instant feedback on answers submitted. Using the feedback provided, the student can determine where they need to go back and review certain concepts. The online software program will provide a report to the instructor letting them know where the student struggled, when they pressed the help button, and how they are progressing towards reaching the learning goals. Within the virtual classroom, the instructor will provide practice problems and provide scenarios applicable to using this form of calculations within the healthcare field. Choosing these types of formative assessments, we are establishing good reliability as we are documenting the learners initial knowledge of how mathematics is used in their everyday lives and how they perceive it being used in their chosen profession, as well as their initial knowledge of conversions and dosage calculations. Growth-reference interpretation will be used to interpret the results of these formative assessments. The results of these formative assessments will be used by the students to review and reflect after topics and discussions such mathematics as a vital healthcare skill. For this particular learning outcome, the most important component of knowledge we would like to have the learner master, is how essential having good mathematical skills throughout the health care fields. Another important understanding for the learner to grasp is how mathematics will play a major role in their chosen allied health care field. With the self-assessment pre-test, we are

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validating their knowledge prior to discussions on the topic. After the pre-test learning activity, feedback, discussions, more feedback and examples provided from instruction, we can further validate the learners understand with a summative post-test after completing this unit. Formative assessments will be used throughout this course to promote learning. Formative assessment combined with the use of feedback will used to create of foundation of basic mathematical concepts used in preparation for the allied health care field. Summative Assessment For this course, summative assessment will be developed in the form of performance assessments. Others may use the term competencies. It is important the learner demonstrates

the conversions and calculation skills needed for the allied healthcare field. Being an online course, we need to deter students from sharing answers to the assessments. Using a software program for this online course that will provide a variety of assessment problems within the same learning objective will help prevent cheating. Also, using a software program that provides the time the student takes to solve the problem will also be helpful determining if cheating has occurred. Letting the student know what measures are being taking to deter cheating will help students understand the importance of learning the material. Developing a strong relationship with each student and demonstrating a caring attitude towards their learning will help the student feel secure in learning. Steps to Creating Performance Assessments The three steps identified in creating a performance assessment are: 1. Establishing the capabilities to be assessed. 2. Establishing the performance to be observed. 3. Establishing the scoring plan.

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Capabilities to be observed: 1. The learner will apply the importance of mathematical skills in the allied healthcare field. 2. The learner will be able to demonstrate skills in converting within the metric system to properly solve a medication dosage problem. 3. The learner will be able to convert between the apothecary, household and metric system to properly inform the patient of the proper dosage to taken. 4. The learner will be able to demonstrate skills and competency in calculating medication dosages as ordered by the physician. Here, the learner will have capabilities (knowledge) that are not easily seen by the instructor. For example, the learner may know their conversions, but not be able to demonstrate as a learned behavior critically applying the knowledge to solve the problem. It will be important to establish the capability to be assessed with a problem: Medication dosage problem: You need to instruct a patient how to take 60mL of medication. Since you know household measuring devices used to take liquid medications are measured in teaspoons, covert the 60 mL to a measure that can be used at home. Next, we need to establish the performance to be observed. Here the learner needs to demonstrate the processed used to convert milliliters to teaspoons so that the patient can take the medication with a measure that is used at home.

Holistic Scoring Rubric

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Establish the scoring plan: I will be providing the student with a model to follow to solve the problem. The model will help the student establish a step process to solving conversion problems to avoid medication misadventures.

2 oz : x tsp :: 1 oz : y tsp 1. Determine the value of y 2. Determine the amount to be administered in household measures: _______ _______

The follow Holistic Scoring Rubric will be used to score the final performance assessment.

Holistic Rubric Justification:

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For this course and topic, it is critical the student be able to demonstrate skills in calculating dosages that prevent medication errors. It is very easy to miscalculate a dose because you were not proficient in converting from the three systems of measurements. The learner who completes this course should be able to not only have the knowledge of each system of measurement, but be able to demonstrate each system as they pertain to what is being measured. For example, knowing that mL and teaspoons are used to measure liquid. The learner should also be able to apply this understanding of conversion to problem solve when the medication order differs from the medication supply. While we use conversions every day to measure our milk, cook with recipes, or measure calories, it is often times challenging for students to apply those daily activities to the medical field.

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References Brown, A., & Green, T. D. (2006). The essentials of instructional design: connecting fundamental principles with process and practice. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall. Doabler, C. T., Fien, H., Nelson-Walker, N. J., & Baker, S. K. (2012). Evaluating Three Elementary Mathematics Programs for Presence of Eight Research-Based Instructional Design Principles. Learning Disability Quarterly, 35(4), 200-211. doi:10.1177/0731948712438557 Oosterhof, A., Conrad, R. -M., & Ely, D. P. (2008). Assessing learners online. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall. Van Gog, T., Sluijsmans, D. A., Joosten-ten Brinke, D., & Prins, F. J. (2010). Formative Assessment in an Online Learning Environment to Support Flexible On-the-Job Learning in Complex Professional Domains. Educational Technology Research And Development, 58(3), 311-324.