Assessment for eLearning - Week 5

Rubrics

Sometimes I feel like I have ESP. Somehow I managed to talk about rubrics and how detailed they should be last week, and low and behold, here we are talking about them this week!

Mueller recommends providing descriptions for each point level awarded, which is one of the things I was struggling with last week. As Mueller points out, "it is very useful for the students and the teacher if the criteria are identified and communicated prior to completion of the task." (Mueller, 2002) I lean more to the side of providing as much detail as possible in the rubric after this weeks readings. This will help the student as they are working, as well as serve as a good reflective tool for them to evaluate their work prior to submission. Providing more detail will also help the instructor with assessment as it allows the rubric to be more objective and consistent, which, as Mueller points out, leads to "greater reliability and validity in the results."

On another note, I had never seen a holistic rubric before! At the high school level, I think an analytic rubric helps to pinpoint where the student needs work specifically.

Andrade gave me a two great ideas! the first is simple, use "I" statements in the rubric, which will help students connect the rubric with self assessment. The second is a little more complicated to explain. I have always used rubrics, and I have always asked my high school students to self assess using rubrics, but so often, I feel like they just picked a number and moved on. My original tactic was to award bonus points to students who self assessed within two points of my assessment, but my new technique will follow Andrade's tactic. Students will have to highlight or change the font color of their assignments to match assigned colors in the rubrics. In this way, students will be really self assessing and checking that they meet the requirements! Brilliant! It may be a little harder to do this with multimedia projects, but I am committed to adapting! I also took this idea two days ago and modified it. When students (very low level special ed students) were doing research, I gave them all 5 highlighters, one for each question they had to answer. I then had them read the first article they found and highlight the answer to the questions in the color that matched the question. It was like a total breakthrough for both myself and the students! (Andrade, 2000)

Andrade, H. G. (2000). Using Rubrics to Promote Thinking and Learning. Educational Leadership, 57(5), 13-18. Retrieved March 30, 2014, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb00/vol57/num05/Using-Rubrics-to-Promote-Thinking-and-Learning.aspx

Mueller, J. (2002, October 1). Rubrics (Authentic Assessment Toolbox). Retrieved March 30, 2014, from http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/rubrics.htm

Bloom's

I am so overwhelmed with verbs right now, my brain is about to explode. It's nice to see all of the different representations of verbs, but just a bit overwhelming! It is really hard to pinpoint where an activity falls on the taxonomy unless you use the proper verbs. Articulating what you really want students to do with learning objectives is very helpful, adding the appropriate verbs helps to drive the activities and assessments to the higher level.

I like the idea Bilyk has, of using the "presentation of information, followed by a case study in which students apply the information learned." It's definitely something I want to incorporate in my classes. Although it takes more work on the part of the instructor, the activity truly helps drive home the ideas and concepts students are learning.

Bilyk, R. (2012, June 8). Climbing Bloom's Taxonomy in Online Learning. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from http://lodestarlearning.com/samples/Bloom_Taxonomy/

Plagiarism

I don't even know what to say here. This topic is my favorite soapbox. I am on the Academic Integrity Committee in my building, and the un titled expert in my building. I created a video last year for all students in my building to view (though I seriously want to update it using PowToon now!). What more can you say than, if it wasn't yours, say who it came from? I have a very large issue with people who do not see using other's things without indicating their origin as a problem, particularly in the education profession when we are supposed to be modeling to our students. There are so many resources on plagiarism and copyright, I am amazed that schools do not do a yearly copyright workshop to protect themselves from lawsuits.

Peer Feedback

I love the process of peer feedback. It's nice to look at the work of others and get ideas and see how others approach an assignment. It also nice if people do not hold back and really offer helpful advice!

My Taxonomy Table

Can be found here