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

[Bruce D'Arcus]

On Jul 8, 2011 6:39 PM, "David Goodrum" <davidgoodrum at rocketmail.com> wrote:
>
> Ken,
>
> I find your comments particularly insightful and building off of Bruce's
first comments, so a good interaction I hope persists and draws others into
the discussion.
>
> In the Design Lenses (http://bit.ly/sakai-lenses) the various facets under
Learning Activities might also help provide common reference points or
language to help shape the evolving discussion. And it would be great if it
resulted in some consensus input into the OAE project.

I keep forgetting about the lenses, but really shouldn't.

To bring this back full circle in terms of common language, would it be
possible and desirable to have a glossary of key OAE UI concepts explicitly
defined with reference to the lenses?

Bruce

> Regards - David
>
> On 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.
>>
>> 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.  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.
>>
>> 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
>>
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