How to fairly assess members of a collaboration can be very challenging as Siemens (2008) reminds us in his video. For a long time education has been focused on the success of individuals and now has to be transformed to evaluate group efforts. One point that stood out in the video was Siemens stating that "not all assessments require a grade." He was referring to the use of online communities, such as this, where students are engaged in an online dialogue with other professional on a given topic. I feel that online communities could be a valuable tool in assessing an individuals role in teamwork. I think of the online community as the board room where everyone gets together to share their concerns. Yet, if participating in such an activity is required, the parameters and expectations must be clearly stated by the instructor (Paoloff & Pratt, 2005). Siemens (2008) also discussed being fair and equitable in assessing collaborations. One may tend to give the person who made tremendous growth during a course a higher grade than the person who made less improvement but had a significant impact in the course dialogue because of points raised. These two examples should not be compared in terms of quantity or who did more, but instead on the added value brought to the team and the discussions.
To ensure that all members participate in team collaborations, I think its important for instructors to do more than just provide guidelines and expectations. In this setting you're still dealing with people of different personalities and learning styles and that needs to be taken into consideration. Palloff & Pratt (2005) offered several suggestions to increase participation but one thing that stood out was involving the learner in the assessment process. This helps learners take ownership in their learning. Helping to establish expecations and rubrics that are designed to evaluate individual and team performance should increase member participation on a collaborative team.
References
Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Siemens, G. (2008). Assessment of collaborative learning. Vodocast. Laureate Education, Inc.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Storyboard
This is definitely a work in progress. I still have some research to do and data to collect for the finished product. I look forward to all feedback concerning what I've done thus far.
August 14, 2011
I've been trying to make edits and respond to your comments for some time now and for some reason my comments would not post. So in response to the feedback I received, I have the ability to control the pace of the text and how it is displayed. After determining the clips that I want to use, the audio will be recorded. The audio includes any text that is displayed on a clip. I will be reducting the amount of text that is displayed to focus only on the key points that viewers should remember.
The basic outline of the stroyboard is:
General Overview of Asynchronous and Synchronous Learning
Definition of Asynchronous Learning
Examples of Asynchronous Learning
Definition of Synchronous Learning
Examples of Synchronous Learning
Is one preferred over the other?
Conclusion
References
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Elements of Distance Education
Collaborative interaction is a huge contributor to the success of distance education. As Siemens (2008) points out in his video, as people enroll in these courses, their comfort level increases. This hold true in regards with collaborating with other students in a distance environment. In distance learning courses, the amount of knowledge that is shared is greater than what is shared in your face to face courses. Those students who are less likely to share in the traditional setting may be more comfortable sharing online. I am one of those individuals who does not speak much in the traditional setting, but I have a lot to share concerning education and how to improve the profession. However, along with this new level of comfort comes a mutual respect of the diverse class. Distance learning provides the opportunity to collaborate with others in your field who are located in other geographic regions. It is through these collaborations that educators are able to improve their educational pracitices and make improvements in their own environments. Typically, collaborations are done through discussion boards, blogs, or a media such as skype. Collaborations have helped me a great deal in all of the courses that I've taken and can't imagine what a course would be like without it.
Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Principles of Distance Education. Baltimore: Author.
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