Part III. Matching Feedback and Assessment to Online Activities (Vanessa

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Part III. Matching Feedback and Assessment to
Online Activities (Vanessas Section)
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The Feedback Issue

• Students participating in online activities look
  for feedback to know
• A. the instructor is reading their contributions
• B. their participation is valued
• C. their participation is adequate, in terms of
  quality and quantity
• Feedback need not be individualized to be
  effective
• Whole class commentary provided on a regular
  basis was found to be just as satisfactory from
  the student point of view (Dennen, 2001)

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The Assessment Issue

• Often, online activities go unassessed
• Add-on syndrome Adding an online activity to a
  previously designed class because it sounds like
  a good idea

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The Assessment Issue

• Students are more likely to participate when then
  know there is impact on their grade
• Direct impact graded on participation (quality,
  quantity or both)
• Indirect impact participation should bolster
  performance on other assessments
• Students quickly become aware if an online
  activity is not related to assessed learning
  objectives

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The Assessment Issue, Cont.

• Sometimes the wrong things are assessed
• Examples
• Assessing students online moderation skills when
  the course topic/learning objectives have nothing
  to do with online moderation
• Assessing quantity of participation, but not
  quality
• which, granted, is easier, but encourages sloppy
  message posting rather than thoughtful learning
  dialogues

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Assessing Asynchronous Activities

• Some ideas

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1. Social Ice Breakers

• Feedback
• Critical because it sets the tone for instructor
  attentiveness and interactions
• Assessment
• Not really necessary or appropriate
• What you might do
• Participate in the ice breaker alongside students
• Compile a list of whos who from student
  responses and distribute to class

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2. Learner-Content Interactions

• Feedback
• Should be built into the activity
• Computer-automated
• Assessment
• Generally, these activities help prepare students
  for formal assessment
• What you might do
• Make explicit to students the value of completing
  these activities and their relationship to
  success on graded activities

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3. Scenario-based Simulations

• Feedback
• Should be built into the activity
• If not automated, instructor must provide or
  monitor to ensure peers provide it
• Assessment
• Simulation can be assessed directly themselves or
  used to prepare students for authentic
  assessments
• What you might do
• If objectives are process oriented, assess
  student performance in simulation
• Encourage learner reflection on the process and
  their performance

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4. Anonymous Suggestion Box

• Feedback
• Important to respond to students
• Assessment
• Neither necessary nor appropriate
• What you might do
• Compile a list of suggestions with corresponding
  actions taken or reasons why action is not
  possible/feasible/desirable

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5. Student Formative Surveys

• Feedback
• Instructor should reference student responses in
  aggregate form
• Individual responses may receive feedback, but
  students should not be singled out
• Assessment
• Neither necessary nor appropriate
• What you might do
• Use topic-based surveys as a lead-in to a
  learning unit
• Use course feedback surveys to make changes to
  the class

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6. Role Play

• Feedback
• Students want/need to know if they are adequately
  playing their roles
• Assessment
• Based on participation (to ensure the roles get
  played)
• Following the role play, based on subject matter
• What you might do
• Post a general message to the class, filling in
  missing / misrepresented roles and noting
  exemplary contributions
• Have learners write a reflection paper on the
  topic, highlighting the various perspectives and
  defending the perspective of their choice

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7. Case-based Labs/Experiments

• Feedback
• Should be built into the activity
• Assessment
• Generally, these activities help prepare students
  for formal assessment
• What you might do
• Make explicit to students the value of completing
  these activities and their relationship to
  success on graded activities

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8. Authentic Data Analysis

• Feedback
• Should focus on helping students analyze the data
• Assessment
• Based on results of the analysis OR on the
  process (depending on learning objectives)
• What you might do
• Have students respond to the activitys
  questions, either individually or collaboratively

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9. Just-in-time Teaching/Syllabus

• Feedback
• Responsiveness to student contributions must be
  explicit and frequent
• Assessment
• Appropriate assessments should be developed based
  on the student contributions in conjunction with
  the pre-planned course material
• If participation might be a problem, students
  should get points for completing quizzes/surveys
  (Small participation grade, or bonus points on
  tests)
• What you might do
• Have students write a reflection on how their
  point-of-view is similar to/different from their
  peers
• Post results of student quizzes in aggregate form
  for class review
• Update regular tests to incorporate the
  just-in-time materials

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10. Perspective Taking

• Feedback
• Focus on how well students are representing
  different perspectives
• Assessment
• Perspective-based role-play will likely be
  assessed
• What you might do
• Fill in missing perspectives or have students
  review their work and identify missing
  perspectives

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Assessing Synchronous Activities

• More ideas

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Learning Conversations

• Includes Webinar, chats (regular, expert, guest)
• Feedback
• Instructor can debrief the chat afterwards,
  providing a summary and commenting on
  contributions
• Assessment
• Not really fair to assess students on basis of
  synchronous chat contribution due to limited
  airspace
• Content/experience should be assessed through
  another means such as reflection, essay, test or
  project

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Group Work

• Includes Team Meeting and Collaborative Online
  Writing
• Feedback
• Focus on groups process and how to improve it
• Assessment
• Based on product (collaborative writing, other
  project)
• Based on process (Was work distributed equally?
  Completed on time? What would be changed the next
  time?)
• Peer ratings
• Assessment of contributions in groups online
  work space (archives)

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Advisory Activities

• Includes Online Mentoring, Secret Coaches and
  Protégées
• Feedback
• Such activities are all about feedback
• Should focus on learner performance on past class
  activities
• Should look forward to future activities
• Assessment
• Assessment would be neither appropriate nor
  desired, although participation might be required

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Questions and Perhaps Some Answers...???