Class Blog Roll

Module 7 Reflection

Many late nights working at the computer...I am happy with the content of my final project but would like to improve on the design elements. The final project made me realize how important it is to match assessment tools to objectives. It was a very labor intensive, reseach-based project in which I learned much about assessment tools, plagiarism, and authentic assessments in a constructivist environment. I would like to continue to refine this project and use it as a template in the design of future courses.

As I mentioned in the conclusion of my final project:

These assessment tools bring two words to mind…meaningful and mindful.

According to Ellen Langer, “One of the keys to meaningful learning is mindful learning. A mindful approach, she points out, has three characteristics: the continuous creation of new categories, openness to new information, and an implicit awareness of more than one perspective” (Langer; 1997).

Final Project

Link to Final Project

Module 6 Reflection

This week gave us an opportunity to connect with fellow learners and professor with the offering of two web conferences in DimDim to help answer remaining questions about our final project. Jennifer Jenkins moderated and did a wonderful job.

In this module’s introduction, Professor Datta Kaur explained how the instructor’s role is changing from one of “sage on the stage” to “online facilitator”. One of the functions of the online facilitator is to personalize learning for students. A great way to do this is to design a precourse learning survey and we each had a chance to design a survey instrument.

We also discussed a formative assessment strategy to assess student learning by implementing elements of cybercoaching. Cybercoaching is based on a constructivist model. We compared two cases studies in our discussion board, the Casey Journalism class and the Khalsa journalism class. The differences were striking with the Khalsa class having a high level of interactivity by use of cybercoaching strategies.

In the Khalsa class, the assessments were very interactive and included a precourse survey, authentic conversations, personal reflections, and building knowledge in a community of learners.

I would like to remember the following highlights and quotes from various readings this week:

- The practice in cyber coaching of “putting student learning first”

- Khalsa’s reference to “A Place for Everyone in an Online Community”

- Spector’s reference to a “Collective Energy “

- The phrase “Cherished Relatedness” used in relationship to building online connections (Fuller, 1999)

-“Coaching is like having someone else on your side, making sure that you are focused on what's most important in your life. Coaching is not giving advice, and it does not involve your coach telling you what to do. Instead, your coach asks you questions that prompt you to consider alternatives you haven't considered, and encourages you to take new perspectives.”

Reference:http://www.coachingasperger.com/explained.htm

Precourse Survey

This survey was created using "Survey Monkey". I designed the survey with open ended questions to gain a more in-depth profile of my learners to help personalize their learning experience.

Please take a few minutes to view my survey design.

Link to precourse survey

"Casey's Journalism Class Description" and Paula's Taxonomy Table

I think most of the assessment activities in the Casey journalism class could be converted to the online environment. Most require reading and discussion which could get time consuming and make a student feel somewhat isolated if they were doing all the activities on their own. I would suggest using some groups of students to make learning more enjoyable. Groups also help in the construction of new knowledge.

Please follow this link to the "Casey's Journalism Class" article in pdf form and my "Taxonomy of Assessment" as related to the article:

Paula's Taxonomy Chart


Further thoughts on Learning as related to Bloom's Taxonomy:
In the article Adapting Online Education to Different Learning Styles, four stages of learning are discussed: “1) exposure stage; 2) guided learning stage; 3) independent stage; and 4) Mastery Stage.” I see a relationship between these stages and progressing upwards in Bloom’s Taxonomy. They also go on to state that “students learn 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, 50% of what they see and hear, 70% of what they say, and 90% of what they say and do”.

To offer a higher level assessment in an online class, I would have students explore “truth in journalism” by composing questions related to the 6-point Code of Ethics for Journalists and have the student interview a working journalist. By composing the questions, they would have a good understanding of the Code and would also hear the journalist’s viewpoints first-hand. The interview could be recorded either by hand or with a microphone or video camera. The student would then be have a choice of how to present the interview by either written text posted to a Blog, played as an audio podcast, or published as an e-video. The student would hopefully be working at the top three levels of Bloom’s through the retelling of the interview.

There is an interesting observation in the article Elevating Creation in Bloom’s Taxonomy in lesson design, that I feel relates to having the students conduct an interview. According to the article “Instead of merely ‘reading back,’ students should ‘retell’ and ‘remix.’ Adding their own ideas and connections to the ‘facts’ of the curriculum should be a hallmark of their knowledge products. At the heart of this process is the teacher, who asks questions which challenge STUDENTS TO ASK questions– rather than asking questions which have a predefined, specific answer.”

Reference:
Adapting Online Education to Different Learning Styles. Retrieved from: http://realaudio.rice.edu/ecot/ust/bied5336/session%20i/On-Line%20Learning.pdf
Elevating Creation in Bloom’s Taxonomy in lesson design Retrieved from: http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2007/01/18/elevating-creation-in-blooms-taxonomy-in-lesson-design/

Final Project Update

Description of Course and Student Population:

The course I am using for my final project is Microsoft Office Suite. It is a 2-credit course designed to provide an orientation to the Windows XP environment and teach fundamentals of Microsoft Office 2007 Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and Outlook. It is a hybrid course that that can be completed online working at your own pace. In addition, there is an Open Lab where I am available for five hours during the week for demos and individualized instruction.

Learning Objectives and Final Outcome for the Course:

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Define and illustrate problem solving strategies.
2. Practice and demonstrate methods of viewing presentations.
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of creative solution presentations by peers.
4. Practice and demonstrate the use of blogs to encourage collaboration and reflection.



Discussion of Why my 4 Assessment Tools are Appropriate for the Course:


Taxonomy of assessment choices related to plagiarism prevention:


Ways to address authenticity, diversity and student-centered learning in my course:

Module 5 Reflection

Module 5 “The Taxonomy of Assessment” urged us to include ever increasing levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy learning objectives in our instruction. I couldn’t help but notice the relationship between Module 5 and Module 2. Module 2 began the thought process of designing a learning environment that is more student-centered than teacher-centered. As Professor Datta Kaur stated in Module 2-Background “Assessment choices are important considerations in creating powerful online learning environments that embrace diversity, authentic learning contexts and meaningful communication, reflection, and presentation of knowledge, creativity, discovery and wisdom.”

If we effectively progress students upwards in Bloom’s Taxonomy in this new collaborative online learning environment then we should also match our assessment tools to this type of learning environment. We gained some practical hands-on experience with these assessment tools during our group mid-terms and are in the process of defining how best to use these tools effectively.

For me, the biggest difference between face-to-face learning vs. the online learning environment is that the student-centered online environment is all about communication. It takes place continually and on many levels. It is always in motion - not just the static one-way form of assessment where teacher presents, student studies (usually by themselves), and then regurgitates the knowledge by taking an exam.

Our use of these new assessment tools speaks to the way technology has been integrated into all areas of students’ lives, not just in the learning environment. Teachers can use these new assessment tools to assess the effectiveness of course objectives and track student movement through the Taxonomy levels.

Module 4 Reflection

The purpose of the group midterm project was two-fold. It was a great vehicle for learning about the wide variety of assessments available for online teaching and also provided practice in self-assessment and peer assessment. I personally am very interested in each group’s findings and review of the various forms of assessment.

As stated in our reading Assessment and Online Teaching, the advantage of online assessment is that it “can provide greater flexibility in where, when, and how assessment is undertaken” and also provide “students with a greater range of options to demonstrate their knowledge and skills ”(Australian Flexible Learning Quick Guide Series).

One disadvantage or criticism of online assessments that seemed to surface in many of our group summaries is the idea of the security of online assessments. “Teachers and students need to be assured that adequate security is in place (Australian Flexible Learning Quick Guide Series).

Reference: flexiblelearning.net.au

Group 4 Midterm

The following is a collaborative group midterm writing project prepared by members of Group 4:

View Create Your Own Photobook

Module 3 Reflection

Module 3 provided an opportunity to conceptualize course design and connect learning objectives to assessment.

From various course readings and particularly from evaluating the concept maps created by my peers, I have discovered that there are as many creative ways to visualize course design as there are individuals.

I thought that connecting the learning objectives to the assessment piece was valuable for two reasons: 1) getting a visual of “what” I will assess, and 2) deciding “how” I will assess. Concept mapping also helped me see that a variety of assessment tools should be included. I think it adds interest to the course and keeps students more engaged. Peer review or learning objects such as online surveys or drag and drop matching could be included.

Mind mapping can also free up your thoughts and allow you to move to the next level of course design. Even though concept mapping takes place at a formative level it can also be a tool used for summative evaluation. If students did not find a specific part of the course to be effective, I can go back to the concept map and change to improve the course for the next semester. I keep thinking of the term flawed design = flawed instruction.

Concept mapping is a powerful tool that can also solve the problem of information overload. A graphic depiction frees up your mind to process more information. I recently read an article about a study done by Andrew T. Stull and Richard E. Mayer. The study was titled Learning by Doing Versus Learning by Viewing: Three Experimental Comparisons of Learner-Generated Versus Author-Provided Graphic Organizers. The authors found that graphic organizers decrease the level of extraneous cognitive processing and allow for more generative processing.

I did struggle somewhat with the software programs used for creating concept maps. However, I think this is something that would get easier the more I used the mapping software.

Concept Map and Article Review

Article Review:

The article From Puzzles to Problems: Assessing the Value of Education in a Business Context with Concept Mapping and Pattern Matching by Andersen Consulting, Authors Daniel J. McLinden and William M.K. Trochim, stressed the importance of the perceived value of training. Assessing the value of training costs in either business and industry or the field of education is not an easy task. When I think of training programs I naturally think of improving performance. Viewing the time this exercise took to design a concept map, I feel that my teaching performance would ultimately be improved.

The concept map is a tool to communicate course objectives to the student, the parent, the institution, basically all stakeholders. The article stated that in educational evaluation, it is not as easy to demonstrate cost savings. Value must “encompass methods that can deal with the psychological and sociological complexity of the educational enterprise. Such methods need to be able both to measure value in the development and delivery of a complex service and communicate clearly the results to business people not necessarily interested in the fine points of complex statistics and research design” (pg. 287).


Please view my concept map

Wiki Netiquette Collaboration

Please check out our Wiki Netiquette

Module 2 Reflection

Module 2 provided a chance for hands-on practice with creating a blog.

From the article "7 Things You Should Know About Blogs", I learned that it is important to set aside a regular time for blogging. I think the practice of blogging reinforces critical thinking skills and helps develop reflective writing strategies. Moreover, the feedback received in a blog is an effective way to assess learning. According to the article “Students often learn as much from each other as from instructors or textbooks, and blogs offer another mechanism for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and acquisition”.

The paper "Edublogs as an Online Assessment Tool" by Judy Lee and Kay Allen provided insight as to how blogs can be used for not only formative and summative assessment but for self-assessment as well. The study found that “Blogs enable learning from self-reflection, from others, and provokes complex thinking skills and strategies.” The element of peer review comes into play. The most important element for me about blogging is the accessibility factor.

Question

Article Title: Defining Tools for a New Learning Space: Writing and Reading Class Blogs
Author: Sarah Hurlburt

In Sarah Hurlburt's article "Defining Tools for a New Learning Space: Writing and Reading Class Blogs" she mentions that blogs are discourse communities and that "a class blogosphere clearly meets all of the basic criteria for a discourse community and thus potentially experiences many of the same patterns as those studied in the context of composition courses". I had always viewed blogs as more conversational and not made the connection that they can be used as a tool for improving writing ability.

Do you think we will be seeing blogs in college freshman comp courses?

Assessment: Teacher-centered or Learner-centered?

Title: Assessment: Teacher-centered or Learner-centered?
Author: Terri Langan

This exercise helped me realize that instructors and students learn together and that students have a part in assessing their own learning. So often the emphasis is on the teacher as the expert. In a true learner-centered environment both the teacher and the students can switch roles from learner to expert and back again. I will also take away from this survey the idea that teaching and assessing are intertwined. This will help when writing learning objectives so that I can design my course objectives to effectively measure student learning.

Article Review

Article Title: Benefits of Cooperative Learning in Weblog Networks
Authors: Jenny Wang and Yuehchiu Fang; National Formosa University

The main advantage of educational blogging pointed out in this study is that it can be used as a vehicle for cooperative learning. The study found that “online communication (blogs) promoted autonomous learning among students (Wang & Fang)”. This speaks to the positive interdependence of cooperative learning.

Another advantage noted was that learners benefited from self-assessment and peer assessment and learning from each other in the transfer of knowledge. Also, they referenced students as active participants instead of passive listeners.

I was somewhat confused by the reference to “working with diversity via trust building”. I am not sure if they meant diversity of opinion or diversity of the make-up of the class.

One disadvantage of educational blogging was “the quality of interaction of online communication”. I am assuming this statement was in relationship to the style of writing being that the focus of the study was a Rhetoric and Writing class.

I tend to disagree with the finding that “face-to-face class interaction was also highly needed for fostering students’ learning”. From personal experience, I have been in many online courses and enjoyed rich learning experiences with cooperative learning groups. The summary did further state that if face-to-face learning is needed for fostering students’ learning then the instructor’s role takes on even more importance in “enhancing student learning”. I agree with the importance of creating a cooperative learning environment whether online or face-to-face.