Showing posts with label Teaching With Technology. Show all posts

A Website Evaluation Rubric

Assessment, Education Technologies, Rubrics, Teaching With Technology, Technological Assessment 0 comments

A Website Evaluation Rubric

A rather helpful exercise for teachers

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 181

How often do we recommend a website to a colleague or student to visit and practice class content on it? This could be usual or not that often depending on your teaching environment. But what has happened to me a couple times is that my partners report that the content of the webpage I thought was good was not that extraordinary and that it included lots of mistakes and that pictures were not exactly convenient. Though, -I must confess-, it never occurred to me to sit down and write a kind of website evaluation rubric, it was in a technology course dealing with virtual environments with Prof. Fressy Aguilar at Universidad Latina in Costa Rica that all participants were requested to create such rubric to help ourselves to differentiate good sites from those that are not exactly that accurate.

In order to produce a website evaluation rubric, Prof. Aguilar provided us with three guides to assess the content of material for educational purposes. On the one hand course participants had to review A Framework for Evaluating the Quality of Multimedia Learning Resources (Leacock & Nesbit, 2007), and on the other hand, we were also provided with Evaluation and Selection of Learning Resources: A Guide (Prince Edward Island Department of Education, 2008) and Evaluating, Selecting and Acquiring Learning Resources: A Guide (ERAC Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium, 2008). These three documents are fully connected to the evaluation of resources for education, but not exclusively linked to evaluating the content of webpages. These guides lead you through the evaluation of resources in all fields, from written ones to electronically produced ones.

What seems to be the problem with these guides? None! However, these guides are not necessarily attached to the evaluation of websites where educators can download material for their language learners, content students, and so on. These sites actually deal with all sorts of materials that may include flashcards to PDF documents that can be downloaded from the web as ready-made handouts for pupils. So when instructors encounter these kinds of guides produced by individuals or by companies that help teachers to get a better understanding of how to evaluate educational resources in general terms, it is unavoidable to start thinking that perhaps the production of one’s rubrics to assess webpage content is a necessity.

How can these website evaluation rubrics be produced? To start with, it is mandatory to have clearly in one’s mind what it is that one is looking for in a website: handouts?, flashcards?, online interactive practices?, lesson plans to deal with a given topic?, etc. Having these things precisely identified, one can start creating an evaluation rubric with the criteria one considers the most relevant for what is needed. It is up to the rubric creator to use an analytic or holistic one. Whatever suits one best is ideal.

There is no such thing as the perfect rubric, but the more it can be elaborated and precise, the better. Criteria need to be fully detailed and highly wrought; this thorough elaboration of descriptors can help the rubric user to really find fulfilling results when it comes to look for the perfect website to obtain material for one’s class or lesson. It is indeed fundamental that teachers review the quality of material that is downloaded from “educational” webpages. That is, it is no just to see the layout of the website, but also the content that is shared to verify that is accurate and suitable for one’s needs.

Sample Website Evaluation Rubric

Website Evaluation Rubric by Jonathan Acuña

Sample Website Evaluation Rubric Tryout with TES

References

ERAC Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium. (2008). Evaluating, Selecting and Acquiring Learning Resources: A Guide. ERAC.

Leacock, T., & Nesbit, J. (2007). A Framework for Evaluating the Quality of Multimedia Learning Resources. Educational Technology & Society, (2)(10), 44.59.

Prince Edward Island Department of Education. (2008). Evaluation and Selection of Learning Resources: A Guide. Charlottetown: Prince Edward Island.

Website Evaluation Rubric by Jonathan Acuña

Thursday, July 09, 2015

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Moodle, OER, Teaching With Technology, VLE, VLEs 0 comments

Open Educational Resources (OER)

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Monday, July 6, 2015

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 179

During an ELT Master’s Degree Program course at Universidad Latina (Costa Rica) labeled as Learning & Teaching Resources around June-July 2015, Prof. Fressy Aguilar asked participants, as part of the course goals, to design, develop, and assemble a complete module for a virtual course on Moodle. The task does not seem to be hard to achieve, but it does imply several steps that must be pursued to ensure quality.

Though Prof. Aguilar’s course does not exactly account for instructional design, some notions in this area are worthwhile having to get a quality product. Among those notions, comprehending the scope in use of Open Educational Resources is decisive and can help teaching staff to create more interactive and attractive learning tasks for students in a virtual environment such a Moodle. As soon as the assembly of the course module was over, the instructor presented us with the following task to reflect on what we had just built for our Moodle modules of the courses we had decided to virtualize.

Prof. Aguilar’s Reflective Task

On Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them.

In this context, "… OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge ….”

As part of my assembly of a module for a hybrid course on reading skills on Moodle, I actually created 3 weeks or modules for that course. And this is what my instructional design plan is:

Click Pictures to enlarge them!

However, as soon as all these pieces were put together is when, our instructor had us reflect on the OERs that were used for the assembling of the three weeks I produced. Here you have the OERs I utilized, the plan will tell you how they will be used, and you also had here the reason why they were chosen.

Resource used in the platform		Why I did choose it
http://www.scribd.com		It is a free hosting for documents that can be embedded and, consequently, displayed within the Moodle or other platforms or wikis.
http://www.myquizcreator.com		It is a website that allows users to create quizzes that can also be embedded and displayed in Moodle or other sites.
http://www.blogger.com		It is an extension part of the Google family that allows users to publish content on the web for free.
http://www.youtube.com		It is an extension of the Google family that allows users to spot tutorial that can be easily embedded in Moodle or wikis.
http://www.glogster.com		It is a site where users can create interactive posters that can be shown in class or embedded in blogs, Moodle, etc.

In brief, Prof. Aguilar had a very clear point in having us course participants to reflect upon the choice of OERs. If a resource is going to be used, there must be a good reason for doing so since it will contribute to the course success and the fostering of deep learning among students. Web 2.0 tools can indeed help the delivery of a course if used properly; the wrong and unscrupulous usage of OERs can lead course participants to failure if not planned thoroughly bearing in mind the plan’s objective to be accomplished.

Open Educational Resources (OER) by Jonathan Acuña

Sunday, July 05, 2015

If I Had a VLE for my Courses, ...

Laureate Educator, Teaching With Technology, Virtual Learning Environments 0 comments

If I Had a VLE for my Courses

Hypothetically speaking, if I could use the whole potential of the Central Core that Universidad Latina has, a Moodle-like system, I will definitely create a hearty VLE for my students. Due to the fact that it is not 100% functionally at this point, let me fantasize of what I would do once it is at its full best.

At our Central Core I can upload texts, video, audio, etc. But everything is limited to a given amount of gigabytes per teacher. If I had the chance to upload all sorts of material to my courses, I would include interactive PPTs that students could download and work on. This sort of material can suit many kinesthetic students who need to manipulate objects, technology in this case, to achieve learning goals. Videos would be my second choice of elements I would nourish my VLE with. Why videos? The fact that many students are visual learners can guarantee that they will learn much more. The third element I would love to have as part of my courses’ VLE would be audio in podcast format for my aural students. A VLE can help all sort of students with various learning styles.

Having all the above elements in a VLE can be spiced up with other features. Polls sound like a nice tool to find out about student satisfaction and how course VLEs can be improved. Forums are incredible gadgets to be included in courses as well to keep on discussing what is being addressed in class. This can guarantee that introverted students can regain their voice and discuss overtly. A chat room as part of an VLE would simply make it way to create a class culture that could go beyond the boundaries of a room in a university. It could give students the chance to coach it other if needed, or the teacher could do it as well.

Can a VLE help absent students to catch up on their studying? The fact is that students miss class for several reasons, from very personal to medical ones. A VLE can provide students with a tool to work on the very same material covered in class. PPTs, handouts, practices, videos, pictures, and so on can be available to any student who did not show up for class. Although I do not actually use a VLE per se at the university, I created some blogs in which I embedded a blog content bar for students to get the corresponding material per week. Absent student can also catch up, or regular class attendants can go back and review material already covered.

I imagine that the time will come in which all of us teachers at Universidad Latina and at Laureate Universities Network will be fully into using technology and, consequently, VLEs. We just have to get ready for that day to come to cope with the challenges that this new way of virtual learning will bring.

Jonathan Acuña

Universidad Latina

Costa Rica

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Useful Moodle Features in VLE

Laureate Educator, Moodle, Teaching With Technology, Virtual Learning Environments 1comments

Useful Moodle Features in VLE

Understanding the basic features a virtual learning environment (VLE) should have, Moodle has a series of characteristics that definitely help learners achieve learning goals. What I like particularly about Moodle as a VLE are its functions for information storage, class forums, quiz-like activities, and reflective blogs for participants.

From the point of view of a online course designer, Moodle provides a unique way of storing information. Moodle is an LMS (Learning Management System) that can help curricular developers, course tutors, and students to plan learning as part of PLNs. From a systematic point of view, Moodle allows course participants to work on course tasks and achieve learning objectives at the end of each unit. Consequently, it allows the tutor and course designer to visualize student learning outcomes.

The interaction among course participants is imperative and Moodle as a VLE fosters it. One of the most fruitful experiences of working on an online course is the exchange of ideas, experiences, and links. Just imagine that something like this were absent from a VLE. I must say that we would be defeating the purpose of the “real” virtual learning environment: the exchange among participants to foster critical thinking.

A Moodle go-of-it is its potential to host interactive quiz-like activities. Reading an online text sounds OK, but how about spicing it up with a bit of interactivity? Quiz-like activities are ways to have course participants move towards analysis of the material being presented to them, synthesis of what is being studied in different course units, and self-assess themselves in terms of how much it is being understood by the individual. This is a nice way to reward or challenge students in a virtual course.

Finally, reflective blogs are like the cherries on the icing on the course cake! Reflection is the outermost manifestation of an individual’s analysis, synthesis, and self-assessment, especially if combined with try-it-out activities. The blog is a nice way to hear our inner voice which sometimes is rather silent but paying attention to every single detail we may look over if we do not stop to reflect. A professional reflective blog, in which all of us reflect on our teaching and learning, is a great way to discover one’s beliefs towards many issues we are aware of and care for.

As a LMS learning tool, Moodle is definitely a great system to work with students in higher education. Its unique features and its password-protected access guarantees student and teacher privacy as it actually happens in a real classroom.

Jonathan Acuña

Universidad Latina

Costa Rica

Saturday, December 11, 2010