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Gary Brown

Want Students to Take an Optional Test? Wave 25 Bucks at Them - Students - The Chronicl... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...65370

CLA motivation

shared by Gary Brown on 04 May 10 - Cached
  • cash, appears to be the single best approach for colleges trying to recruit students to volunteer for institutional assessments and other low-stakes tests with no bearing on their grades.
  • American Educational Research Association
  • A college's choice of which incentive to offer does not appear to have a significant effect on how students end up performing, but it can have a big impact on colleges' ability to round up enough students for the assessments, the study found.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • "I cannot provide you with the magic bullet that will help you recruit your students and make sure they are performing to the maximum of their ability," Mr. Steedle acknowledged to his audience at the Denver Convention Center. But, he said, his study results make clear that some recruitment strategies are more effective than others, and also offer some notes of caution for those examining students' scores.
  • The study focused on the council's Collegiate Learning Assessment, or CLA, an open-ended test of critical thinking and writing skills which is annually administered by several hundred colleges. Most of the colleges that use the test try to recruit 100 freshmen and 100 seniors to take it, but doing so can be daunting, especially for colleges that administer it in the spring, right when the seniors are focused on wrapping up their work and graduating.
  • The incentives that spurred students the least were the opportunity to help their college as an institution assess student learning, the opportunity to compare themselves to other students, a promise they would be recognized in some college publication, and the opportunity to put participation in the test on their resume.
  • The incentives which students preferred appeared to have no significant bearing on their performance. Those who appeared most inspired by a chance to earn 25 dollars did not perform better on the CLA than those whose responses suggested they would leap at the chance to help out a professor.
  • What accounted for differences in test scores? Students' academic ability going into the test, as measured by characteristics such as their SAT scores, accounted for 34 percent of the variation in CLA scores among individual students. But motivation, independent of ability, accounted for 5 percent of the variation in test scores—a finding that, the paper says, suggests it is "sensible" for colleges to be concerned that students with low motivation are not posting scores that can allow valid comparisons with other students or valid assessments of their individual strengths and weaknesses.
  • A major limitation of the study was that Mr. Steedle had no way of knowing how the students who took the test were recruited. "If many of them were recruited using cash and prizes, it would not be surprising if these students reported cash and prizes as the most preferable incentives," his paper concedes.
  • Gary Brown on 04 May 10
     
    Since it is not clear if the incentive to participate in this study influenced the decision to participate, it remains similarly unclear if incentives to participate correlate with performance.
Gary Brown

A concept cluster quiz ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes - 1 views

www.downes.ca/52461

language

shared by Gary Brown on 19 May 10 - Cached
  • Not everybody is happy when I say words have different meanings for each person that uses them. But it's hard to escape that conclusion when you actually look at language.
  • Geoffrey K. Pullum writes, "The people who think clarity involves lack of ambiguity, so we have to strive to eliminate all multiple meanings and should never let a word develop a new sense... they simply don't get it about how language works, do they?" A good lesson for the Semantic Web people, no?
  • Gary Brown on 19 May 10
     
    As we continue to refine the rubric, this short post is a useful reminder of the challenge....and the limits. We struggle in part because the formal assessment experience of many of our partners is not wide or deep, which in turns increases the language challenges.
Gary Brown

Classroom Creativity : The Frontal Cortex - 1 views

scienceblogs.com/...classroom_creativity.php

creative thinking critical thinking

shared by Gary Brown on 26 May 10 - Cached
  • Classroom Creativity
  • Eric Barker recently referred me to this interesting study, which looked at how elementary school teachers perceived creativity in their students. While the teachers said they wanted creative kids in their classroom, they actually didn't. I
  • The point is that the classroom isn't designed for impulsive expression - that's called talking out of turn.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The danger, however, is that we're teaching our kids a very narrow and stultifying model of cognition, in which conscientiousness is privileged above all.
  • In recent years, however, it's become clear that daydreaming is actually an important element of the creative process, allowing the brain to remix ideas, explore counterfactuals and turn the spotlight of attention inwards.
  • The solution, I suppose, is rather banal: we really do need arts education in our schools,
  • Gary Brown on 26 May 10
     
    The Teaching Academy has refined critical and creative thinking with a draft definition that presumes they are two different thought processes. In my exploration of the purported diision, I encountered the writings of this neuroscientist.
Gary Brown

Validity and Reliability in Higher Education Assessment - 2 views

rapidintellect.com/...10assess.htm

validity

shared by Gary Brown on 26 May 10 - Cached
  • Validity and Reliability in Higher Education Assessment
  • However, validity and reliability are not inherent features of assessments or assessment systems and must be monitored continuously throughout the design and implementation of an assessment system. Research studies of a theoretical or empirical nature addressing methodology for ensuring and testing validity and reliability in the higher education assessment process, results of validity and reliability studies, and novel approaches to the concepts of validity and reliability in higher education assessment are all welcome. To be most helpful in this academic exchange, empirical studies should be clear and explicit about their methodology so that others can replicate or advance their research.
  • Gary Brown on 26 May 10
     
    We should take this opportunity seriously and write up our work. Let me know if you want to join me.
Nils Peterson

Reasons Facebook Beat MySpace | HASTAC - 0 views

www.hastac.org/...reasons-facebook-beat-myspace

shared by Nils Peterson on 15 Sep 09 - Cached
  • To prove her point, Oshiro offers a couple of nice graphs that show a strong correlation between the introduction of Facebook Connect and a rapid migration from MySpace to Facebook. A closer look at the charts, however, suggests that while the API likely did hasten the shift, it was one that was already taking place. One notable conclusion we can draw from this data, however, is that Facebook's decision to open up user data to third parties did, indeed, have a strong measurable effect on popularity. As more applications became available that could integrate with Facebook, the site became more useful to users. Oshiro writes, "Facebook moved from being a College forum site to a full scale lifestyle platform. Whereas MySpace is still a website, Facebook has become an entire eco-system."
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 15 Sep 09
       
      Pointing to the open API of Facebook as an aid to its popularity is interesting, but its a technical consideration to interoperate with other systems. My question is, does increased interoperation facilitate more collaboration and open the potential for collaboration by difference. What if Geo Hotz had used Twitter & FB rather than Blogger. Could he? Would it have made a difference? I am finding that having my blog linked to FB is getting me a little (very little) more attention and commenting than without it. But my friends only comment on things I say about Health Care; they don't seem interested in explorations of rubric-based assessment of learning.
Theron DesRosier

Linux, Learning, and Sugar Kids | HASTAC - 0 views

www.hastac.org/...linux-learning-and-sugar-kids

shared by Theron DesRosier on 10 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Like many of the conversations we have here at HASTAC, this project focuses on learning through collaboration, experimentation, and pleasure. For example, rather than applications or tools, each program is called an activity and runs at full-screen, two design choices that derive from this pedagogical orientation. Collaboration is also assumed by the OS; you can invite friends to just about any activity (like writing, painting, web browsing), and everyone who joins will see the same thing.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 10 Sep 09
       
      collaboration, experimentation and pleasure -- sound more like group play which is a theme running through some of the other HASTAC stuff I have been reading.
    • Theron DesRosier
      Theron DesRosier on 11 Sep 09
       
      Thanks Nils, I like the way the interface zooms to different levels of community participation. It assumes and supports collaborative work. Toward the end of the "short video of it in action" (link above), it shows how the system collects everything you do in your "Journal". The Journal identifies the collaborators you worked with on the project along with other information.
Nils Peterson

Face to Face: Alan Kay Still Waiting for the Revolution | Scholastic.com - 0 views

content.scholastic.com/...article.jsp

shared by Nils Peterson on 02 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Virtually all learning difficulties that children face are caused by adults' inability to set up reasonable environments for them. The biggest barrier to improving education for children, with or without computers, is the completely impoverished imaginations of most adults.
  • the point of school is to teach all those things that are inventions and that are hard to learn because we're not explicitly wired for them. Like reading and writing.Virtually all learning difficulties that children face are caused by adults' inability to set up reasonable environments for them. The biggest barrier to improving education for children, with or without computers, is the completely impoverished imaginations of most adults.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 03 Jun 09
       
      Ouch. This hits hard
  • Gary Brown on 02 Jun 09
     
    Alan Kay, developer of the mouse, still lamenting the failure of imagination of adults/educators.
  • Gary Brown on 02 Jun 09
     
    Matthew spotted this a while back. Great read.
Nils Peterson

Swift Kick Central: Playing Catch Up: Colleges and the Web - 1 views

blog.swiftkickonline.com/...h-up-colleges-and-the-web.html

shared by Nils Peterson on 05 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Based on the incredible investment of universities in social architecture: in quads, residence halls and lounges, it's ironic that most universities still do not see the internet as cost effective social venue, despite the countless examples online
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 05 Oct 09
       
      Found this guy because he put our Harvesting Gradebook YouTube in his feed. At this blog, and at Tom Krieglstein he is writing some interesting analysis.
  • Universities just couldn't see how to extend the old value and investment into connecting and learning, to the new field.
  • Universities are following along the same trends of the internet as a whole, with a bit of a lag. College websites are still mostly "web 1.0": characterized by static content, controlled by a centralized office.  Curriculum and learning is still centralized and controlled in learning managment systems like Blackboard. Where there are discussion features in Blackboard, the content stays centralized with the class and is lost at the end of the term. Where there are blogs on university websites, they tend to be written by selected and edited "brand ambassadors" - an attempt to put a real face on a preferred message.This year, often led by the admissions department, it has become fashionable for schools to use social media links on their sites. The thinking, however, is still mostly in the 1.0 paradigm: "follow the school on twitter" or "become a fan of the university on Facebook." In this paradigm, the university is still the focus, a one to many publisher in the center. Based on competition and financial pressures, businesses based on publishing models are scrambling to decentralize, lower cost structures, and move their models towards connecting and aggregating. When will the paradigm shift for the University?
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 05 Oct 09
       
      Is he asking the right, hard question, or, does the publishing model not apply?
Gary Brown

Innovate to Cease Publication ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes - 1 views

www.downes.ca/...page.cgi

innovate

shared by Gary Brown on 20 Oct 09 - Cached
  • To say that this publication - Technology Source, and then Innovate - and the work of editor James Morrison was an important influence on my work and my career would be an understatement. I benefited at all levels from my involvement with it, from help with my writing, to exposure to innovative ideas, to the creation of an audience for my work, to Jim's encouragement and support, which was unwavering. My thanks to Jim and to everyone else involved.
  • Gary Brown on 20 Oct 09
     
    nothing to add here. I will miss this affiliation.
Gary Brown

News: Assessing the Assessments - Inside Higher Ed - 2 views

www.insidehighered.com/...vsa

assessment CLA VSA

shared by Gary Brown on 05 Nov 09 - Cached
  • The validity of a measure is based on evidence regarding the inferences and assumptions that are intended to be made and the uses to which the measure will be put. Showing that the three tests in question are comparable does not support Shulenburger's assertion regarding the value-added measure as a valid indicator of institutional effectiveness. The claim that public university groups have previously judged the value-added measure as appropriate does not tell us anything about the evidence upon which this judgment was based nor the conditions under which the judgment was reached. As someone familiar with the process, I would assert that there was no compelling evidence presented that these instruments and the value-added measure were validated for making this assertion (no such evidence was available at the time), which is the intended use in the VSA.
  • (however much the sellers of these tests tell you that those samples are "representative"), they provide an easy way out for academic administrators who want to avoid the time-and-effort consuming but incredibly valuable task of developing detailed major program learning outcome statements (even the specialized accrediting bodies don't get down to the level of discrete, operational statements that guide faculty toward appropriate assessment design)
  • f somebody really cared about "value added," they could look at each student's first essay in this course, and compare it with that same student's last essay in this course. This person could then evaluate each individual student's increased mastery of the subject-matter in the course (there's a lot) and also the increased writing skill, if any.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • These skills cannot be separated out from student success in learning sophisticated subject-matter, because understanding anthropology, or history of science, or organic chemistry, or Japanese painting, is not a matter of absorbing individual facts, but learning facts and ways of thinking about them in a seamless, synthetic way. No assessment scheme that neglects these obvious facts about higher education is going to do anybody any good, and we'll be wasting valuable intellectual and financial resources if we try to design one.
  • Gary Brown on 05 Nov 09
     
    ongoing discussion of these tools. Note Longanecker's comment and ask me why.
Gary Brown

Has Accreditation Produced an Ethical Business Climate? - Letters to the Editor - The C... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...49058

accreditation

shared by Gary Brown on 10 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Institutions that choose to seek program accreditation must, in the finite world of budgets, shift funds away from many struggling departments and toward the chosen few to ensure that all criteria, from faculty credentials and salaries to high-tech classrooms and generous support staff, are not only met but exceeded.
  • Last year's economic crisis, fueled largely by the graduates of elite, accredited M.B.A. programs who flocked into banking and Wall Street, suggests a startling ethical blindness, social irresponsibility, and historical ignorance.
  • What good are accrediting agencies that take no responsibility for the behavior of those they accredit?
  • Gary Brown on 10 Nov 09
     
    We might choose to help our accreditors by forwarding a response to this letter in our Rain King write up.
Gary Brown

Why Liberal Arts Need Career Services - Commentary - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 1 views

chronicle.com/...48973

careers

shared by Gary Brown on 04 Nov 09 - Cached
  • I have consulted with deans who say they really want to improve their career-services programs—but no, they can't offer career courses for credit, their professors aren't interested in supervising internships, and they must tread lightly around anything that might be seen by the faculty as encroaching vocationalism.
  • I've also heard from numerous professors, "Our good students go to graduate school. We don't need to focus on those who are looking for jobs."
  • I have also been told, "The professors are too busy teaching to worry about how the students will use their knowledge. It's not their job." And I've had more than one faculty member confess to me that they really aren't sure how what they teach applies in the nonacademic world.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • There's no way to predict which moments of a liberal-arts education will be directly relevant in the workplace, but it's imperative that students know such moments occur frequently, and that the skills and knowledge they're learning are far from obscure and irrelevant.
  • We use visual-thinking techniques to help students connect the dots between their academic experience and the workplace.
  • But the opportunity to teach a career course that directly draws from a liberal-arts curriculum is not offered at many institutions. Instead, if courses are offered at all, they typically focus on basic job-finding skills like résumé writing and networking, serving to reinforce professors' worst beliefs about career advising: that it distracts and detracts from the educational process.
  • Professors, academic deans, and career-center staff members must work together. Learn what is happening in each other's shops. And don't have just a superficial conversation about services—instead, engage in a conversation about what is truly distinct about the curriculum, what students are learning, and how to make employers care.
  • Career-center personnel should find out what employers are seeking and what they say about your students.
  • If more liberal-arts faculties and career experts get together, watch out—the results could be amazing.
  • Gary Brown on 04 Nov 09
     
    As we work with CLA, perhaps inviting Careers Services to join as independent reviewers will help the effort
  • Joshua Yeidel on 05 Nov 09
     
    What seems to be missing here is inclusion of employers directly into the learning community. If professors "aren't sure how what they teach applies in the nonacademic world", get somebody directly involved who is, as one voice in the conversation, anyway. Of course this will be challenging to the professoriate, but it could also be revitalizing.
Gary Brown

Student-Survey Results: Too Useful to Keep Private - Commentary - The Chronicle of High... - 0 views

chronicle.com/...49128

accountability NSSE

shared by Gary Brown on 17 Nov 09 - Cached
  • "There are … disturbing signs that many students who do earn degrees have not actually mastered the reading, writing, and thinking skills we expect of college graduates. Over the past decade, literacy among college graduates has actually declined."
  • But a major contributing factor is that the customers of higher education—students, parents, and employers—have few true measures of quality on which to rely. Is a Harvard education really better than that from a typical flagship state university, or does Harvard just benefit from being able to enroll better students? Without measures of value added in higher education, that's difficult, if not impossible, to determine.
  • Yet what is remarkable about the survey is that participating institutions generally do not release the results so that parents and students can compare their performance with those of other colleges.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Requiring all colleges to make such information public would pressure them to improve their undergraduate teaching
  • It would empower prospective students and their parents with solid information about colleges' educational quality and help them make better choices. To make that happen, the federal government should simply require that any institution receiving federal support—Pell Grants, student loans, National Science Foundation grants, and so on—make its results public on the Web site of the National Survey of Student Engagement in an open, interactive way.
  • Indeed, a growing number of organizations in our economy now have to live with customer-performance measures. It's time higher education did the same.
  • Gary Brown on 17 Nov 09
     
    The whites of the eyes--the perceptions and assumptions behind the push for accountability. I note in particular the notion that higher education will understand comparisons of the NSSE as an incentive to improve.
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