Final Course Project by Nishele Lenards

Professor: Datta Kaur Khalsa EDUC 762 University of Wisconsin-Stout March, 2008

Table of Contents Introduction

1

Description of Course and Student Population

2

Course Learning Objectives

3

Assessment Tool #1

4

Assessment Tool #2

6

Assessment Tool #3

9

Assessment Tool #4

11

Summary

14

Conclusion

15

References

16

Appendix A

17

Appendix B

18

Appendix C

20

Appendix D

21

Lenards 1 Introduction The final project for the EDUC 762 Assessment of Student Learning in the Online Classroom Course is an assessment method to demonstrate how I can plan and develop an online course to practice a variety of assessment and evaluation methods that will best suit my diverse group of students. This course provided a learning community where we became familiar with technology tools for assessment and evaluation, record keeping, grading, e-portfolios, and group collaboration. We also learned about plagiarism in the digital environment. A portion of this project was based on a midterm “jigsaw” team collaboration assignment. The jigsaw method is a “cooperative learning technique in which students work in small groups” (Saskatoon Public School, 2003). This jigsaw method “encourages listening, engagement, and empathy by giving each member of the group an essential part to play in the academic activity” (Aronson, 2008). In this course, each member of the group chose an assessment tool to research and reported their findings. The group was responsible for developing a “toolbox” of assessment tool information. Our team presented our midterm project via a website which was planned and developed by the team and then created on the site by one of our team members. I was responsible for the peer-to-peer collaboration tool and I chose to research WebEx. The research and development of this tool is used for a portion of this final project. The other assessment tools that will be discussed are Desire2Learn quizzes (test builder), blogger.com (reflection), and Desire2Learn grades (course tracking).

Lenards 2 Course Selection The course that I used for this project is a current online course that I teach at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. The course is titled Brachytherapy and is delivered in a sequence of courses in the medical dosimetry program. The course curriculum is required for part of accreditation as well as the formal education preparation of the national board exam. The students are part of an annual cohort that apply, interview, and are accepted on a competitive basis. Students are located at various clinical internship sites throughout the United States. The student age group ranges from 23-55 consisting of male and female gender. There is some cultural diversity but more diversity in age gaps and learning styles. The learning objectives for this course were already established but have been edited to better clarify the behavior, condition, and standards that should be included in an achievable, proper learning objective. These objectives have also been linked to Bloom’s Taxonomy levels of learning as well as Kolb’s Model of Experiential Learning to demonstrate the “hands-on” clinical portion of the learning environment and a studentcentered learning environment. This concept map in Figure 1 demonstrates the objectives, levels of learning, and theories. For each assessment tool described in this final project, a new learning objective has been added to that section.

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Figure 1. Learning Objectives, Bloom’s Taxonomy, Kolb Model of Experiential Learning

Lenards 4 WebEx (Assessment Tool #1: Peer-to-Peer Collaboration) Analysis WebEx is a peer-to-peer collaboration tool that can be used in the academic, business, or personal environment. This tool provides capabilities such as teleconferencing, chat, live video, document and application sharing, hands-on labs, polling, testing and quizzing. There is no special hardware or software needed to use WebEx; all you need is an Internet browser. It supports several operating systems: Windows, Mac, Linux, and Solaris. The teleconference can be toll or toll free phone or microphone via computer. The sessions are real-time but can also be recorded to be played at a later time. Appropriateness for Course & Learning Objectives WebEx is appropriate for this course as it provides a synchronous or asynchronous environment for group collaboration of discussion of the radioactive isotopes, practice problems, and isotopes. Through the process of developing a worksheet of isotope characteristics, students can collaborate by sharing information and completing the work for the project. The learning objective for this tool would be: Students will collaborate and complete isotope worksheets with 100% competence through the use of WebEx peer-to-peer collaboration tool. Benefits & Challenges The presentations are full screen with floating screen panels for other interactivity (Cisco, 2008). PowerPoint slides include animations, Flash, and streaming video. Documents and applications can be shared while Q & A threaded areas are also available. Students can access hands-on labs, quizzes, tests, and polling. Teachers can continually view several small group collaborations of student projects. Engaging lively learning and interactive instruction is a key feature of this tool while instructors are able to track the performance of student interactivity (Cisco, 2008). The other benefit for all participants is that WebEx can be integrated with Microsoft Outlook scheduling. This secured platform can bring people from diverse geographical locations into one classroom (Cisco, 2008). You can also have several guest lecturers from various locations participating in a session.

Lenards 5 The weaknesses or challenges of this tool are: 1) it costs money for an account. You can have pay per use or have a small or large business account. The cost varies depending on how many participants are involved; 2) you need a host or provider to manage the sessions. If an instructor owns the account, they need to host the sessions. This means that groups of students cannot collaborate in WebEx without the host (instructor) involved; 3) the video and screen display can be slower or look different on each individual’s screen based on their computer’s performance and speed. Some might say a weakness is the lack of face-to-face interaction. However, the tools available in this application allow for some face-to-face interactivity. Application of Tool The application of this tool in an online classroom can be used synchronously or asynchronously. A synchronous session can be scheduled so that students can be invited to attend and collaborate on large or small group activities. This would involve viewing the video of the instructor, seeing documents provided by the instructor who would then share these with the students, allow chat between all parties involved, realtime editing of documents, and polling individuals while in the session for instant results. Basically, any hands-on lab can be created and implemented in a real-time environment. Any synchronous, real-time sessions can be recorded and then played back at a later time. Asynchronously, the instructor can record a presentation with demonstrations to help students with instructional concepts and then have it available to view on demand. For my course, a synchronous session would be scheduled with a toll free number to call in for discussion during the session. The students would be able to chat and ask questions during the session, while information and pictures are provided via the screen. Students would be completing worksheets during the session. The session would be recorded in the event a student misses the session. This link would be posted in the online course platform. Appendix A, Figure 2-3 includes graphics from the Cisco Systems, Inc. Website showing WebEx features for online classroom or meetings.

Lenards 6 Desire2Learn (D2L) is a “user-centric, web-based platform for the delivery of online teaching and learning” (Desire2Learn.com 2008). D2L provides a flexible functionality for eLearning students and teachers. The D2L course management system tailors to various pedagogy styles to suit different learning needs of students. This course management system provides several eLearning tools but only D2L quizzes and grades will be discussed for this project.

Desire2Learn Quizzes (Assessment Tool #2: Test building) Analysis The quizzing function provides tools to create various question styles of varying difficulties and randomized delivery. “The consolidated question library empowers instructors to store questions in a common location where they can easily be shared across quizzes or reused in self-assessments and surveys” (Desire2Learn, 2008). This course management system is typically used by academic institutions that pay for a multi-user license fee. Students gain access to the system by logging in with their login ID and password. Some features of the tool include: auto or manual export of grades to the grade book; changing settings to allow what students will see when quiz is completed; customized messages pre- and post- quizzes as well as feedback and hints for each question; choosing the number of attempts that can be completed; randomizing order of questions or choosing random questions in the quiz; customized reports; and various options for question layout features. Appropriateness for Course & Learning Objectives Students in my program take various courses in sequence which leads to completion of the program and then eligibility for the national certification board exam. Assessment techniques such as quizzing are used as preparation for the board exam format they will experience for their licensure. For this course, the quizzing tool is used to assess learning in the form of multiple choice, matching, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, and problem solving formulas. The learning objective for this tool would be: Students will solve problems displayed through quiz results with at least 78% competency through the use of the web-based Desire2Learn quizzing tool.

Lenards 7 Benefits & Challenges There are several benefits of the quizzing tool such as adding tables and graphics to the questions. This is a nice feature because students can refer to these objects when answering the questions. The quiz stats feature allows the instructor to view class averages, specific question grade details, and specific question stats in regards to the entire class. As an instructor, if I feel a question wasn’t reliable or valid, I can go back and manually credit a question for each student and then auto update the grades in the grade book. The quizzes can easily be copied and transferred to a newer version of the course while therefore reducing the manual entry of data again. Challenges of the tool must also be considered. Being a user of this tool, I don’t see many disadvantages. Many critics would say a concern of using this tool would be student cheating online and not being aware of it as an instructor. Another concern is that students can print quizzes and could possibly be distributed to other students. If there is an interruption of connection to the server during a quiz, the students can be very upset. The only positive aspect is if they have saved answers while completing the quiz then the information is saved in their account and they can continue when access is restored. As an instructor, the amount of time involved in data entry and design for the quizzing tool is very time consuming. Once the initial work is done, it’s very easy to copy and transfer to be used again. Application of Tool To provide learning examples of this tool is somewhat challenging since you need access to the system to see quizzes. I have included the link to the Desire2Learn website where there is information on the quizzing tool: http://www.desire2learn.com/learningenvironment/assessment/. I have also included screen shots of various aspects of the quizzing tool in Appendix B, Figures 4-7 so the reader can see features used. I have used the D2L quizzing tool for 4 years and experienced no issues with cheating. This is primarily due to the fact that my students are located all over the United States and have never met before. The quizzing tool allows instructors to set timing to ensure students are not spending time looking up answers. It also has various means of setting up questions to reduce chances of cheating. Instructors should base

Lenards 8 questions on assessment of learning and not memorization of facts from texts or notes. The tool also allows instructors to setup an option to randomly select different questions from a library of questions for each student taking the quiz. They can be arranged in random order as well. As mentioned previously, students can print quizzes which will increase chances of passing along a quiz or exam to potential future students. Instructors are encouraged to make the library of questions as large as possible so that when random questions are selected for students taking the quiz, there is only a small portion each student has access to. For my program, students are preparing for a national board exam after they finish the program, therefore cheating will only inhibit them from passing the certification exam they will need to practice in the professional field.

Lenards 9 Desire2Learn Grades (Assessment Tool #3: Course Tracking) Analysis One of many powerful course management tools of Desire2Learn is Grades. Students can view assessment and feedback for course curriculum activities on a regular basis. The setup wizard enables the instructor to easily configure the grades area to meet the needs to each individual course. According to D2L, grades can be setup as a spreadsheet style interface or can also have grades imported from Microsoft Excel (2008). D2L grades features include customized entering of graded items; ordering grades by preference; importing and exporting grades; options of grade schemes displayed such as percentage points, letter grades, or allowing for bonus points to be added; display of class averages or just individual grades; various release conditions; and statistical functions. Appropriateness for Course & Learning Objectives Desire2Learn grades is appropriate for this course as it is part of the online course management system I use to teach from. Every graded component of the course is tracked here and students are consistently viewing their progress and comments from the instructor. It is very user-friendly for the instructor and the students and once it is setup, it’s very quick in tracking grades for the course. For this course, D2L grades is the most efficient use of grading for the course. A learning objective for this tool would be: The instructor will assess course activities by grading with 100% accuracy through the use of Desire2Learn grades. Benefits & Challenges of Tool Benefits of the D2L grades include the features listed above as well as some other important features. The auto-export of grades to the grade area is efficient and very beneficial for the instructor. The auto-grading feature is very beneficial for students in that they can always see their grade instantly when this feature is used. Another benefit is the ability to grade assignments within the course dropbox, provide feedback, and attach documents (such as answer keys) while the grade is auto-exported to the grades area. The most important aspect of the D2L grades is that via the instructor, it

Lenards 10 can provide continual assessment updates and feedback to the students throughout the course and always know how they’re progressing. You won’t find too many challenges of the D2L grades. For new courses, it is very time consuming to do the grading setup. If connection to the server is lost, there is no access to the grades therefore it is best to keep a working backup in Microsoft Excel or another format. As with any grading system, manual entry for some grades is required this could take more time. Since D2L is primarily used for higher education, there is no parental access feature that I am aware of. Application of Tool The D2L grades are used by most higher education instructors who are using this course management system to deliver curriculum to students. The grades section is part of the online course and has most features an instructor needs. For my course, each graded activity is setup in the grades section of the course. Most sections are auto-graded so students will see their grade and some feedback immediately. Others are manually graded by me where I also enter feedback individually to each student. I also include rubrics or answer keys for each student. For a backup method, I use Microsoft Excel spreadsheet which tracks all individual grades for each student as well as tracks percentage, points, and GPA for each course. As mentioned above in D2L quizzes, there is difficulty in demonstrating how this is used for application since you must have access to this system with a login and password. Therefore, I have included graphics of D2L grades from my brachytherapy course in Appendix C, Figures 8-9 as well as this link to the Desire2Learn Website Gradebook: http://www.desire2learn.com/learningenvironment/coursemanagement/.

Lenards 11 Blogger.com (Assessment Tool #4: Reflection) Analysis “A blog – a shorthand term that means ‘web log’ – is an online, chronological collection of personal commentary and links” (Educause, 2005). Blogger.com is a free, easy-to-use web site for creating a blog. The blog allows you to publish your thoughts, get feedback and comments from others, and share photos and links (Google, 2008). This is a tool that allows individuals to interact with people electronically. In the educational arena, the blog serves as a reflection tool for individual or groups of students. Appropriateness for Course & Learning Objectives The blogger tool is appropriate for this course since the students will need to keep a reflective journal of their weekly activities. This will allow more communication between the student and the instructor as well as between peers. This will help students with their collaborative work on isotope worksheets, research paper, and practice problems. With online coursework, it is so important to have an understanding of how the student is doing and how they feel about the course. The journaling helps the instructor know each student more individually. It allows for more individuality and creativity. The learning objective for this tool would be: Students will develop an individual blog site through the use of blogger.com to reflect on course activities weekly over the course duration. Benefits & Challenges There are several different blogging platforms available for use. I chose to discuss blogger.com as I have used this site and it is free and very user-friendly. The creator can make their blog public or private by inviting only certain guests. Using it in eLearning, the learning curve is easy and allows students to create a reflective journal with links, photos, and a display of their learning. Blogs are easy to use for group collaboration where students can share ideas and display their work. This tool is also a quick and easy platform to link within an e-portfolio site to display reflective work. Do blogs create a stronger relationship between the student and the instructor or peers? Does this give a “human face” to the electronic student? I believe most would say yes to

Lenards 12 these questions. This tool provides more communication between individuals in the eLearning environment and enables more personal communication. Challenges of the blogger.com site are few to none. I would say there are few challenges to blogging in general. However, some challenges that do exist are very important to note. Blogging can offend people whether it is offensive text or inappropriate photos. Students must be given clear instructions on use of blog sites for classroom purposes. “… blogs can include biased or inaccurate information” (Educause, 2005). Intellectual property is a concern when used in the educational environment. Students must know the implications of using content within proper attribution (Educause, 2005). Application of Tool Blogs are used for business, personal, and educational reasons among many. In the world of education, blogs are used for reflection by students, communication between students and instructors or with other peers, or to display their learning to other guest viewers. There were several blogs created for the EDUC 762 course. One classmate consolidated all of the work into one site for quick and easy viewing. To view these blogs, visit this link: https://bluedrive.uwstout.edu/users/students/mattsonp/wwwroot/elearn/index.htm. My personal student blog for this course is at http://nishele.blogspot.com/. For my course, students will create their individual blog at blogger.com and will be responsible for a weekly reflective journal regarding the course activities, such as group discussions, projects, and clinical observations. This will serve as another communication tool between the student and the instructor as well as collaboration among classmates. Blogs can achieve authentic assessment as students are taking an active role in reflecting and evaluating learning tasks and processes (McLoughlin & Luca, 2000). An instructor is utilizing a blog to foster a deep learning concept with the students. This is truly authentic as long as the student is not plagiarizing within their own blog site. A student may “steal or pass off (the ideas from or words of another) as one’s own” (Kaisler & O’Connor, 2003). Students may think that because they created the blog and it serves as a reflection, that they won’t get caught stealing work from another author.

Lenards 13 As an instructor, individual work must be reviewed carefully. There are various tools available to assist with checking plagiarism and can be quite useful to the busy instructor.

Lenards 14 Summary The four assessment tools that I chose for this project are all beneficial for my brachytherapy course. Having been introduced to several other assessment tools in the EDUC 762 course, I will be adding more technology to my classroom. The WebEx tool provides a synchronous “human touch” to an eLearning environment. A real-time chat and classroom collaboration can take place to assist in assessment activities and peer-to-peer collaboration. The Desire2Learn quizzing tool provides a user-friendly tool for assessing student learning within a course management system already being used. The functionality of the tool provides various means to reduce chances of cheating and plagiarizing work in the future. There are several options available for building quizzes or tests for assessment activities and the ability to easily copy these for future use in a newer version of the course. The Desire2Learn grades area provides a user-friendly tool for instructors and a convenient tool for students to view. This course tracking system provides continuous assessment grading and feedback to students throughout the duration of the course. The flexibility of auto-grading can help improve efficiency for instructors as well as instant grading and feedback to students. The blogger.com site provides an easy to use journaling site for students to use as a course reflective assessment activity. The instructors can see more individuality of students through the use of their personal blog sites. The students can collaborate with each other through their blogs. Blogs are a form of technology that can be used for assessment and are easy to use for students in the eLearning environment. While using various forms of technology to assess student learning in the eLearning environment, instructors can demonstrate authentic learning in the active, engaging processes. By deepening their understanding through various levels of learning, students are not learning at the surface of a topic. Using a variety of assessment methods also addresses diversity in the eLearning classroom whether it is diversity in culture, age, gender, or professions. In a student-centered learning environment, students are actively involved in their learning and take responsibility of their own learning. Assessment activities in the eLearning environment such as

Lenards 15 collaboration, quizzing, and reflection for this project demonstrate a student-centered learning environment where students are active learners and the instructor is the facilitator or mentor.

Conclusion Establishing assessment tools that match learning objectives and expected outcomes is important when developing an online course. The assessment tools must be pertinent to the course while not prohibiting student learning and causing frustrations for the students. Various forms of technology used for assessment can provide the variety needed for diverse learners in the eLearning environment. The more authentic the assessment is, the more depth of understanding that exists, and the decreased chances of plagiarism and cheating will occur. As with any learning environment, an instructor must encourage appropriate uses of information, accepting credit for one’s own work, and being creative to ensure the appropriate level of learning is taking place.

Lenards 16 References Aronson, E. (2008). Jigsaw Classroom: Overview of the Technique. Sociology Psychology Network Website: http://www.jigsaw.org/overview.htm. Cisco Systems, Inc. (2008). WebEx. Retrieved February, 2008, from Cisco WebEx Website: http://www.webex.com. Desire2Learn. (2008). Desire2Learn Learning Environment. Retrieved February 28, 2008, from Desire2Learn Website: http://www.desire2learn.com/learningenvironment/. Educause Learning Initiative. (2005). 7 Things You Should Know About Blogs. Educause Learning Initiative Website: http://www.educause.edu/eli. Google. (2008). Blogger. Retrieved February 28, 2008, from Google blogger Website: http://www.blogger.com/start. Kaisler, L. & O’Connor, D. (2003). 21st Century Information Fluency: Plagiarism. Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy Website: http://21cif.imsa.edu/tutorials/micro/mm/plagiarism. Lenards, N. (2008). Brachytherapy Course. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Medical Dosimetry Program Desire2Learn Online Course. McLoughlin, C. & Luca, J. (2000). Assessment Methodologies in Transition: Changing Practices in Web-based Learning. Ascilite Website: http://www.ascilite.org.au/aset-archives/confs/asetherdsa2000/procs/mcloughlin1.html. Saskatoon Public School Division. (2003). The Jigsaw Method. Saskatoon Public School Division Website: http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/PD/coop/page4.html.

Lenards 17 Appendix A

Figure 2. WebEx online classroom (WebEx 2008)

Figure 3. WebEx Meeting Center (WebEx 2008)

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Appendix B

Figure 4. D2L quizzing tool – exam creation (Lenards 2008)

Figure 5. D2L quizzing tool – student attempts (Lenards 2008)

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Figure 6. D2L Quizzing Tool – Incorrect/Correct Answers in Autograding (Lenards 2008)

Figure 7. D2L Quizzing Tool – Statistics (Lenards 2008)

Lenards 20 Appendix C

Figure 8. D2L grades – student overall grades area (Lenards 2008)

Figure 9. D2L grades – individual assessment activity with grades, comments/feedback, percent score (Lenards 2008)

Lenards 21 Appendix D

Figure 10. Blogger.com personal blog site for EDUC 762 (Lenards 2008)