“Finding the Right Window Into What They’re Doing”: Assessment of Maker-based Learning Experiences Remotely

During the pandemic, teachers whose practice depends on maker-based learning have had the added challenge of translating their hands-on lessons for remote teaching. Yet with students making remotely, how can a teacher monitor the students’ progress, offer timely feedback, or infer what the students understood? In short, how are teachers assessing this work? Working with a learning community of teachers who center hands-on making in their instruction regardless of academic discipline, this study was conducted to examine how teachers are supporting and assessing maker-based learning. Our study draws on observational field notes taken during the community’s meetings, interviews with four focal teachers, and artifacts from the teachers’ maker projects. Taking a values-based assessment approach, our findings reveal interesting shifts in teaching practice. Specifically, teachers incorporated social-emotional goals into the activities they design and monitor, students documented their artifacts and process, and teachers adapted to using low-tech materials to ensure accessibility while engaging remote students in their learning goals. These findings imply that not only can remote maker-based experiences can influence the role of students as assessors and the tools and materials they use for making but also how these practices revealed in remote settings could inform in-person settings.