Red Group Toolbox

Welcome to the Red Group Toolbox

We're sharing the insight we've gained as a group into different methods of assessment. We are also sharing several Web 2.0 tools in which these can

be used, and examples and resources in which to find more information.

Please enjoy the walk through our toolbox and feel free to offer your own

comments.

Summary

Web 2.0 tools are valuable assets to the instructor who is looking for ways to

create a community of motivated learners who are immersed in their own

learning. However, instructors must take care in selecting and using only the tools that support their learning outcomes. Selecting a Web 2.0 tool to use in

a course is almost like selecting the perfect outfit to wear for a job interview.

The frilly red and white polka dot dress may look fabulous (and you may be

remembered for wearing it), but does it help you accomplish the goal of landing the job?

Wiki

(Brenda Pirnstill)

Introduction

A wiki is a very versatile and engaging tool that lends itself well to a variety of methods of assessment. Wikis are good, easy to use tools for group

projects, collaborative writing, and collaborative problem solving such as a

case study. A wiki is a software program that allows more than one user to

create and/or edit web pages using any web browser. It allows participants

to create, coordinate and organize information/content easily. Anyone with permission to use the wiki can contribute, make changes and corrections.

Any digital file (text, image, sound or video) can be uploaded to a wiki page.

Software is embedded into Blackboard allowing instructors free and easy access; however, there are thousands of programs, both free and for sale,

which can be used for creating and storing wikis.

WIKI

Benefits The wiki encourages collaboration and social learning and is appealing to a

variety of learning styles and special educational needs; thus increasing the

engagement of all students. The shy or silent student has an equal

opportunity to contribute, as well as the “expert.” One benefit, but also a challenge, is that students may not have developed the skills needed for

collaboration. Using a wiki offers an opportunity to build teamwork skills.

Other benefits include:

Promoting flexibility as students learn to accept the ideas of others

Supporting development of writing skills as students learn to write for

an audience, participate in editing, experience the benefits of revision,

and gain pride in seeing themselves as authors

Increasing interpersonal and communication skills as the student’s

focus becomes the product

providing opportunities for students to practice higher level thinking

skills such as evaluating and synthesizing while working on a wiki

All contributions and changes are tracked, so it is easy to see who has

participated, making students accountable. The tracking also makes it possible to view all previous versions making it impossible for anyone to

delete the entire wiki.

WIKI

Challenges

As mentioned above, some students may not be accustomed to collaborative

work. They may also be reluctant to revise or change someone else’s work,

and there may be some frustration with what might be considered “tricky” formatting.

A benefit, but also a challenge is that a wiki needs to have a clear purpose or

contribute to a goal. This requires careful planning for the structure of the

wiki. Creating a meaningful and useful wiki will require time and effort on the part of the instructor, but then the benefit is that students will control

the process and the outcome. Another challenge for the instructor is

monitoring the wiki. Since anyone can add, edit, or delete, the instructor will

want to take the time to monitor the wiki for correct and appropriate content.

WIKI

Application

The wiki has limitless possibilities for teaching and learning. Wikis can be

used for a variety of purposes from very simple to very complex: signing up

for a chat time, selecting a topic for a paper, or compiling information that could be used to develop a glossary or other shared resources, a case study,

create an article or presentation. Some colleges are experimenting with

using wikis as e-portfolios.

Learning outcome example

In an introductory early childhood education class, learners are expected to

integrate strategies that support diversity and anti-bias perspectives. By

using typical situations in an early childhood classrooms, students will link the behavior of children, parents and teachers to their cultural

orientation/pattern. The constructive alignment statement could be as

follows:

Given a typical situation in an early childhood classroom, the learner will link

the behavior of children, parents and teachers to a cultural

orientation/pattern by contributing to a wiki according to assignment

specifications.

WIKI

Summary

A wiki is one of the easiest and most efficient collaboration tools and has

been described as a composition system, a discussion medium, a repository,

and mail system. (Educause, 2005) It is versatile, interactive, and invites participation at a variety of levels. It can be used in creating learning

activities and to support many assessment techniques.

Flash Cards

(Anna Perkins)

Introduction

Flash Card Machine is one of many web applications that enables users to

create interactive web-based study flash cards and share them with others.

There are other websites that will also do the same thing. The idea is for

students or teachers to create flash cards which are then used for the purpose of studying a specific subject matter.

Flashcards remain one of the best tools for memorizing information. The most common way to create flashcards is to use index cards. Students can

simply write the question on one side and the answer on the opposite side

and test themselves repeatedly. However, there are several ways to modify

this process to enhance the learning experience.

Flash cards can make learning fun by seeming more like a game than a

learning assignment.

FLASHCARDS

Benefits

One of the benefits of using flash cards on the internet is that it allows not

only the student to access the flash cards whenever they would like to use

for studying but the instructor can save them on-line and have the

student(s) access them at their convenience. You can either create completely new flash cards any time you like. No more printing out on

paper, laminating them, filing, etc.

There are actually four good reasons for using flashcards:

1) Using flashcards allows the student to learn in “small chunks” of

relevant information at a time. When you are first learning a new subject

sometimes it is overwhelming if you look at the overall big picture. By taking your subject matter and allowing the learner to learn little bits at a

time it allows the learner to go over relevant information one at a time.

2) You can review the same information over and over again using flashcards and then later use them to review learned material. As we’ve

learned previously, all students do not learn in the same way (Right brain

vs. Left brain)…. So for some students this may be the way that they best

learn – by repetition. Also, by using smaller chunks and adding to them you are not overwhelming the students with lots of information all at once.

This is the same information just taught by repetition which stastically a

highly effective way of communicating new information.

FLASHCARDS

3) Flashcards “actively” involve you in the process of learning. As a student if you don’t participate, you are more than likely to find the learning

process dull and that you aren’t getting anything out of it. Many of my

students dislike my Powerpoint presentations and prefer the hands-on

learning much better. Also, if the student isn’t actively engaged they have a tendency to let their minds wander or worse yet, start e-mailing all their

friends, sending text messages, etc. while you are trying to teach.

Flashcards are known to be an excellent tool to encourage highly “active”

learning. They encourage a student to see the information, use it hands on straight away and then recall the information later. They are also self

checking so that it gives your students the confidence they need when

learning information. Best of all students find that they’re FUN!

4) Flashcards provide you with Immediate Feedback on results.

Flashcards enable the instructor to know immediately what information the

student knows or doesn’t know plus it’s a lot like a pre-exam. As an

instructor it can help in instructing you what the student(s) know and what they need more help on.

FLASHCARDS

Other benefits

Allows students to “study” as often as they like

Gives the instructor some insight as to what area may need more instruction

on

Can be thought of more of a game than a tedious learning activity

Challenges

Students must access the website, the flash cards and take the time to work

with the flash cards

I’m not sure how you could verify that your students actually went on-line and used these websites, however, you could create your own and use them

on your blackboard website. Many of the teaching aid websites I looked at

had flashcards already made up, it’s just a matter of incorporating them into

the blackboard shell

FLASHCARDS

Application

The flash cards can be grouped however the instructor wishes. You can

organize them into specific units, topics, assignments, upcoming tests, etc.

You can save them for reuse over and over again.

Learning Objectives Example

Students learn by repetition but this can be tedious and boring. However, in

using a method such as flash cards, a known useful teaching aid, this method can make learning fun and something that the students may

actually enjoy doing.

Summary

Flash cards and other similar websites, are useful tools for instructors to use

when a student needs to memorize facts. There are other ways of learning

as described below:

Chunking: Break content into smaller "chunks"

Repetition: Repeat the practice steps

Mnemonic: Incorporate memory aids such as “Flash Cards”

Prompting: Prompt learner to respond

Presentations

(Kate Jerome)

The presentation, when used as an assessment tool, is a method in which

the student must gather material, analyze it and then present it to the other

students in the class. This lends itself well to individual presentations or

group presentations, face-to-face classes or on-line classes. The presentation can take many forms, from Power Point to podcast to simple

lecture. A web 2.0 tool that is particularly useful to pull group presentations

together in a coherent format is SlideShare. Students make their own slides

or documents for their part of the presentation, and then combine their

efforts by sharing their work in a Slideshare presentation.

PRESENTATIONS

Benefits

Students benefit by learning to pull together the material they are

presenting, putting it into accessible form for themselves and the other

students, and then practicing getting the material across in presentation

form. The web 2.0 tool also allows practice at collaboration. Also, once the presentation is loaded into Slideshare, it is available to anyone in the class,

department or future classes. Slideshare also has a side benefit of being

used as a social and professional networking site.

Challenges

The biggest challenge of this method of assessment is the student who is

insecure in his or her ability to do a presentation. Also, students who tend to

lag behind other students in completing work can bring the entire group presentation to a halt. If a student is doing the presentation on his or her

own, the challenge is somewhat reduced. Also, students can use other

peoples’ slides which can present a plagiarism issue, depending on the

content. In most cases, though, content requirements would be specific

enough to avoid this issue.

PRESENTATIONS

Application

This method of assessment works extremely well in the courses in which a

student can teach a hands-on skill. It is possible to sync slides with audio to

create webinars and slidecasts.

Learning Objectives Example

Learning outcome: Demonstrate oral, written, and non-verbal

communication skills in an organized and coherent manner

“Learner will be responsible for a presentation to the class, will be able to

demonstrate a working knowledge of their topic, will use various professional presentation methods, and will be able to give valid answers to fellow

students’ questions.”

PRESENTATIONS

Summary

The presentation method of assessment is not a panacea, but in many

cases, it gives students the chance to show what they can do. By

demonstrating skills learned, a student can reflect on whether they actually

have the skill or need to do more work to attain success with the skill. Also, in most professional situations in our industry, there will be opportunity and

need for professional presentations. This activity not only assesses the skill

being presented or the mastery of the subject matter, but also the ability to

make a professional presentation.

Resources

http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/assess/oralpresentations.html. On

the Cutting Edge, Carlton College

http://www.bioassess.edu.au/assessment-types/presentations Enhancing

Assessment in the Biological Sciences, Australian Learning and Teaching

Council.

http://www.slideshare.net/ SlideShare website

Threaded Discussion and Bb Discussion Boards

(Mike Costello)

Introduction

Using the Blackboard (Bb) Discussion boards, students learn by

understanding and application, able to make reaction comments about

lesson material, share information with class, teach one another by

assessing other learners’ examples, and clarify their own material without

being in a face-to-face environment. Students can actively engage in discussions and conversations about the material.

Development takes place within the Bb classroom that is set up by the instructor. Discussion topics can be stored in a template and copied over to

the class that you are teaching. This is accessed with secured login. The Bb

site can be accessed only by students and instructor who are enrolled in that

section of the class. This is a tool that is already incorporated into the online

class.

BLACKBOARD DISCUSSION BOARD

Benefits

The Discussion tool (Bb) allows you to create structured, asynchronous

dialogues with the members of your site. The tool works similarly to

message boards from other web sites, (OWL-Space Guide).

Bb Discussion boards are an easy to use tool that the instructor have the

ability to choose among a variety of colors, text styles, and can prepare the heading topics ahead of time. This allows the students know where to post

their online discussion assignment. The topics can be placed under the

correct unit/module and allow student access at time of availability.

BLACKBOARD DISCUSSION BOARD

Other benefits of a threaded discussion:

Student-centered; all students MUST participate (you may not get in a face-

to-face classroom)

More of a democratic exchange; no dominant personalities to rule the discussion like a face-to-face classroom

Promotes professional communication and hear form a different perspective

Ability to take “attendance”; know who is participating

Less intimidating for students; if embarrassed to “talk” in face-to-face class

Allows students to compose thoughts before reflecting on material before posting

Asynchronous; students do not have to be online at the same time to

participate which allows more convenience to the student

Opportunity to impact student learning; assessment, redirection,

reassurance

Community sharing of other resources that the student finds

BLACKBOARD DISCUSSION BOARD

Challenges

An online threaded discussion does have its challenges that affect the

learning of the student.

Learning to post your messages in the proper place

Communication is only via writing; there is a lot of tone that can be interpreted wrong by others

Students need to understand “Netiquette” for responding to other students

Creating “due” dates for posting original content and dates to reply to other posters

Only completing the required number of responses; there is more to learn in

a discussion than a one time, post-response. Discussions usually are not just one exchange from each participant.

No one may respond to a person’s original posting

BLACKBOARD DISCUSSION BOARD

Application

The Bb Discussion tool can be “organized into Categories, Topics, and

Replies. Categories are broad containers, consisting only of a title, and

holding zero or more topics. Topics are placed within a Category. Topics consist of a title and some text content. They are the seeds of your

discussion. Replies hang off of a topic. They are responses to the topic

idea. You can also reply to a reply…” (OWL-Space Guide).

The instructor may have them reflect on a topic and post their

opinions/reactions to the material and then comment on 2-3 other students’

material.

BLACKBOARD DISCUSSION BOARD

Learning Objectives Example

As in the case of an Introductory Psychology class, one of the topics is the

central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. The peripheral

nervous system (PNS) is the part of our body that controls both our voluntary and involuntary body movements

The polygraph test measures some of the involuntary movements. Students would review the literature and videos of the parts of the PNS and then

follow up with research on the polygraph test and how it is used to measure

the parts of the autonomic system. This gives a real world example of how

it may be important to the student in a real-world example and not just, “it

controls our breathing.”

Students can then post on the discussion board their thoughts (based on

facts in the readings) if they believe polygraph results should or should not

be admissible in courts.

BLACKBOARD DISCUSSION BOARD

Summary

There is lots of research available that show benefits of student interaction

(threaded discussion) and using deep, effortful processing for learning

material. A discussion board provides the opportunity for a safe environment (if ground rules are in place) for students to share their

knowledge and comment on other peoples’ assessments.

Website/Resources

Cavanaugh, Drs., (2006). Benefits of a Discussion Forum. Retrieved

07/22/09, from DrsCavanaugh Educational Technology, Website: http://www.drscavanaugh.org/discussion/online/benefits_of_a_discussion_fo

rum.htm

Discussion Tool. (2006). The OWL-Space Guide. Retrieved 07/22/09, from Website: http://owlspace.rice.edu/guide/discussion.html

Williams, Jeremy B., (2004). The Asynchronous Discussion Board As An

Assessment Tool: A Critical Appraisal. Retrieved 07/22/09, from Website: http://www.u21global.edu.sg/portal/corporate/docs/JBW_CAA2004.pdf

NOTEMESH

(Ellen Burton)

Introduction

NoteMesh is a tool for note taking and working with your classmates to

develop comprehensive notes for your class. Users can post their own

lecture notes or contribute to existing lecture notes. Registered users can

only access/create course notes for their school, not other schools. It is a

Wiki-style application that is free, but only available in the United States.

Benefits

Easily Web accessible Easy to set up and learn how to use

Pleasant, modern Web prescence

Free

Facilitates groupwork

NOTEMESH

Challenges

To register, users must have an email address that ends in ".edu".

Can only work with notes/classmates from their school

Available only in the United States

Users may have difficulty with group dynamics May raise concerns about managing e-safety and copyright

May have a problem with class matching

Application

Basically, NoteMesh is a customized Wiki for educational use. The "starter"

page revolves around a class, it is not a "generic" page. Users can invite

other users to input and view class notes and merge their knowledge into a

base for that class. Users need to be very careful in getting a class match

otherwise they won't be able to find each other's notes for that class.

NOTEMESH

Learning Outcome Example

In an internship experience, students are faced with real, on-the-job

situations in which learners are required to demonstrate professional

behaviors in the workplace. By using NoteMesh, students will be given a

case study to read and respond to using scoring guide criteria. The learning

outcome would be:

Learners demonstrate professional behaviors in the workplace by given a

case study, they read and appropriately problem solve the case using the

scoring guide criteria.

NOTEMESH

Summary

Using NoteMesh students are able to view and collaborate with each other

their solutions to each case study. It also enables the instructor to give

feedback as to the correct response for each case.

Website

http://notemesh.com/?a=home