Week 3 - DIY - Blended Assessments of Learning

Reflections 

Good exercise.. Demanded a detailed review of assignments. I had to rationalize their nature, sequence, and design ... especially as to how they built upon one another and addressed the learning objectives as stated in my course blueprint and module design sequence. To do this correctly, would require a great deal more time then I was in a position to give. The iterative nature of this activity that the Blendkit 2016 - Chapter 3 materials eludes, certainly becomes evident. I have also come to realize just how rich and powerful the interactive video strategy that I have only recently discovered and implemented is going to be. This assignment opened my eyes to this. It also forced a more detailed examination about how it can best be administered.

Note that I can also see tremendous value in using webbased screencasts to show students (especially second language learners)  how to get started on a project or assignment - whether that is in a face to face or online context. The multi modal nature of them plus the 24/7 access to them helps make instructions so much more clear to students and at a time and place of their convenience. As a result, I have begun to experiment with recording any "how to" (demonstrations) that I have done in class. I have also the luxury of seeing when and how frequently they are being used. Student response to them is almost always excellent too. 

I also wanted to note the pragmatic side of using objective based quizzes. They certainly have the capacity to lighten an instructor's marking load albeit typically for low level cognitive skills (though the examples presented in the Effective Assessment Examples article seem to suggest that this not always be the case - worth a follow up). But what I find such quizzes are especially useful for is how they better support trial and error than when done via an in the class activity. However, I've also come to learn the need to design these in such a way that they do NOT support random guessing. I have found that I can do this by only giving students access to a final score of a quiz .. so they are not clear as to which questions they got incorrect. The quiz also needs to be based on a battery of questions thus giving students a chance to redo the quiz but with little likelihood of getting the same questions. It should also be set up to support a minimal mastery rate (e.g. 80%). I have found that the strategy promotes frequent use of an online quiz and as a result, the quiz in effect becomes more than an instrument for collecting scores, but a learning activity in itself.


Background

Will target my current POTB COL 140 course at Zayed University for blended learning.

POTB attempts to take the current regular COL 140 - English Composition 1 Course that is given over a regular 15 week period and to compress it into 7 weeks. This puts significant pressure on students (and me the instructor) to cover the same material / syllabus but over a much shortened time frame. The use of blended learning strategies may permit students to engage with course concepts more frequently, in a manner that is more engaging, and at a time and place more convenient to them (outside of class). 


Interactive strategies (tools) that I am likely to use

• real time collaborative document / lesson plan (etherpad - example, Google doc) 
• interactive video + reading comprehension, sentence writing (Edpuzzle - example)
• synchronous paragraph writing (Padlet - example,  etherpad)
• synchronous sentence writing (Today's Meet - example)
• class review (Kahoot) 
• vocabulary development (combination of Google form - to collect student written definitions; Quizlet - taking student written definitions to author a Quizlet) 

My course blueprint

• Wk 1 - DIY - Blendkit 2016 - blended learning blueprint - COL 140 - POTB - Graph - James Buckingham - ver 1 (pdf) 

My module schedule 

•  Wk 2 - DIY - Blendkit 2016 - Module Schedule_COL 140 POTB - James Buckingham (pdf)

 
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Plan for completing Week 3 - DIY

• read Week 3 - DIY assignments
• review reading 
• review my notes 
• review examples 
• complete Week 1 - DIY assignments 

read Week 3 - DIY assignments

1. Create Assignment Instructions [pdf file; size=102kb]For each graded assignment through which you will assess student learning,  use this process to create written assignment instructions to share with students.
2. Configure Online Quizzes [pdf file; size=78kb]Online quizzes are one of the most common assessment methods employed in blended courses. If you decide to employ online quizzes in your blended course, use this checklist to work through the logistics of setting up your online quizzes.
3. Revise Course Blueprint, Syllabus, and other course documents as appropriate.As you work through the logistics associated with your online quizzes and other graded assignments/assessments, you may find that you want to adjust your original plans as articulated in your earlier documents. Revising them will allow you to stay focused on designing one, consistent whole.

review reading 

• Week 3 - Blended Assessments
• Week 3 - reading reaction  

review examples (found in

• Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Create Multiple-Choice Questions
• Effective Assessment Examples
• Question Improvement Suggestions
• Sample - portfolio 

FINAL results submitted 

• Wk 3 - DIY - Blendkit 2016 - Module_interaction - COL 140 POTB - James Buckingham (pdf)
• Wk 3 - DIY - Blendkit 2016 - Module interaction (detailed) - COL 140 POTB - James Buckingham 

Week 2 - DIY - design for interaction

Reflections 
It's not entirely clear to me if the "Module Interaction Worksheet" is to be completed separately or is to be used to inform the refinement / revision of the "Detailed Module / Course Schedule". I've chosen to do the later because I found it more useful. I've also included the course expectations doc and the weekly schedule. All very useful. The module interaction worksheet forced me to make a detailed review of how the various interactions that I hope to include would be tied directly to the course objectives and specific in-class activities. The basic premise in my design was to take what is a highly unusual course - essentially condensing a regular 15 week course into 7 weeks. I've looked at Blended learning as a way to extend the classroom time, to increase the level of interaction students have with course concepts, and thus hopefully improve their chances of success. However, I confess that it would certainly be a demanding course and only those students who attended to all of these assignments would benefit from it. 


Background

Will target my current POTB COL 140 course at Zayed University for blended learning.

POTB attempts to take the current regular COL 140 - English Composition 1 Course that is given over a regular 15 week period and to compress it into 7 weeks. This puts significant pressure on students (and me the instructor) to cover the same material / syllabus but over a much shortened time frame. The use of blended learning strategies may permit students to engage with course concepts more frequently, in a manner that is more engaging, and at a time and place more convenient to them (outside of class). 


Interactive strategies (tools) that I am likely to use

• interactive video + reading comprehension, sentence writing (Edpuzzle)
• synchronous paragraph writing (Padlet, etherpad)
• synchronous sentence writing (Today's Meet) 
• class review (Kahoot) 

My course blueprint

• Wk 1 - DIY - Blendkit 2016 - blended learning blueprint - COL 140 - POTB - Graph - James Buckingham - ver 1 (pdf)

 
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Plan for completing Week 2 - DIY

• read Week 2 - DIY assignments
• review reading 
• review my notes 
• review examples 
• complete Week 1 - DIY assignments 

read Week 2 - DIY assignments

1. Creating Course Document Drafts: Schedule, Syllabus, and Protocols: Instructions, examples, and templates [pdf file; size=144kb]
   Draft these course documents with an eye toward how interaction will take place throughout your course. Within the instructions are example course documents and links to blank templates for creating your own pre-web course documents.
2. Module Interaction Worksheet: [Word doc; size=33kb]
   While the course documents above will reflect your intentions for interaction in general, this worksheet will allow you to think through the interactions in one module (e.g., one week). You may continue the process for as many modules/weeks as you like.

Discovery

The use of 

• underlying document formatting principles 
• accessible content formatting guidelines

 review reading 

• Week 2 - Blended Interactions
• Week 2 - reading reaction  

review examples (found in

• Instructions, examples, and templates [pdf file; size=144kb]
• Module Interaction Worksheet: [Word doc; size=33kb]
• Sample - portfolio 

FINAL results submitted 

• Schedule / Outline
• Detailed Module / Course Schedule
• Syllabus 
• Protocols / Expectations
• Module Interaction
  

Week 1 - DIY - conceptualize your blended learning course

Reflections - Where is the student in all of this?

While I enjoyed the practical nature of the exercise and I am sure to benefit from it (I'm seriously looking at ways to adapt the current COL 140 - POTB course that I teach for blended learning) I did not feel that it was near enough to help ground and conceptualize a blended learning course. Why? Because I could not help but note how one of the most important elements to conceptualizing any course - creating a detailed  student profile - was absent. I thought this was a significant omission. Just by doing this, I feel we ensure that whatever we design is focused on the student and increases the likelihood that our efforts are driven by student need. Failing this .. it risks becoming an intellectual exercise. 

Plan for completing Week 1 - DIY

• read Week 1 - DIY assignments
• review reading 
• review my notes 
• review examples 
• complete Week 1 - DIY assignments 

read Week 1 - DIY assignments

1. Course Blueprint:  Blank template with instructions [Download docx; Download doc] Makes evident the existing design of your course along with any gaps. Think of the Blueprint as a working draft.  Use it to guide your thinking about other development tasks in the weeks ahead.
2. Mix Map: Blank template with instructions [Word doc; size=45kb]  Completed sample [pdf file; size=24kb]  Allows you to begin making decisions about what will happen face-to-face v. online v. in-between in your blended learning course. There are countless approaches to leveraging the component modalities. Just beware of developing two parallel courses!

Will target my current POTB COL 140 course at Zayed University.

Background
POTB attempts to take the current regular COL 140 - English Composition 1 Course that is given over a regular 15 week period and compresses it into 7 weeks. This puts significant pressure on students (and me the instructor) to cover almost the same material / syllabus but over the much shortened time frame.

Requirements
Background of students

• how did they get to POTB?
• what are their interests / abilities?
• food, fashion, shopping, family, weddings, travel
• why / how can blended learning help - examine and note benefits
• Week 1 - benefits
• Week 1 - reading reaction (reference to Avery "Go Blended")

review reading 

• Week 1 - Understanding Blended Learning 
• relevant benefits in applying blended learning to POTB are 
• to compensate for limited classroom space time, as well as a way to think differently about encouraging faculty collaboration.
• as well as a way to think differently about encouraging faculty collaboration.
• to infuse new engagement opportunities into established courses
• offer students the conveniences of online learning combined with the social and instructional interactions that may not lend themselves to online delivery (e.g., lab sections or proctored assessments)

• Blended learning is not simply adding an online component to a face-to-face course. 
• needs to be well integrated with the face to face component 
• make learning more interactive (more opportunities to "do" stuff .. and get feedback)  

review my notes 

• Week 1 - reading reaction  
• Week 1 - benefits of blended learning
• Week 1 - webinar  

review examples 

• Sample - syllabus 
• Sample - portfolio 

FINAL results submitted

• course blueprint 
• course blueprint (pdf) 
• mix map  

Week 5 - reading reactions - quality assurance in blended learning

Table of Contents 

• Questions to Ponder (before reading)
  After reading 
• Key take aways?  Blended learning quality - says who?
• What about online learning standards? Do they apply?
• So what to do? 
• journal one's work 
• use formative and summative feedback on your efforts 
• invite peer review 
• and traditional ways to measure effectiveness? 
• Engage in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
• References  

Questions to Ponder (before reading)

• How will you know whether your blended learning course is sound prior to teaching it? How will you know whether your teaching of the course was effective once it has concluded?
• I would prefer to know more about the general nature / background of my students first - especially their interests, competencies. With these, I have a clearer idea as to how I might be able to fully motivate them. I am also fully aware how even with this, I'm forced to make some assumptions that will need to be checked once the Course has started. That translates into frequent surveys and/ or focus groups. Everything else that is part of planning a course is informed by this. This typically starts with a look at desired learning outcomes (typically driven by course stakeholders) and then the available learning resources (limitations on classroom access,  timings, frequency). With these clarified, work can begin on designing instructional methods. 
• With which of your trusted colleagues might you discuss effective teaching of blended learning courses? Is there someone you might ask to review your course materials prior to teaching your blended course? How will you make it easy for this colleague to provide helpful feedback?
• Who would I trust to give me an effective review of my blended learning courses? Ideally this would happen with others who also have an understanding of what is involved in designing blended learning courses. I can realize much of this by making transparent much of the design work listed above - perhaps through Google docs of some sort of online portfolio. 
• How are “quality” and “success” in blended learning operationally defined by those whose opinions matter to you? Has your institution adopted standards to guide formal/informal evaluation?
• Good question. How do we typically measure quality and success in any learning venture? Ultimately that can be seen in the scope and richness of the learning artifacts that learners produce as a result of the course methods .. and then a look at how well these align with the course's learning outcomes. The operative word here is "effectiveness" and then the problematic nature of measuring that effectiveness. It should actually be easier to do with blended learning now that more and more of the processes used can be made transparent to others. 
• Which articulations of quality from existing course standards and course review forms might prove helpful to you and your colleagues as you prepare to teach blended learning courses?
• Not to elude the question but Quality is typically being measured in terms of "effectiveness" and "efficacy" and the discovering of both involves examining all of the variables that went into the design of the Course plus the learning artefacts .. but most important of all  

"Did it change anything for the learner?" 

• How is that last point measured? Feedback from the learners. How to get quality feedback from learners? Surveys, an examination of the learning artifacts, focus groups. Also important will be alignment - checking to see that what we "teach" is driven by the desired "learning outcomes" .. and that this has been learned by the student as demonstrated by the "learning artifacts". 

After reading

Key take aways? Blended Learning Quality - says who?

Still early innings on blended learning. By that I mean, there seems to be so little research on blended learning in general and especially on how to measure quality and effectiveness. Very problematic to try and identify what constitutes the best combination of online and face to face interactions. The same could be said for any instructional design - traditional face to face included. The article suggests that this may be partly due to the almost complete absence of any standards. (No surprise to learn) Attempts have been made to suggest what contributes to "quality" blended learning. Noted here is 

• rigorous learning assessment Picciano and Dzuiban, 2007)
• responsiveness of learner characteristics (Skibba et al, 2014)
• student engagement (Vaughan et al, 2014) 
• high quality faculty development (Dzuiban, Hartman and Mehaffy, 2014)  

Important to note that the major issue with any set of standards is the risk of them becoming prescriptive. I think Thompson makes a real valid follow up point here when he notes that there may be a tendency for any standards that do exist, to be taken up and applied indiscriminantly by educators. Perhaps in their zeal to apply something to elevate the quality of their blended learning work, they are just grateful to find anything and thus may not take the time to critically evaluate such standards - especially in the current status (history) of BL.  Yet it is clear that we need to be critical of any such standards in the current "exploratory" phase of blended learning. Key questions? How were any such standards arrived at? By whom? In what context? 

What about online learning standards? Do they apply?

Because online learning has been subjected to much more scrutiny in comparison with blended learning, what research has been done here may hold some answers.  Big surprise here was to read how such standards have emerged not from traditional educators but from for-profit companies. Perhaps this is motivated by the power of standards to attract the attention of educators and thus help market / promote their product (e.g. Blackboard's Exemplary Course Program). These are usually presented in the form of a checklist (e.g. CSU Chico's Rubric for Online Instruction, and Illinois Quality Online Course Initiative)

So what to do? 

 

Journal ones own work. 

Observe your work and attempt to identify your own standards. Check and evaluate. Experience is the best judge of this..

 

Use formative and summative feedback on your efforts 

This involves soliciting students for feedback on any / all of your designed interventions as to student perceptions of their purpose and effectiveness - during the course or after a course ends. 

 

Invite a peer to review your work  

Invite one's Blended Learning peers (wherever to find these?) to engage with my own review of my work and to critically challenge it. Invite peers to review resources, activities, assessment strategies, course structure and communication strategies. Essentially what I am hearing here is the need to mobilize a community of practice that is focused on "blended learning" where such communities become the incubator to sharing ideas, and over time, help identify best practices. Perhaps they also ascend to the lofty heights of creating a set of "minimum guidelines" or even standards that most blended learning educators could support.



And traditional ways to measure teaching effectiveness? 

A teacher's effectiveness continues to be measured in how they make a difference to students and their quest to succeed. Factors that have been identified here include 

• organization of the course
• knowledge of course material
• ability to communicate clearly with students 
• frequency and quality of feedback to students 

 

Engage in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning  

Good quote.

Those of us involved with blended design will need to adopt the attitude of learners, examining our practices and seeking continually to improve based upon the most current information available. Perhaps this is done in dialogue with trusted colleagues. - Thompson

References 

Blackboard. (n.d.). Exemplary Course Program | Blackboard. Retrieved March 28, 2016, from http://www.blackboard.com/consulting-training/training-technical-services/exemplary-course-program.aspx

Blended Learning in K-12 - Wikibooks, open books for an open world. (n.d.). [wiki]. Retrieved March 28, 2016, from https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blended_Learning_in_K-12

CSU, Chico. (n.d.). Welcome to the Exemplary Online Instruction (EOI) website - Exemplary Online Instruction. Retrieved March 28, 2016, from http://www.csuchico.edu/eoi/

Eades, J. (2014, September 30). 3 Ways To Measure Training Effectiveness. Retrieved March 28, 2016, from http://elearningindustry.com/3-ways-measure-training-effectiveness

Hirtz, S., & Harper, D. G. (2008). Education for a Digital World: Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe. Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver and BC Campus, Canada. Retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/52

ION Initiatives. (n.d.). Quality Online Course Initiative. Retrieved March 28, 2016, from http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/initiatives/qoci/index.asp

Morrison, D. (2015, May 26). How “Good” is Your Online Course? Five Steps to Assess Course Quality. Retrieved from https://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/how-good-is-your-online-course-five-steps-to-assess-course-quality/

Picciano, A. G., Dziuban, C. D., & Graham, C. R. (2013). Implementation of Blended Learning for the Improvement of Student Learning. In Blended Learning: Research Perspectives. Routledge.

Singh, H., & Reed, C. (2001). Achieving Success with Blended Learning. Centra Software. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.114.821&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Thompson, K. (2005a). Constructing educational criticism of online courses: A model for implementation by practitioners. Retrieved from http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0000657

Thompson, K. (2005b). What is Online Course Quality? Retrieved from http://ofcoursesonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/thompson_onlinecoursequality.pdf

Thompson, K. (2011, June 27). BlendKit Course: BlendKit Reader: Chapter 5. Retrieved from https://blended.online.ucf.edu/blendkit-course-blendkit-reader-chapter-5/

Week 4 - reading reactions - Blended Content and Assignments

Questions to Ponder

• In what experiences (direct or vicarious) will you have students participate during your blended learning course? In what ways do you see these experiences as part of the assessment process? Which experiences will result in student work that you score?
• First of all ... what do we mean by direct or vicarious experiences? Direct seems to suggest that the student listen, digest and respond to a question with a direct (predictable or desirable response)... while vicarious suggests that the student do much the same but with a less predictable, more creative outcome (no less desired). The focus here in on experience. I would ideally seek to have students demonstrate an understanding of something through "direct" response and eventually encourage them to become more discriminatory in the use of a "concept" or "idea" with a more "vicarious" experience (one more authentic). The "direct" response would lend itself more to Formative assessment .. while the later would lend itself to being more Summative. 
• How will you present content to students in the blended learning course you are designing? Will students encounter content only in one modality (e.g., face-to-face only), or will you devise an approach in which content is introduced in one modality and elaborated upon in the other? What will this look like?
• I've cheated a bit this time. Based on my interpretation of the readings, I should be presenting the course in modules and standardizing the way that I present each module (e.g. headings and subheadings) so that the student comes to know what is expected in each. I should like to design these so that online activities complement face to face activities and vice versa so students also become familiar with these processes and can then focus just on the tasks at hand (and not be burdened with having to learn a new approach or sequence). Would expect to invite students to view online an introduction to a concept .. perhaps reflect on it, then have them come to class where these ideas are presented in more detailed, then invite students to practice these concepts both in class and online (graduated in difficulty) and then as an instructor observe student online efforts to pinpoint general problems that can be discussed in class but then also work with problems individual students may be having.  
• Will there be a consistent pattern to the presentation of content, introduction of learning activities, student submission of assignments, and instructor feedback (formal and informal) in your blended learning course? How can you ensure that students experience your course as one consistent whole rather than as two loosely connected learning environments?
• I think I've already answered this question in my response directly above. Yes by trying to standardize the presentation, types of engagement and methods of review, I breed familiarity and comfort in students thus focusing their attention less on technology and more on the concepts to be learned. 
• How can specific technologies help you present content, provide meaningful experiences, and pitch integration to students in your blended course? With your planned technology use, are you stretching yourself, biting off more than you can chew, or just maintaining the status quo?
• I can choose technologies that help provide students with the appropriate type of interaction that I'm seeking from them and at a time, manner and place that is most appropriate for them too. Case in point, how to invite students to write more frequently and get feedback more frequently so that they can begin to master writing? I do so by inviting them to use tech tools in class that invite them to write anonymously yet still get feedback at the early stages of their writing.... and then gradually move towards making their work more public as they are expected to move to making their writing "more public". 

My notes

Seems to be stating the obvious but online work needs to be relevant to in class work and/or experiences .. and it needs to be perceived as such by the learners. In other words, "integrate online with face to face, so there aren't two separate courses". To do otherwise, invites the question from learners "Why are we doing this?"   The pay back? Student should be able to be more engaged in the learning practice .. learning activities are not add ons but actually reinforce earlier presented concepts.

But how? Article seems to stress the importance of using a basic framework and repeating the use of it so students become more familiar with it and actually come to expect it. Recommendation? Present materials or topics in a module form and even structure each module in a consistent organizational manner .. so the focus is on the content of the module rather than on the need to relearn the organizational structure of a module each time  (e.g. how it all fits together)

I've seen all sorts of methods for this.. I've even used a few of my own. This one was (and still is) used for introducing a "learning tool" for promoting targeted integration into a teacher's practice.

• Introduction 
• What is it? (description) 
• Why bother? (rationale) 
• What's in it for me? (benefits, theory)
• How can I realize those? (methods) 
• Obstacles (managing problems) 
• What others have said? (testimonials)  
• Your thoughts? (invite sharing of experiences - successes / failures; reinforcing or re-defining best practices)
• References 

Another more simple but so elegant framework is this one (currently being used to help in the design of a badge earning ecosystem). 

• Learn (acquire knowledge / understanding of a topic)
• Do (practice applying / mastering the topic within a safe circle of learners / supporters) 
• Share (sharing the mastery with others outside a circle of learners; sharing the experience with peers)  

There is a mention of Dee Fink who seems to echo the above with

• plan for student encounter with content (learning) 
• participate in active experiences (do) 
• share personal reflections / experience (share)  

Then there was the topic of learning activities for active learning (chart below). I reflected on the work that I've doing in COL 140 and which of these activities may already be in place.

I noticed how I was already involving students in direct experience of writing and responding to a prompt in a Basic Composition course that I teach, through the use of Today's Meet (sentence, short response), Padlet (paragraph response), and EdPuzzle (listen, learn, reflect, respond on short answer). Also noted was how the mobile learning project in the same course offered much more freedom to experience and apply what the student had learned to realize a something much more engaging and potentially authentic.

I have noticed how consistent use of these tools makes it easier for students to respond .. especially as they become more comfortable not only with using the tool but in how I use it to benefit them.

Closing point 

I found much of this week's content was already somewhat familiar to me but that was also somewhat reassuring. Some of the key concepts - consistently using a design framework, keeping f2f and online activities relevant and supportive of one another - were already evident to me. What was perhaps helpful was the need to clearly identify the interaction between student and teacher if one hoped to  stimulate a desired outcome. For example, the need for the teacher to be clear about the type of  feedback to give.... if we are expecting a certain response to a question from a student. It seems so obvious and yet it needs to be stated.

Video

References

A Working, Self-Study Guide on: - GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf

Fink, D. (n.d.). A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. Retrieved from https://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf

Hirtz, S., & Harper, D. G. (2008). Education for a Digital World: Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe. Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver and BC Campus, Canada. Retrieved from http://dspace.col.org/handle/11599/52

Kaminski, J., & Currie, S. (2008). Planning your online course. In Education for a Digital World: Advice, Guidelines, and Effective Practice from Around the Globe. Retrieved from http://www.colfinder.org/materials/Education_for_a_Digital_World/Education_for_a_Digital_World_part2.pdf

Liyoshi, T., & Vijay Kumar, M. S. (n.d.). Opening Up Education. Retrieved March 25, 2016, from https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/opening-education

NCAM. (n.d.). Invent + Build / Web + Multimedia / Accessible Digital Media Guidelines. Retrieved March 25, 2016, from http://ncam.wgbh.org/invent_build/web_multimedia/accessible-digital-media-guide

Online @UCF. (2016, March 1). Open Source Digital Content - List | Diigo. Retrieved March 25, 2016, from https://www.diigo.com/list/onlineucf/repository

Survey of Technology Tools for Student Engagement. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2016, from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ttqi7NuVhEAdhcki_G-y-k13ef-0sw9Y74Mg1m9uoHc/edit?usp=sharing&usp=embed_facebook

Week 3 - reading reactions (before / after reading)

This week was a bit of a disappointment but perhaps it should be viewed as reassuring too. Much of what was said and written was largely already known to me prior to taking the Course. A few new approaches and perhaps a refresher on ideas that I hadn't come into contact in quite some time. 

Table of contents

• Focus Question 
• Objectives 
• Questions to Ponder 
• Notes from reading 
  • Not a whole lot new learned here 
  • There were a few bright spots however
    • non graded multiple choice quizzes
    • presenting video examples or explanations 
    • presenting non credit, online practice exams 
    • key online assessment tool features 
      • T/F alternative
    • informal assessment design checklist 
    • one sentence summary 

Focus Question

How will I determine students are learning?

Direct creation of learning artifacts by students that demonstrate their understanding of concepts through their application of concepts to realize something. Ideally whatever is produced is authentic in the sense that it invites application to a situation / simulation similar to one where these same skills and concepts would need to be applied. 

 Authentic assessment—assessing student abilities to apply knowledge, skills, and attitudes to real world problems—is not only possible in an online environment; it is getting more popular. (Thompson, n.d.)

Objectives

After completing all of this week’s activities, you should be able to:

• Determine  assessments appropriate for the learning objectives you’ve established in your blended course
  • assessments are aligned with learning objectives; methods lead practicing skills and competencies that are to be tested in assessments (everything connects) 
• Revise existing course documents as appropriate based upon assessment decisions
• Configure online quizzes for your blended course
  • self directed, formative assessment quizzes 
• Create written student instructions for each graded assignment in your blended course 
  • checklist

Questions to Ponder (before reading)

• How much of the final course grade do you typically allot to testing? How many tests/exams do you usually require? How can you avoid creating a “high stakes” environment that may inadvertently set students up for failure/cheating?
  • How much of the final course grade do I typically allot to testing? For the most part, it has not been determined by me but by those responsible for the course syllabus. However, as a rule, I would want to opt to have assignments weighted equally throughout the course and also have assignments be sequenced in such a way that they build upon earlier assessments and build towards subsequent assessments. 
  • I've learned that putting more than 20% weight on any one assessment typically means making it "high stakes".  The draw back? Performance anxiety - a one off "disaster" can effect a student's final grade - thus explaining the "high stakes" nature of it. We want students to demonstrate their learning and unless managing "stress" is considered an important part of the assessment, a learning objective, then it should be minimized as much as possible. How to avoid it? Simple. Don't make one assignment so high stakes. Another option is to design an assessment so that it is ALSO a learning experience. Even invite students to make notes or drawn on notes that they think will help support them in the completion of an assignment - perhaps even make this a group / collaborative activity so they once again, engage with course contents, negotiate understanding and meaning prior to completing the assignment. Invite students to even use these notes to help them complete an assessment.

• What expectations do you have for online assessments? How do these expectations compare to those you have for face-to-face assessments? Are you harboring any biases?
  • I think that I should value online assessments as much as any other assignment that is given in a face to face context. However, I can imagine a healthy dose of skepticism from peers and supervisors (even students) who believe that when done sight unseen, students are inclined to "take advantage" of the situation to round up help and thus undermine the validity of the testing. Yet the few articles that I've read, surprisingly indicate that the incidence of cheating online is not even marginally significant when compared with that in a face to face context. 

• What trade-offs do you see between the affordances of auto-scored online quizzes and project-based assessments? How will you strike the right balance in your blended learning course?
  • Trade offs with auto scored online quizzes? Immediately what springs to mind is how objective testing is essentially inviting practice in lower order thinking skills (memorization, identification, classification) but far less likely to be taxing higher order thinking skills. However, any course of study does require a basic competency in the discourse of its subject and these sorts of online quizzes become useful for both ensuring students make them a focus of study and for monitoring student success in understanding them. Project based assessment would be far more welcomed for its ability to promote application, judgement and synthesis of concepts and thus promote higher order (critical thinking) skills. But the caveat with them is in how much more time they require to be reviewed and assessed. In a MOOC with participants that number in the 100s or even 1000s, this is just not feasible. What then needs to be entertained is the use of peer review with a clear and comprehensive rubric - perhaps supported by an instructor's own reflections and guidance (thus the peer assessment also becomes yet another "learning / application / judgement experience"). The balance? Between what is humanely possible for the instructor and what is most beneficial to the students - essentially choosing the "biggest bang for the buck".

• How will you implement formal and informal assessments of learning into your blended learning course? Will these all take place face-to-face, online, or in a combination?
  • My (yet to be identified) blended learning course would definitely see a combination of the two and ideally with one supporting the next. By this I mean that the concepts studied and learned for one assessment are continued / built upon / reapplied / reinforced in subsequent assessments so there is a cumulative reinforcement of them. 

Week 2 - my notes from webinar

BlendKit UCF. (2016). BlendKit2016 Session 02: Blended Interactions. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH4YhjOT454