Group items tagged

Does class size matter? http://www.magnapubs.com/newsletter/distance-education-report/270/Does-Class-Size-Matter-13523-1.html This article originally appeared in Distance Education Report. I've been the director of online education at my institution since 2007. One question I've been asked many times over the years is "What is the optimal number of students to have in an online class?" My usual response is to pretend I didn't hear the question and walk away as quickly as possible. Well, that's not totally true. But as you can imagine, this is not an easy question to answer, as there are many variables that come into play--the topic of the class, the overall course design, the academic rank of students in the class, the experience of the instructor teaching the class, etc. I've had many interesting discussions with students, staff and administrators over the years about enrollments in online courses. When I first started teaching online, my courses would fill almost immediately, sometimes within minutes. Inevitably, students would contact me and request an override for the course - not just one or two students, but dozens upon dozens of students. They were usually surprised when I said no. These frustrated students would often reply with a comment such as, "But it's an online class, so you can take unlimited numbers of students and it won't be any additional work for you." Surprisingly, I've heard this kind of comment from some faculty, staff and administrators as well. I usually view these interactions as opportunities to offer a bit of education about online learning. So I might say, for example, that if I had seven graded assignments in my online course, and 25 students, I would end up grading 175 assignments--with the emphasis on "I." However, if I doubled the number of students in my class and graded seven assignments for 50 students, that would be 350 assignments to grade. There were also 22 quizzes, two exams and multiple

"School Maestro III is a comprehensive teacher productivity tool. The included grading program is the most advanced program available and supports a wide variety of different grading methods. It also tracks attendance and discipline, does seating charts, allows subjective grades, creates reusable lesson plans, report cards, honor rolls, GPAs, and transcripts. Reports are available via the Internet and form letters with optional report attachments may be emailed. "

Some great ideas on how to make grading more representative of a student's achievement level.

Gradeworks is a free, web-based tool for teachers that promotes communication between parents, teachers and students by giving the families easy access to grades, assignments, schedules and class activities in a secure environment that's available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Schools see valuable opportunities in moving course evaluations online, but only if they can raise student-participation levels.

Rubrics categorized by discipline, grade level, etc.

* Better cafeteria food with real ingredients * No school busses - nearly every child mentioned the bullying of bus rides as one of the reasons they hated school * More choice in their assignments or projects * Replace grades with feedback and portfolios (like we did in our class) * Staggered start and end times so that the school would "feel smaller" * More alternative sports in addition to the traditional ones * Off-campus community service once a week * Job-shadowing for one month of the year * A monthly educational field trip * iPads, netbooks or laptops in classes - they even brought up some interesting ways to raise money for these devices * More freedom in terms of leaving to use the restroom, eating a snack or getting a drink of water * More electives - while most of them agreed that we need math, they suggested that maybe they could choose pre-geometry or pre-algebra or in reading, they could have reading classes geared toward certain topics * A school garden

...First-week final exam - One of the more controversial methods of measuring student learning is to have students take the final exam during the first week in class, but don't grade them on it. At the end of the semester give them that same exam again and compare the results. While letting students see their final exam makes some faculty nervous, Nilson says most students won't remember any of the questions, and if they do what's the harm? It will simply help them focus in on what you feel is important for them to know.

Before ... and after learning ...