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Strategic Directives for Learning Management System Planning | EDUCAUSE - 1 views

www.educause.edu/...213945 coursemanagement lms
shared by Joshua Yeidel on 21 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 21 Sep 10
     
    A largely sensible strategic look at LMS in general. "The LMS, because of its integration with other major institutional technology systems, has itself become an enterprise-wide system. As such, higher education leaders must closely 7 monitor the possible tendency for LMSs to contribute only to maintaining the educational status quo.40 The most radical suggestion for future LMS use would dissolve the commercially enforced "course-based" model of LMS use entirely, allowing for the creation of either larger (departmental) or smaller (study groups) units of LMS access, as the case may require. This ability to cater to context awareness is perhaps the feature most lacking in most LMS products. As noted in a study in which mobile or handheld devices were used to assemble ad hoc study groups,41 this sort of implementation is entirely possible in ways that don't necessarily require interaction through an LMS interface." Requires EDUCAUSE login (free to WSU)
  • Joshua Yeidel on 23 Sep 10
     
    The EDUCAUSE paper suggests "dissolv[ing] the commercially enforced 'course-based' model of LMS". How about dissolving the "course-based" model of higher education on which the commercial LMS is based?
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Comments on the report - GEVC Report Comments - University College - Washington State U... - 2 views

universitycollege.wsu.edu/...default.aspx general education
shared by Gary Brown on 23 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • My primary concern rests with the heavy emphasis on "outcomes based" learning. First, I find it difficult to imagine teaching to outcomes as separate from teaching my content -- I do not consider "content" and "outcomes" as discrete entities; rather, they overlap. This overlap may partly be the reason for the thin and somewhat unconvincing literature on "outcomes based learning." I would therefore like to see in this process a thorough and detailed analysis of the literature on "outcomes" vs content-based learning, followed by thoughtful discussion as to whether the need to focus our energies in a different direction is in fact warranted (and for what reasons). Also, perhaps that same literature can provide guidance on how to create an outcomes driven learning environment while maintaining the spirit of the academic (as opposed to technocratically-oriented) enterprise.
  • Outcomes are simply more refined ways of talking about fundamental purposes of education (on the need for positing our purposes in educating undergraduates, see Derek Bok, Our Underachieving Colleges, ch. 3). Without stating our educational purposes clearly, we can't know whether we are achieving them. "
  • I've clicked just about every link on this website. I still have no idea what the empirical basis is for recommending a "learning goals" based approach over other approaches. The references in the GEVC report, which is where I expected to find the relevant studies, were instead all to other reports. So far as I could tell, there were no direct references to peer-reviewed research.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • I do not want to read the "three volumes of Pascaralla and Terenzini." Instead, I would appreciate a concise, but thorough, summary of the empirical findings. This would include the sample of institutions studied and how this sample was chosen, the way that student outcomes were measured, and the results.I now understand that many people believe that a "learning goals" approach is desirable, but I still don't understand the empirical basis for their beliefs.
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GE Reform Process - Revising General Education: Comments and Questions - University Col... - 0 views

universitycollege.wsu.edu/...default.aspx general education
shared by Gary Brown on 23 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • I actually learned something in these classes for 3 main reasons. The first reason was that the class size was small, and my interaction with my classmates and professor/teacher made the material meaningful and educational. Secondly, the essays required for these classes pushed me in my writing skills, and promoted independent research and construction of ideas through writing.
  • Taking the class with students who were serious and knowledgeable about their field of study made my experience educational. Sitting in a large lecture hall with 200 other students who also are taking the class just to get the requirement is not educationally stimulating.
  • Spending money on classes that don’t have any impact is especially hard now that tuition has gone through the roof. Requiring less classes of greater quality will help alleviate this problem and help students graduate on time.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • I also think that if there are going to be any cut-backs on classes it should be done on GE classes. Also, the writing portfolio process is tedious for DDP students, especially for those who transferred from a community college. Honestly the hardest part of the process was not the proctored test (I received a pass with distinction) but hunting down professors to sign the required
  • Likewise, if we eliminate western history, mythology, philosophy and comparative politics, we abandon our common heritage and reduce our graduates to individuals with technical skills but no understanding of how America became the greatest nation in history and of our individual responsibilities as productive and educated citizens
  • Gary Brown on 23 Sep 10
     
    a student reviewing the gened reform proposal....
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Debate Over P vs. NP Proof Highlights Web Collaboration - NYTimes.com - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...17proof.html learning peerreview
shared by Theron DesRosier on 23 Sep 10 - Cached
  • The potential of Internet-based collaboration was vividly demonstrated this month when complexity theorists used blogs and wikis to pounce on a claimed proof for one of the most profound and difficult problems facing mathematicians and computer scientists.
  • “The proof required the piecing together of principles from multiple areas within mathematics. The major effort in constructing this proof was uncovering a chain of conceptual links between various fields and viewing them through a common lens.”
  • In this case, however, the significant breakthrough may not be in the science, but rather in the way science is practiced.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • What was highly significant, however, was the pace of discussion and analysis, carried out in real time on blogs and a wiki that had been quickly set up for the purpose of collectively analyzing the paper.
  • Several of the researchers said that until now such proofs had been hashed out in colloquiums that required participants to be physically present at an appointed time. Now, with the emergence of Web-connected software programs it is possible for such collaborative undertakings to harness the brainpower of the world’s best thinkers on a continuous basis.
  • collaborative tools is paving the way for a second scientific revolution in the same way the printing press created a demarcation between the age of alchemy and the age of chemistry.
  • “The difference between the alchemists and the chemists was that the printing press was used to coordinate peer review,” he said. “The printing press didn’t cause the scientific revolution, but it wouldn’t have been possible without it.”
  • “It’s not just, ‘Hey, everybody, look at this,’ ” he said, “but rather a new set of norms is emerging about what it means to do mathematics, assuming coordinated participation.”
  • Theron DesRosier on 23 Sep 10
     
    "The difference between the alchemists and the chemists was that the printing press was used to coordinate peer review," he said. "The printing press didn't cause the scientific revolution, but it wouldn't have been possible without it." "The difference between the alchemists and the chemists was that the printing press was used to coordinate peer review," he said. "The printing press didn't cause the scientific revolution, but it wouldn't have been possible without it."
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The Madness of Rankings - WorldWise - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 1 views

chronicle.com/...27100 ranking colleges
shared by Gary Brown on 23 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • In case it hasn’t already become obvious, I am among those who view rankings with some cynicism due to their past misuses and abuses. At the same time, I must concede that they can be a useful tool to help guide institutional improvement.
  • Indeed, rankings are part of the nature of education. Like it or not, comparisons are unavoidable.
  • To further complicate the utility of these rankings, it appears that not a single perspective was included from outside the Ivory Towers.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • I forgot that students can’t provide a legitimate opinion about their institutions. What do they know about them? I guess not much since their points of view are flatly ignored.
  • Gary Brown on 23 Sep 10
     
    Collector's item.
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Would You Protect Your Computer's Feelings? Clifford Nass Says Yes. - ProfHacker - The ... - 2 views

chronicle.com/...27081 critiques
shared by Gary Brown on 23 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • why peer review processes often avoid, rather than facilitate, sound judgment
  • humans do not differentiate between computers and people in their social interactions.
  • no matter what "everyone knows," people act as if the computer secretly cares
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • users given completely random praise by a computer program liked it more than the same program without praise, even though they knew in advance the praise was meaningless.
  • Nass demonstrates, however, that people internalize praise and criticism differently—while we welcome the former, we really dwell on and obsess over the latter. In the criticism sandwich, then, "the criticism blasts the first list of positive achievements out of listeners' memory. They then think hard about the criticism (which will make them remember it better) and are on the alert to think even harder about what happens next. What do they then get? Positive remarks that are too general to be remembered"
  • And because we focus so much on the negative, having a similar number of positive and negative comments "feels negative overall"
  • The best strategy, he suggests, is "to briefly present a few negative remarks and then provide a long list of positive remarks...You should also provide as much detail as possible within the positive comments, even more than feels natural, because positive feedback is less memorable" (33).
  • Gary Brown on 23 Sep 10
     
    The implications for feedback issues are pretty clear.
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Learning from The Wisdom of Crowds | Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching - 1 views

www.carnegiefoundation.org/...learning-the-wisdom-crowds peerreview learning
shared by Theron DesRosier on 23 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Theron DesRosier on 23 Sep 10
     
    In The New York Times article, "Scholars Test Web Alternative to Peer Review," Patricia Cohen writes that some humanities scholars are arguing "that in an era of digital media there is a better way to assess the quality of work. Instead of relying on a few experts selected by leading publications, they advocate using the Internet to expose scholarly thinking to the swift collective judgment of a much broader interested audience."
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Critical friend - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 2 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Critical_friend feedback
shared by Gary Brown on 22 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • The Critical Friend is a powerful idea, perhaps because it contains an inherent tension. Friends bring a high degree of unconditional positive regard. Critics are, at first sight at least, conditional, negative and intolerant of failure. Perhaps the critical friend comes closest to what might be regarded as 'true friendship' - a successful marrying of unconditional support and unconditional critique. [
  • Gary Brown on 22 Sep 10
     
    I've been wrestling with the tension again between supporting programs to help them improve, but then rating them for the accountability charge we hold.  So I've been looking into the concept and practice of the "Critical Friend."  Some tensions are inherent. This quote helps clarify.
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Opinion | Legislature's waning support for higher education creates chasm for middle cl... - 1 views

seattletimes.nwsource.com/...2012959173_guest22smith.html future of education
shared by Gary Brown on 22 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Today in Washington, the traditional on-campus experience is increasingly enjoyed primarily by children of the wealthy or the very poor who are very bright.
  • The Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board reports that based on the number of degrees per 100 residents, our children are not as well-educated as their parents.
  • we rank 48th in undergraduate enrollment and 49th in graduate enrollment. We are losing business to other states and need to realize they probably have better educated work forces.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • it is time for Washington to return to the concept that all individuals, regardless of their incomes, should have the opportunity to have access to an affordable, high-quality education.
  • If our public universities do not get increased support from the state of Washington, they will decrease in quality and need to become increasingly private.
  • Samuel H. Smith is president emeritus of Washington State University, a member of the Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board, and a founding board member of the College Success Foundation and the Western Governors University. He is also a member of The Seattle Times board of directors.
  • Gary Brown on 22 Sep 10
     
    An old friend...
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University World News - US: America can learn from Bologna process - 0 views

www.universityworldnews.com/article.php Bologna higher_education
shared by Joshua Yeidel on 22 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 22 Sep 10
     
    Lumina proposes that the US "adapt and apply the lessons learned from the Bologna Process in the EU, which has developed methodologies that "uniquely focus on linking student learning and the outcomes of higher education" -- tautological though that sounds.
  • Joshua Yeidel on 22 Sep 10
     
    Apparently the "audacious" discussion in the WCET webinar yesterday (to be linked) featuring Ellen Wagner and Peter Smith is old hat in Europe. A national "degree framework" is almost inconceivable in the US, but 'tuning' -- "faculty-led approach that involves seeking input from students, recent graduates and employers to establish criterion-referenced learning outcomes and competencies" -- sounds a lot like in goal-setting.
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Analyzing Outcome Information: Getting the Most from Data - 1 views

www.urban.org/...310973.html
shared by Joshua Yeidel on 22 Sep 10 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 22 Sep 10
     
    Fifth in a series on outcome management. "This guide is unique in offering suggestions to nonprofits for analyzing regularly collected outcome data. The guide focuses on those basic analysis activities that nearly all programs, whether large or small, can do themselves. It offers straightforward, common-sense suggestions. "
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Using Outcome Information: Making Data Pay Off - 1 views

www.urban.org/...311040.html assessment outcomes
shared by Joshua Yeidel on 22 Sep 10 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 22 Sep 10
     
    Sixth in a series on outcome management for nonprofits. Grist for the mill for any Assessment Handbook we might make. "Systematic use of outcome data pays off. In an independent survey of nearly 400 health and human service organizations, program directors agreed or strongly agreed that implementing program outcome measurement had helped their programs * focus staff on shared goals (88%); * communicate results to stakeholders (88%); * clarify program purpose (86%); * identify effective practices (84%); * compete for resources (83%); * enhance record keeping (80%); and * improve service delivery (76%)."
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Key Steps in Outcome Management - 0 views

www.urban.org/...310776.html assessment
shared by Joshua Yeidel on 22 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 22 Sep 10
     
    First in a series from the Urban Institute on outcome management for non-profits, for an audience of non-evaluation-savvy leadership and staff. Lots to steal here if we ever create an Assessment Handbook for WSU.
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Making College Degrees Easier to Interpret - Measuring Stick - The Chronicle of Higher ... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...27045 employers
shared by Gary Brown on 21 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Over the past few decades, the central purpose of undergraduate education in the United States has steadily evolved away from elite studies in the liberal arts and toward course work that prepares students for successful careers in their chosen fields. 
  • how do employers determine the values of the college degrees held by young job applicants? 
  • There is essentially no method to determine which of the three graduates have the knowledge and skills that match the advertised position. Grades and academic standards often vary so much by institution, department, and instructor that transcripts are written off as arbitrary and meaningless by those making hiring decisions. Outside fields with licensure exams like accounting and nursing, employers often hire workers based on connections, intuition, and the sometimes-misleading reputations of applicants’ alma maters. 
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • This system doesn’t allow labor markets to function efficiently.
  • To rectify this broken hiring system, academia and industry should form stronger partnerships to better determine which skills and knowledge students in various fields need to master
  • The traditional college transcript is simply too impenetrable for anyone outside—or inside—academia to comprehend.
  • Gary Brown on 21 Sep 10
     
    The purposes are problematic, but the solution points to one of our approaches.  Where is John Dewey when we need him?
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A Measure of Learning Is Put to the Test - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 1 views

chronicle.com/...124519 assessment higher_education
shared by Joshua Yeidel on 20 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • "The CLA is really an authentic assessment process,"
    • Joshua Yeidel
      Joshua Yeidel on 20 Sep 10
       
      What is the meaning of "authentic" in this statement? It certainly isn't "situated in the real world" or "of intrinsic value".
  • add CLA-style assignments to their liberal-arts courses.
    • Joshua Yeidel
      Joshua Yeidel on 20 Sep 10
       
      Maybe the best way to prepare for the test, but the best way to develop analytical ability, et. al.?
  • the CLA typically reports scores on a "value added" basis, controlling for the scores that students earned on the SAT or ACT while in high school.
    • Joshua Yeidel
      Joshua Yeidel on 20 Sep 10
       
      If SAT and ACT are measuring the same things as CLA, then why not just use them? If they are measuring different things, why "control for" their scores?
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • improved models of instruction.
  • it measures analytical ability, problem-solving ability, critical thinking, and communication.
  • "If a college pays attention to learning and helps students develop their skills—whether they do that by participating in our programs or by doing things on their own—they probably should do better on the CLA,"
    • Joshua Yeidel
      Joshua Yeidel on 20 Sep 10
       
      Just in case anyone missed the message: pay attention to learning, and you'll _probably_ do better on the CLA. Get students to practice CLA tasks, and you _will_ do better on the CLA.
  • "Standardized tests of generic skills—I'm not talking about testing in the major—are so much a measure of what students bring to college with them that there is very little variance left out of which we might tease the effects of college," says Ms. Banta, who is a longtime critic of the CLA. "There's just not enough variance there to make comparative judgments about the comparative quality of institutions."
    • Joshua Yeidel
      Joshua Yeidel on 20 Sep 10
       
      It's not clear what "standardized tests" means in this comment. Does the "lack of variance" apply to all assessments (including, e.g., e-portfolios)?
  • Can the CLA fill both of those roles?
  • Joshua Yeidel on 20 Sep 10
     
    A summary of the current state of "thinking" with regard to CLA. Many fallacies and contradictions are (unintentionally) exposed. At least CLA appears to be more about skills than content (though the question of how it is graded isn't even raised), but the "performance task" approach is the smallest possible step in that direction.
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What students Want from Moodle is not always what Teachers build @sukhwantlot... - 2 views

www.moodlenews.com/...at-teachers-build-sukhwantlota lms moodle
shared by Gary Brown on 20 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • The comic is a quick over view of what students generally want from any web-based resources (perhaps especially a course resource like Moodle) and what teachers provide more often than not.
  • Gary Brown on 20 Sep 10
     
    No surprise, but just to share and archive
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A Measure of Learning Is Put to the Test - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 1 views

chronicle.com/...124519 assessment accountability CLA
shared by Gary Brown on 20 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Others say those who take the test have little motivation to do well, which makes it tough to draw conclusions from their performance.
  • "Everything that No Child Left Behind signified during the Bush administration—we operate 180 degrees away from that," says Roger Benjamin, president of the Council for Aid to Education, which developed and promotes the CLA. "We don't want this to be a high-stakes test. We're putting a stake in the ground on classic liberal-arts issues. I'm willing to rest my oar there. These core abilities, these higher-order skills, are very important, and they're even more important in a knowledge economy where everyone needs to deal with a surplus of information." Only an essay test, like the CLA, he says, can really get at those skills.
  • "The CLA is really an authentic assessment process," says Pedro Reyes, associate vice chancellor for academic planning and assessment at the University of Texas system.
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • "The Board of Regents here saw that it would be an important test because it measures analytical ability, problem-solving ability, critical thinking, and communication. Those are the skills that you want every undergraduate to walk away with." (Other large systems that have embraced the CLA include California State University and the West Virginia system.)
  • value added
  • We began by administering a retired CLA question, a task that had to do with analyzing crime-reduction strategies,
  • performance task that mirrors the CLA
  • Mr. Ernsting and Ms. McConnell are perfectly sincere about using CLA-style tasks to improve instruction on their campuses. But at the same time, colleges have a less high-minded motive for familiarizing students with the CLA style: It just might improve their scores when it comes time to take the actual test.
  • by 2012, the CLA scores of more than 100 colleges will be posted, for all the world to see, on the "College Portrait" Web site of the Voluntary System of Accountability, an effort by more than 300 public colleges and universities to provide information about life and learning on their campuses.
  • If familiarizing students with CLA-style tasks does raise their scores, then the CLA might not be a pure, unmediated reflection of the full range of liberal-arts skills. How exactly should the public interpret the scores of colleges that do not use such training exercises?
  • Trudy W. Banta, a professor of higher education and senior adviser to the chancellor for academic planning and evaluation at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, believes it is a serious mistake to publicly release and compare scores on the test. There is too much risk, she says, that policy makers and the public will misinterpret the numbers.
  • most colleges do not use a true longitudinal model: That is, the students who take the CLA in their first year do not take it again in their senior year. The test's value-added model is therefore based on a potentially apples-and-oranges comparison.
  • freshman test-takers' scores are assessed relative to their SAT and ACT scores, and so are senior test-takers' scores. For that reason, colleges cannot game the test by recruiting an academically weak pool of freshmen and a strong pool of seniors.
  • students do not always have much motivation to take the test seriously
  • seniors, who are typically recruited to take the CLA toward the end of their final semester, when they can already taste the graduation champagne.
  • Of the few dozen universities that had already chosen to publish CLA data on that site, roughly a quarter of the reports appeared to include erroneous descriptions of the year-to-year value-added scores.
  • It is clear that CLA scores do reflect some broad properties of a college education.
  • Students' CLA scores improved if they took courses that required a substantial amount of reading and writing. Many students didn't take such courses, and their CLA scores tended to stay flat.
  • Colleges that make demands on students can actually develop their skills on the kinds of things measured by the CLA.
  • Mr. Shavelson believes the CLA's essays and "performance tasks" offer an unusually sophisticated way of measuring what colleges do, without relying too heavily on factual knowledge from any one academic field.
  • Politicians and consumers want easily interpretable scores, while colleges need subtler and more detailed data to make internal improvements.
  • The CLA is used at more than 400 colleges
  • Since its debut a decade ago, it has been widely praised as a sophisticated alternative to multiple-choice tests
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Internal Evaluation Week: Debbie Cohen on Working with External Evaluators | AEA365 - 3 views

aea365.org/blog assessment
shared by Joshua Yeidel on 18 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 18 Sep 10
     
    "Here are tips related to internal and external evaluators working together."
  • Joshua Yeidel on 18 Sep 10
     
    Reading "point" for "internal evaluator" and "OAI contact" for "external evaluator"? Four "Hot Tips" that may seem obvious, but shouldn't be glossed over.
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Redesigning Scientific Reputation - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences - 0 views

www.the-scientist.com/...1
shared by Nils Peterson on 17 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Thus, one’s reputation is not measured by credentials, but by one’s contribution both to expanding knowledge and to the community.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 17 Sep 10
       
      The systems the cite suggest that they understand open assessment, though they don't specifically say that in this piece. One of these authors (Adler) will be at the PaloAlto meeting Monday.
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Higher Education: Assessment & Process Improvement Group News | LinkedIn - 3 views

www.linkedin.com/news assessment accountability
shared by Gary Brown on 16 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Gary Brown on 16 Sep 10
     
    as we ponder our own issues related to transparency....
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