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ASSESSMENT & TECHNOLOGY FORUM June 19, 2004

2004 Gallery Walk Projects Title: rGrade: A rubric-based assessment system for K-12 and higher education Organization: Ball State University; Educadtional Informatics and Distributed Media Web site:  http://www.rgrade.com

Contacts / Presenters:	Matthew J. Stuve and Mark J. Lora
What purpose does your assessment tool serve?	rGrade can be used for designing and sharing rubrics embedded with standards and using those rubrics as assessment lenses of digital and non-digital artifacts (including portfolios) within courseware. rGrade can be used for overall course management of assignments (also with standards) and student-instructor interactions in relation to student performance and course content.
Please indicate the category that best describes your project:	Technology as an Assessment Tool: _x_ NCLB Statewide Assessments (Preparation, Delivery, Analysis) _x_ Classroom Assessments (tests, quizzes) _x_ Electronic/Digital Portfolios ___ Computer Scored Essays _x_ Information Management Systems _x_ Tools for Observation of Student Work/Behavior ___ Special Needs/Alternative Assessments _x_ Other :__Courseware for performance-based assessment and portfolios__   Assessing Technology Skills (NETS * S and NETS * T): _x_ Digital Transcript ___ NCLB 8 th Grade IT Literacy ___ High School IT Graduation Requirements ___ IT Certifications (Cisco, Microsoft, etc.) ___ 21 st Century Skills ___ Other:________________________
How long has this assessment tool been in use within your organization?	One year
Who is the audience for this assessment tool?	K-12 educators, higher education, teacher education programs, independent or online educators, home schooling
What technology is used? (Please indicate hardware, software, and networking requirements)	rGrade is a web portal that can run on most any web server that has SQL or MySQL database capabilities. Javascript needs to be turned on in the web browser. The web browser we support is Internet Explorer 5.x , although Netscape and Safari seem to function adequately.
Approximately how many people are currently using this system?	0 K-12 Students (current year) Please indicate grade level(s):______ 5 K-12 Teachers 1500 Teacher education students 60 Teacher education faculty 10 Other
What professional development (for students or assessors) is required to use the tool?	Very little. We have conducted introductory training in as little as 15 minutes. Online contextual help is available in every screen and a support discussion board is available in which users may pose questions to the rGrade support team either private or public forums.
To use the tool effectively, what else should the school have in place?	An implementation team consisting of administrators, faculty, students, and IT personnel. A policy on the aggregation and treatment of the data collected. We have systems in place that can permit institutions to customize their data pipelines.
If you haven't already addressed it, how does your tool help students or teachers demonstrate that they are meeting standards?	Standards may be enacted in many ways: At the rubric level, the assignment level, or both. Reports may be generated with respect to one's own teaching (across one's own courses) as to his or her students' performance in relation to standards. Students may do likewise.
What questions would you like participants to address?	Questions of policy and aggregation across instructors by the institution that may effect professional assessment of the instructor. Also, questions pertaining to the integration of rGrade with other courseware would be welcome.