What to do Even Before You Turn on the Computer
Jace Hargis, PhD/Assistant Provost for Faculty Development
1. First of all, truly understand you discipline the course you will be teaching and if you have taught this course previously in an off-line environment, and then be prepared for significant modifications on how the experience is shared.
2. Review and/or learn how people process information and at least some information on learning theories (information processing, metacognition, self-regulation, self-efficacy, constructivism, social cognitive theory, dialectivism, etc.)
3. Develop good Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) [these state specifically what is expected of the learner; addresses knowledge, skills and dispositions; and contain subject matter and form or what action must be performed.]
• How Do We Write Quality SLO’s? Prepare clear guidelines of what you expect students to do. (apply, analyze, compare, compute, contrast, derive, evaluate, explain, integrate, interpret, justify, assess); these should be active, address higher level processing, and be measurable as well as to what degree; and they should address skills and performance rather than knowledge.)
• What Do SLO’s Look Like? Example: “Upon course completion, students will be able to: Assess the drivers and consequences of globalization, its impact on specific regions, and the emerging concerns about its mixed influences around the world; and Integrate and apply the elements of international strategic management, including the pressures and cost/benefits of strategies that emphasize global integration versus local adaptation”
4. How do I Know When Students Meet SLO’s? – by using an Assessment Rubric…
a. Rubrics Bridge between expectations and assessment; can be formative or summative; students, as well as instructors should use; way to define excellence, especially in dealing with processes or abstract concepts; provides a common "language" to help diverse groups talk about a complex process; and provide rationale for measuring and evaluating. (Rubistar is a free online rubric builder program)
b. Advantages of a Rubric: For the Professor - Objective and consistent ; clarify criteria in specific terms; feedback vehicle; benchmarks against which to measure and document progress; and for Students - help define “quality”; Awareness of criteria; help judge and revise their own work;shows how their work will be evaluated and what is expected
5. Where to begin… Identify a measureable SLO – possibly consider an end project and then break it down and step it backward (Wiggins and McTighe has a nice model for Backward Design, 2005), deciding where in the course to locate developmental stages that build toward the project; develop or adopt (and adapt) an existing rubric; determine its function –formative or summative; share it with students prior to the assessment; Assess, Measure, Evaluate; and use the rubric on an assignment, provide feedback, reflect and continuously improve.
6. Once you have addressed these major challenges for teaching and learning, the next step is to specifically determine how you will assess your students, intentionally and overtly attending to the various levels of assessment (Bloom’s Taxonomy may be helpful as you identify which level each assessment addresses, such as Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation)
7. After you have all of the prior steps completed, you can now DRAW (not on a computer, but on a piece of paper), a graphic organizer (possibly using a concept map, Inspiration, Storyboard Quick, Storyboard Artist, etc.) on how each of your components (active learning, assessment, lecture, discussions, chats, podcasts, vodcast, wikis, blogs, VR, simulations, Google docs, etc, etc, etc.) connect and directly ALIGN to your SLOs. It will be helpful to include an estimate of the number of hours students are likely to need to accomplish all of the activities in a given week to ensure that it is appropriate.
8. The graphic organizer can be used to develop your highly detailed syllabus, which should include all of the regular items seen in a traditional syllabus, but also additional notes to assist the online learner.
9. Once you have this pictorial, you can then follow your design and use the many instructional technology tools, including social media/Web 2.0 to accomplish your objectives – keeping in mind that the technology is always a tool to be used and not driving the pedagogy.
10. The final step is to remember to enjoy – if you are not enjoying this experience in some way, chances are your students will not either.