About the Assessments
There are a number of opportunities for formative and summative assessment as students .
Practical Skills:
This course uses a “learn-by-doing” approach. Nowhere is that more true than in the Practical Skills component of the course.
In order to complete this course, students will need supervised access to a horse to practice and demonstrate the practical skills outcomes in the Agriculture 3070 curriculum. Encourage students to identify an evaluator for the practical skills component early on.
Either the teacher or the student can provide the assessment documents to the evaluator. There is no grade assigned for this component – students just need to complete the practical component to the satisfaction of the evaluator.
Instructions for the practical skills:
- Download and print out the Practical Skills Document. (The PDF is also fillable, so the document can be completed electronically)
AGR 3070 Practical Skills Assessment Sheet
- Once the evaluator has completed and signed the Practical Skills Assessment Sheet, it should be e-mailed to the teacher.
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 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.
Students must complete the graded activities in order to meet the learning expectations in the AGR 3070 Equine 2 course. Assessment rubrics are included in the module booklets. If you choose not to use the rubrics it is important to advise students of the assessment criteria.
Activity submission
Students submit their activities at the completion of each module using the online submission tool located at the end of each module. Students also need to keep a copy of the completed module booklets 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 their personal statement and final project.
How to access student submissions
You will be notified by email when a student has submitted an completed module, storyboard activity and final assignment.
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.
- 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.
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 3070: Equine 2, students are expected to develop practical skills, based on approved practices, for providing daily care for a horse, focusing on the use of physical facilities, procedures for stall cleaning and bedding a horse, guidelines for turnout and shelter, reproductive fundamentals and basic riding and training techniques. To help students do this, they must have access to a horse and appropriate sheltering and fencing structure.
Students should have completed AGR 2070: Equine1 and have a minimum of 50 hours of previous experience in horse handling and horse care prior to commencing the course. Students must also have access to instruction from an individual with specialized training and/or experience related to horsemanship and/or English or Western riding.
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.