REFLECTIVE JOURNAL WEEK 8

ASSESSMENT ON STUDENT LEARNING IN THE ONLINE ENVIRONMENT

This week was an easier week with the amount of course work reduced. We did our discussion boards, readings and explored Microsoft website for video capture.

Our assignment was to finish and post our final project. This is the link to my project.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ASZkoRlT3PnCZGNud3ptcTJfN2hrbmRwamN6&hl=en

We completed a course survey for the University and a course survey. I thought it was interesting on the course survey that there was a box for our name. I enjoyed the course and do not have any negative comments, but animinity is usually a factor in surveys.

The article that we read and discussed this week was a study about online discussions. It pointed out the positive and negative aspects of online discussions. I will use these points when I set up my discussion boards.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ASZkoRlT3PnCZGNud3ptcTJfNmMzOHc3NGRj&hl=en

I enjoyed the mix of students in this course. My classmates were easy to work with and a highly educated group. It was obvious that each of them are highly motivated and life long learners.

My last post for this class. I learned a lot and I liked it.

Course links

ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT ONLINE LEARNING

Please find below links that I used in this course.
1. Measurable verbs used in learning objectives:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ASZkoRlT3PnCZGNud3ptcTJfMzc5Z20yNWRq&hl=en

2. Website for online learning tools
http://c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/index.html

3. Bloom's taxonomy
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ASZkoRlT3PnCZGNud3ptcTJfNDhtY25uOGQ1&hl=en

4.Precourse survey for this assessment course
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ASZkoRlT3PnCZGNud3ptcTJfNWd2aD

4. Analysis on line discussion
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ASZkoRlT3PnCZGNud3ptcTJfNmMzOHc3NGRj&hl=en

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL WEEK 7

ASSESSMENT IN IN THE ONLINE CLASSROOM

I did post the first version of my final. I reread it, and found a few typos that I will need to fix. I also realized that I missed a concept that I need to add. It is amazing that when we proof our own work, it is easy to miss these mistakes.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ASZkoRlT3PnCZGNud3ptcTJfMWQ0N3JmemY0&hl=en

This is the URL to view my self assessment of my final project.
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ASZkoRlT3PnCZGNud3ptcTJfMnJtcDU

As part of our Week 7 assignment we need to explore online grade books. In my 27 years of teaching I have used manual paper grade books, Excel, Word tables, and customized a paper grade book for each course. I never liked that the students could not see the points that I entered. So what I did, we would meet and go over their points, or I would print off my grade book and cut it into strips of paper that were their row in my grade book and have the student proof it.

I felt so responsible for grading, knowing that I could make a mistake. I did not want to hurt a student's grade by a mistake. I encouraged students to help me avoid this by keeping a record of their points. Some did, most did not. Many students felt, I was the teacher and entering grades, it was my sole responsibility.

If a course was not an online course we did not good online grade book to use. The online courses had a grade book in Blackboard that the students could see. In the beginning of on line classes (about 7 years ago) the gradebook was not easy to work in the environment, it did not interface well with People soft. It has gotten better.

About 5 years ago, my school included an online grade book in our People soft system for face to face class use! I used it the second it became available. I found a miracle online grade book tool. The students and I love it! The student can see what points I enter and help me catch any mistakes. It takes the pressure off of the human error; adding up grades, or mistakes in entering. I like the double check of this system.

The first versions were not easy to use, a lot of typing and points and clicks. It took a lot of time to set up a course. My school has had continual updates and this is the best version yet. It is excellent for both the instructor and the student.

From my standpoint, the interface that lets me copy assignments from one semester to another. The steps to change or add an assignment are user friendly and there are minimal points and clicks. I can post a comment to a student for them to see. The best thing... final grades are imported with one key stroke. Amazing. If a grade change is necessary, that too is accomplished very easily. Through time, faculty has been given a nice step list for People soft grade book it is a nice reference tool.

The students know their grade percent and the matching letter grades instantly as I enter them. They have told me, they can see their grade change if they are online as I am entering grades. They will tease me about entering grades as 11:00 pm..am I ever not working?

I was curious what the student see, and they showed the student screen. It is easy to read and each class that uses People soft grade book is listed, when they click on the class, the assignments that I entered are listed.

The only aspect that could be improved is that it does not tell the students or me how many point they accumulate.

In fact, many of the online instructors use this grade book in addition to Blackboard grade book because it is so easy.

I feel so strongly about this technology, I think the school should mandate all instructors to use it. Stop the excuses, learn the technology for both the student and instructors benefit.

I love our online grade book.

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL WEEK 7

ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING IN THE ONLINE CLASSROOM

I attended our synchronous discussion. It was so interesting to hear voices. My professor sounded just like I imaged her. Very soft spoken and professional. I felt a human connection. It was wonderful. I did not realize how much I missed the human portion of face 2 face education.

The human element will be available to my students because they will know me so they know my mannerisms, speech patterns from the f2f classes that we have together. In an online course they can "hear" me through me course structure. I think it makes a difference that they know me. Also, if they have any questions, they can talk to me in person.

I am working very hard on my final project. I struggled with my first tool. It took many more hours than it should have. I tried very hard to make the words my own, many of the assessment tools that I am using were discussed in the midterms. Once I got on a roll, it went fast. The aspect that took up my time was that I developed my online test and grading rubrics. I did not have to do this to meet the assignment requirement. I felt I needed to do this so that I could match the learning objective with the assessment.

My goal is to post my final project tonight!

Reflective Journal Week 6

Assessment of Student Learning in the Online Classroom

It's Wednesday and I have not posted on this weeks discussion board. I have not been lazy though. I have been researching my final project.

I have an assignment this week to develop a 10 question online survey that I could use to gather background information from my students to personalize my online course. I used Survey Monkey. It was very user friendly.

Click Here to take survey


I need to look at the rest of my week and do some serious time management .

My discussion reflection summarizes my intrepretation of our weekly reading. We read about cybercoaching and techniques to allow a students to make mistakes, corrections and complete an assignment to a a high level of quality in both the student and instructors perspective.

We compared our instructor Dr. Khalsa online course with our Casey article from last week. The biggest difference for me was that Casey so dramatic in her writing that it was difficult to read. Khalsa was the opposite, she developed a course from the ground up with the intent to teach it on line.

Below are our discussion questions and my response.

1. Compare the assessment techniques from Casey to those used in Khalsa journalism class

The assessment similarities of the two articles were that there was a variety of assessment used to provide for topic exploration. Both classes incorporated an element of flexibility in the assessments, which benefit the student.

The Casey course started out with a basic question, then exploded like fireworks; her thoughts and ideas spread in every direction. In your course the basic question was systemically added on to and developed in an organized thoughtful approach.

Another difference was that Casey intended her course to be delivered in a traditional format. Your course was always intended to be in online format. Thus, the course and assessments built the online community from the start.

The Casey article was disorganized and difficult to read. Yours was the opposite, thoughtful and building blocks within the course structure.

2. Which aspects of the Khalsa course follow cybercoaching.

You are an excellent cybercoach. Your courses build a nice sense of community. You provided very timely monitoring and suggestions. Your email to me today, models the philosophy of a cybercoach.

For example: You (Ann) wrote, "What is the first thought that comes to your mind as we start our online class?"

Dr.Khalsa: You could offer them a 'feeling' about your first online class to set the stage and help them focus and feel more comfortable answering. You could write instead, "I remember my first online course distinctly. I was concerned if others would find my discussion posts meaningful. What is the first thought that comes to your mind as we start our online class?"

You offered to help us clean up our learning objectives for our final project.

I am impressed at how often you comment within our discussions and give us feedback and direction. I am impressed at how quickly you respond to questions and email.

As a coach you offer us detailed information for us to improve so we will be better online assessors.

3. What highlights will I apply to my online course assessment?

I will strive to model your involvement and continual feedback during the course. I will develop a sense of community by using surveys, group work and interviews. I will try to assign a balanced amount of course work. Online courses are much more time consuming that f2f. When the student has to be the student and become their own teacher, reading, interpreting, researching and teaching themselves takes a tremendous amount of time. I have come to realize that the student has to work on the course some each day. I model your course structure and clarity.

I enjoy learning something new. I enjoy a course so much more when there is a low level of frustration. I enjoy a course when I know what is expected of me and how I can learn the material and get the only grade I am happy with.

You are an excellent online instructor, providing me an excellent online role model. Students are comfortable asking questions and even challenging you. You respond with grace.

Ann Williams

Reflective Journal Week 5

Assessment of Student Learning in the Online Classroom

This week was very interesting. It is a nice review of the importance of learning objectives and how they focus and direct student learning.

We used this article by Christine Casey "Studying the first Amendment: exploring Truth in Journalism".

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ASZkoRlT3PnCZGNud3ptcTJfMGY3ZHd3Zmhz&hl=en

It is an excellent article on the process of creative thinking and lesson planning a broad topic. I could feel her wheels turning as she was spinning out the options. The ideas flowed as the Christine Casey was planning. If she used a concept map, it would have had many branches as she kept creating more ideas, the more she looked at issues in the concept.

The negative side of the article is it was very free flowing. It was busy and hard to follow. I used a highlighter to separate her ideas.

I was taught that understand is not a good verb to use in learning objectives because it is hard to measure, Christine used it often. I read it as "understand" meant the knowledge and comprehension level of Bloom's taxonomy.

Concerns that I have about this article are that is really several very broad topics that she kept randomly elaborating on. How much time does she have to teach this unit? In my opinion, she will have to cut down on the assignments because this would produce too much homework for a student carrying a full time class load in high school. I would suggest, she post topic areas, and have students sign up for specific ones. Then bring the class together for a "capstone" summary of this huge unit. Maybe even have it at an open house event if f2f or web enhanced. If it is full online course, posting this unit on the classes Web page with different links to the variety of topics.

Online would work with clearer directions, specific assessments and a very clear direction of where she wants to lead the assignment. I think the mechanics of the assignment could be done using on line assessment tools, but Christine's excitement could get lost in the impersonal online environment.

In this table, I noted the verbs that Christine used and which activity she applied the learning objective to.

Bloom categories	Learning objective verbs	Activity
Knowledge (recall, list, define, identify, collect, label)	· Recognize · Examine · Define	· Propaganda, first amendment · Role and responsibilities · Terminology
Comprehension (summarize, describe interpret, predict, discuss)	· Discuss · Seek · distinguish	· How CNN, internet changed the role of journalist. · Interpret truth · Private vs. public people
Application (apply, demonstrate, illustrate, classify, experiment, discover)	· Refer · Research and report	· Research stories where the journalist lost their job from not revealing sources · Find current sensational news stories
Analysis (analyze, classify, connect, explain, infer)	· Analysis · Determine	· Analyzing biased writing · How well the media is performing
Synthesis (combine, integrate, plan, create, design, formulate)	· Explore · Lead discussion	· Independently following and evaluate: ways news coverage has changed reflect today's society · Plan and create a report of findings of censor.
Evaluation (assess, recommend, convince, compare, conclude, summarize)	· Reflect · Redefine · Write	· Independently following and evaluate: How changes reflect the values of today's society · What is obscene, indecent, profane, and present to class · Persuasive essay

Reflective Journal Week 4- Midterm

Assessment of Student Learning in the Online Classroom


http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AWQgVa-ap5bqZGM5aHRwY2JfN2ZicTM2cGR2&hl=en

Please use the above URL to look at our jigsaw puzzle evaluating four online assessment tools and course management software.

I had a great group to work with. A few reasons our project worked so well was because Anna stepped up and lead the group. Anna and Joe have a lot of computer experience and that added to our team. Anna did a wonderful job complying the information into a format and it looked very uniform.

As a team we stayed in touch. We communicated via email, google docs and our course discussion board. Everyone logged in daily to communicate, so we weren't tied to someone not in touch.

Half way done with the course. Time is flying by.