Blog 2 - Education vs Training

Describe what the difference is between training and education as it pertains to assessment.

The goal in training is for the learners to perform a particular task, such as learning to drive a car. The learner develops competency in driving specific skills that guarantees consistent and successful performance, which is no accidents.  The goal in education is to give the learners a framework for further learning and provides the foundation for a variety of situations. The learner is provided the foundation what to do in different driving scenarios. Education encompasses broader domains of knowledge and attitudes. In most situations, instruction is a combination of training and education. Both training and education are used for assessing.

The skills assessed are more defined in training than those skills assessed in education; education requires a broader domain of knowledge. It is important to select samples of knowledge and sample skills that are to be assessed. It is not possible to test every skill in driving, for example, so the assessor must select skills that are essential to measure within the identified timeframe and resources.

The degree of confidence is another important consideration. Testing is fine but if the instructor (and learner) does not know how to interpret the results of an assessment, the test is worthless. The greater number of observations is required for higher confidence. Assessing the learner for specific behaviors gives the instructor an indication of what the learner thinks and/or knows.

Testing format is another type of capability that must be considered for testing. Declarative and procedural knowledge can often be measured with written assessments. Skills that require extensive motor skills (hands on skills) might be difficult to assess in a written test. However, measuring problem-solving situations is not ideal for a written assessment. Additional time and requires are often required for performance assessments.

Using their professional judgment, the instructor and/or instructional designer decides what to teach and what to assess. They should focus on two goals:  (1) distinction between education and training to aid in identifying what to assess and (2) recognize limits of what can be assessed in an eLearning environment.

When education, rather than training is involved, selecting content to assess it is important to follow three steps:

1. Select a focus within the goal
2. Select specific content to assess within that focus
3. Determine the number of observations for each area of content to be used in the assessment

The first step involves the instructor selecting the focus; the focus may not be the same one that learners eventually will use (e.g., after graduation). Education supports a basis for problem solving and later learning. The focus provides the foundation of knowledge that is beneficial to learners and identifies the resources the learners and instructor accesses during the learning process.

In the second step, the instructor focuses on specific content within the focus (from step 1). As previously mentioned, assessments can only cover small samples of skills identifies from small samples of content defined in step 1. The instructor must use their professional judgment to identify the subset of content in which most learners are proficient. The instructor, at the same time, must decide the type of capabilities involved (e.g., declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, and/or problem solving). Using different testing formats can be helpful in using the different types of capabilities.

The last step is to determine the number of observations that are to be used in the assessment. How many test items are included in the written test? How many tasks does the learner have to perform in a performance assessment? Using a table of specifications can help an instructor with this step. A table of specifications is a table includes the testing topics and the number of test questions for the specific topic. The table of specifications, sometimes referred to as a test blueprint, helps instructors with an “outline” of the concept, weight of the concept (e.g., how many test items or percentage of an assessment is for that concept), and it should include the Bloom Taxonomy of Learning Domains,  Gagne’s Capabilities, or Webb’s Depth of Knowledge. It basically gives the instructor a detailed outline for the assessment’s content. (Templates and examples of table of specifications can be at The University of Kanas, California State University San Bernardino, and University of Malaysia Sarawak.)

It is important to remember that the assessment doesn’t have to be a formal paper/pencil or electronic assessment. Informal assessments can be just as beneficial in identify a student’s mastery of the skill, behavior, or content. In a traditional classroom, the instructor can use the learner’s visual cues to identify if the student is “getting it.” That is not always the case in an eLearning environment. Homework, assignments, and/or activities can be used as an assessment tool in both the traditional and eLearning environments. In an eLearning environment, the assessment can be the quality and frequency of online class postings. Is the still able to electronically upload a file or send an e-mail in a technology class? If the student can successfully submit their assignments to the instructor electronically, and this is a skill that was to be assessed, the act of doing an assignment and submitting the assignment, measures the success of the uploading skill.

Test security, whether in a traditional or eLearning environment for training or educational purposes, is an important consideration. The educational institution should have in place testing protocols and that all educators and learners should be aware of these protocols. The lack of testing protocol and security can jeopardize the validity of a test and thus the ability to interpret the results with confidence. Test security protocol should include test creation, management, and administration. Do summative tests and formative tests have the same testing security level? Should screening tests and benchmark tests have different testing security levels? What about progress monitoring assessments? These should all be considered within the educational institution, whether the traditional, eLearning, or a hybrid environment (Developing District Test Security Protocols).