Online Delivery Platform Evaluation Rubric

Posted by: | June 10, 2009 | Comments Off on Online Delivery Platform Evaluation Rubric

Précis

 

         We were educators in the South Island Distance Education School’s (SIDES) Secondary Program. We were providing distance-learning support for home-schooled students in our district.  There has been an increased international interest for our programs as they lead to BC dogwood high school diplomas. As a result of the increased interest, we were asked to develop a rubric to assess Learning Management Systems for SD 63 on Vancouver Island based on an estimated initial enrollment of over 200 students. 

 

Rubric

 

 Fair           

 

 Good

 

 Outstanding

 

 

 

Cost

 

 

 

Falls within 80%-100+% of competitors cost per learner

Falls within 40%-60% of competitor’s cost per learner

Free – Open Source

 

 

System Requirements

 

 

 

Runs on only one of Win XP/Vista, Mac OS, and Linux operating systems

 

Runs on only one of IE, Firefox, or Safari

 

Does not allow video, audio, embeds

Runs on two of Win XP/Vista, Mac OS, and Linux operating systems

 

 

 

Runs on two of IE, Firefox, or Safari

 

Allows video and audio, but not embeds

Runs on Win XP/Vista, Mac OS, and Linux operating systems

 

Runs on Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari

 

Allows video, audio, embeds, etc

 

Student-to-Student communication.

 

Student to Teacher communication

 

Student to material interactions

 

Language translation components

 

 

 

Support

 

 

Only teacher support possible, through in person contact.

 

Mobile devices used to communicate through voice or text messaging

Available teacher and student support through person to person contact

 

Text Chat feature

 

Basic email functionality

 

Access to online calendar

A variety of options for student and teacher support including access to:

 

Email extensive online resources

 

Threaded discussion forums

(Teacher and Student created discussion forums)

 

Subscription to forum RSS feeds

 

Build in tutorials and video screen cast tutorials.

 

Real-time text, audio & video chat with whiteboard, which supports simultaneous group discussions

 

Initial and ongoing community of practice.

 

System-wide chat rooms or threaded forums can connect students and teachers from different courses

 

Extensive training support and professional development options for ongoing support.

 

 

Evaluation and Assessment Tools

 

 

 

Basic online teacher generated fill in the blank tests

 

Short answer test questions

 

Test questions can be imported from external test banks

Provides students with different activities to demonstrate their learning through the following;

 

-E-portfolios

-Wiki’s

-Web-site development with multimedia content

 

Provides ways to permit student self-assessment and peer to peer assessment

Provides for ongoing assessment and student support. 

 

Build in evaluation tools that are easily customized

 

Provides students with multiple means to demonstrate learning outcomes e.g.;

 

-E-portfolios

-Wiki’s

-Simulations

-Advanced web-site development with embedded multimedia content

-Problem-based learning activities

-Pod casting

-Slideshow building tools

-Web log threaded responses to structured activities

 

Multiple attempts at test taking is permitted

 

Provides ways to allow student self-assessment and peer-to-peer assessment.

 

Various Rubric tools can be generated by the instructor

 

 

 Design and Layout

Hard to follow and navigate through.

 

The design and layout are unattractive, and it is difficult to read the information presented.

 

 

 

The typography is difficult to read due to inappropriate use of fonts, point size, bullets, italics, bold, and indentations for headings and sub-headings and body text.

 

 

No Splash Page is provided.

 

User-friendly

 

The design and layout are consistent across the LMS and make it easy to follow the information presented.

 

 

Sometimes the typography is easy-to-read, but in a few places it detracts from the design and does not enhance readability.

 

 

A limited Splash Page is provided.

 User-friendly and inviting

 

 

The design and layout are visually appealing and consistent across the LMS and enhance the information presented.

 

 

The typography is easy-to-read and point size varies appropriately for headings and text.

 

 

 

A Splash Page is provided to make the LMS easy-to-access.

 

                                                 

 

 

Paragraph

 

         South Island Distance Education School (SIDES) is located in Saanich (School District 63) and offers courses through distributive learning (SIDES website 2009).The Bates and Poole (2003) article, A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology, provided the skeleton in which we developed our rubric. Most notably we focused on the Students, Ease, Costs, and Organization parts in the SECTIONS model.  We then customized these classifications to the categories of cost, system requirements, support, evaluation/assessment tools, and design/layout. We thought that this more precise classification system would better help SIDES meet its goals. For example, SIDES will need an organized and well-designed LMS since it will be enrolling international students whom do not need the added confusion of dealing with a different language and a disorganized LMS. We then created detailed criteria, which would allow us to rate the LMS as Fair, Good or Outstanding. For SIDES cost is an issue because it is funded by tax dollars, but this does not mean that they want to sacrifice support. The LMS that reduces cost yet has a high level of support will be most attractive to SIDES. Choosing a LMS is the first step in providing teachers with the opportunity to meet the NETS standard of Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning experiences and Assessments (International Society for Technology in Education 2008). Lastly, by using this rubric we feel that SIDES will be better capable of meeting its goals, but also with the right LMS, SIDES will be able to provide technology that has more cognitive and social affordances.

 

 

 

 

Reference List

 

Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: a Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In 

    Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 77-105)

    San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.

 

International Society for Technology in Education (2008). National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers
http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2008.htm

 

SIDES (website). Retrieved May 25, 2009 from http://www.sides.ca/


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