About the Assessments
There are a number of opportunities for formative and summative assessment as students become “virtual apprentices.”
Practice Quizzes
The practice quizzes are formative in nature. They are designed to help students answer the question, “How well did I understand what I just learned in this topic?” They are stand-alone quizzes that do not require teacher involvement. Practice quizzes are found throughout the course at the bottom of selected topic pages. Students can complete the activities as many times as they like. These practice quizzes are anonymous. Only the student sees the results and at no point are they submitted for grades.
Note that the practice quizzes are generated using a third-party tool (TryInteract) that uses cookies. However no personal identifying information other than cookies is gathered. TryInteract’s privacy policy in place at the time this course was authored is located here.
Graded Activities
The graded activities are summative in nature. They are generative activity micro-assessments designed to help the teacher assess the student’s understanding, while encouraging the student to build capacity while accruing a collection of assets which they can draw upon for their final project, portfolio and personal statements.
Students must complete the graded activities in order to meet the learning expectations in the AGR 1040: Animal Basics (Equine) course. Assessment criteria are outlined in the Assessment Rubrics and Grade Book topic that follows.
Activity submission
Students submitted their completed activities for grading using the online submission tool located at the bottom of that Activity’s topic page. Students are also advised to keep a copy of the completed activity in a course folder on their computers or cloud-based file storage location. These completed activities can be used to create a portfolio and can be used as source material for the final 200-word personal statement they are expected to create.
You will be notified by email when a student has submitted an activity.
Dropping / Skipping Graded Activities
Teachers have the option to drop or skip graded activities. Note that in doing so it is vital that:
- You advise your students ahead of time
- The outcomes assessed in any dropped / skipped activity must be assessed in at least one other graded activity. See the Learning Outcomes Map topic for more information on the alignment of course outcomes to teaching and assessment activities.
- The weighting of assessments is adjusted in the course grading scheme. (Note: a pre-formatted editable Grade Book Excel file is provided for your use. It can be found on the Assessment Rubrics and Grade Book topic.)
Teachers may also use their discretion in allowing students to replace an activity with documented experience in a home or work-related environment. However, it is important to ensure that students are demonstrating experience that reflects current best practice and knowledge.
Final Project
In AGR 1040: Animal Basics (Equine), students are expected to learn to identify and demonstrate the basic steps involved in raising and caring for a domestic animal and gain an understanding of general care to ensure animal health.
In addition to the learning tasks that students complete for the course, students are asked to complete a final project of their choice. They are provided with a number of different options, but can also develop their own project with teacher guidance and approval. (see the Assignment Instructions topic of the Final Project module).
The project options are designed to use work that students have already completed for their learning tasks. A Project Planning Guide is provided for students in the Project Planning Guide topic of the Final Project module.
About the Portfolio Option
Option One of the Final Project is the creation of a portfolio through which students track their progress and learning in the AGR 1040: Animal Basics (Equine) course. The portfolio is summative in nature and includes evidence associated with the general learning outcomes of AGR 1040: Animal Basics (Equine).
A focused portfolio is a collection of demonstrations of learning that are centred on a specific topic and have a specific purpose. Students should be asked to keep their completed tasks, reflections and final project in a course / portfolio folder. Additionally, students can be encouraged to add additional evidence of their experiences with animals to this portfolio.