Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a
Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a
Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a
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24 – Evaluating <strong>and</strong> Improving Your Online Teaching <strong>Effective</strong>ness<br />
Plus (+)<br />
• Having no synchronous activities online was helpful<br />
• Structure of discussion assignments worked well<br />
• Liked using Moodle<br />
• Online discussion with consultant was great<br />
• Democratic approach—liked having options such as voting on class<br />
meeting time<br />
• Real-life experience was helpful<br />
• Breadth of projects was helpful, allowed people to get involved in a<br />
project that interested them<br />
• Teams bring people together <strong>from</strong> wide-ranging backgrounds with<br />
different perspectives <strong>for</strong> project<br />
• Rubrics are really helpful<br />
• Good takeaway tools<br />
• Parties are good<br />
• Balance between face-to-face <strong>and</strong> online was just right<br />
Delta (Δ)<br />
• Check in points—instructor check in with teams<br />
• Set deadline <strong>for</strong> when you can switch project if client is not responding (panic<br />
button)<br />
• Would like to have a contract with clients<br />
• Have some synchronous activities<br />
• Do not be as flexible with submission timelines<br />
• Repeatedly returning to Moodle was difficult<br />
• Moodle is not st<strong>and</strong>ardized throughout department<br />
• Would like more examples of needs assessments <strong>from</strong> different industries<br />
• More subject matter experts (more consultants)<br />
• Have class build case study library as assignments<br />
• H<strong>and</strong>out/link overload, maybe make a centralized place <strong>for</strong> links<br />
• Embed syllabus in Moodle itself (copy syllabus page into each topic area)<br />
• Move teamwork exercise to 3rd or 4th week<br />
• Move project management exercise earlier to create some sort of blueprint—<br />
rotate roles <strong>for</strong> each stage of project<br />
• Get feedback on individual assignments to students earlier<br />
• Give assignments to write brief description about how online meeting went<br />
Figure 24.7 Example plus-delta items generated by students in hybrid course<br />
ONLINE TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS RUBRIC<br />
You may use the same rubric—possibly created along<br />
with the students—at the end of the term, as you did at<br />
the beginning <strong>and</strong>/or middle.<br />
OFFICIAL SCHOOL OR CAMPUS EVALUATION<br />
You can use the official evaluation provided by the<br />
school or campus. Students are very familiar with this<br />
evaluation, so ask them to take it seriously. If you are<br />
teaching an online course, check if your campus or<br />
school has a way to distribute the evaluation <strong>for</strong>m. If<br />
not, copy the questions <strong>and</strong> conduct it yourself using<br />
one of the techniques described above. In some cases,<br />
instructors can add questions to gather data about specific<br />
teaching practices. Use this opportunity to learn<br />
how students feel overall about the experience; how they<br />
feel about specific content, activities, or assessment<br />
strategies; or how they feel about your teaching. If the<br />
official course evaluation is conducted online, then you<br />
will be able to code the qualitative comments to find<br />
common student likes <strong>and</strong> dislikes.<br />
Throughout the chapter, I have been telling you how<br />
supportive students can be. However, some students<br />
turn summative evaluations into venting sessions,<br />
stating that “the instructor should never be allowed to<br />
teach online again … ever” or “this was the worst class I<br />
have ever taken.” There are any number of reasons why<br />
a student might do this: anger at him or herself <strong>for</strong> not<br />
per<strong>for</strong>ming up to his or her st<strong>and</strong>ards, frustration with<br />
frequent or high-impact technology failures, infrequent<br />
instructor feedback, or other things. Whether or not the<br />
harsh criticism is justified, it is usually not accompanied<br />
by constructive comments. Despite our best ef<strong>for</strong>ts, it<br />
can also be really hard to read. Remember that a vocal<br />
minority does not constitute the entire class. Focus on<br />
the students who do provide real suggestions <strong>for</strong> change,<br />
<strong>and</strong> use those as the basis <strong>for</strong> your next try. Talk to your<br />
peers about the negative responses while reviewing your<br />
course environment. Your peers might be able to make<br />
suggestions that the students did not make. Lastly, use<br />
one or two of the <strong>for</strong>mative feedback suggestions above<br />
to make sure that students do not go an entire semester<br />
without an opportunity to tell you how they feel.<br />
<strong>Education</strong> <strong>for</strong> a <strong>Digital</strong> <strong>World</strong> 375
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