Posts tagged education
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?
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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 >
(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 ...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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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 >
(No Ratings Yet) 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 >
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