Project - Online Assessments Concept #4 - Automated / Objective Grading This sounds like the ideal scenario for grading considering the number of students enrolled in the course. In my opinion, this would be the best solution. However, one constraint you have not considered is the possibility of technical glitches with the website when thousands of students are working on it at the same time.
Feedback: Concept # 5 - High-touch While I like this idea in theory, there may be more issues that come up than the constraints you listed above. I think letting students decide what type of experience they want for the course can help with the grading. I would worry about how the group work would actually play out, specifically for an online course. How would the groups be assigned - at random or would you try to put people together from different backgrounds?
Concept #4 - Automated/Objective Grading Implementing an automated grading system for the Coursera course appears to me to be the most effective option. While a primary constraint of this option is upfront cost and set up time, the benefits of immediate feedback to students and minimal ongoing instructor or TA inputs provided balance to the pros and cons. Also, this option provides long standing benefits that go beyond just the upcoming course, and extend to any future offerings of the course. Minimal changes to quizzes and content might be necessary, but the major share of assets created could likely be used for the foreseeable future; this reduces the need for future time/$ investment. Comparing this option to a few of the others reveals additional benefits. This option applies to all students and not just those in a select tier. However, it does not eliminate the opportunity to develop a high touch program or case competition element to enhance the student experience.
Scale up the Status Quo: I'm not sure about the feasibility of this idea. While grading on a group level would reduce the amount of grading to be done, there still would be a massive amount of grading since there are also individual assignments. Additionally, as was mentioned, groupwork is certainly harder to do when group members are not at the same location. However, because of that, groups must innovate to figure out the best way to communicate with each other and get their group assignments done. So perhaps that could be portrayed as a learning experience.
Automated/Objective Grading: While at first I was hesitant about this idea and the feasibility of being solely objective in a class about innovation, I think it could work. For instance, our 101 Ideas assignment was predominantly about whether or not we completed the assignment--there was not particularly grading based on the content. In that same way, many of our other assignments are based on completion such as giving feedback to other groups. So, I believe that this idea is a feasible and reasonable one once the technology is in place for it.
Automated/Objective Grading: I think this is a great idea in terms of efficiency. Testing students' learning through common, measurable grading is very objective. However, the main constraint for this concept is a societal one. As Dave Owens and other corporations have taught us, innovation is a very subjective topic. Innovation can be measured in so many different ways that solely focusing on the understanding of basic methodologies and concepts does not give true value to the subject of "innovation". Given this, I think this approach may work better for other subject matters, but will struggle to truly measure innovation learning.
I think this concept would solve a lot of the issues involved in the Coursera grading. It removes the professor time contraints that this site provides. I also think that there would be an easy way to judge student participation in the discussion boards. And, other students could click on "I agree/I disagree" buttons and add their thoughts. Those students who had a lot of others agree with them would obviously had put a lot of thought into their submissions.
However, I don't think that objective quizzes adequately bring home the information that an Innovation class provides. Additionally, if students are aware that assignments are graded as completed/not completed, they may not put enough effort into satisfactorily completing their work.
Concept 3: This is definitely the low-hanging fruit when it comes to solving this problem. It has the benefit of saving stakeholders time and providing instant feedback. It also goes along well with the online nature of the course.
However, I would worry about whether or not the method of evaluation truly captures learning in certain classes. For a class like innovation, it's hard to measure whether someone is learning to be innovative with objective quizzes and the like. You could supplement with submitted projects, but I still might wonder if you are really measuring what the student has learned.
Concept 5 - If I'm putting myself in the position of a coursera student, I like having the options outlined in concept 5. Depending on the nature of the class, I might be more or less interested in really digging into the material, so having the option to choose my involvement level via different high touch vs. self guided tracks is appealing.
It doesn't necessarily solve all issues (what resources are available for the high touch track? what happens if there are a large number of students that choose the high-touch option at a given time? etc.), but I like the self-selecting idea as an underlying aspect of whatever solution your team comes up with.
Concept 4: This makes life easy for the professor as long as the software is without bugs. I think for a class of this size with students from all over the globe watching, this is a great solution. Quizzes may not work for all classes however. What about classes where there is no right or wrong answer to the question posed? This is part of what makes in class interactions so valuable.
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ReplyDeleteProject - Online Assessments
ReplyDeleteConcept #4 - Automated / Objective Grading
This sounds like the ideal scenario for grading considering the number of students enrolled in the course. In my opinion, this would be the best solution. However, one constraint you have not considered is the possibility of technical glitches with the website when thousands of students are working on it at the same time.
Feedback: Concept # 5 - High-touch
ReplyDeleteWhile I like this idea in theory, there may be more issues that come up than the constraints you listed above. I think letting students decide what type of experience they want for the course can help with the grading. I would worry about how the group work would actually play out, specifically for an online course. How would the groups be assigned - at random or would you try to put people together from different backgrounds?
Concept #4 - Automated/Objective Grading
ReplyDeleteImplementing an automated grading system for the Coursera course appears to me to be the most effective option. While a primary constraint of this option is upfront cost and set up time, the benefits of immediate feedback to students and minimal ongoing instructor or TA inputs provided balance to the pros and cons. Also, this option provides long standing benefits that go beyond just the upcoming course, and extend to any future offerings of the course. Minimal changes to quizzes and content might be necessary, but the major share of assets created could likely be used for the foreseeable future; this reduces the need for future time/$ investment. Comparing this option to a few of the others reveals additional benefits. This option applies to all students and not just those in a select tier. However, it does not eliminate the opportunity to develop a high touch program or case competition element to enhance the student experience.
Scale up the Status Quo: I'm not sure about the feasibility of this idea. While grading on a group level would reduce the amount of grading to be done, there still would be a massive amount of grading since there are also individual assignments. Additionally, as was mentioned, groupwork is certainly harder to do when group members are not at the same location. However, because of that, groups must innovate to figure out the best way to communicate with each other and get their group assignments done. So perhaps that could be portrayed as a learning experience.
ReplyDeleteAutomated/Objective Grading: While at first I was hesitant about this idea and the feasibility of being solely objective in a class about innovation, I think it could work. For instance, our 101 Ideas assignment was predominantly about whether or not we completed the assignment--there was not particularly grading based on the content. In that same way, many of our other assignments are based on completion such as giving feedback to other groups. So, I believe that this idea is a feasible and reasonable one once the technology is in place for it.
ReplyDeleteAutomated/Objective Grading: I think this is a great idea in terms of efficiency. Testing students' learning through common, measurable grading is very objective. However, the main constraint for this concept is a societal one. As Dave Owens and other corporations have taught us, innovation is a very subjective topic. Innovation can be measured in so many different ways that solely focusing on the understanding of basic methodologies and concepts does not give true value to the subject of "innovation". Given this, I think this approach may work better for other subject matters, but will struggle to truly measure innovation learning.
ReplyDeleteConcept 4: Automated Grading
ReplyDeleteI think this concept would solve a lot of the issues involved in the Coursera grading. It removes the professor time contraints that this site provides. I also think that there would be an easy way to judge student participation in the discussion boards. And, other students could click on "I agree/I disagree" buttons and add their thoughts. Those students who had a lot of others agree with them would obviously had put a lot of thought into their submissions.
However, I don't think that objective quizzes adequately bring home the information that an Innovation class provides. Additionally, if students are aware that assignments are graded as completed/not completed, they may not put enough effort into satisfactorily completing their work.
Concept 3: This is definitely the low-hanging fruit when it comes to solving this problem. It has the benefit of saving stakeholders time and providing instant feedback. It also goes along well with the online nature of the course.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I would worry about whether or not the method of evaluation truly captures learning in certain classes. For a class like innovation, it's hard to measure whether someone is learning to be innovative with objective quizzes and the like. You could supplement with submitted projects, but I still might wonder if you are really measuring what the student has learned.
Concept 5 -
ReplyDeleteIf I'm putting myself in the position of a coursera student, I like having the options outlined in concept 5. Depending on the nature of the class, I might be more or less interested in really digging into the material, so having the option to choose my involvement level via different high touch vs. self guided tracks is appealing.
It doesn't necessarily solve all issues (what resources are available for the high touch track? what happens if there are a large number of students that choose the high-touch option at a given time? etc.), but I like the self-selecting idea as an underlying aspect of whatever solution your team comes up with.
Concept 4: This makes life easy for the professor as long as the software is without bugs. I think for a class of this size with students from all over the globe watching, this is a great solution. Quizzes may not work for all classes however. What about classes where there is no right or wrong answer to the question posed? This is part of what makes in class interactions so valuable.
ReplyDelete