Assessment and feedback

I recently went to the Blackboard on Tour event in London which was largely based around assessment and feedback – there was an interesting presentation given by Grainne Hamilton on the topic which regardless of the implications for using Blackboard learn brought up (or more accurately, caused me to revisit) some interesting ideas about feedback and assessment and how we approach it in a HE environment. We were asked to decide which three of the following principles we thought were most important.

My choices were:

• ·         Opportunities to act on feedback
• ·         Develop self assessment and reflection
• ·         Encourage positive motivational beliefs

Not necessarily in that order…

Here is why.

Encouraging motivational beliefs is for me probably the most important on that list as, if done effectively, could be the 1^st step to promoting self directed learning and reflection by fostering  student ownership of their own learning. If, as a marker or assessor, in whatever capacity your feedback isn’t positive andmotivational in the sense that it encourages students to study further, it will not be effective. It may even be damaging as a student who is not motivated is far less likely to succeed. Of course feedback should not be entirely about saying ‘well done you are brilliant’, this will not help them think critically about what they have written and improve on it but equally it is important to balance criticism however constructive with some praise. If you are not told you have done something well you may not necessarily have the confidence to do it again. 

Encouraging positive and motivational beliefs leads neatly into the idea of developing self assessment and reflection, ultimately when they leave HE students are going to be in the workplace and the process of self assessment and reflection becomes a lot more important because there will be no faculty member looking at what they are doing and providing feedback. Self assessment and reflection is not a process that comes naturally to most people so it is part of the duty of an HE establishment to create a positive environment where students are encouraged and helped to develop these skills. 

At the end of the day however feedback positive, motivational or otherwise will achieve nothing if it falls on the proverbial deaf ears. The only way feedback can really enable students is if they are given time to act on it. This is something that is often lacking, especially in HE summative assignments may be marked and commented on and returned to students but there is little incentive to read and engage with that feedback as the assignment has been completed. Giving feedback on drafts and building into the process a requirement for self reflection is one way to help students engage and make allow them to develop self reflection skills. This is something I have been working on so watch this space. 

Making a choice of three important principles, however well justified, is all well and good and saying students must act on feedback and engage with is an excellent theory but on some level as a teaching institution we have to provide them with the skills and a framework which enable them to do that or it becomes a little bit like handing someone three skittles and instructing them to juggle. At the very least they are going to get a headache!

Reflecting on others reflects well on me

I am currently working on my CMALT  portfolio. What that really means is I am writing a reflective portfolio on what I do in my day job. I used to hate reflective writing but the more I do it the more I see how beneficial it is and am actually beginning to enjoy it (not the parts where I am forced to say how amazing I am, but the parts where I think about what I have done and how it can be better). I am not sure if I have more ideas because I am reflecting or if it is just because I am being forced to write them down that I am actually following through on them. Or even if it is because I am getting out of the office more and talking to other people who understand what I do for a living. 

There is an added element to the reflective practice that is happening for my CMALT and that is the addition of the group element. We are all working on our portfolios a section at a time and sharing them and discussing as we go along. Clearly as a very shy little person (yes really) – this terrifies me… but if it ain’t scary it ain’t worth doing right? I have always been one for just working away on my own and getting stuff done so this sharing business is new thing for me but this week I went over a section of a colleague’s portfolio with a constructively critical eye and wrote notes on what I thought. I then went back to my own work and took the same comments and edited my extremely verbose, waffly section of rubbish and made it into something a lot more coherent not only by listening to my own advice (why people don’t do this more often is a mystery) but by evaluating the things I thought she did well and then applying it to my own work. In a non-plaguiarisy way of course. 

The same colleague also read what I had written and came back with some inciteful and interesting ideas which have helped immensely sharing is good apparently!

“it is much friendlier with two, said Pooh”

The discussion board saga

After last year’s epic fail on the discussion board front (three students, if that, posted anything and most of that was in the wrong place) I am trying a new approach. I have looked at the various options that Blackboard Learn provides for discussion and collaboration and it is no secret that I think the discussion boards are hideous and so unaesthetically pleasing that I can see why no-one would want to use them. Ever! 

My revolutionary approach revolves around 2 things which occurred to me after doing some reading around the subject of student participation 

a) students probably won’t be the 1^st to post so you have to do it, even if you have no intentions of moderating the thing thereafter

b) you can’t expect students to use something if you have not taught them how no matter how intuitive you think it is.

With that in mind I decided to use the blog function rather than the discussion boards, mostly because they look nicer and, I think, have a nice structure for students to use. My next big idea was to teach them how to use the things (I know - I am on a roll here) as a way of communicating with each other, sharing ideas and involving distance learners in discussions. I did this by making them post stuff while I was there to help and they seemed to get it although the best peice of feedback I had was "it was good that you told us we couldn't break it, because, you know, I was worried."

What remains to be seen on this grand plan of mine for world domination one discussion board at a time is if it will actually work. So watch this space.

Motivate me... or don't

I have been thinking a lot recently about motivation. It has come up in several situations; work, sport, exercise and life in general and it seems to me that more often than not people are inherently negative. Although perhaps that is just me, in a way, being negative because that is what I notice.

Telling someone they can't do something has 2 possible outcomes. It could elicit the 'screw you' response and make them try that much harder. Or it could make a person believe that they really can't do it. I would definitely fall into the latter category and anyone that knows me will testify to the fact that even if you tell me I can do something there is a fair chance that I still won't believe it.
The flip side being that if you say to someone 'you can do this, you can make that ball, you can lift that weight, this topic is hard but I have faith in the fact that you can handle it' they are one step closer to reaching the target. It will never have the effect of making someone change their own mind from can to can't.

Such is the nature of human beings that you never know which category someone is going to fall into and many people will not give any indications either way some may even change their mind depending on the day. So while setting that baseline at 'I don't think you can do this but by all means prove me wrong' may work for some people it may well leave others sat at home thinking about it for days on end and writing boring blog posts.
However whatever the situation, which could range from stretching that extra half an inch to reach the hockey ball to starting to use a new system at work, a single word of encouragement, 'come on - you can do it', or 'I know it might be hard but if you need help just ask' is to one extent or another going to motivate everyone regardless of their personality and it may just mean the difference between success and not quite making it.

On good form....

In our latest module - Nutrition and weight management - me and the faculty academic decided to hit the 21st century with some real time data collection in class.

"Oh you used clickers, how dreadfully last season darling" is that what I hear you say?

Well no - we did not.

We collected data on 2 different subjects.

The 1st to collect tasting data to be used by students in a course work assignment so there was no pressing need to have the data immediately available at the end of the session but it was fun. However, I did the same session last year and the students filled out the tasting survey on paper instead of on this handy google form (although why I decided to make it purple is anyone's guess) which meant that someone had to put all the data into a spreadsheet by hand. Whereas, with my handy google form (which does work on a smart phone - try it - i dare you ) the spreadsheet was instantly made for me and you get a summary of results in nice little pie charts too. (see right)


Our second data collecting experiment using the same process involved an appetite survey which the students were asked to rate their appetite before and after meals for a day. We had three forms, breakfast, lunch and dinner. This data was used in class as part of a lecture so we put the numbers into a chart, in the way the professor requested, and he used it to illustrate his point using data from the students in the room. This should give you a warm fuzzy feeling caused by a personalised classroom and engaged students but mostly I was just excited to see the prof reffering to my graphs in a lecture!!

Little things to please the geek :)

 

Falling face(book) first into social media

A wise man told me this week that I needed a google+ profile. I pulled a face but since he is not only wise but my boss I now have a google+ profile.

stripe-e now has google+, facebook, twitter and linkedin

I have no idea what to do with them all. I use facebook so I can just about cope with that. I am getting the hang of twitter, voyeuristically at least. LinkedIn is just an on-line CV so I'm on board with that. That just leaves google+ and I have no clue what to do with it, other than being credited as a contributor on the blog of the aforementioned wise man. 

However there is a silver lining to this, it has given me a kick up the proverbial to get the social buttons on stripe-e and I am quite pleased with them. Downloaded from GraphicsFuel and looking pretty awesome. It also forced my hand on the contact page issue as I now have an 'email' button sitting there looking cool and a new email account to go with it. So with the help of Steegle I now have a contact form on my website which sends emails to my new email address.

So ultimately - after the initial terror - the social media push has made me quite happy. I just have to start using them now!

Articulate yourself on the web with google drive

You can make a public link for your Articulate storyline project by using your google drive account. It is really quite simple...

1. Upload the output folder to your google drive.
2. Set the folder to 'public on the web'
3. Rename story.html to index.html
4. When you are in the folder copy the junk at the end of the web address

https://drive.google.com/?authuser=0#folders/0B21-w1uGFQjkS3RvRF9IOFhuckk

5. Then type the following into your address bar http://googledrive.com/host/  
6. Finally copy the junk from above into the address so it looks like this


              http://googledrive.com/host/0B21-w1uGFQjkS3RvRF9IOFhuckk


That link should then give you a link to your course that you can hyper link into your blog or website... much like this.