Value of Good Assessment

When I was still a student, I always memorized everything on the lecture gave by our teacher. Her exam is often objective type, it is either multiple choice, fill in the blanks, identification or enumeration. I only memorized and not fully understood the meaning of it. Then after the exam, I often forgot everything that I memorized because it is only on my short term memory. But if the exam is essay, I need to understood well the concepts to answer the essay. I often read and understood from the heart the lecture that my teacher gave to us. And true enough, even after weeks or months, I can still remember the concepts and ideas of the topic. Also, receiving feedback from my teacher helps my learning, feedback allows me to increase my knowledge and develop my skill competencies.

In our current situation of using online learning, I opposed to my co-faculties in giving an online exam of multiple choice to our students. Because our students might cheat and the purpose of assessment is defeated. Another situation will be, does our students did their assignment? Because I experience it from my student before. She had a good research output but I doubt her work. So I compare it to her previous research and found out that even the construction of her sentences is different.

Assessing the learning of our students is vital on our role because it is the basis of their understanding and learning on the subject matter. We as teachers should guide them on their learning. We should also reach out to them if they really understood the lesson well. Giving feedback to their assessment would also allow the students to improve themselves.