Amelia Robinson

Assessments may be formative or summative and may consist of traditional quizzes and tests, or of lab projects, case studies, written papers, or constructive projects. Good assessments are based on the course outcomes and use authentic methods to effectively assess what is being taught.

Some ways to ensure active learning for students are to include planned and structured opportunities for regular interaction with the instructor (particularly for feedback) and with other students. Provide a number of outside resources that students can choose from to fit their learning styles and to provide resources that help them to continue learning and working with the information after the course ends. The use of newer technologies and social media is also helpful, as particularly younger students are familiar with and interested in these. Overall, connection to a learning community and various pathways that lead to the same objective… >>>

Providing students the opportunity to engage with and manipulate the content helps them to understand the "why" of the learning as well as providing them a sense of competency that can be motivating. However, the same schemas will not work for all students, so instructors and designers must be flexible enough to switch schemas mid-stream when they see students disengaging.

While active learning is where higher level learning takes place, passive learning is a necessary foundation for active learning, as facts and concepts are provided and reviewed in preparation for the active and higher level portion of the learning. In other words, you must provide the information before asking the student to apply it.

Active learning is critical to learning, as active strategies provide nine times more retention than viewing and three times more than hearing. Instructors and instructional designers must plan for active learning for effectiveness.

The proactive approach to avoiding oopyright infringement is best, to aoid problems before they get started. All teachers and students should be educated about copyright law and how to obtain permissions. Instructors should not use branded products in assignments, and libraries might maintain collections of non-copyrighted workds to use as substitutes. Copyrights should be sought 4-6 months before the anticipated class use, and students should be instructed about avoiding copyrighted works in creating assignments.

It seems with even the best of intentions, copyright law is so complex that it is very easy to violate, even with the most moral of intentions. The best best may be to always link to a location where the copyright holder has posted the work, or to ask permission through copyrightl.com. Particularly, I don't think most instructors know how limited "Fair Use" is or that they can only use something one time in one class, not in repeated courses, and that they may only use a small percentage of the work.

It really is a problem to grab images, quotes, music, or other copyrighted mater online and use them in a course, thinking no-one will ever notic notice. Using public domain, creative commons, or US goverment-created works can help to avoid this. Most importantly, what the instructor uses in the course sets an example for students of what online materials are ethical to use.

Each ourse should be evaluated periodically to improve the learning as well as curriculum, quality assurance, professional development, and personnel actions. Teachers, students, and administrators are all stakeholders in this process. Revisions should include information from multiple sources and multiple methods. Methods of evaluation may include course gades, syllabus scans, assignments and assessments, reflective question tools and portfolios as well as interviews or focus groups.

Online courses need a strong assessment plan, including both formative and summative assesment. Assessment methods should be varied and appropriate to both the learning objectives and level of learning. For higher levels of learning, where the product of the assessment cannot be readily measured by right or wrong answers, rubrics deatiling criteria and the level at which it was met and how points are assigned can be very helpful. Self-assessment can help students review and revise their own work. Peer assessment can also be valuable and should be accompanied by guidance to reviewers and rubrics to help them effectively assess… >>>