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Assessing Photoshop Skills During a Workshop

Posted on Jul 24, 2012 by TJ Fletcher Latest activity: Feb 20, 2013

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Assessment
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  • Photoshop
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Wondering if anyone has any great ideas for assessing skills during a workshop? Also looking for ways to gauge skill level before participants enter a workshop. Thanks.

Comments (5)

Michael Byrnes

Posted on Feb 20, 2013 10:37 PM - Permalink

Linda, very nice. Both for before and on the fly as they arrive. One thing I am always concerned about is that we have done selection correctly from a true usage and relevance standpoint. We all can learn something, but if we don't have the opportunities to apply outside of the learning environment on the projects that we work on it's just not that useful. I have employed task analysis for this. That way you have relevance from the beginning. One of the repercussions of this is much smaller, bite sized content. It's refreshing for most participants to have those smaller bits as compared to those 2 hour (or more) pieces of content that they need to trudge through and allows individuals to attend those parts that are tailor fit to them. I'm also a fan of bringing projects to the class takes more effort from a screening process so the projects are relevant to the skills they will be learning, but it is worth it because it has immediate relevance and also completes work at the same time.

Michael Byrnes

Posted on Feb 20, 2013 10:24 PM - Permalink

Linda Dickeson

Posted on Jul 26, 2012 10:03 PM - Permalink

I have another form that I send out in advance if I can get participant emails. I used to distribute the Acrobat PDF throught Acrobat.com, but now Forms Central will make this easier. The form is a list of what we will cover in the workshop. By each topic, there is a radio button to check indicating "I already know this," "I need to know it or need review," and "this does not apply to me." After forms are submitted, with the great response file tracker tools I can see instantly how many people have responded, and who checked "I already know that," etc., for each topic. Lacking email addresses in advance, I have been known to list topics on a whiteboard or flip chart and make a quick table with columns beside the topics, and as participants enter the room I have them take a marker and make dots in the appropriate column (I already know this, I need to know or need review, or N/A). Dots are fairly anonymous and you can see at a glance what they already know or don't know before you begin.

TJ Fletcher

Posted on Jul 24, 2012 12:40 AM - Permalink

Great idea, Linda! What about before they get to the workshop? Or, is this just too impractical?

Linda Dickeson

Posted on Jul 24, 2012 12:25 AM - Permalink

TJ, my favorite method of preasseing skills is using a "fist to five" method. You review the outline of what you will cover briefly, and then you ask participants to hold up the number of fingers relating to their comfort of experience level with the outline in general. Zero fingers (a fist) means "I have never done any of this before," and five fingers means I know everything about this. You ask them to estimate their expertise and hold up the pertinent number of fingers.