Concept Map

I believe I am closer to the dynamic technologies because of the integration, collaboration, and engagement of the students.

Module 4

The technological tools used outside of the classroom that are listed above are:

·        Wiki- Wiki is a great tool to collaborate. It is a work in process with frequent interaction and feedback.

·        Ning, Twitter, & Facebook are social networking tools that can be utilized in an online setting with immediate feedback and response time.

·        IM – Can be utilized as an online tool to assist in collaboration with immediate feedback.

·        Skype – Skye is only used as a communication tool at the end of the class. It would be more effective if it is used at the beginning of

The project so that the students can gain and share valuable information. They can also brainstorm potential problems or share previous experiences with little nuggets of information that would save their peers time and spare headaches. Skype also provides a means of communication and giving the individual to experience face-to-face interaction.

Assessing Collaborative Efforts

How should participation in a collaborative learning community be assessed? How do the varying levels of skill and knowledge students bring to a course affect the instructor's "fair and equitable assessment" of learning?

Participation in collaborative learning community should be assessed in a variety of ways to incorporate the greatest degree of participation from  all participants.  The assessment of the student's performance must be ongoing and linked to immediate feedback and individualized instruction supporting learning. (Swan, 2004)

      There are many ways to assess student learning in an online environment.   

      Some ways are utilizing discussion threads, tests, projects, rubrics 

      and collaborative groups. (Palloff & Pratt, 2007)

Seven Steps To Fair Assessment

1. Have clearly stated learning outcomes and share them with your students, so they know what you expect from them with a list of the concept skills to be covered and the rubrics used to assess student performance.

2. Match your assessment to what you teach and vice versa.

3. Use many different measures and many different kinds of measures. One of the most troubling trends in education today is the increased use of a high-stakes assessment—often a standardized multiple-choice test—as the sole or primary factor in a significant decision, such as passing a course, graduating, or becoming certified.

Use many different measures because students learn and demonstrate their learning in many different ways. Some learn best by reading and writing, others through collaboration with peers, others through listening, creating a schema or design, or hands-on practice. Because all assessments favor some learning styles over others, it's important to give students a variety of ways to demonstrate what they've learned. 

4. Help students learn how to do the assessment task. 

No matter what kind of assessment you are planning, at least some of your students will need your help in learning the skills needed to succeed. 

5. Engage and encourage your students. The performance of your students can be affected by the amount of contact you have with the students.

6. Interpret assessment results appropriately. There are several approaches to interpreting assessment results; choose those most appropriate for the decision you will be making.  Often it's more appropriate to base a judgement on a standard: Did the student present compelling evidence? summarize accurately? make justifiable inferences? This standards-based approach is particularly appropriate when the student must meet certain criteria in order to progress to the next course or be certified.

7. Evaluate the outcomes of your assessments. If your students don't do well on a particular assessment, ask them why. Sometimes your question or prompt isn't clear; sometimes you may find that you simply didn't teach a concept well. Revise your assessment tools, your pedagogy, or both, and your assessments are bound to be fairer the next time that you use them.

    

If a student does not want to network or collaborate in a learning community for an online course, what should the other members of the learning community do? What role should the instructor play? What impact would this have on his or her assessment plan?

 In my personal history on online courses, I have encountered students that do not want to network or collaborate in a learning community for an online course. One method I used was the class cafe. Once you see something about that individual that you can relate to and get that individual to talk to you about that common bond; it seems to break the ice and begin a mode of communication. Once that level of trust and communication was established, we were able to advance our learning community and complete our collaborative project with all stakeholders actively involved.
The instructor in our class was also helpful in achieving communication with the requirement to have a conference via Skype. The instructor was also available to assist and support all of the students. Feedback from the students and the evidence of student performance are valuable tools to determine if the present assessment tools and rubric are beneficial for the course.

Reference:

Palloff, R.M., & Pratt,K. (2007).Building online learning communities: Effective strategies  for the virtual classroom. San Francisco, CA. Jossey-Bass

Siemens, G. (2008). Learning communities. (Vodcast). Principles of Distance Education DVD produced by Laureate Education, Inc. Baltimore, MD.







Suskie, L. (2002). Fair assessment practices: Giving students equitable opportunties to demonstrate learning. Adventures in Assessment. (14). SABES/World Education. Boston, MA.

Swan, K. (2004). Relationships between interactions and learning environments. The Sloan Consortium. Retrieved from http://sloanconstortium.org/publications/books/pdf/interactions.pdf.