The Medium Is the
Assessment By Andrew Vanden Heuvel, Michigan Virtual School Instructor
“Online instructors are the critical element to effective online teaching and learning,” said Jamey Fitzpatrick, President and CEO of MVU®. Just like in face-to-face teaching, online instructors must be engaging, knowledgeable and available. The author of this article one of Michigan Virtual School’s® two 2010 Online Teachers of the Year, Andrew Vanden Heuvel (Molly Bruzewski of Bay City is the other), is all these things and more. He represents the very best in what is a new and growing field, and is one of five finalists for National Online Teacher of the Year. Our online teachers truly believe all students can learn and they do a remarkable job of developing rapport with students they rarely get a chance to meet in person.
In 1964, Marshall McLuhan first used the phrase “the medium is the message” to describe the strong influence of technology on communication. In this article, I would like to coin a new phrase highlighting the importance of technology in data driven instruction: the medium is the assessment.
In a traditional classroom, data is typically recorded only through some sort of formal assessment. In a very real sense, the assessment is the data. But in an online classroom, there is a wealth of data – login
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times, discussion board posts, emails, page visits – all recorded automatically. There is so much data, in fact, that the teacher is often shielded from it, so as not to be overwhelmed. I would argue that just as the assessment is the data in a traditional classroom, the data can be the assessment in an online classroom. My hope for this article is that we can explore the full potential of the intrinsic data in our online courses, particularly how this data can help us assess our students with greater authenticity.
DATA IN HAND
One benefit of the online classroom is that most interactions (teacher-student, student- content, student-student) take place via computer and produce data. Even some of the most basic data, such as the time of day, can provide tremendous insight into student progress. Imagine how a time- stamp on all classroom activities could be used for formative assessment. What time of day (and on what days) are students accessing the material? How long are students reviewing content before taking a quiz or submitting an assignment? How much time are students spending on each question? Which students are working the slowest (or fastest) on any given lesson? Answering each of these questions provides insight into student performance and helps the instructor differentiate more effectively.
This type of formative assessment based on time data is currently used by online teachers, including myself. But I wonder what other types of assessment may be possible if we design our courses with data collection in mind. I believe we could move
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beyond assessing just content knowledge and begin quantitative assessment of additional indicators of student success such as perseverance, teamwork, and problem solving skills.
DESIGNING FOR DATA In many of the courses we offer at the Michigan Virtual School®, students are asked to meet certain mastery criteria. This means that students are offered multiple attempts without penalty to demonstrate their understanding. Consider what we may learn about our students (and our courses) if we carefully evaluated the data collected when students are offered multiple attempts to complete an assignment.
Tracking the resources that students use between attempts (and the resulting improvement in score) could provide insight into what content is most helpful to students struggling with a particular concept. The repeatability of students’ correct answers could shed light into how firmly the students grasp each topic. And the number of attempts and time between attempts could be indicators not only of students’ comprehension, but also of their perseverance.
In the courses we offer at Michigan Virtual School, we also employ tools for authentic student collaboration, providing opportunities for students to truly help one another learn and grow. In a math class, for example, students may work together asynchronously via a discussion board or in real-time with Adobe Connect. What might we learn about our students if we collected and evaluated data on their collaboration
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