Doug Blymier

Most individuals think that summative course evaluations basically provide feedback as to whether instructors:

• Are knowledgeable about the subject matter, 
• Communicate well, 
• Establish an appropriate grading schema,
• Are timely in their feedback, and
• Are excellent teachers.

There are three types of communication within an online classroom. They are:

1. Student-to-Content (S2C): Students will read, view, and listen to books, articles, videos, and recordings provided as part of the course content.
2. Student-to-Instructor (S2I): Students will communicate directly with the instructor and receive feedback from the instructor.
3. Student-to-Student (S2S): Students will engage in communication with their peers and even work on activities and assignments in groups.

Good things to remember to keep up the numbers and students active.

• Nine Events of Instruction 
1. Gain attention
2. Inform learners of objectives
3. Stimulate recall of prior learning
4. Present the content
5. Provide learning guidance
6. Elicit performance (practice)
7. Provide feedback
8. Assess performance
9. Enhance retention and transfer to the job

Instructors need to keep

components within their online learning environment:

• Expectations
• Activity
• Cooperation
• Interaction
• Diversity
• Responsibility

All audio or video files used must have captioning and written transcript. Be aware of these points:

• You should provide captioning and a written transcript for every component in the course retroactively;
• Transcriptions done after the fact can be time-consuming. Ask for help from the disability services office;
• Screen capture programs like Camtasia have built in captioning capabilities; and
• All external links to videos on the web must also have captions and transcriptions.
• Remove all formatting when cutting and pasting into Blackboard.
• Be sure to provide alternative ways to access the course content.
• When using discussion boards and live
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There are several things that the online instructor must keep in mind when putting materials online. They include:

• videos with audio must be captioned; 
• audio files need to have text transcriptions;
• images need alternative text or descriptions;
• color should not be used to convey meaning; and
• tables should include row and column headings.

Just because you post doesn't mean it is accessible. 

On top of planning our lessons we need to keep in mind th ADA,  Does the school provide those things listed below? I know most are trying to get away from supplying telecommunications products, paper for copies, and want to maintain a low budget.

 the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/). Areas which are covered by these national standards include:

• Software applications
• Operating systems
• Web-based internet information and applications
• Telecommunication products
• Video and multimedia products
• Scanners, copiers, desktop and portable computers

The real question is how can a… >>>

I would have not considered all of these to be disabilities,

Hidden disabilities include but are not limited to:

• Other non-defined disabilities
• Speech impairments
• Hearing impairments
• Health-related impairments such as Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI)
• Dexterity difficulties
• Diabetes
• Sickle cell anemia
• Epilepsy
• Asthma
• Hypertension

I know many people with diabetes and I consider them to be normal.

I find the following good questions to ask when designing a rubric,

To ensure rubric reliability, instructors should ask themselves the following questions as they are developing assessment rubrics and, if possible, test and re-test the rubric prior to implementation.

• Are all scoring categories well defined? 

• Are all scoring categories connected to learning outcomes? 

• Are all scoring categories associated with clear criteria?

• Are there clear differences between the criteria (i.e., expert, intermediate, novice)?

• Would two different instructors using the rubric arrive at the same score when assessing student work?

I think these are important steps when designing a rubrics.  The only question is who has the time?

1. Identify the type and purpose of the rubric. Consider the assignment/project and what you want to assess/evaluate and why.

2. Identify distinct criteria to be evaluated. Develop/reference the existing description of the course/assignment/activity and pull your criteria from your objectives/outcomes. Make sure that the distinction between the assessment criteria is clear.

3. Determine your levels of assessment. Identify your range and scoring scales. 

4. Describe each level for each of the criteria, clearly differentiating between them. For each criterion, differentiate clearly between the levels… >>>