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As we begin our peer assessment, this article from Troy who has used the Quality Matters rubric in their assessment of online courses gives great tips and tidbits for further improvement

Here are some more Classroom Assessment Technique resources!

R.A.D.A.R. Learning Cycle = Read Apply Discuss And Reflect - this a template of a method that you can use to formulate learning assessment by using the discussion forums, blogs or written assignments. It is definitely a (Student-student and Student-content interaction)

Primer for using Google Docs in your class. Provides information about various tools and plugins that enable bibliographic work, speech recognition and voice commenting, assessment using a rubric, and more.

The Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, covers challenges in online language learning and recommends best practices

Assessment of undergraduate research (UR) programs using participant surveys has produced a wealth of information about design, implementation, and perceived benefits of UR programs. However, measurement of student participation university wide, and the potential contribution of research experience to student success, also require the study of extrinsic measures....

This particular article relates more to undergraduate research experiences and their relationship to student success than to online teaching and learning. When viewing and reading the "student as producer" content, I immediately thought of undergraduate research experiences (URE). URE in STEM fields are thought to be valuable in promoting gains in student knowledge and skills, enhancing retention of students in STEM fields (particularly underrepresented minorities and women), among other goals. A commonly reported outcome of studies on URE is that "students learn to be scientists," (to paraphrase a bit). Fechheimer et al. looked at participation in UR in all fields by UGA students for more than a single semester, and found positive, quantifiable outcomes (like increased GPA) in this study. UR is an approach to reach some of the same goals that we have in online teaching and learning. I would argue that it also is a learner-centered approach. And, it certainly allows students to produce products that require novel assessments (for example, a poster or presentation at a conference; co-authorship of a paper). Interestingly, I'm not sure that the evidence to date is clear on the ability of URE to promote and develop higher order skills in students.

snapchat on how to apply Bloom's Taxonomy

Universal Design in the ESL classroom

I like this list, Jane, though I feel the author Kregg Strehorn could have elaborated on some of the suggestions to explain more clearly what is meant and what a particular method entails. Maybe there was a strict word limit to which Strehorn had to adhere. In any case, some of the ideas are very interesting but also seem to be very time-consuming and potentially confusing. Don't get me wrong, I think it's wonderful that Stehorn reads and records some of the texts they are using in the class, reads and records and transcribes lectures, gives students different assignment choices, writes detailed class outlines and shares them with students, etc. All of these ideas make sense to me, but how do you have time as a teacher (and in my/our case instructor and full-time staff member) to do all that, unless you teach the same course over and over again? I am a great supporter and believer in universal design; plus, online classes in particular are, almost by nature, using a range of tools, thus serving students with different needs. Yet, Strehorn should discuss the amount of work involved in creating this course and should also address students' responses to this course as well as potential pitfalls in terms of student assessment. Perhaps Strehorn has done so in a different place.

This 2002 essay by Wilson and Peterson may be a bit dated, but it is one of the few broadly reflective essays I found on the anthropology of online communities. It is not a "how to" for online teaching, but I think an occasionally more critical, reflective piece can be very useful both for understanding our place in broader social processes related to online learning and in piercing through some of the enthusiastic corporate-talk through which these technologies are presented by our universities. I have included the abstract below. The URL is to the JSTOR site, which you probably need to access through your Emory account. I was not sure how to add a link here that would get you in directly, and that is something I need to follow up on with Leah. Abstract: Information and communication technologies based on the Internet have enabled the emergence of new sorts of communities and communicative practices-phenomena worthy of the attention of anthropological researchers. De- spite early assessments of the revolutionary nature of the Internet and the enormous transformations it would bring about, the changes have been less dramatic and more embedded in existing practices and power relations of everyday life. This review ex- plores researchers' questions, approaches, and insights within anthropology and some relevant related fields, and it seeks to identify promising new directions for study. The general conclusion is that the technologies comprising the Internet, and all the text and media that exist within it, are in themselves cultural products. Anthropology is thus well suited to the further investigation of these new, and not so new, phenomena.

Author Information Conklin, Heather C., Tuten, J. Terrell, and VanderMeulen, Matt Institution(s) or Organization(s) Where EP Occurred: Ashford University Effective Practice Abstract/Summary Abstract/Summary of Effective Practice: Ashford University's use of cutting-edge, web-based, dynamic rubrics in eight online writing-intensive courses has improved the efficiency and effectiveness of grading, feedback provision, and assessment.

What happens when well-known universities offer online courses, assessments, and certificates of completion for free? This is a report on the second year of the experiences of Harvard and MIT.

McLaughlin, Jacqueline E. PhD, MS; Roth, Mary T. PharmD, MHS; Glatt, Dylan M.; Gharkholonarehe, Nastaran PharmD; Davidson, Christopher A. ME; Griffin, LaToya M. PhD; Esserman, Denise A. PhD; Mumper, Russell J. PhD In recent years, colleges and universities in the United States have faced considerable scrutiny for their apparent failure to adequately educate students.

I read this article and found it to be enormously interesting and enlightening. The course coordinator was a seasoned veteran; there were numerous resources dedicated to this venture (full time graduate TAs, dedicated IT personnel) and yet the authors report that the coordinator still required 127% more time to prepare the online components of this course. I also noticed that many of the active learning strategies discussed (think-pair-share, as an example) are things that could easily be incorporated into a non-flipped classroom.

One idea came to mind as I read the article about offloading lecture material for students so that synchronous class time can be used for discussion and problem solving: the use of case studies. Public health, business, and development work often relies on group engagement in response to case studies. The background could be presented, along with vital tools for assessing and analyzing the situation, then on-line classes could be used for rich discussion of the range of solutions and opportunities. I'm thinking of a model of a traditional pilgrimage in which pilgrims keep coming together in larger numbers the closer they get to their destination.

Interesting piece about the disadvantages of online learning for the visually impaired. Certainly makes me more aware of this dimension.