Joel Campbell

How have you used authentic assessment in your online course? I utilize Portfolios to bring student's work together at the end of the course for synthesis. Potfolios are a great way for students to see the results of their cummulative efforts in the course and can provide a better picture of acquired skills than an summative assessment.

How have you used evaluations in your course? Obviously, Objective Assessments are easy to administer and grade. The drawback of this type of assessment in an online environment is that they are commonly open book. There is no way to prevent students from using their resources unless they were administered in person. With respect to Discussion Threads, a rubric is utilized. This is a must to provide guidance and structure to an otherwise completely subjective activity.

When conducting summative assessments, what do you believe are the two most important things to consider? 1. What are the most important outcomes? Because Summative Assessments cover a lot of material, the main objectives need to be identified. 2. Questions need to be worded appropriately. for the Summative assessment to be valid and reliable, the type and wording of the assessment must be carefully considered.

When assessing the use of technology assessment tools in an online learning environment, what do you believe are the three most important things to consider? 1. Does it work? Assessments must be tested and work properly or students will get frustrated. 2. Is it valid? Assessments must test what they intend to tes. 3. Is it reliable? Can students replicate the results at a later time.

Rubrics quantify subjective activities. They also present activities in a clearly defined manner so that there is little question about expectations or evaluation.

Just the tools have! Understanding generational differences is just a part of understanding the students you are working with. How they interact, are motivated, and skills depend on their past experiences. Those experiences are influenced by when they were born and the environment (time period) they grew up in.

The two most important aspects to creating a positive pattern of communication are timely responses and modeling. Communication must be timely to be effective. Students and instructors get frustrated when communication is delayed. Modeling is an effective way to show students what the expected behavior is, rather than a list of rules.

1. What are you trying to achieve? Synchronous or Asynchronous tools will provide different results. The first question to ask is what goals/outcomes are you trying to meet with the tool. 2. Evaluate the tool after a short time for effectiveness. Did the tool meet the goal? If not, why? 3.Ask your audience. Survey students and discuss what they liked, disliked, and any limitations of the tool

Content created for a face to face class may absolutely be appropriate for online delivery, and often is. The difference however is the way it is organized, delivered, and assessed. These aspects need to be adapted to an online asynchronous learning environment. So its not the information that need to be different, but the way it is delivered.

Online facilitators face a number of unique challenges. They have to deal with technical issues on a regular basis. They have to communicate effectively and clearly (good writer). They have to motivate without the luxury of face to face interaction. They are active participants in a class as well as a facilitator and guide. Due to the unique method of delivery of online education, facilitators must possess many skills to effectively guide students through online learning.