Effective Feedback

Effective feedback is critical to the success of an online course. Write a learning objective for your subject and grade level. Make up an assignment that aligns to your objective and you would give in an online course. Provide a sample student response to the assignment.  Post to your blog an example of meaningful feedback to the student on the assignment. Be sure to use the techniques included in the presentation you viewed earlier.  Read and comment on 2 of your class members' postings.

Grade and Subject

4^th Grade Writing

Standard:

ELACC4W1:

Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons.

a.     Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer’s purpose.

Objective: 

The student should be able to use writing to express an opinion.

Task:

Pretend you have just moved to a new neighborhood.  Write a letter to your mom explaining which neighborhood you like the most and why. 

Student Response:

            I like the old neighborhood the most because it had my old friends. I also like it because it was bigger and we had more space to play different sports and games.  In the new neighborhood I have not met any friends so I am usually bored.  The friends I met so far only like to play one sport.

Teacher Feedback:

            This is a great response.  I liked the way you stated your opinion on your old neighborhood and the way you provided examples.  You also gave me reasons why you dislike the new neighborhood.  Keep up the good work!

Academic Honesty

Academic Honesty 

Once you've viewed the presentations and completed the cheatability rubric, post to your blog your reflections on this topic. How did you score on the cheatability rubric? What did you learn from completing the rubric? How do you know students are completing the work in your face-to-face class? How is the online teaching situation different? The rubric contained many techniques to ensure academic honesty in an online environment. Which specific techniques will you use to ensure an honest environment in your online classes? If you are not sure, check out the additional resource below! It is full of techniques for preventing cheating. Read and comment on 2 of your class members' postings.

Cheating in Online Courses

The Cheatability Rubric was an eye opener.  It never occurred to me that a student actually spends time trying to find ways to cheat in online courses.  I guess it is in the human nature and as educational research surveys indicate that 90% of students polled admitted to cheating at least once in their academic life.  I took the Cheatability Rubric survey after I had viewed the videos.  I score high on the rubric but I think it was because I viewed the videos first.  If I were to have an online class, I wouldn’t have known to look for the items on the rubric.  I learned from the rubric to please aware of things that would make it easy for students to cheat such as make all assignments authentic.  Authenticity meaning assign projects that the students have to submit in increments. I also learned to state the cheating policy, defined plagiarism, and have the students to take a quiz to ensure that they have read the information. I learned to make quizzes short and to make sure I have a pool of questions so that they are random and no two quizzes are the same.

In my face-to-face class, currently, I do have “cheating”. I teach Kindergarten and I send homework with the students.  I know my students fairly well and I know when their parent complete their homework.  In the beginning of the year, I talk to my students about their parents completing their homework.  I also speak with the parents during open house.  Later in the year, I still get homework done by the parents.  I have an incentive if the students complete 1 week of homework.  If their parents did it for them they do not get the incentive and that makes them stress to the parent not to do the homework. I also have students that look on each other paper when taking a test.  I just make sure to tell them to cover their paper so their friends can’t copy their answers and I stress to the kids there is no copying.

The online teaching situations are different.  As a teacher, I have no control who logs on and complete the assignments. If I suspect cheating, I would just need to take the proper protocol like taking screen shots and keeping evidence so when I confront the student and the parent I will have grounds to stand on.

The rubric was a great tool for me.  I will weigh the percentages of my assessments with projects and discussions weighing more than online exams.  I must make sure the cheating policy is clearly stated.  I will define the act of cheating.  I will define plagiarism. I will enforce their knowledge of cheating by making them take a quiz online and/or write a paper.  I will make sure all course assessments are clearly aligned to stated objectives and content.  I will make sure my grade book is not online or I have a separate copy offline.  I will remain present throughout the course by grading assignments and commenting on discussions frequently just to let them know I am checking in on them.  Last but surely not least, I would display an attitude that would discourage cheating. 

Online Teaching Practices

Teaching Practices - Once you've viewed the presentations, think about your own personal teaching style. What technique do you use with your face-to-face students that will be particularly successful with online students? How might your practices need to change to meet the needs of online students? Write a refection of these practices and post to your blog. Read and comment to 2 of your class members postings.

As a classroom teacher, I am on top of time management.  As on online teacher, I would transfer my time management skills over to the online course.  Time management is very important to meet deadlines.  In my classroom I am always working.  During the teaching day, I do not believe in downtime.  Every free minute I can get, I should be doing something such as grading papers, filing papers, making copies or planning.  As an online teacher, I would set aside some time probably two to three times a day to cater to my online class.  I would check emails, answer questions, review and/or grade assignments, and review discussion posts.  

Another practice I would do is schedule an online discussion as least weekly.  I think this is important because there is no face-to-face interaction.  I would like to get to know my students as I would in a face-to-face class.  Instead of a weekly journal I would use the discussion session.  In the beginning, it would be more of a "getting to know you" discussion.  Depending on the class content, we would discuss "what's going on today" as it pertains to the class content. 

I also like the practice of emailing students that are falling behind or missing assignments.  From a personal standpoint, sometimes I might miss an assignment unintentionally.  I would really appreciate if my professor sent me a reminder.  I would do this for my students as well.