Assessments and practical exercises: course overview
This course gives trainers the material to assess learners at the end of the other Exponential courses: written tests whose answer keys cite the help, practical tasks on training installations with scoring rubrics, and capstone projects that join several courses. It also teaches the method behind them, so trainers can adapt them or write their own, and ends with the certificate a trainer may issue in their own name.
Note
Everything in this course is the trainer's own assessment, not an official certification; the partner program's certifications are separate and their details are not published (Certifications). Present results and certificates as yours or your organization's, never as issued or endorsed by 7x or the Exponential Foundation.
Who it is for
- Trainers who run any course of the Course catalogue and need to assess learners.
- Training organizations that want consistent results across trainers.
- Team leads who decide, from evidence, who may publish, administer or deploy.
Outcome: a trainer can choose, adapt and run a fair assessment for a course, score it consistently with a rubric, give useful feedback and issue an honest certificate of completion.
Format and duration
| Duration | Module 1 and lessons 6.1 and 6.7 are taught to trainers: about 6 hours. Modules 2 to 5 are run with learners at the end of their courses: 40 to 115 minutes per test or task. Each capstone takes one to two days |
| Format | Classroom or online; tests on paper or screen; tasks and capstones on training installations |
| Level | Intermediate for the trainer; each test or task has the level of its course |
| Prerequisites | Train the trainer, at least its Module 6; the course being assessed |
| Lab | One training installation per learner, with the mail transport set to file, no crontab, and test accounts at example.invalid (Running an assessment session) |
Modules
| Module | Lessons | Duration | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Designing assessments | 7 | 4 h 40 min | Fair design, sourced keys, rubrics, accommodations, sessions, feedback, certificates |
| 2. Assessing the editorial courses | 6 | 5 h 25 min | Tests and tasks for Editors, Exponential Layouts and Exponential Intelligence |
| 3. Assessing the administration courses | 6 | 6 h 25 min | Tests and tasks for Site administration, Search and Multisite |
| 4. Assessing the technical courses | 6 | 7 h 15 min | Tests and tasks for Developers, Theme design and Hosting and operations |
| 5. Assessing the newsletter and migration courses | 4 | 4 h 45 min | Tests and tasks for Newsletters (no mail sent) and Migrating to Exponential |
| 6. Capstone projects | 7 | 1 h 25 min of lessons; capstones 1 to 2 days each | Planning, five capstone briefs with rubrics, moderation |
Module durations for Modules 2 to 5 are the sum of all their tests and tasks; a group only takes the ones for its course.
Which assessment for which course
| Course | Written test | Practical task | Capstone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Editors 101 and 201 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 6.2 |
| Exponential Layouts | 2.3 | 2.4 | 6.2 |
| Exponential Intelligence | 2.5 | 2.6 | 6.2 |
| Site administration | 3.1 | 3.2 | 6.3 |
| Search | 3.3 | 3.4 | 6.3, 6.6 |
| Multisite and site packages | 3.5 | 3.6 | 6.6 |
| Developers | 4.1 | 4.2 | 6.4 |
| Theme design | 4.3 | 4.4 | 6.4 |
| Hosting and operations | 4.5 | 4.6 | 6.3 |
| Newsletters | 5.1 | 5.2 | 6.6 |
| Migrating to Exponential | 5.3 | 5.4 | 6.5 |
Reading path
For a trainer preparing to assess a course:
- Quizzes and practical tasks and Certificates of attendance in your own name in Train the trainer: the short version of this course.
- Certifications and Claims you must not make: why your assessment is your own.
- Module 1, all seven lessons, in order.
- The help pages the course you assess is built on; every answer key in Modules 2 to 5 cites them. Check each cited page against the release you teach.
- The test and task for your course in Modules 2 to 5 (see the table above). Do the practical task yourself on a training installation and time it.
- If you run a longer program: Lesson 6.1, the capstone for your group, and Lesson 6.7.
- Lab quick card and Trainer toolkit: commands and templates for the day.
Suggested schedules
Trainer preparation, one day (with breaks):
| Time | Part |
|---|---|
| Morning | Module 1, lessons 1.1 to 1.4 (2 h 55 min) |
| Afternoon | Lessons 1.5 to 1.7 (1 h 45 min), lesson 6.1 (45 min), lesson 6.7 (40 min) |
At the end of a course, the last half day of the course (for example Editors 101): written test 2.1 (45 min), break, practical task 2.2 (70 min), feedback round (15 min).
A capstone program, after a multi-course program: one day for capstone 6.2, or two days for 6.3, 6.4 or 6.5, or one and a half days for 6.6, followed by moderation (lesson 6.7) and certificates (lesson 1.7) within a week.
Assessing learners
This whole course is about assessing learners. Assessments of the trainers themselves, after this course, are best done as in Train the trainer: each trainer adapts one test and one task for their own course, runs them with a colleague as the learner, and moderates the result with a second trainer.
Related pages
- Course catalogue
- Train the trainer: course overview
- Editors 101: course overview
- Trainers: start here
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
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