This video is from a K-12 Math class, but in 3 minutes, makes the point. One can easily see how flipping and a hybrid course would dovetail well. Spend 3 minutes, check it out, and look for more on Fall professional day. (By the way, the outside of class material does not HAVE to be video — it can also be reading, exercises, practice quizzes, and discussion forums)…
Category Archives: Assessment
Free Assessment webinars by tk20
Three new assessment webinar archives are on the tk20 site; just click “watch it now” for the webinars of interest:
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Massachusetts Vision Project Report Released: “Time to Lead”
“Today, more than ever, Massachusetts’ knowledge economy depends on a highly educated workforce and on research that drives innovation….Progress has been made, but in too many areas we are not yet national leaders. This first Vision Project Report offers a full accounting of where public higher education stands in comparison with other states and describes a statewide strategy for reaching our goal.”
Be the Grader of the 20 millionth paper and win $2000!
It’s not often that a vendor offers us a chance to win $2000, which includes an additional $2000 donated to scholarships. The deal is: grade your papers using TII’s Grademark, and if you happen to grade the 20 millionth paper – you win!
Don’t know about Grademark, or the Turn It In integrated assignment tool in Moodle?
- Visit our site: http://blogs.berkshirecc.edu/turnitin for instructions
- Stay tuned for a Digital Grading workshop featuring Grademark (and other methods) this Fall
Here’s the info in the TII contest (click the link below, not the image, for live links):
Online Learning study from Babson: “Conflicted”
An interesting short study from Babson based on responses from 4500 faculty across 2- and 4-year institutions, plus 590 adminstrators, about the effectiveness of online learning. Points of interest include that
- Even though faculty are pessimistic about the learning outcomes of online courses, those same faculty may at times advise a student to take an online course to meet the student’s needs
- The study shows clearly that once faculty engage in online learning, they tend to develop a more positive opinion of its effectiveness
- Administrators are routinely more gung ho about online than faculty
- All agree that the evaluation of online courses has a long way to go (and don’t feel that strongly about the value of current on-ground course evaluation systems either!)
Here’s the full study:
http://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/server_files/files/IHE-BSRG-Conflict.pdf
Links for “Academically Adrift”
Reply
Here is a link to a deli.ci.ous stack (page of links) exploring the study and several of the commentaries on it. This study was published in January 2011, and the controversy is still going strong:
Core Competency Groups Meet at BCC
Thirty full- and part-time faculty met at BCC today to review core competency samples of student work. The student work – including a mix of excellent, average, and poor levels – were considered in light of BCC’s core competency rubrics. Faculty spent two hours discussing the strengths and weaknesses they saw, and authored reports summarizing their findings. It was a unique opportunity to see a group consisting of Nursing, Early Childhood, and Sociology instructors reviewing student writing; or English, Human Services, and Hospitality faculty considering critical thinking. Faculty granting the oral communication competency met to review video of student speeches. Comments about the event ranged from useful to “we need to do more of this.”
Essential Learning Outcomes: The “Wired” Version
It’s interesting to see Wired University’s view of essential learning. One quick perusal of their “7 Essential Skills” shows that BCC’s Core Competencies are aligned with what new professionals need in the world of work these days. Stay tuned for further exploration of careers/competencies/skills in upcoming posts leading up to our March 1 Professional Day!
More on learning analytics
This article discusses some sophisticated uses of LA in the classroom, such as: what if you could track responses to a problem, then have a student’s computer group him/her with those holding alternative views, by name? In other words, Jane would be signaled by her computer to go have a discussion with Joe and Javier, based on their responses.
Like any sophisticated data gathering tool, there are dangers in the use of the data… read the article to find out more.
A ‘Moneyball’ Approach to College – Technology – The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Tips on Efficient Grading
The link below will lead to a brief excerpt from the Walvoord and Anderson book: “Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning Assessment.” Many BCC faculty expressed an interest at the recent Adjunct event in having a workshop on grading, and this is definitely under consideration. For now, please check this out:
