Siemens talked about three methods of assessing
collaborative learning as being peer assessment, assessment of online
interaction, and instructor evaluation. Assessment, Siemens said, is a “teaching-based
activity” (Laureate Education, 2008) and when we as teachers assess the
effectiveness of any online learning activity we are in fact “also assessing
ourselves as teachers.” Using all these
assessment strategies an instructor can assess participation in a collaborative
learning community by those three methods – devising some assessment tool
whereby peers can evaluate their peers within the community. In one of the many learning groups I
participated in as an online undergraduate student, we were given an evaluation
form at the end of the assignment where we assessed the involvement and
participation of the other members of the group (and they assessed us). Our completed forms were confidential from
each other but were given to our instructor who used them in conjunction with
his other methods of grading students individually on the group project. A fair and equitable assessment of learning
is subjective but can be balanced by assessing “based on metrics from learning
management systems” (Laureate Education, 2008).
These metrics could include how many times the student logged in, how
much time they spent online in group activities, number of posts student
submitted and so forth.
“The role of the
instructor in an online class is to facilitate discussions, interactions with
course content and between classmates, and guide the learners toward constructing
knowledge together” (Marziali, 2011).
Consequently, the success of learning communities depends on the
participation of each member of the community and the active involvement of the
instructor in the community from its inception.
Palloff and Pratt (2005) said instructors should give conflict
management information at the outset, and either the team leader or members of
the team should first attempt to manage any conflict within the group
themselves. If that fails, then they
should ask the instructor to intervene. Instructors
should “slow down” overachievers according to Palloff and Pratt (2005) and, “underachievers
encouraged to get into the game” (p. 34).
Every member of the team should be assessed, by whatever methods
employed, as to their contribution to the overall team functioning whether or
not they want to network or collaborate within their learning community. It is an assignment and should be graded on its
completeness like any other assignment is graded during the course.
References
Laureate Education, Inc. (2008a). Assessment of
collaborative learning. [Video program]. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5701364&Survey=1&47=9479398&ClientNodeID=984645&coursenav=1&bhcp=1
Laureate Education, Inc. (2008b). Learning communities. [Video
program]. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5701364&Survey=1&47=9479398&ClientNodeID=984645&coursenav=1&bhcp=1
Marziali, C.
(2011). Cathy Marziali’s ed tech corner. Module 3: Assessment in an online learning environment.
Retrieved from http://cathymarzialiedtech.blogspot.com/
Palloff, R. M.
& Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating
online: Learning together in community. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
In your undergraduate course did you feel uncomfortable evaluating your classmates? As a teacher I have asked my students to evaluate their group members and I have found that students protect their group members regardless of what the teacher knows or not. I am still trying to devise a means to get such young students not cover for each other, but I must admit that I find it adorable.
ReplyDeletedo you have any suggestions for how to incorpate peer evaluations in primary grades?
Great Job! I can recall my first year of teaching and my fear of collaborative assignments. I remember the dread I sensed when placed in groups to complete assignments as a middle/high school student. It never failed, there was always that one student who seemed to do all the work while the other group members were slackers. I was reluctant to incorporate collaborative tasks into my classroom routines and instruction for this very reason. As I have progressed through the years, I have realized that it is important for students to collaborate and it is also imperative to grade individuals on their participation and input into these group tasks. Using rubrics to assess student work and participation is a fair and unbiased way to determine a student's grade for a collaborative assignment. To fairly assess the students, instructors must be proactive throughout the work process to adequately determine one's efforts on all components of a collaborative assignment.
ReplyDelete~Laura
Laura, I think you are doing a great service to your students by teaching them how to work as part of a team now because more than likely, the workforce they will be entering later will require teamwork. The anxiety I had about my first collaboration with others at the community college level may not have existed had I already had the experience of teamwork like that when I was in primary or secondary school.
ReplyDeletePam,
ReplyDeleteI tried to be fair when evaluating my teammates. There is the tendency to rate a person either too harshly or too gently based on what we feel about them as a person or because we feel "guilted" into being "nice." The purpose of an evaluation is to let the person know how their actions met the criteria. The results can lead to self-improvement even when they may be difficult to accept initially. Rating a person too highly because we like them or want to be nice is as unfair as rating a person too low because we don't like them.
For your students I would suggest you impress upon them the benefits of an impartial evaluation and that it isn't based on whether we like the person or because of societal norms. Establish some kind of rubric and/or criteria for rating that the students can use as a guide and as much as possible, let them practice doing this now so they are adept at doing it when they're in college or on the job.
Perhaps when asking students to evaluate each other it should be anonymous until they are comfortable assessing each other. Maybe instead of having a name on the paper their could be a number that the teacher only knows who the paper belongs too. Once they learn how the evaluation can help them and start to take it as constructive critism, then you can add names to the paper so the students know who the are evaluating.
ReplyDelete