Assessment Module

Assessment Code

PEMS tracks any number of assessments and relates each assessment to programs, subjects, curriculum selection, grade level and grade span. The assessment are defined in the assessment code table, and they may be linked to any combination of the above records. The assessment code is a plan to asses a student for an indicator, it is not the actual student result.

Assessment Type

The assessment Type field has the three options for the different types of assessments that PEMS supports.

Level Equivalent - assessment determines what grade level the student is actually performing at in the subject
Percentile Rank - assessment determines the ranking against a larger population of students at the same grade level
Competency - assessment is recording a student has completed a required competency for the grade span.

note: update assessment code table with the menu select options as shown above

Assessment Code and the Subject

Each assessment code record may only link to one subject, assessments codes may not be defined for multiple subject areas in one code. When students take one exam that tests the student on multiple subjects, the school must create an assessment code record for each of the subjects the single test addresses. When the test results are records, the user must create multiple assessment result records for such a test. In General, tests that cover multiple subject areas provide individual scores for each of the tested areas. Because an assessment code record only allows one score, multiple assessment code records are needed to record all available data.

The school does have the option to define subjects as very high level, in doing this one one assessment code record may be created for the high-level subject.

note: the subject field should be made mandatory for the assessment code record.

Marks Matrix

The marks matrix table allows the user to interprets the raw scores of each assessment in a consistent manner. Multiple marks matrix records are created for each assessment code record. Each mark matrix record specifies a low mark and high mark. If the raw score stored in the assessment result record falls inside the range of a specific marks matrix record, then the assessment result records will read the 'normalized' score from the mark matrix record and update the assessment result record.

For Assessment codes with type = level equivalent, the normalized score will be the level equivalent field from the matching marks matrix record. For assessment codes with type = percentile rank, the normalized score will be the percentile rank score from the matching marks matrix record.

note: Add the "percentile rank" field to the mark matrix record

The marks matrix table is not used for competency based assessments since these assessments are either passed or not passed, they are not comparative in nature.

Assessment Results

Each time the student completes an assessment, the user makes an assessment result record. Which assessments the school administers are defined by the set of assessment code records; the assessment result records contain the students' score. The assessment also tracks when the student took the assessment, so that the students progress can be tracked over time. Based on the date of the assessment result, the record is linked to the student term.

note: This result should be linked to the student term, from this value we can get the school term if needed.

note: add the field "percentile rank" to the assessment result record.

Assessment Results Calculations

An assessment result has limited value if the administrator can not see a trend over time in how the student is performing. Therefore, the difference in academic performance between a previous assessment result must be calculated, but the difference in time must also be calculated in order to obtain a trend. The following terminology is used when making these calculations.

AP = Academic Performance
- DAP = different in Academic Performance values between two assessment result records that are associated to the same assessment code record.
DT = Difference in time frame
- DTterm = difference in time frame, measured in units of school terms
- DTGrade = difference in time frame, measured in units of grade levels
- DTSpan = difference in time frame, measured in number of terms in the grade span
DAPDT = the difference in Academic Performance / difference in a time frame
- DAPDTerm = difference of Academic Performance / difference in time frame, measured in units of school terms
- DAPDTGrade = difference of Academic Performance / difference in time frame, measured in units of grade level
- DAPDTSpan = difference of Academic Performance / difference in time frame, measured in units of grade span

A student may take an assessment at anytime in the academic school year. When calculating time frame differences, PEMS selects the most relevant historical assessment record.

For the term time frame, PEMS selects the earliest assessment result within the term.
For the Grade time frame, PEMS selects the earliest assessment result in the grade level.
For the Grade Span time frame, PEMS selects he earliest assessment result in the grade span.

Assessment Antecedent

However, a school may use end of term, end year, or end of grade span assessments to set the baseline for the next phase of learning rather than assessments taken at the start of the term. In this case, the school prefers to use the assessment results taken just prior to the start of the term to determine academic performance.

Academic Results are based on calendar dates, so PEMS lets the user can set an "earliness" time frame that finds results prior to the start of the time frame (term, grade level, span), called the assessment antecedent.

The assessment antecedent is configured per term label. For example, the fall term may calculate a time frame difference from the end of the last school term, or may choose to spend the first week setting the academic baseline. Assessment antecedent is entered in number of weeks.

Note: Create the field called "assessment antecedent" in the term label table, decimal field.

Calculations Workflow

When ever a new assessment result record is entered, each result is associated to an assessment code, the assessment allocations are made. PEMS searches for prior assessment result records, and calculates the time difference academic performance difference between assessment result records. Then PEMS calculates the ratios. Once entered, these values are not recalculated.

Competency-Based Assessments

For assessment codes with type = competence, calculations are not made between assessment result records. Assessment result records are entirely driven by the Moodle Competency framework feature. Also, for these types of assessments, the marks matrix is not used.

This type of assessment code is only used with tight synchronization between PEMS and Moodle and is non-functional if Moodle is not configured to use competencies and Learning plans, as students may only demonstrate they meet the competencies through completing certain assignments in various Moodle courses.

If the school intends to use competency based assessments then when ever a course author makes a change to the list of competencies, the PEMS list of assessment codes must also be updated. The assessment code records with type = competency must correspond to the competencies in Moodle if PEMS will record student achievements.

The Assessment Code field in PEMS must be the exact same text string as the Competency Code field in Moodle.

PEMS does not auto-update the assessment code records when new competencies are defined in Moodle. (investigate for future versions)

When a Moodle Activity is configured to demonstrate a competency, Moodle marks this competency complete. There is a yes/no determination on competencies, there is no score. A set of Moodle activities can also be configured to complete one competency. When the Moodle completes the competency for a student, PEMS creates an Assessment Result record that records the date and completion, when and if there is an Assessment code record with correctly corresponding fields.

Moodle determines if the competency has been achieved
When achieved, an assessment result record is created for the student with date of achievement

Hierarchy of Competencies

Moodle offers unlimited hierarchies in competencies, when all sub competencies are completed, Moodle checks off the higher level competency as completed. PEMS does not duplicate the hierarchy and has one level of competencies. If the school wants to reflect the hierarchy in Moodle in PEMS, the best approach is to use an agreed convention in the name field of the Assessment Code record. Regardless of how Moodle checks of a competency when it is checked off an Assessment Result record is created in PEMS.

Learning Plans In Moodle and Programs of Study

In Moodle, a student can be assigned a learning plan, which is a group of competencies that may span multiple courses. The student can view their progress towards the learning plan in their profile.

In PEMS, the learning plan is a field in the program of study record. The field is meant to be an exact text match to the learning plan record in Moodle. In Moodle, the learning plan record does not have a unique identifier which to force a unique value. The school must ensure that only unique text strings are used for learning plan names.

Note: we need to create a field name "Moodle Learning Plan" and "Learning Plan Status" in the program of study table and in the student plan table.

All learning plans are meant to support he objectives of the program of study. PEMS allows only one learning plan per program. PEMS enforces that the learning plan name is unique. Users copy/paste the name of the learning plan into Moodle to create an exact text match.

PEMS does not automatically create learning plans that match the PEMS, users must ensure an exact text match in learning plan name between Moodle and PEMS. (investigate for future versions.)