Assessing the students in online communities
Assessment is not easy for students in an online class. One of the hardest things for students to understand is how to work together in groups. When students are in elementary school or high school they are their own individual self and most of the time they do not like working together in groups. I know as an elementary teacher we are now trying to get our students to learn how to work in collaborating groups, but even in elementary school this is not easy. So what do we do when they get to college and have to work in collaboration groups? First we have to find a better way at assessing the group. Siemens talks about how the students that are the brightest are usually the ones who are less likely wanting to work within a group (Siemens, 2008). I have found this to be true in my classroom, because I do have one of these students who are so bright that she does not want to share what she knows. She always wants to work by herself. So how could we teach students like this one how to work together in collaborating groups, first of all we need to change the assessment. Siemens talks about different types of assessments we could use, such as: peer assessment through rating scheme (Siemens, 2008). This type of assessment in distance learning classes can work well, because if you are not doing your part your classmates will rate you lower. Also, another good type of assessment in which can be used in a collaborating activity is rubric; a rubric can be set up to go along with the activity which would make it a fair grading tool (Paloff & Pratt, 2005). These are not the only ways to assess a student, the instructor needs to also play a roll in assessing a student’s process, this can be done through the use of management of a class, some of these would be watching how many times a student logs in, how many posts the students contributes to a discussion and how many hours the student spends on line in the class. Regardless of how assessment is completed it needs to be fair to all the students within the collaborating environment.
What do you do when a student does not want to participate in a distance learning group or within a collaboration group? It is not always easy to get everyone to participate in the group this is where the instructor needs to help the student to understand how important it is for the group and even for their grade. One suggestion that Siemens made was for the instructor to have role-playing activities, but this does not always work. But the instructor can still work with the members who have difficulty working in groups by letting them know up front that it is required, this can be placed in the syllabus for the class. Most of the time if a student knows that they have to work as a team within a collaborating group they will do it, but they will not always like it. Some people do not want to work with other people and no matter what you do it will never change. Sometimes the only thing we can do is give them the rules and if they do not follow them they will have to pay the piper. In other words the instructor sites the rules and everyone has to obey the rules if not then the grades will not always be what the student expected.
References:
Siemens, G. (2009). Assessment of collaborative learning. Laureate Education.
Siemens, G. (2009). Learning communities. Laureate Education.
Lou,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! You mention that you have a bright student who wants to keep her knowledge to herself. Sadly, that is not a K-12 phenomena. I have students in my college level writing class that don't want to share how they find effective reference material. Why? "What if someone else uses it" is the usual answer. In an increasingly global and flat world, we need to teach students how to share resources. After reading your post, I have to agree that this is not something we are teaching. I wonder if the competitive nature of American schooling has created generations of students who will hoard their knowledge and experience? Yes some students share; however, it seems that our brightest prefer to keep it to themselves.
Erica
Response to Lou
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you Lou Ann, how and what would be the best way to assess students in a group? Because it has always been my fortune to be placed in a group and some people work and some don't. I think that is human nature, some people work well and others don't. So we as educators need to teach our students to work well with others in and outside of collaborative efforts.