Module 1 - Assessment in E-Learning

Summer has begun and so has my online class! For the next eight weeks, I will be taking the course titled "Assessment in E-learning" through the University of Wisconsin - Stout. I am completing the course as part of my 5 year technical college certification and as part of the graduate certificate program in E-Learning and Online Teaching. I really enjoyed my class last semester and am looking forward to learning more about assessment.

As part of the course, I will be completing a reflection journal concerning my progress throughout the course. In addition, I have decided to include updates on the progress of my garden! As my garden grows, so too, will my knowledge about assessing student learning! I will add pictures of my garden and very short updates regarding its progress.

 My herb garden contains dill, rosemary, thyme, sage & various flowering annuals.

This week, we were not required to journal or reflect upon on our learning, but I thought I would post an entry to get me into the habit of completing this task. Plus, I did have an "AHA" moment I wanted to record! This semester I am hoping to record more links, ideas, and potential activities I come up with while participating in the course. This was something I wish I would done more of last semester. Opps!

Here was the assessment idea that I came up with and recorded in my discussion posting:

As a required competency for my Speech course, students must be able to evaluate the speaking abilities of themselves and of other speakers. Students could, as a form of self-reflection and evaluation, ask another student questions regarding their speech performance. Currently, students fill out a pre-determined set of questions I designed, but what if they were in charge of their own learning and were required to ask another student a set of questions regarding the performance of their speech? Perhaps, then, students would obtain more valuable feedback, would become vested stakeholders in their learning, and could find answers to question that may have previously left unanswered. I could provide students with a guide and require a certain number of questions per criteria area. With the use of Blackboard or other online educational platform, this activity could be modified to allow for anonymous feedback. Students could be partnered with other students anonymously to allow for a more honest critique.  I have asked the rest of the class to provide feedback regarding my idea and am hoping for a some feedback to assist in avoiding any hiccups in implementing this strategy.

The second idea I discovered was to have students compile a class notes wiki. I was going to compile handouts for students to use to take notes during periods of short lecture, but instead, I could have them create a wiki notes page. This would cut down on my prep time
for fall, it would encourage students to find outside resources, and become more invested in their education.

Finally, as part of this course, our instructor created a wiki page where students can collaborate with each other. This week, we used the wiki to create and post "netiquette" or discussion board rules for our online class. These rules are posted to create a more constructive group of learners. 

With that being said, I am off to finish my homework for the week and weed my garden!

My vegetable garden includes: Onions, beets, carrots, tomatoes, kholarabi,  various varieties of peppers, peas, beans, cucumbers and watermelon.  I have another garden that has eggplants, cabbage, potatoes, and pumpkins.

My new dahlia plant!