Lower level learning outcomes in college level courses?
Jul 31st
Bloom’s Taxonomy is exactly that – a taxonomy, not a heirarchy. And, students of many ages are capable of higher order thinking skills (e.g. my then 9yo daughter) like application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation; of course, students will exhibit different levels of proficiency and different levels of complexity in their thinking.
Here’s my question… Should there be any college level course that has learning outcomes that are predominantly, or worse yet, entirely at the lower levels of thinking per Bloom’s Taxonomy? Is there any instance in which the outcome of the course should not be an ability to analyze, apply, synthesize or evaluate content related to the discipline? More >
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Loading ...My thoughts, as faculty, on #LectureFail
Mar 15th
The Chronicle of Higher Education asked,
Is it time for more widespread reform of college teaching?
This series explores the state of the college lecture, and how technologies point to new models of undergraduate education.
Last month, we began inviting students across the countries to fire up their Web cameras or camera-phones to send us video commentaries about whether lectures work for them.
Chronicle.com/LectureFail displays a number of student comments, including a compilation, along with several faculty responses.
As a faculty member, as I watched several of the videos, I found my beliefs and attitudes to be more in line with the students than my faculty colleagues. Personally, lectures are boring… for me… as a faculty member. I don’t like them, and pedagogically and historically, I find them to be an outmoded approach to teaching and learning. Why?
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Incentives for Course Feedback?
Mar 4th
I work closely with end of course evaluation surveys. At one institution, I administer the online survey system through which we survey students, and for the other institution, I rely heavily and place high value on feedback from students to help me continuously improve the course. My question is, “How much is that feedback worth?” More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Different Interpretations of “Course Embedded Assessment”
Mar 3rd
With a significant focus on the evaluation of our institutional general education curriculum/program, one concept I’ve encountered frequently of late is “course embedded assessment.” However, I’ve discovered at least two different interpretations of the concept. More >
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Revising my grading rubric for discussion forum participation
Feb 29th
After three iterations of the course I’m teaching, I’m revisiting and potentially revising the grading rubric I’m using to assess learner participation in discussion forums. Back in August, I described the types of discussions in which my students in COSC 1401 Introduction to Computers are asked to participate and posted the grading rubric for assessing their participation. I have been using that rubric the last three terms (I’m teaching primarily 8 week terms; two last fall and one so far this spring). But, it’s not quite a perfect fit to how the discussions have progressed and how I want to grade them. So, I’m revising. I’m interested in your thoughts on this rubric. More >
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Bloom’s *Taxonomy* not Bloom’s Hierarchy
Feb 26th
Working with a broad range of faculty and instructional design types, I believe there’s some confusion within education regarding Bloom’s Taxonomy. Specifically, it’s often perceived and applied as a hierarchy rather than a taxonomy. Quite bluntly, that is incorrect and counterproductive to effective teaching and learning. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Three Issues for Effective Development of Curriculum & Assessment
Oct 18th
At the 2011 Texas Community College Instructional Leaders annual conference in Fort Worth, October 5-6, I had the opportunity to present and discuss three issues I think are important to the effective development of curriculum and assessment. The three issues are those which I have identified over the past year as I’ve worked more in depth with my local institution’s curriculum and assessment initiatives. The highlights of the discussion and presentation: More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...What @GoogleBooks’ NGRAM viewer could be . . .
Oct 15th
A few weeks back, the @GoogleBooks team released a lab product related to the Books Project: the NGram Viewer. According to the NGram site,
When you enter phrases into the Google Books Ngram Viewer, it displays a graph showing how those phrases have occurred in a corpus of books (e.g., “British English”, “English Fiction”, “French”) over the selected years.
In short? Put words or phrases into the search box, separated by commas, select a time range, and the NGram viewer displays the frequency at which each appears in the corpus of text contained in the Google Books database. A few quick searches, with predictable results, that I did when I first experimented with the tool included: (a) groovy, (b) laptop, and (c) hillbilly.
My question, “Where does @GoogleBooks plan for this project to go in the future? And, do they realize this could be a killer app for qualitative research?” Imagine two things. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Technology makes “Tests” obsolete, or should…
Aug 11th
Technological progress makes many things obsolete: horse drawn carriages as a means of regular transportation, broadcast television or printed newspapers as a primary or sole source of news and information, tests as reliable and valid forms of assessment . . .
Wait? What?
Yep. Tests are an anachronism of an assessment era that is or should be fading into the past. They no longer effectively serve the purpose they were intended to serve. Why? More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Learning Outcomes ARE NOT Learning Objectives
Aug 8th
The simple fact that Learning Outcomes are NOT the same as Learning Objectives is a key principle to “Developing Effective Learning Outcomes & Objectives.” As noted in that presentation outline,
The differences lie in the level of specificity each provides and the relationship of each to assessment methods and instructional activities. Failure to understand and accommodate the differences can restrict academic freedom of faculty and complicate institutional efforts to manage curriculum and assessment.
Using the course I teach – COSC 1401 Introduction to Computers – I want to briefly illustrate the difference and the relationship between a learning outcome and a learning objective. More >
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