Jun
10
Online Delivery Platform Evaluation Rubric
Posted by: Thomas Kritikos | 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/