Application of Discourse Analysis to Personal Learning
07 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Projects
Aldred & Reid, 2003 name three (3) elements of discourse analysis: social presence, collaborative learning and interaction. The one applies most to me is collaborative learning.
Collaborative learning involves the way learners “articulate, conceptualize and re-conceptualize their own understandings of the subject area” (Aldred & Reid). In an online discussion, elements of constructivism appear as scaffolding is said to take place (Cottrell, 2001). Instead of the teacher making links between prior and current learning, the learners do that for one another (Cottrell). It reminds me of when my mid-term project partner and I did individual research for our project in a jigsaw method (Ledlow, 1996). Our individual research, standing alone, was lacking in regards to what we needed to produce and turn in. When we collaborated and put our research together, the final product was much richer than it would have been if we had turned in separate work. Like McLoughlin and Luca (2000) put forth, a more “explicit and organized understanding emerges” as a result of collaboration.
I will continue to participate in collaborative learning, as well as use it in my online course design and instruction. My goal for my learners will always be to help them reach higher levels of thinking, leading to higher levels of learning. Collaborative learning supports this goal, in addition to my future plans as a lifelong learner and as an online instructor.
Week 6 Reflective Journal
07 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Assessments Reflective Journal
I was most engaged in learning while reading about cybercoaching and drawing conclusions about the effect it will have on my course design. As I consider assessment, I understand the importance of using activities and tools that address personalized feedback to support higher level thinking (Petersen, 2004). Building into the course ongoing opportunities for assessment gives the learner plenty of room to make adjustments toward desired learning goals before completion of the final assignment. I was also engaged while creating the pre-course survey for my final project: Online Student Orientation Pre-Course Survey. It puts me another step closer to completing my first online course design.
I was least engaged in learning when I had trouble with the blog reader extra credit assignment. I understand how to create and manage a blog, I just don’t understand the role of the blog reader. This is an issue I will work quickly to resolve, since the course’s end is soon approaching.
I feel that I am reaching my goals in this course because I am a short time away from designing my first online course. This is an important step in my professional development.
Assessment in eLearning Final Project
05 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Projects
OSD-100 Online Student Development
Design Plan
Introduction
The final project for Assessment in eLearning is to choose an online course that already exists or create a design plan for one that will be used in the future. The following is the design for OSD-100 Online Student Development, which I plan to teach. The design plan is organized by Introduction; Course Design, which includes four (4) modules with a learning objective and an assessment tool for each; Assessment Toolkit, Uses, Advantages and Challenges; Taxonomy of Assessment; Diversity and Student-centered Learning; Summary; and Conclusion.
Course Design
OSD-100 Online Student Development is a 4-week, 1 credit hour undergraduate course. It is delivered 100% online as an alternative to the face-to-face SD-100 Student Development delivered on campus. The course goal is to promote retention and success for online and traditional learners. The course objectives are to build learners’ research, study, conflict management and career development skills. OSD-100 is divided into four (4) modules: Accurate Online Research & Citation, Online vs. Traditional Learning Styles, Conflict Management and Career Outlook 2012.
The course is designed for college freshmen and high school seniors graduating within six (6) months who are enrolling in college for the first time. All degree-seeking students are required to complete this course before graduation. Students are adult learners with varied levels of technology skills and abilities.
Module 1 Accurate Online Research & Citation
Learning Objective: Using APA 6th edition guidelines for citing online research sources, student will design a bibliography page and post it on the class wiki.
Technology Tool for Assessment: A wiki is used as summative assessment to determine how much the student has learned about citing online research sources.
Module 2 Online vs. Traditional Learning Styles
Learning Objective: After completing the online learning style tutorial, student will compare and contrast online learning styles and answer the question: Is your online learning style the same as your traditional learning style?; then student will post work on blogger.
Technology Tool for Assessment: Blogger is used as formative assessment to encourage reflection and critical thinking about learning styles.
Module 3 Conflict Management
Learning Objective: Based on three (3) conflict management techniques introduced to the class, student will successfully demonstrate all the steps in one technique via a Vyew class presentation.
Technology Tool for Assessment: Vyew is used as summative assessment to determine how much the student has learned about conflict management.
Moldule 4 Career Outlook 2012
Learning Objective: After examining Tomorrow’s Jobs in Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2004-2005, student will correctly identify 2012 population, labor force and employment projections with 100% accuracy on a quiz; then post to class discussion board how the information may be applied to his or her own career development.
Technology Tool for Assessment: eGradebook is used for summative assessment by keeping track of and calculating grades and points from tests, quizzes, surveys and assignments.
Assessment Toolkit Uses, Advantages and Challenges
The decision was made to use wikis, blogs and discussion boards as assessment tools because they promote a sense of community among students who don’t have the advantage of seeing one another face-to-face, and they are conducive to self-reflection and critical thinking which demonstrate higher order thinking skills (Lee & Allen, 2006). An advantage of using wikis and blogs is that they may be used for summative and formative assessment (Lee & Allen, 2006). Discussion boards are good for formative assessment as a way to obtain feedback that may be used to make the learning experience better. A challenge is the temptation to use wikis, blogs and discussion boards simply because they are popular. They should become a required part of the course only after it is determined how they will support the link between the objective and the outcome (Lee & Allen, 2006).
Vyew is a valuable part of the assessment toolkit for this course because it encourages collaborative learning. According to Huang (2002), when technology is used properly, it may remove barriers to collaborative learning that support “synthesized shared knowledge”. An advantage to using Vyew is that it is a free asynchronous tool that provides real-time communication and instant feedback. A challenge is that there is a learning curve for users and this use of time must be considered when designing the course.
A course administration tool, such as eGradebooks, is essential for creating class files, editing student information, and viewing and printing records in various formats. In addition, it is a summative assessment tool for computing and printing grade averages and statistics. An advantage is that eGradebooks make record-keeping easier for instructors and designees, and allow anytime, anywhere access. A challenge is that an eGradebook is not a Learning Management system and cannot be used for testing or receiving electronic assignments from students (Comparison of Electronic Gradebooks, University of Texas-Austin, 2010).
Zoomerang is part of this course’s assessment toolkit. One of its uses is a pre-course survey that promotes student feedback about personal goals, course expectations and special needs. Another use is to create extra-credit surveys that address issues such as plagiarism, code of honor and authenticity. It is a good survey management system that offers a variety of question formats. An advantage is that it supports multiple languages and is user-friendly. A challenge is that the free version is only suitable for very basic surveys.
Taxonomy of Assessment
Based on Bloom’s 1956 Taxonomy, three (3) out of four (4) assessment choices—Vyew, Blogger and Wiki support higher order thinking skills—application, analysis and synthesis as shown in the chart below. Higher order thinking skills are said to better prepare students for adult life, work and higher education (Learn NC, nd). This is in line with the course objectives of OSD-100 to “build research, study, conflict management and career development skills” in learners, making these assessment choices the best for OSD-100 students.
| Bloom categories | Learning objective verbs | Activity | Assessment |
| Knowledge(recall, list, define, identify, collect, label) | Identify | Identify 2012 population, labor force and employment projections | eGradebook |
| Comprehension(summarize, describe interpret, predict, discuss) | |||
| Application(apply, demonstrate, illustrate, classify, experiment, discover) | Demonstrate | Demonstrate all the steps in one conflict management technique | Vyew |
| Analysis(analyze, classify, connect, explain, infer) | CompareContrast | Compare and Contrast online learning styles | Blogger |
| Synthesis(combine, integrate, plan, create, design, formulate) | Design | Design a bibliography page | Wiki |
| Evaluation(assess, recommend, convince, compare, conclude, summarize) |
Diversity and Student-centered Learning
It is important to remember that diversity means many things from different cultures and backgrounds to different ages and experiences. Student-centered learning, because of its focus on empowering the student to control his or her own learning experience, naturally supports diversity.
OSD-100 Online Student Development encourages student-centered learning by using a diversified assessment toolkit. It includes wikis, blogs, vyew, eGradebooks and zoomerang to assess multiple learning styles and create an environment of self-directed (Knowles, 1975) learning that leads to the development of higher order thinking skills.
Content will be delivered by various means of instruction in order to support different learning styles: reading, watching videos/slideshows, conducting research, collaborating/working in groups, completing tutorials, and posting on discussion boards.
Student Support includes direct links to college library, student development center, bookstore, business office and technical support; Calendar/Schedule of course activities and important dates; Links to relevant web sources; Course rubrics for assessment; Links to tutorials; and Links to Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs).
Summary
The design plan for OSD-100 Online Student Development is the final project for Assessment in eLearning. It is organized by Introduction; Course Design, which includes four (4) modules with a learning objective and an assessment tool for each; Taxonomy of Assessment; Diversity and Student-centered Learning; Summary; and Conclusion. Plagiarism, code of honor and authenticity are addressed under Assessment Toolkit, Uses, Advantages and Challenges. The course is designed to promote retention and success for online and traditional learners by helping to build research, study, conflict management and career development skills. Course goals and objectives are supported by module learning objectives, learning activities, taxonomy of assessment, and assessment toolkit.
Conclusion
Over the last eight (8) weeks, the assignments completed in Assessment for eLearning have been building toward the development of this final project, the design plan for OSD-100 Online Student Development. It wasn’t always easy to make the connections along the way and see the big picture. Now, as I look back, it all becomes quite clear. Reading was time-consuming and assignments were challenging, but it is a good feeling to have a finished product to show for one’s efforts. Instructor, Datta-Kaur Khalsa has been a true facilitator in that she knew when to leave the students alone to freely collaborate on issues, and she knew when to step in. It has been this “cybercoaching” (Petersen, 2004) that has pushed me into that higher order thinking and allowed me to create what is presented here. I am grateful.
References
Bloom, B. 1956. The Classification of Educational Goals, Handbook I: Cognitive Domain
The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
Bonk, C. 2004. The Perfect eStorm. The Observatory on Higher Education
Huang, H. (2002). Toward constructivism for adult learners in online learning environments
Knowles, M. (1975). Self-directed learning
Lee, J. & Allen, K. (2006). Edublogs as assessment tools
Naidu, S. and Blanchard P. 2003. Concept mapping
Petersen, N. J. (2004). Cybercoaching: Rubrics, feedback and metacognition, oh my!
University of NC at Chapel Hill. (8/5/2010). Retrieved from:
http://www.learnnc.org/reference/higher+order+thinking
University of Texas-Austin. (7/6/2010). Comparison of electronic gradebooks. Retrieved from:
http://www.utexas.edu/academic/diia/egradebook/index.php
US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2004-2005
Week 7 Reflective Journal
02 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Assessments Reflective Journal
This has not been a good week for being engaged in learning. Along with taking 3 online classes, life happens. A family illness stole 2 days of my coursework time. Of course, these things are never convenient. This is especially true as I try to wrap up 3 final projects at the same time. Nevertheless, this is the link to my final project for this class!
Week 5 Reflective Journal
16 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Assessments Reflective Journal
I was most engaged in learning as I began to put a little more work into my final project. I started trying out course titles, practiced writing objectives and considered online learning tools that will support the course I design. I am feeling more comfortable with Bloom’s Taxonomy and now that the smoke has cleared, I can see how my other two classes compliment this one.
I feel that I am reaching my goals in this class because I continue to learn skills and discover resources that support my overall career goals. Last week, I worked on putting together an assessment toolkit. This week, I read about best practices and worked on creating learning objectives. I am excited about the weeks to come and the opportunities to work with new tools and technology. I am even more excited about the prospect of using all this in my future work.
Casey’s Taxonomy Table
15 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
After reading Casey’s journalism class description (Module 5, reading 2), place the assessment activities in a table – matching 3-4 assessment activities to one of the six categories of Bloom’s taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
| Bloom categories | Learning objective verbs | Activity |
| Knowledge
(recall, list, define, identify, collect, label) |
||
| Comprehension
(summarize, describe interpret, predict, discuss) |
||
| Application
(apply, demonstrate, illustrate, classify, experiment, discover) |
||
| Analysis
(analyze, classify, connect, explain, infer) |
Explore | 1. Students will research how the standards of taste have changed.
2. The class will discuss the Patriot Act and its effect on journalists.
3. After viewing the film, students will analyze and discuss the role of journalists in times of war. |
| Synthesis
(combine, integrate, plan, create, design, formulate) |
||
| Evaluation
(assess, recommend, convince, compare, conclude, summarize) |
Week 4 Reflective Journal
11 Jul 2010 1 Comment
in Assessments Reflective Journal
I was most engaged in learning when working on the group midterm project. I had the opportunity to collaborate with a conscientious partner as I expanded upon my “jigsaw” skills. I was introduced to the jigsaw method of cooperative learning as a high school student, but I don’t remember it by that name. Each group member was responsible for a piece of the information that would be presented in whole form to the class. We would put it altogether for a uniform presentation.
Jigsaw is not, however, just information coming together–it is the experience of the contributors coming together to create a finished product that is better than any of them could produce, alone. My partner, Lorrie Polesky and I saw this phenomenon take place as we merged our research into one document. We were able to introduce information from different schools of thought that were complementary, and filled in the gaps.
I feel I am reaching my learning goals for this class because I continue to gain insight on assessment tools and techniques that will be useful when I begin to design and teach online classes. My favorite tools, this week, have been the group discussion forums set up by our instructor. There was a forum just for group members to correspond with one another, and a different forum for all groups to post their completed projects. Group members were able to brainstorm and make revisions without being concerned if someone would see it before they were ready.
I will use the assessment tools and techniques I learned this week, particularly when I assemble a toolkit. This group project has already given me an advantage in the areas of reflection and course tracking tools. I feel I can make an informed decision as a result of the research we conducted for this project.
Group 5 Midterm Project
11 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
Assessment Toolkit: Blogger as a Reflection Tool and eGradebook as a Course Tracking Tool
Introduction
Tools for Reflection and Course Tracking are keys to any Assessment Toolkit. The Toolkit includes Quiz and Test Builders, Reflection Assessment Tools, Peer-to-Peer Collaboration Tools, and Course Tracking Tools. Reflection is an important part of assessment because it allows the learner to “integrate the understanding gained into one’s experience in order to enable better choices or actions in the future as well as enhance one’s overall effectiveness” (Rogers, 2001). Equally important is the use of Course Tracking Tools, since they allow tracking of student activity, such as test-taking and reflection. This research focuses on Blogger as a reflection tool and eGradebook, a course tracking tool.
Lorrie Polesky and Brenda Mickens made up the Group 5 Team. Their midterm assignment was to each research and report on one assessment tool from the above list of four (4) categories provided by their instructor, Datta Kaur Khalsa. Lorrie chose reflection assessment tools and researched Google’s Blogger. Brenda chose course tracking tools and decided to research eGradebooks. Lorrie and Brenda documented their findings in this report: Blogger as a Reflection Tool and eGradebooks as a Course Tracking Tool. The outline is as follows: Tool Basics, Uses and Benefits, Weaknesses and Challenges, Applications in an Online Class, Link to a Learning Objective, Summary and Conclusions. Here are the links to Group 5’s report: http://poleskyl.wordpress.com/ and http://mickensb0971.wordpress.com.
Blogger as a Reflection Tool
Blogger Basics
Google’s Blogger is a free tool that makes writing, collaborating, and discussing online possible. It’s very popular with teachers and students because it’s easy to use.
In order to set up a Weblog, you need to first establish a Google account with a user name and password. Next, you go to the Blogger homepage and sign in. The email address for Blogger is www.blogger.com. Then, you click Create a Blog. You need to pick a name and URL for your blog, and you’re ready to get started on designing your own Weblog. You can select a template and choose your own colors, fonts, header, and sidebar to customize the appearance of your Weblog without knowing any HTML. There is a Blogger Tour, a Getting Started Guide, a Layout Guide, and step-by-step directions to post, add an image, and add a video available under Blogger Help. A drag-and-drop feature makes it easy to arrange elements in your template. Blogger walks you through every step to create your Weblog.
Uses and Benefits of Blogger
As a teacher, you can use Blogger as a place to post personal reflections of your learning, much like we do in this class. You can log your reflections on teaching experiences, describe units that you’ve created, share teaching tips and ideas that work for you, and collaborate with other educators. You can receive helpful feedback from your readers and respond to them.
For classroom purposes, you can use Blogger as a class website. You can post assignments, calendars, events, and announcements, which will help you manage your classes and encourage parental involvement. You can also post student work and class projects. You can create as many blogs as you want from your one Blogger account, so each of your students can have his/her own Weblog, and you can manage different sites from one dashboard. If students have their own Weblogs, they can keep a portfolio of their work over time, which you can use as an alternative assessment tool. To incorporate literacy activities into any content area, you can post higher order questions and writing prompts and have students respond either on your website or on their own Weblogs. Your students can reflect on their learning and write their reactions to a reading, an assignment, or a class activity. They can write comments to their classmates’ posts. You can include links on a sidebar to Internet resources related to your class. Since it’s easy to post photos, videos, and podcasts to a Blogger website, it creates exciting learning opportunities for your students.
Weaknesses and Challenges of Blogger
One challenge to using Blogger is that the teacher does not have control over student posts. You can instruct your students to save all posts as drafts until you approve them. Then either you or your students can publish the posts. A second concern is a safety issue. There is a link on the Blogger template for “Next Blog.” It links to a random Weblog that you might not want your students to see. There is a way to remove the button by editing the HTML sub tab. (Richardson, 2009) A third challenge is that by default, your blog is completely public and can be read by anyone on the Internet. To control access, you can change settings on the Settings/Permissions tab. You can choose whom you want to have access to your Weblog, but you will have to go through the “Add Readers” process. It takes time, but it does give you and your students a higher level of security.
Applications of Blogger in an Online Classroom
Students can use their Weblogs as a place to link to samples of their work over time. Electronic portfolios, known as ePortfolios, can show how students’ skills and learning have developed throughout a course. An important element of using a Weblog is that students’ written reflections can be saved and become part of their ePortfolios. Based on the instructor’s and peers’ feedback, students can reflect on and revise their work before putting it into their ePortfolios. The feedback given by others on work needing revisions is a type of formative assessment. At the end of a course, the entire ePortfolio can be submitted as evidence of the students’ learning. (Lehmann and Chamberlin, 2009)
Blogger’s Link to a Learning Objective
Given a prompt to write a summary of Chapter 1 of The Chocolate Touch, the students will be able to write at least 3 sentences with 75% accuracy describing the beginning, the middle, and the end of the chapter.
This is an example of a literacy learning objective that I would use with 4th grade ELLs who are reading the novel The Chocolate Touch. The students are near grade level in their language proficiency, so they are able to read and to respond to the novel on their Weblogs. Taking into account that the students are second language learners, I selected the criteria of writing 3 sentences with 75% accuracy because they often have problems with sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Before publishing to their Weblog, I would have the students write a draft of their summary in their individual Weblogs and then I would work with them on their revisions. This is an example of formative assessment. After they’ve revised their writing and received my approval to publish, they would post their summary on their Weblog.
eGradebook as a Course Tracking Tool
eGradebook Basics
A Course Tracking Tool is the part of the Assessment Toolkit that enables instructors to manage course-related files. Tools, such as Excel Spreadsheets, eGradebooks, Teacherease and Calendar software have uses that range from grade and points tracking, and student performance evaluation to lesson planning and time management.
Uses and Benefits of eGradebooks
Primary uses for eGradebooks are creating class files, editing student information, viewing and printing records in various formats, and computing and printing grade averages and statistics. Some allow correspondence via email and html-formatting for posting on a website (ClassRoom GradeBookTM Version 8, Freeware). Major benefits of eGradebooks are that they make record-keeping easier for instructors and designees, and allow anytime, anywhere access. Other benefits include its ability to interface with spreadsheets, such as Excel, allowing for easy import of information without having to re-enter it; and its ability to be completely customized to the users’ requirements (2010 TrackMyGrade.com, LLC).
ClassRoom GradeBookTM Version 8 is one of many such tools. It is a Windows-based application that allows teachers to perform the above functions, as well as enter and update student information from a variety of text files, view and print color graphs of student performance, produce seating charts, and use a built-in word processor/mail merge to communicate with parents (ClassRoom GradeBookTM Version 8, Freeware).
Weaknesses and Challenges of eGradebooks
Challenges of using eGradebooks stem from their limitations. They are not Learning Management Systems (LMS); therefore, they cannot be used for testing or receiving electronic assignments from students (Comparison of Electronic Gradebooks, University of Texas-Austin, 2010). According to Field Guide for Learning Management Systems (ASTD, 2009), an LMS in basic terms, is “a software application that automates the administration, tracking, and reporting of training events”. An eGradebook operates within an LMS to provide administration and tracking. Another challenge is that email and Web options are not standard on every version of eGradebook, so it is wise to do a thorough research before making a selection.
Applications of eGradebooks in an Online Class
eGradebook applications to an online class include management of summative and formative assessment results. Test and quiz scores, as well as survey, discussion and forum participation may be tracked using eGradebooks. With some versions, teachers are able to enter comments and confidentially post grades online (Comparison of Electronic Gradebooks, University of Texas-Austin, 2010).
eGradebook’s Link to a Learning Objective
Participating in a total of 12 discussion forums, students will reflect on each class module to fulfill 12% of overall grade.
The above describes how an instructor may link an eGradebook to a learning objective. Student participation may be tracked in an eGradebook, the teacher or designee may leave feedback, and grades may be posted online.
Summary
As team members, Lorrie Polesky and Brenda Mickens collaborated on researching and writing about two essential components of an assessment toolkit—reflection assessment and course tracking tools. Lorrie researched Blogger and Brenda chose eGradebooks.
Lorrie‘s research on Google’s Blogger showed that there were many benefits for teachers and students for writing, collaborating, and discussing online. A major advantage of Blogger is its ease of set-up and use. Challenges to using Blogger are the lack of teacher control over student posts and that by default, the Weblog is completely public until the teacher changes settings to limit access. One example of the application of Blogger is that students can create ePortfolios to show samples of their work over time. Finally, Lorrie gave an example of Blogger’s use in formative assessment with her 4th grade ELLS.
Brenda found that two major benefits of eGradebooks are that they make record-keeping easier for instructors and designees, and they allow anytime, anywhere access. Strengths of eGradebooks are their ability to interface with spreadsheets, such as Excel, and their ability to be customized. Challenges of eGradebooks are that they have limited applications because they can’t be used for testing or receiving students’ electronic assignments. Applications to an online class include management of formative and summative assessment results. Brenda described how an instructor could link an eGradebook to a learning objective on discussion forums.
Conclusion
When assembling an Assessment Toolkit, it is not only important to have Quiz and Test Builders, Reflection Assessment Tools, Peer-to-Peer Collaboration Tools, and Course Tracking Tools, but it is important that all tools are capable of being practically applied to the needs of the instructor and students. Lorrie and Brenda have discussed the benefits of Blogger as a Reflection Tool and eGradebooks as a Course Tracking Tool, along with their practical uses and applications in online classes. Together, with the other tools, they are part of an essential assessment toolkit for online instructors.
References
Blogger: Tour (2010). Retrieved on July 7, 2010, from http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g
ClassRoom GradeBookTM Version 8, Freeware. Downloaded on July 6, 2010, from www.classroomwindows.com
Comparison of Electronic Gradebooks, University of Texas-Austin (2010). Retrieved July 8, 2010, from http://utexas.edu/academic/diia/egradebook/faq/compare.php
Lehmann, K. and Chamberlin, L. (2009). Making the Move to E-Learning : Putting Your Course Online. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press.
Rogers, R. (2001). Reflection in Higher Education: A Concept Analysis. Innovative Higher Education
TrackMyGrade.com, LLC (2010). Retrieved on July 9, 2010, from http://www.trackmygrades.com
