Mike Oden

SYLLABUS

“The word syllabus comes from the Greek word sittyba for a parchment label. In the English language the world syllabus made its debut in 1656, referring to a table or index in a book, but later, in 1889 the term had entered academic circles and was being used to describe the subjects of a series of lectures.”Ref.:elib.bsu.by› bitstream

A syllabus conveys information about expectations. It is crucial then that the terms of the contract are clear and students know what is expected of them. The syllabus lays out your expectations for the quality of work… >>>

Online classes could offer all the same things that is offered in a traditional class. 

Students are finding out that online programs can be an affordable education path. Though not all online programs have less expensive tuition than traditional schools, the associated costs can be lower.

"The financial benefits of enrolling in online programs at universities is that students do not have to pay commuting expenses, may not need additional child care, and most likely will be able to continue in their current employment while in school as they can manage their own schedule and do their coursework around their… >>>

It was interesting to find out that the first distance courses that were offered, dates back to the early 1700's.  I can't even imaging doing that.  Asking a professor a question, would take weeks, even Months to get a response. UGH!!! That would be Very frustrating to me. 

I enjoy being a teacher, Traditionally and Online. My Online teaching just began when the Covid hit. Before that, all my courses were taught in a Traditional Class setting. I have found out that Traditional Teaching is quite different than teaching online, as far as how my students learn. Being able to… >>>

How can you ensure your assessments provide accurate feedback?

• Step 1: Deconstruct the standards.

• Step 2: Align items and levels of thinking.

• Step 3: Create valid and reliable assessments.

• Step 4: Take items to the next level with rigor and relevance.

• Step 5: Make assessment part of planning … not an afterthought.

Reference:https://www.amle.org/BrowsebyTopic/WhatsNew/WNDet/TabId/270/ArtMID/888/ArticleID/570/Ensuring-Valid-Effective-Rigorous-Assessments.aspx

A rubric is an assessment tool that clearly indicates achievement criteria across all the components of any kind of student work, from written to oral to visual. It can be used for marking assignments, class participation, or overall grades. There are two types of rubrics: holistic and analytical.

Holistic rubrics: Holistic rubrics group several different assessment criteria and classify them together under grade headings or achievement levels. For a sample participation rubric, see the Appendix of this teaching tip. Our Responding to Writing Assignments teaching tip includes holistic rubrics specifically designed for writing assignments. See also Facione and Facione's (1994)… >>>

I chose this class because I wanted to learn more about Rubric's. So far, there has been A Lot of Great information. In this class module, I learned about the mistakes people make in creating a course rubric. A rubric needs to be well though out and planned.  It can't be done; "whip up something." The rubric shouldn't have too much criteria in it either.  Too much criteria only confuses students.

"In Blackboard, a Feedback Rubric is a tool that displays the assessment criteria for an assignment. Feedback Rubrics can help students understand what is expected to meet the requirements of an assignment, and can be used by instructors as a marking tool to demonstrate to students how they met each criterion."

Reference: https://telhelp.shu.ac.uk/feedback-rubric#:~:text=In%20Blackboard%2C%20a%20Feedback%20Rubric,how%20they%20met%20each%20criterion.

Why you should consider using a Rubric Evaluation is below:

Rubrics help instructors:

• Provide students with feedback that is clear, directed and focused on ways to improve learning.
• Demystify assignment expectations so students can focus on the work instead of guessing "what the teacher wants."
• Adapt your approach to teaching aspects of a course based on thematic gaps in student learning that are easily identified by reviewing rubrics across a class.
• Develop consistency in how you evaluate student learning across students and throughout a class.
• Reduce time spent on grading; Increase time spent on teaching.

Rubrics help students:… >>>

Our course doesn’t give us too much information about Bloom's Taxonomy, but it mentions it multiple times, so I reviewed several papers/articles. Below is information on the revised taxonomy. The information that I gathered is by Patricia Armstrong, former Assistant Director, Center for Teaching. The paper has a lot of important information on both Bloom's Taxonomy and the Revised Taxonomy.

The Revised Taxonomy (2001)

The authors of the revised taxonomy underscore this dynamism, using verbs and gerunds to label their categories and subcategories (rather than the nouns of the original taxonomy). These “action words” describe the cognitive… >>>