This process taught me a great deal about how an assessment should be tailored with several things in mind.

• What do you want the students to learn?
• What level of Bloom’s taxonomy does it coincide with? Have you included higher level thinking assessments?
• Which learning objective does this assessment measure?
• Which learning activities lead up to and provide practice for the assessment?
• Have you included measures protecting against plagiarism?
• Are you incorporating variety for diverse learners?

My ultimate goal is to have an “active” course in which students complete authentic assessments. I want them to connect their new skills with real-life situations to increase retention and understanding.

Please review my course web site and feel free to leave comments here. It is a work in progress!

https://sites.google.com/site/excelintermediate/

In the educational arena, the name defines its purpose. Cyber – using technology – is the tool used to deliver the coaching. Coaching is defined in the readings as, “[looking] for skills to develop rather than errors committed or goals scored.” (Naomi Jeffery Petersen, 2004)

The readings discussed how coaching involves prompt and meaningful feedback designed to build on the strengths of the students so they can meet the learning objectives.

Feedback is the cornerstone of coaching. In sports, if a coach never told his players how they were doing, they would either be lost or would just keep making the same mistakes over and over. In teaching, coaching serves a similar purpose. Our feedback helps students improve their skills and understand which direction to move toward the goal – if it’s prompt and meaningful. It doesn’t serve much of a purpose if it is given after the “big game,” or if it consists of the words “good job.”

It is a continuous struggle for many instructors to keep up with feedback. We spend so much time on preparing courses and instructing, there does not seem enough time for anything else. Perhaps we need to spend less time on instructing and more time on coaching (i.e. feedback).

To improve, don’t we need to know what we are doing wrong and change it? Or can we keep doing what we’re doing correctly, only do it even better and use these strengths to build up other areas? The radical idea of building on the strengths of students does make sense – so why don’t we do it more often? This is one instructor that will be using this method in the future.

And of course, the whole purpose of learning is defined in the learning objectives. All coaching should be designed with these in mind.

I learned many ideas this week that seem so logical, yet sometimes far removed from education. I continue to ask myself, “Why is that?”

Tania Messina

I used Survey Monkey to design my survey. You can take my survey by clicking on the link. Click here to take survey

I have written learning objectives using Bloom’s Taxonomy, which I must say, is not easy at first. Now we had to “connect the dots,” or connect Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs to learning objectives to learning activities. It all makes sense when it’s finished and you have a full, authentic learning module that includes multiple learning levels.

Even better, we are experiencing what we want our students to experience. In other words, we are learning and creating in pieces toward a final culmination of this course as we are learning about how to teach in pieces toward a final culmination of a course. Brilliant!

I used the Bloom’s Taxonomy activity to further my progress toward my final project. I have written six learning objectives with related activities. Now I will need to explain which assessment tools I will use for each activity. I have reviewed all of the tools of interest from the midterm projects, so my work is half finished! I really like the way it’s taking shape.

Having students work at the higher learning levels increases deep understanding and reduces plagiarism. As teachers, we need to take the time to plan our courses to include these types of activities.

Here is an interesting way of looking at Bloom’s Taxonomy! Watch Luke Skywalker progress through the stages of learning.

Tania Messina

The examples of authentic assessment in the articles and video in this week’s readings were inspiring. To actually see it in use made it even more real. One student’s comment in the video summed up how I feel about authentic assessment, and what this course seems to revolve around. He stated that when you learn from books and tests, you learn knowledge or facts. When you learn how to use those facts in real life, you develop a deeper understanding of the material. That’s pretty insightful for a high school student. So…why is it that instructors and administrators aren’t always that insightful?

Perhaps instructors and administrators believe that the test is the only true way to assess all of the standards. Or maybe they believe “fun projects” are not true learning. We do have to be careful to ensure we are following standards and competencies and not just creating a fun learning activity. I think sometimes instructors can get carried away with creativity, and forget the ultimate goal of learning specific skills and competencies. Students need to learn the facts and knowledge and participate in learning activities practicing their new skills before being assessed. The assessment should allow students to demonstrate what they have learned, and allow them to learn even more during the assessment.

I enjoy using authentic assessment, but I feel I can do more of it. Time, time, time. If I can make some headway every semester, though, I will be satisfied that my students will be developing a deeper understanding of the course material.

Have a look! There is a feedback page if you would like to comment there, or feel free to comment here or on the Discussion Board for class.

http://elearning.uphero.com/index.html

Tania Messina

It’s similar to a journey. First, determine where you’re going, and then determine how you will get there. Perhaps you’ll take a car, a train, or a plane. You might determine a schedule of where you should be at what times. Periodically you can assess if you are making the progress along the route that you should be, and if not, what you can do about it.

Writing learning objectives seems easy until you try to do it! I noticed that my objectives were all worded similarly, and my activities also. Time for some change! It took some creative thinking, but I finally realized that I could expect much more from my students (and myself) by writing more complete, specific learning objectives and connecting the learning activities to real life.

Dr. Curtis Bonk is an inspirational writer who seems focused on the future – far beyond most instructors. He always seems to be years ahead! I read his book, The World is Open, for a previous class, and it has an unlimited number of resources listed in it, along with creative ideas on how to use them. Here is his YouTube video describing the book:

The 30 emerging technologies in his Perfect E-Storm book will be very useful, and I’ve already saved a list of them. Anyone teaching on-line should be reading/watching his material!

Tania Messina

You’ll need to click on the image to see it full size.

This article showed me some great ways to use blogs in the classroom. I have used discussion boards in a similar way as Ms. T’s use of blogs, but Mr. K’s use of blogs intrigued me. I can’t wait to use them in my classroom now! I especially want to try the Scribe of the Day. What a great way to engage students, help them recall their learning, check their understanding, and see where there may be holes in your teaching or lingering questions. Everything you want from assessment!

I have also used the chat room in online courses so students could help each other with their homework. They find it very useful because I may not be available right when they need me. And it takes the burden off of me in answering all of those emails!