[DG: Teaching & Learning] Teaching & Learning] Fwd: on templates (and assessment)

[Bruce D'Arcus]

Ken,

On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 4:58 PM, Kenneth Romeo <kenro at stanford.edu> wrote:
> Bruce,
>
> I think you are on the right track, but I think it extends beyond course
> templates.  This is an idea which seems to be included in what you wrote,
> but I wanted to emphasize that point.

Yes, definitely. I certainly am also imaging "portfolio templates"
that are equally "smart," built on similar ideas about assessment (and
to your point, activities).

> I would hope that we would be able to design something that, rather than
> just reflect the administrative needs of the institution, could begin to
> capture the creativity of instructional staff.  In my own teaching, I have
> found that the most basic unit of creativity is not the course, but the
> activity, which spans anywhere from several minutes to several class
> meetings.  Please pardon my examples from language teaching, but the
> structure of presentation courses I teach is completely different from
> listening courses.  And my colleagues, both in ESL and foreign languages,
> often take completely different approaches to structure in courses with the
> same goals.  However, because we teach language, there are often very
> similar approaches to activities:  small groups, real media, information
> gaps, simulations, etc.
>
> I have also had the opportunity to teach pedagogy courses for
> undergraduates, and I find that while they really find it difficult to grasp
> the factors needed to put together a whole course, they can really sink
> their teeth into an assignment that asks them to design a single 20-minute
> activity.
>
> Taking a step back, while we have many opportunities to do activities in a
> single course, we usually only get one opportunity a year to do any given
> course.  There is a lot of trial and error in teaching, even for those of us
> with lots of experience.
>
> I feel like an LMS should not just be a platform for delivering content to
> students, but for teachers to improve their craft and share it with others.

I very strongly agree with all of the above. Exactly!

FWIW, I also recently wrote down some concrete thoughts on learning
tasks/activites, that riff on some what designers have been working
on.

<https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/CONF2010/Rethinking+Learning+Activities+-+Taking+Action+on+User+Research?focusedCommentId=75665938#comment-75665938>

Does this resonate at all with your comments above?

> In pre-digital days, this was the teachers’ lounge and in-service days.  At
> the Stanford Language Center, we kluge it with Sakai sites that only have
> instructors as members.  I am still not sure what the best way to facilitate
> this sharing is, but I have a feeling that it looks something like a
> portfolio.  You should notice the shift here:  portfolios were originally
> designed for students to collect their work, but they might also be useful
> for teachers to assemble activities.  I realize that OAE may not immediately
> solve this problem, but I would hope that it will be able to move us forward
> just a little.

I don't do research in this area, so this is my own from my own
experience teaching, and of the possibilities I see in OAE (and some
understanding of the underlying technical constraints/possibilities as
well):

I think we probably want to put aside preconceived ideas of things
like "assignments" and "portfolios," and as you say focus on the
activities, and the learning context, and to make it super easy to
share stuff.

This goes back to some stuff I've posted on the ui-dev list recently
on "Learning from Google+", but concrete examples from my own
teaching:

There are five or six people in my department that teach the same
basic course, with the same stated learning objectives/outcomes. But
we have a really dim idea of what we each do, and it's really hard to
share. It happens informally in the hallway certainly, but I really
want to make it as easy to share and collaborate on  everything from
individual, simple, activities, all the way up to entire courses, with
my colleagues. I think OAE does that make that possible; just depends
on how it gets built out how easily.

Bruce

> Ken
>
>
>
> From: pedagogy-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org
> [mailto:pedagogy-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org] On Behalf Of Bruce D'Arcus
> Sent: Friday, July 08, 2011 2:27 AM
> To: pedagogy Learning
> Subject: [DG: Teaching & Learning] Fwd: on templates (and assessment)
>
>
>
> And because this touches on assessment/pedagogy in OAE, sending here as well
> ....
>
> Some context on a comment I just added to Confluence on "templates":
>
> <https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/3AK/Sakai+OAE+v1.1+progress+tracking?focusedCommentId=75666017#comment-75666017>
>
> .. which I've complained about a number of times in the past. In
> short, I'm suggesting OAE define a small number of discrete "template"
> concepts, and use the language consistently in communication.
>
> So the context is where I'm hoping to steer the notion of a "course
> template."
>
> A couple of people in the comp sci department at my institution (one
> of whom now works at Google) wrote a Ruby Rails LMS a few years ago:
>
> <http://www.cascadelms.org/>
>
> I would like to see some of their (tested) ideas on assessment make
> their way into OAE.
>
> In summary, in Cascade, a few of the core concepts are (maybe with
> slight tweaks in language to be more consistent with OAE):
>
> Outcome - a particular, itemized, learning goal
> Program - offers courses and defines ProgramOutcomes
> ProgramOutcome - high-level learning goals for a program
> CourseTemplate - a generic notion of a course (English 101), with
> defined outcomes
> Course - a specific course offering (English 101, Spring 2010, Dr. Jones)
> AssessmentItem - a task offered in the context of a course, and
> designed to achieve one or more course outcomes; includes assignments
> and tests/quizzes
> Rubric - a benchmark against which to assess the degree to which an
> outcome has been achieved (can be used in grading of course)
>
> So back to "templates." A CourseTemplate here is just a high-level
> description and list of CourseOutcomes, potentially with assignments,
> etc. It is not primarily focused on presentation (as I take current
> OAE course templates to be), but on content and pedagogy. These
> templates then get owned, and defined, by programs (they're too
> specific to be defined at the institutional level).
>
> CourseOutcomes can be linked to ProgramOutcomes, from one or more Programs.
>
> Rubrics categories can get linked to CourseOutcomes.
>
> All of these, then, can tied together in advanced Course and Program
> reporting.
>
> So to create a new Course, you can select a CourseTemplate, and have
> all of this prepopulated: outcomes, assignments, etc.
>
> This actually models quite well how actual course design and program
> work happens, at least at my institution. It also potentially could be
> used quite successfully to make life easier for students and faculty.
>
> While I see this is a direction OAE "templates" could evolve in, I'm
> not entirely clear.
>
> Either way, I think it would help to mint some discrete template
> concepts/terms for OAE, to more easily describe what they could and
> should be, how they should work, etc.
>
> Bruce