Posts tagged education
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 >
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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 >
(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 ...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 ...Self-Neutered Lecturers (Speakers, Presenters)
Apr 14th
With my dissertation officially complete, I have… gasp… free time to do any number of things. Tonight, I lost myself for an hour or more in long neglected RSS Feeds and was up long past my bedtime. Rather than reading specific feeds, I took the mixed bag of the top level folder and just started reading and watching content in one post/article after another.
Two items stand out in my mind at the moment.
- Roger Ebert’s presentation, Remaking my Voice. [Ebert @Suntimes and @Twitter]
- Stephen Downes’ presentation, The Lecture Must Stand.
Taking the two presentations juxtaposed, there’s a stronger message for me than perhaps either of the two presentations in isolation. I want to give this more thought, but briefly and roughly….. More >
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