My reflection includes the list of Opportunities and Challenges that I listed in my previous post in the discussion forum with revisions/additions – it’s a reflection after all!
Assessment Tools – My Reflection
The quiz I set up on my Moodle is for my grade 12 Applied Math 30 class (Alberta Curriculum). The purpose of the quiz is to assess my students’ understanding in the Sinusoidal Data & Patterns unit, to direct my students learning: identify any misconception students may have and to provide students formative feedback as to why the chosen answer is wrong, or to reassure that the chosen answer is correct. “Successful learners most often rely on assessment deadlines and activities to both pace and direct their learning”(Jenkins, 2004, p.67).
Students will receive immediate feedback and a mark upon the completion of the quiz. By identifying their strengths and weaknesses in the unit early, students can better allocate their time, and use the formative feedback to guide their review for the upcoming unit test (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004). This is highly motivating for students to receive feedback so they know where to improve, helps keep them organized and keeps them continually participating in the learning activities. The process of conveying explicit criteria through feedback helps students to internalize the expectations they have to aspire to (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).
So, what did I get out of the whole process…
I’ve taken a two day Moodle in-service through my school division last fall but not having the time until now to play with it and learn what Moodle has to offer. I’ve read all about it – I know what it’s supposed to be able to offer. Well, despite all this ‘knowledge’, I had to pretty much experiment on my own. Trial and error eventually worked with lots of bumps and “aha!” moments along the road. I do appreciate the guidance and one-on-one tutorials that people from our class are so generous with their time to help some of us beginners. It’s my job now to play with it and figure it all out so that I can have somewhat of a course built by February.
I realized that after I got the hang of it and I figured out the limitations of each of the types of questions, it went much smoother. I’m excited to get to it and build my course!
The following are the Online Assessment Opportunities and Challenges that I face as a Math teacher:
| Opportunities: |
| 1. Digital Repository of Questions – Test Bank I really like the idea of creating a test bank in my Moodle course. The functionality in Moodle allows me to either “Add” or “Remove” questions anytime and save them all in a digital repository or “test bank” that I create myself. Moodle also randomizes the choices so that the answers are not always the same pattern. It is a typical habit of mine to create the distracter answers to each question so I really like the ability, in Moodle, to be able to give a written explanation as to why the answer is a distracter and therefore not correct. I believe this type of formative feedback is essential in providing opportunities for student learning and success. Since our Grade 12 curriculum will be changing over in two years and I only have 2 more years (4 semesters) left of teaching the current grade 12 Math 30 Applied curriculum, I like the idea of being able to customize my course and add, adapt, change my assessments. Once my test bank is semi-created (I think creating/adapting will be a continuous process) I can select the appropriate questions to change my assessments when the curriculum changes. I don’t have to start from scratch, I just have to reorganize what is already there – how great is that, this affordability really excites me! |
| 2. Student Activity Tracking I like the idea of being able to track my students’ progress and activity through the Administration Reports and through the Grader Report in the Grades Section on the left panel. I can weigh quizzes differently, and assign participation mark individually with these features. |
| 3. Functionality of Moodle Quiz After a couple hours of Moodle quiz, I can insert an image, create a table, or even embed a YouTube link into the quiz (if I find the right one – lol). This is especially handy for grade 12 Math when many of our concepts are highly visual and require graphical representation either through pictures or simulations. For example, the three highly visual units this affordance would be most advantageous for include: Vectors & Trigonometry, Sinusoidal Data (Cyclic & Recursive) and Fractal Patterns. This feature certainly provides many opportunities for my students and I to explore the different types of problems using visual representations and simulations where possible. It just takes time to develop these learning tools at first.
|
| 4. Time – Asynchronous Communications & Timely Formative Feedback The feature that I like most is the ability for teachers to provide timely formative feedback by replying to students work, quizzes, and discussions. This allows me to spend more time facilitating the class and be able to trouble shoot by answering students’ questions as they arise so that they don’t pile up and become unmanageable like poor Trinh. By being able to respond in a timely manner, this facilitates and models the asynchronous communication process from teacher to student and helps model good teaching presence online. By students helping each other in the discussion forums, they develop and model good social and cognitive presence while they work together through problems. I love this part, it’s so empowering for students to help each other! Anderson agrees: “teaching involves devising and implementing activities to encourage discourse between and among students, between the teacher and the student, and between individual students, groups of students, and content resources” (2008, p.345). |
| Challenges: |
| 1. Time It takes an incredible amount of time to create assessments and input content in online environments. It can cause extreme frustration and cause some to “abandon ship”. I do see why many teachers have avoided “doing the online thing” meaning creating their own course – because it’s extremely time consuming and so much to learn! |
| 2. Feedback Although it is easy to identify mistakes in process and calculations, it is difficult to provide quality feedback to students in mathematics as the answer can only typically be right or wrong, except in those instances where there are two or more possible answers. |
| 3. Metacognitive & Critical Thinking Skills – Are they possible with Moodle options? As a math teacher, I would see myself creating quizzes most of the time using “Calculated”, “Numerical”, “Matching” and “Multiple Choice”. It is important for me to remember to scaffold some of the questions to elicit metacognitive and critical thinking skills. This is not always easy in Moodle as most of the quiz options are easy recall answers. In Math though, our multiple choice questions are becoming more like a 2 or more step more process, short answer question. In these cases, I think we get closer to tapping in to the critical thinking but otherwise many questions are fact, recall and minimal calculation. |
| 4. Assessing Short Answer Questions & Essays in Moodle It is also difficult to assess students’ understanding in the “Short Answer” question as it is difficult to mark the steps involved in their calculations. If a student accidentally leaves a space between two answers (some questions do have two different answers) the system wouldn’t consider it as a valid answer and would mark it as incorrect. The “Short Answer and Essay” type questions also limit the variety of the questions a Math teacher can ask. |
| 5. Accountability It is possible for students to hire a tutor to do the quiz for him/her. However, in Alberta, at the end of the grade 12 courses there is a diploma (provincial) exam worth 50% and their marks are subjected to investigation if a huge discrepancy should arise. With this deterrent, I wouldn’t worry too much about the reliability and security issues. There shouldn’t be an easy way for a student to hack into the Moodle system and see the questions before the actual quiz time. |
| 6. Technical Difficulties and Accessibility – may impede the use of online assessment tools Instability of internet connectivity and personal competencies with computers may discourage some learners from using online assessment tools or enrolling in online courses to begin with. |
| 7. Math Symbols – Challenging on a computer, Possible in Moodle? Well, I’m still trying to answer that question, typing Math symbols on a computer is definitely not an easy or enjoyable experience! I find that cut & paste from a Word doc works best but not very friendly to edit once in Moodle. Still working on this one! |
And finally, I’m looking forward to learning more about the Assessment features in Moodle and surviving in this online teaching world! In Anderson’s words: “during this period of creation and adoption of new learning contexts and tools, the effective online learning teacher must have the type of resilience, innovativeness, and perseverance typical of all pioneers in unfamiliar terrain” (2008, p.360). Exciting times indeed!
Cheers,
Evonne
References
Anderson, T. (2008). Teaching in an Online Learning Context. In: Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F.
Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University. Ch14, p.343-365.
Chickering, A. & Gamson, Z. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7.
Gibbs, G. & Simpson, C. (2004). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(5), 3-31.
Jenkins, M. (2004). “Unfulfilled Promise: formative assessment using computer-aided
assessment.” Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, i, 67-80.