Author Archives: Mark Glynn
Audio Feedback
In order to optimise any assessment, continuous or otherwise, in terms of a learning experience for the student, feedback is crucial (Race, 2007). Group work and peer evaluation will reduce the lecturers workload to a certain extent, however the challenge of issuing timely feedback is still an issue. Descriptive feedback, given directly after an assignment has been completed, informs our students of strengths and areas in need of improvement and allows them to address these items before they embark on the next assignment or final draft. Lecturers reported that this eliminates the need to correct similar items in consecutive assignments/drafts and saves both the student and the lecturer time and energy. Nevertheless, planning time for giving students effective feedback is an important and challenging aspect of the teaching and learning process. Read the rest of this entry
Group work and Peer Evaluation
There certainly are benefits to students’ learning through social interaction and there has been a strong employability argument about the need to develop the portfolio of skills necessary to successfully work as a member of a team; there have also been pragmatic, logistical reasons, as student numbers have risen disproportionately with staffing. Group work has the potential measurably to improve student engagement, performance, marks and retention and usually succeeds in achieving this potential provided that there are associated assessment mechanisms that leverage appropriate student learning behaviour (Jaques, 2000). In the absence of such assessment mechanisms these benefits may not materialise. Allocating a single group mark to all members of a group rarely leads to appropriate student learning behaviour, frequently leads to freeloading, and so the potential learning benefits of group work are likely to be lost. In fact the assessment of group work is arguably one of the biggest sources of student dissatisfaction, largely because it is often perceived as unfair. Houldsworth and Matthews (Houldsworth & Matthews, 2000) also describe a ‘sucker effect’ in which the most hardworking student gradually reduces their effort in order to avoid being taken advantage of by the freeloaders.
Assessing presentation skills
Many of the courses in higher education focus on the development of competencies, such as written and oral communication, leadership, and teamwork (Kerby & Romine, 2010). However, the practical logistics of assessing students on these competencies can sometimes be inhibitive. For example, first year science students in IT Tallaght were required to make a presentation as part of their assessment. However, with over 80 students, even limiting the presentations to five minutes each, this one assessment takes an excessive amount of class time. The time involved can be reduced by making it a group presentation, however group work presents its own challenges in terms of assessing individual student contribution and effort (Perdigones, García, Valiño, & Raposo, 2009). Two different technologies were utilised to address these challenges; screen casting and google docs.
Google for schools
Despite being less than twenty years old, the company Google has made a huge impact in the developed world today. There are 31 billion searches on Google every month. In 2006 there was only 2.7 billion. The growth of Google in short space of time has been phenomenal. Though very few people realize the other benefits of Google beyond an apparently simple search through the internet.
This post is the first in a series of posts collating of useful tips on using Google in the classroom.
Google Docs
Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form, and data storage service offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users.
Documents can be saved to a user’s local computer in a variety of formats including: (ODF, HTML, PDF, RTF, Text, Microsoft Word). Documents are automatically saved to Google’s servers to prevent data loss, and a revision history is automatically kept. Documents can be tagged and archived for organizational purposes. The service is officially supported on recent versions of the Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Chrome browsers running on Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, and Linux operating systems. Documents can be shared, opened, and edited by multiple users at the same time.
To find out more about Google docs have a look at the two links on YouTube:
Wordle
Which Learning Management System should I pick?
According to Wikipedia – A learning management system (commonly abbreviated as LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, and reporting of training programs, classroom and online events, e-learning programs, and training content.
Everybody is talking about them. Everybody else seems to have one – so which one should I get?
There are a variety of choices out there. Using an analogy for buying cars, there is everything from the Nissan Micra to the Mercedes S class. Each one has their own advantages and disadvantages and not everybody will choose the same one because their circumstances are different. That said, if money was no object, you would always strive to get the best high quality product. I know if I could afford it I would be driving a Merc!
Technology Enhanced Learning 