Mountain Building Web Activity

Scott Linneman, Western Washington University

What learning is this evaluation activity designed to assess?

Student understanding of mountain building processes (plate tectonics, isostasy, climate-erosion connection, denudation).

What is the nature of the teaching/learning that your evaluation has been designed to assess?

These assessements were designed as pre/post/delayed-post assessments of a web-based interactive learning object. The multi-part learning object was developed by Michelle Malone, MS student at WWU.

What advice would you give others using this evaluation?

These assessments were used with WWU students in introductory geology classes. They incorporate misconceptions cited in the literature and misconceptions observed in pilot assessments and student interviews. Thus, while not statistically validated, they are qualitatively validated.

What particular aspects would you like feedback on?

  1. How and why to develop two-stage m/c questions.
  2. How to incorporate known misconceptions into m/c questions.
  3. How to build rubrics for essay questions.

Related Files

Mountain Building MC and Essay Assessments (Acrobat (PDF) 534kB May4 05)