The biggest issue I have with online classes is the lack of timely evaluation and assessment. I have often been in the situation where I have multiple assignments due that are related to one another, but due weeks apart. Ideally, I would be receiving feedback via evaluation and assessment in a timely manner so that my subsequent assignments can be modified and improved based on the feedback I receive from the instructor, however more often than not, I am not receiving this feedback until well after a time that it would actually be useful to me. For instance, if I have a project proposal due, it would be useful to receive feedback on that before my first draft is due. But typically I have not. If I have a first draft due, it would be useful to receive feedback on that before the final draft, or even the second draft is due. But typically I have not.
Really, the number one thing that has frustrated me about online learning as a student is this issue with timely evaluation. Because as a student, I like to know if I'm moving in the right direction, and the best way to know that is by receiving feedback from the expert...my instructor. This issue is also directly related to Week 5's topic: Motivation. When I don't receive timely feedback from my instructor, it decreases my motivation. I'm less likely to work as hard on subsequent assignments if I feel like my instructor is slacking off on the assessments. I feel like "why should I invest a lot of time on this...my instructor isn't even looking at them anyway..."
As an instructor, evaluation is so important because of ^^^ that. I need to instill confidence in my students that Yes, I am reading everything you are submitting. Yes, I am putting in effort to be an active participant in this class as well. Yes, the work you do really does matter.
But also assessment is so important because not only does it tell the student "Yes you are learning what you are supposed to be learning" (or not), but it also tells me "Yes you are teaching what you think you are teaching" (or not).
So in review:
- Clear assessment is important, but it is also very important assessment is timely.
- Clear and timely assessment is important for student motivation.
- Clear and timely assessment is important for instructors to evaluate their instruction, and be able to modify and adjust if the learning objectives aren't being achieved by the students.
- All of these online tools are fantastic to help the instructor simplify their evaluation process. Hopefully the simplification will result in more online instructors giving more timely feedback.
P.S. Dr. Leftwich, I appreciate that the evaluations in this class have been more timely than any of my other online classes! Thank you!
Greetings Amber,
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to hear what technology tools you enjoyed and tried out.
This is great to hear, but as instructors we always struggle with providing strong feedback in a timely manner. As an instructor, I honestly struggle with this so much more in online courses. For example, in my face-to-face class, I can easily pull a student aside before or after class and talk with them about their assignment. With an online student, I find it more difficult to provide this type of feedback.
One of the ways I hope to provide better feedback for students in R541 is to meet individually with teams. By meeting synchronously and sharing the screen (this is particularly important in a media and design course), this can help to clear up misconceptions and provide better feedback. Honestly, with instructional design, it can really depend on the case and the constraints.
It's a fun, artistic process.
Hi Amber
ReplyDeleteI loved the graphic, it illustrates you are also sympathetic to the non stop effort teachers have to make to keep on top of everything students are doing, and how stressed out a teacher can be, especially if they are teaching different subjects and lots of students. It's also interesting to hear Dr L's insight into how much more challenging it is to have to provide feedback virtually. I used to encounter a similar issue teaching learners how to use software, i.e., having to create a resource with steps, instructions and screenshots (i.e., like you did for 521) is so much more time consuming than just walking over to their desk/pc and showing them which button to push.
Connect is a lifesaver for us. I think one of the ways I've got around having to quickly respond to students is to spend more time on explaining the requirements of the assignment, and putting it all on paper with the assessment criteria, lists of things to do, project paperwork forms to fill in and other kinds of frameworks to help them understand the scope and keep them from going astray. At this level though our project requirements are more flexible, so it's not as easy as when teaching qualifications with national standards students must meet. In the UK you would fail inspection if you did not include a clear scope and assessment criteria (rubrics) with each assignment, and the students could fail if you didn't make sure they did what they were supposed to do in order to pass. This explains why I'm so pedantic, as you noticed, I'm expecting the inspector to appear at my back any minute to check my process and whether I'm doing everything by the book!