Hi Hilary, Just had a quick read of your plan and it looks great. I really like the idea of visually observing students to guage their responses and level of interaction. Am not sure that i understand your comment in the background regarding it being introduced to the students about half way through the course and uite often missed out? Perhaps you could expand on this? Good luck with your evaluation. All the best, Rika :]
Sorry about the confusion! The unit I am to evaluate is an online module in a course that utilises a mixture of text based and online learning. All of the other modules use some text based course material with the exception of this one. Also this module has been incorporated within a cluster that involves a lot step-by-step instructions and students often do not refer back to their course guide and see that they need to log on and find the online module which accompanies this. In fairness, it is a very stand-alone module which has probably been put in the wrong place but nevertheless the rationale behind its positioning is to introduce online learning once some of the course has already been completed utilising other methods.
When surveying the alumni have you thought about a cut off period, e.g. must have taken the course within the last six months (or similar)? Skill fade and fading memories may provide a less than reliable survey result for those who graduated some time ago.
Are you considering a mechanism to try to factor in the prior experience of the participants? Those who are already adept to some degree will inevitably find the module easier than those who are not. Could the survey be limited to those with limited ability, or could the survey include a question to establish how much prior experience each person brings along (on a scale of 1-5...)and then try to look for trends within each group?
Lastly, under decisions, could a peer to peer mentoring scheme be an option instead of coaching - truly student centric learning!
Thanks for your comments. Contacting alumni students will pose some problems I realise, simply because of time constraints and consequently cut-off times will automatically be built in here as it will not be possible to contact those who completed over say, 1 year ago.
The prior experience factor seems to be a difficult one to gauge using a survey. We give each new student on our non-assessed courses a survey to complete in order that we can assess their ability. Some students tick the 'high usage' box simply because they spend a lot of time on the internet but in fact they know little else which actually translates to their knowledge really being 'limited'. This may be a poor example but I think these are difficult parameters to establish. Good thought nevertheless.
Just had a read of your plan and it looks a good one. Obviously I remember students doing unit 5942 in the community classroom in Pukekohe and it was one that caused some (but not all) students a few issues. The positioning of it within the course seemed a bit odd - straight after database and spreadsheet work I think. I wonder if it is worth asking students/assessors this question - would it be better positioned at another point in the course? Although I suppose this could be covered by your observation question - "what suggestions or comments does the user make about the module?" - if it comes up as an important issue.
I can't wait to see the results. I wonder if MIT will get you to evaluate the other modules?
6 comments:
hello hilary - great work. I wonder could you share your document with me so I can give you feedback directly in the document.
thx Bronwyn
Hi Hilary, Just had a quick read of your plan and it looks great. I really like the idea of visually observing students to guage their responses and level of interaction. Am not sure that i understand your comment in the background regarding it being introduced to the students about half way through the course and uite often missed out? Perhaps you could expand on this? Good luck with your evaluation. All the best, Rika :]
Hi Rika
Sorry about the confusion! The unit I am to evaluate is an online module in a course that utilises a mixture of text based and online learning. All of the other modules use some text based course material with the exception of this one. Also this module has been incorporated within a cluster that involves a lot step-by-step instructions and students often do not refer back to their course guide and see that they need to log on and find the online module which accompanies this. In fairness, it is a very stand-alone module which has probably been put in the wrong place but nevertheless the rationale behind its positioning is to introduce online learning once some of the course has already been completed utilising other methods.
Hope this clarifies this o.k.
Hilary
Hilary, a few thoughts from me.
When surveying the alumni have you thought about a cut off period, e.g. must have taken the course within the last six months (or similar)? Skill fade and fading memories may provide a less than reliable survey result for those who graduated some time ago.
Are you considering a mechanism to try to factor in the prior experience of the participants? Those who are already adept to some degree will inevitably find the module easier than those who are not. Could the survey be limited to those with limited ability, or could the survey include a question to establish how much prior experience each person brings along (on a scale of 1-5...)and then try to look for trends within each group?
Lastly, under decisions, could a peer to peer mentoring scheme be an option instead of coaching - truly student centric learning!
Gordon
Hi Gordon
Thanks for your comments. Contacting alumni students will pose some problems I realise, simply because of time constraints and consequently cut-off times will automatically be built in here as it will not be possible to contact those who completed over say, 1 year ago.
The prior experience factor seems to be a difficult one to gauge using a survey. We give each new student on our non-assessed courses a survey to complete in order that we can assess their ability. Some students tick the 'high usage' box simply because they spend a lot of time on the internet but in fact they know little else which actually translates to their knowledge really being 'limited'. This may be a poor example but I think these are difficult parameters to establish. Good thought nevertheless.
Hi Hilary
Just had a read of your plan and it looks a good one. Obviously I remember students doing unit 5942 in the community classroom in Pukekohe and it was one that caused some (but not all) students a few issues. The positioning of it within the course seemed a bit odd - straight after database and spreadsheet work I think. I wonder if it is worth asking students/assessors this question - would it be better positioned at another point in the course? Although I suppose this could be covered by your observation question - "what suggestions or comments does the user make about the module?" - if it comes up as an important issue.
I can't wait to see the results. I wonder if MIT will get you to evaluate the other modules?
Good luck with it,
Cheers
Yvonne
Post a Comment