Boris’ case is a challenging one as time always seems to be a predominant factor that works against building in content according to student needs. Additionally, the case calling for both instant and formative feedback is a tall order, and one that a teacher doesn’t come by without either a steep technological learning curve or by dedicating abundant amounts of time outside of class to support either students or the creation of media.
Boris should probably begin by creating a series of video tutorials to reinforce the periodic table content that he is aiming to support. Since information about the periodic table would be comprised of mostly static knowledge in a Chemistry 11 context, he could very likely use these comfortably from year to year over multiple iterations of courses without changing them.
After creating the video tutorials, Boris could use a tool like Google Forms or Moodle’s built-in quiz application to have student quiz themselves, or use these to study for exams. Each of these tools could easily tell them what they did right and wrong; the tricky part here is giving formative feedback. I am not as familiar with Moodle’s quiz tool, but I know that Google Forms allows you to route a form according to the respondent’s entry. So, for example, if a student picked an answer of “False” incorrectly, they could be re-routed to a page that gave them feedback on the fact that that answer was incorrect and why. After that page, they could re-answer the question and continue along with the quiz. Likewise, if they answered “True” correctly, a page could appear that reinforced their response and told them why the statement was indeed true, and they would, again, carry on with the quiz.
This strategy would provide immediate feedback for response correctness as well as make an attempt at giving formative feedback. A drawback to these methods is that the feedback isn’t necessarily personalized as to why the student might respond correctly or incorrectly. Additionally, Boris would need to be insightful as to why students may or may not make particular mistakes; this insight would help to provide the best possible feedback to students as they quiz themselves. Lastly, it would take Boris some time to build, particularly if he was not familiar with the affordances of routing pages on quiz tools. However, if successful, he could also reuse these quizzes with immediate and formative feedback throughout future iterations of the course as well.
Hi Victoria;
The process of branching you described, after each answer submitted, is an excellent way to either reinforce learning or to reroute students to supplementary information to correct their mistakes and help them learn any information they have missed.
I once used an online learning game, which would regularly return me to questions that I had got wrong so that I could practice those answers. It was very useful at learning a rote memorization exercise.
I don’t know if Moodle has any analytics, but if so, Boris could learn which questions students most frequently got wrong and use that information to set up a remedial class for that particular material, or at least an online posting of that particular review material.
I love the idea of Boris creating some video tutorials for his students. If he didn’t have the time this term, he may be able to find some existing resources online that would be helpful for some of his students. Otherwise, creating his own would certainly be worth the investment in the long run.
Great ideas!
Kind regards,
Tanya
Hi Tanya,
Thanks! The concept of a game hadn’t crossed my mind but I am sure that there are interactive games and activities available online for a topic as accessible as the periodic table. That’s a great addition and point.
And yes, indeed, there would be an abundance of resources available for Boris online if he didn’t have a chance to create his own.
Victoria
Great ideas, Victoria! I’ve used programs like Screen-Cast-O-Matic to make my own videos in the past, but have also learned to exacerbate youtube and Kahn Academy for when I don’t really NEED to be the author of whatever it is the students need to know. Flipping can be a great way to get and give immediate feedback to students, if Boris is able to design a few lessons around this idea. The students who have the table memorized could be homogeneously grouped and given a task at their level, while those who would need more F2F time with their teacher or peers could get it with him and each other.
Thanks for another thoughtful post. 🙂
– Kate
Hi Kate,
Thanks! Yes, there are an abundance of screencasting tools available for teachers. My favourite is Camtasia 2, although it is a paid app. Luckily, we get a free copy through being enrolled in MET, which is a nice perk to our program. Obviously time is a factor that is always working against us though, so perusing through YouTube can be great. However, in chatting informally with groups of students who have experienced a flipped model, they tend to be more engaged in the videos that their own instructor puts together rather than those from outsiders, even if it’s the same content! It goes to show you how far relationships go in learning contexts.
Cheers,
Victoria
All good suggestions.
Victoria, I wonder how time consuming it is to design a branching learning paths. We have thought about developing a course where the next step depends of the student answer, but it always seemed like a huge amount of work. It all depends how many branching points there are, of course. The other thing I am not sure about is whether we make choices for students with based on a lot of assumptions. What if, one response was made not because of the lack of knowledge, but because of the lack of concentration, or misunderstanding? Will the student miss the opportunity to engage in other, maybe more difficult problem-solving because the system “thinks” that he is not there yet, and sends him in another direction? Unless the assessment is designed so that the student can take it multiple times, or it has loops that makes students go through all the questions but getting to them in different ways.
Natasha
Hi Natasha,
Thanks! I did allude to the time factor in creating branching options in my post, especially if he is not familiar with those technological capabilities. Even something as simple as testing that each possible route works is time consuming, let alone developing the content for them. As you say, it depends on the number of branching points and how elaborate the design of the quiz is intended to be. If he relied on something simple like a True/False model, he would only have to enter two feedback responses for each question; but again, these might not actually target what went wrong with the student’s response.
There is undoubtedly A LOT of assumption that goes into any form of online learning, both from teachers and from students. For example, I interpreted information incorrectly in the Assignment #2 criteria (despite reading it a dozen times) and have carried on with that assumption this whole past month as I developed the assignment. Without communicating that question, I would have never known the answer. And I’m glad that I did!
Likewise, if Boris never takes the time to ask his students what is going wrong in these specific situations, he’ll never really get better as an instructor. Identifying patterns of error and addressing those questions with kids is paramount here. Because he works in a blended environment, at least he could have the option to offer some extra Q&A and support options for his students, possibly getting feedback on these points to better understand his students’ needs. On the other hand, if these basic foundational skills are such a concern, he should find a way to make time in class. Burning through advanced content when such a basic skill is missing seems like setup for failure for both Boris and his students. After all, he has more luxury of flexibility than a purely online instructor would because of getting to see students face to face. But, playing along with the scenario, we do have to recognize that online solutions may be imperfect (especially in the beginning without prior testing or feedback from students), time consuming to create on our own, and needing regular maintenance to maintain relevancy to students’ needs.
Victoria