Learning Technologies: Design & Applications

How to manage your feedback?

In their article, Gibbs & Simpson wrote extensively about “feedback”. They look at quantity as well as quality.

This is what I find:

• In Spanish, I give many quizzes, tests, essays and projects. It allows me to see where students are positioned in terms of their linguistic proficiency. Feedback is offered in the form of marks, one to one discussions, peer assessments and self-assessment (which gives me some feedback from the student’s point of view).
• In the film program, which is oriented towards the much more challenging to pin point art of “communication”, I also provide feedback, but it is a very different kind of feedback.
  • This type of retroaction is offered in the formative phase of the creative process much more than at the end.
  • One of the reasons for this is that students are more receptive and willing to change or alter their films when they are in the process of editing it.
  • However, when the end product is done, it becomes their “baby” and they are attached to every decision, every image, every cut. It becomes much more challenging to “critique” the product.
  • This is why I use “public” assessments. The judges assess the product without really worrying about how difficult it was to produce it!

Assessment challenges and opportunities

Planning assessment in a cooperative setting (such as the production of digital films) presents interesting challenges. To implement effective evaluation strategies, one must be:

• clear on what tasks will be assessed,
  • what procedures will be used,
  • and how the tasks and assessment procedures will correspond.

Three types of assessment are typically used:

1. Diagnostic assessment (pre-testing… often dismissed): refers to student’s actual level of knowledge and skills
2. Formative assessment: monitors students’ progress toward learning goals
3. Summative assessment: provides data to judge the final level of students’ learning

Evaluation tactics in situated learning, including constructivism, are characterized by assessment being an intrinsic part of the learning process.

When assessment is well designed, it provides a potent motivation for students and fosters study habits correlated with the educational goals of the course.

Spanish:

• In my Spanish classes, students constantly refer to personal experiences when talking and writing about various themes. They are also invited to create oral presentations for which they select the topics.

Film:

• In the film classes, I use self, peer, group and public assessments to verify the knowledge acquisition & learning process.

UBC Moodle: Assessment & technology

• In my Moodle tool assessment project, I created a quiz which combined formative and summative assessment questions.
  • As a rule, I only use multiple choice exercises to practice linguistic skills. Assessments are usually in the form of more substantial written and oral tasks.
  • For learning Spanish, if the whole course is done online, the need for chats and forums is much greater than if the course is a combination of face to face and online strategies.
  • For digital film making, since the medium must be distributed somehow in order to be viewed, an online e-portfolio with the various components of the film production process is a sound idea. However, due to student confidentiality, I would not put the assessment results online.

Module 3: Interaction and Assessment Tools

RE: Assessment challenges and opportunities

Evaluation Rubric