Evaluation+Tools+Commonalities,+Differences,+and+Reflections

Evaluations make for a much better product. Regardless of when an evaluation is done, the most valuable information an instructor gains from an evaluation is what is working for students and what needs to be improved.

Viewing other teacher’s evaluation tools is a learning experience. The ultimate goal is to improve the weak parts of a lesson. Viewing the work of others enables teachers to see things they should have included but did not. As an educator, it is essential to be a lifelong learner. One of the best resources available is fellow teachers. Reviewing the work of peers helps teachers better themselves. It is also helpful for elementary teachers to see the language and wording the middle school and high school teachers use to introduce the students to that language.

Interestingly, the individual evaluation tools had several common features. Commonalities include clearly stated objectives, good lesson organization, clean interface, adequate resources, peer learning, and prompt instructor feedback. Clearly stated objectives are pertinent. Students need to know what, where, why, how, and how long they are going to learn. Ideally, the learning objectives should get students excited about what they are about to learn. Moreover, the importance of an organized and easy-to-navigate lesson is imperative to ensure student’s success plus diminish unnecessary research time. Research time is important, however, preventative measures need to be taken. In conjunction with good lesson organization is a clean interface. Students need colors to be visually appealing in order to see the lesson guidance. This follows web design instructional principles which play a major role in student’s learning. Students will feel discouraged to participate if the lesson is too crowded. They will feel lost and loose interest. Therefore, knowing this at hand when creating the online lesson is crucial. In addition, distance learning must provide students with valid resources. Students need to know where to go to find help. Furthermore, providing students with sufficient resources include differentiating instruction with them. For example, adding videos related to the content, video tutorials, visuals, concept maps, simulations, websites, graphic organizers, audio podcasts, and much more! Audio podcasts assist in having the convenience of downloading and listening to the lesson through the ipod or on the go. Thus, resources help to address multiple learning styles and multiple intelligences. Another commonality was learning from peers. There are numerous of perspectives in a classroom, therefore, the amount of learning is plethora! It is valuable and helps the students self-assess on the content or the high-order thinking. Coupled with learning, peers help motivate each other to continue their assignment, try harder, and not give up. As a matter of fact, in this peer collaboration study article, “students who turned to resources in their environment for support (tutor, peers, or members of their social network) seemed to overcome difficulties, but students who ended up dropping out of the course tended to remain isolated, trying to resolve their difficulties by themselves, and not resorting to their tutor, peers or social network for help” (Poellhuber, B., Chomienne, M., Karsenti, T., 2008, page 13 of 23). Lastly, prompting teacher feedback is essential. Students must know how they are doing, what they can improve, and what they are doing well. Consequently, teacher feedback helps motivate them. In the end, making of them lifelong learners!

Differences in the individual teacher’s evaluations were also noted. The main differences in all the teacher evaluation tools were assessing student to teacher communication and technology support. Regardless of the commonalities or differences among each evaluation tool as a whole each teacher learned something valuable from the others. Some evaluations asked specific questions while others included more general or open-ended questions. Most important is the feedback a teacher receives from students. The more feedback a teacher has the more improvement can be made in a lesson. According to this Assessment Approaches in Virtual Learning article, “One of the most useful impacts of assessment is learning improvement and it makes students to be accountable plus change student‘s attitudes toward assessment “(Rastgoo, A. & Namvaar, Y., 2010, page 1 of 8). Ultimately, learning from other helps to create the most effective, meaningful, engaging, and authentic distance learning lessons.

References

Poellhuber, B., Chomienne, M., & Karsenti, T. (2008). The Effect of Peer Collaboration and Collaborative Learning on Self-Efficacy and Persistence in a Learner-Paced Continuous Intake Model. Journal of Distance Education, 22(3), 41-62. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Rastgoo, A., & Namvar, Y. (2010). Assessment Approaches in Virtual Learning. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 11(1), 42-48. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

= Red Team =

Comments regarding any information that stands out || stood out the most for me. Therefore, I stand firm that every mind is a world of it’s own. || Instructor feedback is another common feature of all the evaluation tools. Without instructor feedback lets students know how they are doing. || I agree with Marisela on the technology support. My evaluation did not mention technology support. This is essential for distance learning. Students need to know where to go for help. Including assignments that address student learning styles is also a notable factor that was not included in all the evaluations. Student interaction and collaboration where evaluated with varying degree in each evaluation tool. Some evaluation tools were highly specific in regard to assessing whether or not students collaborated with each other, or how interactive learning took place. Others, such as mine only evaluated the overall interactiveness of the lesson. || The main aspect that stood out to me was the level of specificity in each evaluation tool. Some evaluation tools were very specific about what was assessed. For instance, one evaluation asked if the examples were easy to understand. I think the more detailed the questions are on an evaluation tool the better the feedback for the instructor will be. If the evaluations are too general not enough information is gained by the evaluation. || CLC member
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CLC member || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Comments on Commonalities in Evaluation Criteria || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Comments on Differences in Evaluation Criteria || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Reflection:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mandi Autry || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There seems to be a common thread that each rubric evaluates that the course objectives are clearly stated. This is so important as it lets students know what they will be learning an what is expected of them. Another thing noticed it that we mentioned course participation. I think from being apart of GCU we have all learned how important is it is be active participants in our learning. As well as posting to discussion questions where we learn so much from each other. || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Not all team members had a place for online communication to occur between students and teacher and students and students. || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It was interesting to me just to see the different levels of expectations. For my elementary students it is so important to keep them involved with games and videos etc. for the students in HS school and MS school I think those same extensions would be very helpful ||
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Marisela Alvarado || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I agree with Mandi. The importance of an organized and easy-to-navigate webquest is imperative to ensure student’s success and diminish unnecessary research time. Research time is important, however, we have to be so careful with this. In our case, we utilize net Trekker, and even then, we ensure we take preventive measures. Another commonality I noticed was ensuring to provide students with many resources (videos, visuals, links, etc) to best meet student’s learning needs, interests, styles, and engaging activities! || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The technology support was not included in everyone’s evaluation tool. I’m guilty. || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I learned so much by evaluating everyone’s webquests!!!!! I cannot believe how much I missed! I value evaluation much more! It truly is high-order thinking! My team included a plethora of information that is, oh so, valuable to me. It amazes me how much we learn from each other. That’s what
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lessa Eddleton || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The commonalities I see among the evaluation tools are the learning objectives, lesson organization, lesson resources, and instructor feedback. In all the evaluation tools, one of the grading criteria is that the lesson’s objectives be clearly stated. Students need to know what they are going to be learning. Ideally, these objectives should excite students about the content of the lesson. However, sometimes this is easier said than done. I found an interesting blog about why students need to know learning objectives prior to the lesson: Bottom-Line Performance The second common feature of the evaluation tools was lesson organization. Students, especially distance students, need a lesson that is easy to follow in a step-by-step fashion. It is extremely frustrating to students if they are not sure what they are to do. Not to mention, if a lesson is not well organized students are not likely to learn much from that lesson. Lastly, each evaluation tool assessed the lesson resources. Without good resources, learning is difficult if not impossible. In distance learning, the resources help students focus on the information necessary to successfully complete a lesson. Resource materials can also provide students with a means of formative assessment. For example, links to sites with games allow students to practice. The student will find out whether or not they are mastering what they are supposed to be learning.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sue Booth || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The basic similarities is that each assessment too wants to ensure that once the tool is used - the lesson that is being reviewed will either be recommended or sent back to the drawing board. Each tool provides a grading system that the author feels comfortable with. Each tool also provide for ‘comments’ from the person that is evaluating lesson. Any tool that is used to determine another tools merit needs to feel comfortable to the evaluator. If the evaluator is not comfortable answering or analyzing the questions, those feelings will be projected on to the evaluation tool; in the end, there will be a biased answer. || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The differences within the tools is the amount of white space. When I compare my assessment tool to my peers, my assessment tool feels a lot more cumbersome and more difficult to complete. || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Most assessment tools provide references where information was gathered from. I always tell my students that very little original work can be found and that references must be sited. It is not so much that information must be utilized word by word or phrase by phrase, but the acknowledgement that the reader has seen the information and sites the work read. Once acknowledge, the author can proceed with their own summaries. ||
 * || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Comments on what can be gained from reviewing individual evaluations || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Comments on how the evaluation criteria help in constructing distance learning lessons prior, during and after implementation. ||
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mandi Autry || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I think it is important to read evaluations to see things from a different view point. When only looking at our own work ideas we didn’t think of could be missed. || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The most important thing an instructor can take away from evaluations is what is working for their students and what needs to be fixed. ||
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Marisela Alvarado || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mine was realizing how incredibly much I missed! It was an eye opener :D || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I think that if we had created and evaluated our evaluation tools prior to creating the webquest, I would have been more careful on how I created my distance lesson. I saw this as the next thing to do and did not realize how important it is when utilizing it as a guide plus; for the life of me, I cannot see ahead! It drives me crazy! :D ||
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lessa Eddleton || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Reviewing others evaluations makes me aware of evaluation criteria I did not include but would be useful to my evaluation. In order for students, to get the most from a distance lesson it is crucial to get feedback from others. The more specific the feedback the more useful it can be in the design of the lesson. || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Prior to a lesson, evaluation criteria help to improve course design. Prior to implementing a lesson, if lessons are confusing or lacking key elements these can be changed or added. For example, if lesson instructions are unclear they can be changed before students undertake the lesson. Information gained during a lesson and at the conclusion of a lesson can guide any changes that are needed to improve future lessons. ||
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sue Booth || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Reviewing other assessments pays homage to education.Once an individual decides that they are in a vacuum and do not need other perspectives... that person truly needs to move one. I am always humbled when I review my peers work... it helps me to become a better writer, teacher and student. || <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Developing an assessment tool prior to a lesson or after always equals the same thing --- a much better product. ||