I like using portfolios because it is a way to determine what students think is important regarding learning in the course.
It is important to make sure you receive feedback from all stakeholders.
It is important to revise your course to optimize student participation and success.
It is important to evaluate your course for effectiveness. There are multiple ways to do this. We want to "close the loop" and ensure that assessment guides instruction and instruction lends itself to assessment.
I learned that you must be familair with the process to revise a course. There are mulitple things involved in revising a course. You need input from all stakeholders. You must take inconsideration the feedback from students, peer to peer evaluations, exams, and rubrics information.
I always evalaute my course at the end of the year and look at what works and doesn't, but I do not do so in a very calculated way. It's more a mind reflection. I like the idea of using more concrete methods for self evalluation coupled with the student feedback which I also do already.
The comment about students aren't the best source of data for determining course content and design should be in bold letters on a screen by itself. I see to many institutions putting disproportionate weight on student evaluations. The students may have a sense of what they want to learn or think they should learn that may not have any basis in reality. Multiple data sources are important for driving curriculum development and should be part of an ever evolving curriculum.
Our program utilizes input from the industry we serve and peer review as the driving force for curriculum development. Student job placement and success in their transition to the work force is also important.
evaluating your coarse will be based on how well students did and letting peers evaluate your coarse as well
I will need to continuously review and reflect on the courses that I teach and include multiple sources and types of evaluations. It will also be important for me to keep up with changes in technology.
It takes more than type of evaluation to assess your course. It is very important to get these evaulations so that you are able to make your course better for online learning for your students.
When evaluating anything it's good to have the benefit of another set of eyes. Often when creating a tasks I'll let several persons look at it and do editing or see if they can the determine the desired outcome before I even present it to the students. The very circustances of this pandemic makes me satisfied with the fact my students were familiar with the Google Classroom and other platforms so they could utilize it to finish their class requirements. Even myself I reflect on what I could have done to reach even higher with a goal.
Using multiple evaluations is better
I learned that I must do course revisions periodically. I must use multiple sources of data, appropriate sources of data, multiple evaluation methods, and I must integrate both quantitative and qualitative data to close the loop.
Being evaluated can be difficult because we are vulnerable. I learned that this process is essential. We need to be open to evaluations to see areas of strenght and weakness. Students are the consumers and their voices are important in shaping the design of the course. I also liked having peers evaluate your course and provide feedback to improve.
I learned that evaluations are very importanat feed back so you can modify your on line teaching formats to perfection.
Multiple different sources are best when evaluating student work and growth.
The last page of the lesson gave some good assessment ideas and links to websites that may help. I particularly like the idea of the 1-minute question where students write on what they've learned - put it into words and stress details. (I teach math.)
It's important to use several evaluation tools to improve the course.
I have always analyzing grade distributions on assignments, tests, and the course to determine if there any issues in my implementation of content. I have found student evaluations after the course is over less useful than feedback during the course. So, making students feel comfortable enough to provide honest feedback is important.
It takes multiple evaluations from multiple sources in order to close the loop and make your course better.
