Distinguishing quantity from quality of posts in an evaluation
How do you engage students to distinguish between the importance of the number of responses and comments from the importance of the quality of the comment?
Are there any circumstances where the quantity of responses should carry more weight than the quality of responses?
William,
Just the number of posts does not tell you whether the students understand the concept being discussed. You are right that the depth and breadth have to be considered. Thanks!
William,
Quality is more important than quantity. That is true. However, we have to make sure students understand what is substantial. Thanks for adding to the conversation.
William,
Keeping the professionalism in the forums is great. It's important for students to see the discussion as a professional discussion. Thanks for brining this up.
William,
We do need to give flexibility to students in their posting, but make sure they are providing information that helps the forum become better and more substantial. Thanks for your input in this forum.
William,
Student participation is key to devleoping an engaging course. With their posts and "talking" back and forth with others and learning from others is key. Thanks!
It is true that many instructors just look for the number of posts made by the student it to the forum and assess their grade solely based on the number of posts. Obviously they need to look at the depth and breadth of the posts and its relationship to the concept being delivered as well as the recognition of their fellow classmates, and how they could be integrated into the concept being discussed during a particular week.
The quality of will post refers directly to the Substantive posting all subject related material regarding the concept being discussed that particular week in the integration of subject matter into the response to a fellow classmates previous post. Obviously this should be encouraged and naturally the post should be supported by a wrecking nice source; but there are times when working with different types of generations of students in that life experience as well as job related experience will often times suffice.
One thing that could be emphasized is that prior to creating the post in the online environment that the postage the composed in Microsoft Word and reviewed it edited so that when the posting does take place it is smooth, concise and free of grammatical and spelling errors. This brings about a higher level of professionalism as well as recognition within the group of fellow students.
As we look to the content of the post it certainly should be relative to the concept being discussed during that particulars week assignment criteria. There should be some flexibility permitted for individuals to voice in a constructive manner based on their life experience as well is education some direct did opinion as a pertains to the subject material. Often times this is discouraged in order to create a more formal posting effort by requiring that all post be supported by a sorcerer sourcing material.
Is extremely important that students participate in the overall conversational threads created within the form. The limiter has been the famous Substantive post, meaning that there post must be sourced and contain materials that add significantly to the forum topic. It could be better used if there is a substantial post required, but in the recognition of reading fellow classmates posts in making comments directly related to their posts may be more effective.
Hannah,
I use a rubric to assess the students' posts to make sure that are substantive. I also provide samples in the syllabus which show students good and bad sample posts.
I agree that quality is very important to take into consideration, but should we still give some weight to the fact that a student posts a lot of replies (many more than the requisite), even though the posts are not very substantive? Even the short and shallow posts still show that the student has read and thought about the original author's post.
Jeanette,
Yes, challenging to say the least. But, it's good to keep them on track and have examples of good/bad posts in your syllabus so they can see what's expected. I use a rubric to grade discussion board posts too and that helps. Thanks!
At times it can be challenging trying to keep students on track with their post. Often times I see them simply cutting and posting information that is not appropriate for the topic we are discussing. In this case I try to reiterate the topic.
Albert,
We have had good discussion via this forum on quality posts. Thank you all for your quality posts.
Brion,
I bet you are right in your thinking. I am sure at some point other online instructors simply gave credit to students for posting something - anything. Then, when you assess for quality, the students have a bit of a learning curve.
Brion and Albert,
Good point. Tha is for bringing that up.
Nice job.
Brion and Frank,
Excellent. Using your self- assessment technique of having students read their own posts is a good way for them to think about what they are posting. Thanks.
Albert,
Excellent. Keep up the quality aspect and you will keep getting better posts.
Nice job.
