Leveraging Quality Matters Certified Courses
Aug 6th
Short version: An institution that facilitates and supports Quality Matters (QM) centered reviews of online courses could leverage those courses by licensing a QM certified course from the faculty developer on a semester-to-semester basis and distribute that QM certified course to any faculty – including or perhaps especially adjuncts – teaching the course. For me, that would be a win-win-win solution for the institution, the faculty developer and all other faculty teaching the same course.
Long version and a few issues are described below. After I explain all of this, please comment and tell me what sort of things I don’t know about QM or licensing issues etc that preclude an institution from doing this ;-) More >
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Loading ...Assessing Online Discussions
Aug 4th
I recently re/developed the rubric I use to assess learner performance in the online discussion for my “Introduction to Computers” course; I wanted a more generic approach suitable for many of the discussions in the course – particularly with the course going through a Quality Matters review. I developed a holistic rubric with two primary criteria supported with a number of descriptors at each level of proficiency. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Proving a Learner’s Plagiarism
Aug 3rd
A two-week old post on the Texas Community College Teachers Association blog caught my attention this morning: Charge of Plagiarism Upheld in Court. My initial reaction was that I do not understand how it’s “a good thing” that accusations of learner plagiarism not be supported by identification of a plagiarized document. Reading the court opinion, however, adds critical information not mentioned by the TCCTA blog; considering the additional information, the issue is a great deal more complex. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Problems with Bloom’s Taxonomy?
Jul 31st
Last week or so, I came across an older article (December, 2002) from International Society for Performance Improvement that challenged the utility of Bloom’s Taxonomy on several levels. In short, Dr. Brenda Sugrue argues that Bloom’s Taxonomy is not valid, reliable or practical. Dr. Sugrue offers two alternatives which both suggest an emphasis on the application and use of knowledge. I believe there’s a great deal of truth in Dr. Sugrue’s argument, and I have a few additional thoughts. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Developing Effective Learning Outcomes & Objectives
(If you’re landing on the individual post page directly, this is an abstract for a conference/professional development presentation. See the speaking page for more details.)
First things first : A learning outcome and a learning objective are two distinct concepts. The delineation of the two concepts is critical to effective design of learning and assessment for a course, and subsequently, the management of assessment practices.
Assessment of learner outcomes and performance has become increasingly important in a political and accreditation environment focused on evidence, data and accountability. While institutions work to establish procedures to ensure learner assessment results are documented, reported and used to improve instruction, the success of those improvements is dependent upon or assumes the identification of quality learning outcomes, learning objectives, and learning activities. Effective learning experiences begin and end with assessment derived from defined outcomes and objectives. The focus question then is, “How do we develop effective learning outcomes and objectives?” More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Continuous Improvement of Assessment Methods
(If you’re landing on the individual post page directly, this is an abstract for a conference/professional development presentation. See the speaking page for more details.)
Assessment of learner outcomes and performance has become increasingly important in a political and accreditation environment focused on evidence, data and accountability. While institutions work to establish procedures to ensure learner assessment results are documented, reported and use to improve instruction, the demand for improving learners’ workplace readiness will drive the need for continuous improvement and innovation regarding how we assess learners. Assessment is the beginning and the end of designing and facilitating effective learning experiences. With that in mind, “How do we improve assessment methods to enhance the learning and teaching process?” More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Searching for a new camera . . .
May 15th
After officially graduating yesterday, my days as a graduate student are O-V-E-R, thankfully. I now have more time on my hands and am looking forward to spending my time on a few hobbies. Photography will be one of them. Task #1? Identify and buy a new camera. Of course, I’m looking for any and all advice on which camera to purchase. If you have some, given my personal photography profile which I’ll describe below, I’d certainly appreciate the input via comments.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...STOP Calling them the Net Generation!! (Please!)
(If you’re landing on the individual post page directly, this is an abstract for a conference/professional development presentation. See the speaking page for more details.)
The education industry, at all levels, has been inundated with the “net generation” and “digital native” rhetoric for more than a decade. An uncountable number of conference presentations, technology initiatives, curricular changes and innovations, and faculty development projects have started with the assumption that we, as educators, are faced with a college learner of today that is radically different from the college learner of years past. They’re just different. Why? Only one reason: they’ve been surrounded by ubiquitous technology their entire lives. You’ve seen *that* presentation introduction 100x over… How many hours they surf the internet, play games, listen to music, text on their phones… blah blah blah blah. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Conference Twitter Backchannel’s Almost Useless
May 7th
Over at EduGeek Journal, Matt Croslin posted several weeks ago about using Twitter as a conference backchannel. That stirred up a frustration I’ve had with the last several times I’ve tried to engage colleagues at a conference via Twitter. I posted a comment there that provides more explanation and context to my argument.
The long and short of it is that, for me, the twitter backchannel at conferences has become damn near useless. It’s not because Twitter’s useless or irrelevant, and it’s not because of the conference; it’s a matter of how people at conferences are using… well… not using the Twitter backchannel effectively, in my opinion. Rather than an engaging backchannel shared by colleagues and professionals engaging each other in meaningful discourse related to conference presentations, by and large, the Twitter conference backchannels have become nothing more than a “mindlessly-broadcast-whatever-the-speaker’s-saying-channel.” Your thoughts?
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