APA Self Assessment
APA Self Assessment
Goal: Create a concise, self-contained micro-lesson that helps learners—both students and non-students—consider their audience and apply that understanding to improve the effectiveness of their presentations. The lesson should be easy to access, engaging, and immediately actionable.
Audience: Adult Students
Rationale: Each semester, students complete a long research paper requiring APA formatting. Although students are introduced to APA in prerequisite courses, many forget key concepts or confuse APA with MLA style. Classroom lectures cover the material, but students often do not recognize their knowledge gaps until deep into writing or revising.
This assessment provides a formative tool for learners to gauge their current APA knowledge, identify areas of uncertainty, and generate questions that can be addressed before the research project progresses too far. By offering an early diagnostic, students can build confidence and avoid repeated mistakes in later stages of the writing process.
Considerations: Initially, a standard multiple-choice quiz was considered. While efficient, it was not engaging and only tested understanding in one way. To increase engagement and deepen learning, a variety of question types were used, prompting learners to interact with the material in multiple ways.
Tools Used:
Lumi (H5P)
Content Type: Self Assessment
My Role: Designer, Instructor
Audience: Adult students, nontechncial users
Development Process:
Identify Common Issues – Analyze frequent APA errors based on observation and past student performance.
Draft Questions – Create assessment items targeting key concepts to address identified gaps.
Organize for Learning – Sequence questions in a logical, progressive order that reinforces foundational knowledge.
Diversify Assessment Methods – Incorporate multiple question types (multiple choice, drag-and-drop, true/false) to enhance engagement and reinforce learning from different angles.
Testing and Revision – Pilot the assessment, gather feedback, and refine items for clarity and effectiveness.
Final Product – Deliver a completed, interactive, self-paced assessment.