Didactical Design for Online Process-Based Assessment in Teacher Education

This chapter reports on a research project in which a group of students in pre-school teacher education participated in an educational intervention based on the development of process-based assessment. A didactical design was developed and structured into three phases for supporting students in building formal knowledge from their prior informal knowledge. Moreover, the design was implemented in an online context that facilitated documentation and reflection. A qualitative approach was taken that aimed to understand the learning environment emerging from the didactical design through the use of technology by addressing questions about the teacher’s role, the learning process, and the assessment process. Data was collected through in-depth interviews and a questionnaire, which were analyzed through inductive thematic analysis. The concept of variation was used in the analysis of the student perspective on the didactical design. The results indicate how the concept of variation was helpful in highlighting the underpinning affordances and constraints of this environment and the associated social relationships.

Peer Feedback for Enhancing Students’ Project Development in Online Learning

The use of peer feedback is a strategy for online educators to facilitate collaboration among students and increase critical reflection. Through the well-designed use of peer feedback, students can, with help from other students, master concepts and ideas that they cannot understand on their own (Lu & Bol, 2007; Vygotsky, 1978). The process of giving and receiving peer feedback closely resembles professional practice (van den Berg, Admiraal, & Pilot, 2006; van der Pol, van den Berg, Admiraal, & Simons, 2008) and helps students develop life-long skills. This case study describes the use of peer feedback in an online graduate practicum course to support students and increase their exposure to different educational environments. It includes suggestions for effectively using peer feedback in online courses.

Using Blogs to Journal, Document, and Create Community

This chapter describes a case where learning and assessment were centered on the use of an online blog for sharing ideas; logging progressive details of an emerging artwork; providing supportive comments and advice from both teacher and fellow students; as well as, unexpectedly, creating a very strong community of practice. The case study discusses the reasons for choosing the blog tool, the features of the chosen blog tool, the elements of the assessment task, the outcomes of the learning activity, the supporting materials required for the successful execution of the task, and the responses to the task from the students through student surveys. Other issues this case study addresses are considering assessment tasks for the specific needs of students and assisting students who are reluctant about using technology. The chapter presents a positive argument for using a blog tool for reflective practice and students chronically documenting a progressive task.

Technology

Collaboration is an important aspect of how our world functions today and an element at the core of rich learning opportunities. The role of educational institutions is one that provides provoking settings so that learning is deep and sustained well beyond the classroom walls. Learners are currently in a paradigm where they are able to learn at all hours of the day; they are no longer in a framework where learning is exclusive to a classroom. Teachers and students at The Bishop Strachan School are exploring this through the various uses of teaching and learning strategies and enriching these strategies with Web 2.0 applications. This chapter will present early explorations in the school with Wiki pages, social networking tools, such as NINGs, interactive timelines, and real-time applications, such as Google apps. Each of the cases provides an authentic learning experience for students and moves the student’s work out into the world.

Teaching a YouTube™ Course Online

This chapter presents a case study of the author’s work developing and teaching an online course called YouTube for Educators, which is offered as an elective in an online graduate program in educational technology. The course was developed in response to the upsurge in online video production and the prominence of YouTube™ among video-sharing services. A number of challenges surfaced when designing and implementing the course. The necessity of frequent curriculum updates to keep content current with advancements in digital video technologies added to instructor workload. Course policies also had to be written for situations where unexpected changes on the YouTube website interfered with planned assignments. The experience of designing, teaching, redesigning, and re-teaching the course led to the discovery of best practice, which may apply to other courses featuring rapidly changing content or Web 2.0 tools.

Constructing a Working Life-Oriented Model for Online Course Modernization

Working life should be more actively integrated in higher education as a partner in education design. The e-Learning of the Future project (2009–2012, ERDF) meets work-oriented online education development challenges through working life mentoring that utilizes social media. In the project’s operational model, educational technology experts design and develop teaching in online courses collaboratively with higher education instructors and working life experts. This chapter examines how development of the model was initiated and what problems and challenges emerged. The study will help to establish directions on including working life in online education development through a virtual media laboratory. The model’s use in updating online courses to produce authentic content appears promising. The following critical factors, however, can be found when implementing the model: 1) structuring of the modernization process, 2) supervision of an online interaction process between modernizers/actors, and 3) finding a meaningful role in the process for the working life mentors.

Using Web for Delivery of Open and Distance Learning Programmes

This case study focuses on the usage of Web as a delivery mode for open and distance learning programmes in India. It describes the designing and delivering of a postgraduate level academic programme at Indira Gandhi National Open University. The university has been struggling with teething problems tied to the initial stage of acquisition of an online learning platform. It is a bit of an extensive chapter, as it documents academic and administrative policies being practiced by the largest university in the world to overcome these problems. The objective of this case study is to reflect on the evolution process and to identify conducive factors for successful delivery of online programmes. The interpretative case study methodology also facilitates distinguishing the evidence-based best practices. Access to technology and its robustness are the main constraints in delivery of education through online platforms for any developing country. The online programmes are able to attract a good number of foreign students. The institution has to concurrently put in place a policy framework covering aspects like: friendliness to the online interface; standardization of design, delivery, and assessment of the online programmes; recognition to the teachers and administrative staff involved in online programmes; and the use of open educational resources. This case study provides valuable insight for foreign universities ready to plunge into the vast higher education market in India and other developing countries without crossing political borders. It is also very helpful for universities, which are either planning or in the initial stage of acquiring online learning platforms.

Google Docs in Higher Education

It has been determined that students at the School of Education, University of Western Sydney (UWS) are widely spread throughout the Greater Western Sydney (GWS) region and that many have competing schedules due to being enrolled full-time in a course and having a full-time job (Martinez-Fernandez, Rerceretnam, & Sharp, 2006). This makes group assignments a time-consuming task, and in many cases, group work and collaboration does not occur in an optimal way. Recent research has discussed the case for wikis as collaborative learning tools in education, and some has explicitly focused on the use of wikis in completing group projects (Bold, 2006; Parker & Chao, 2007). However, the use of Google Docs in a tertiary educational setting remains largely unexplored in the literature; even though the collaborative features of wikis and Google Docs are relatively comparable. In this regard, the authors identified a potential use of Google Docs to improve group assignments, allowing the students to interact and collaborate online, thus enhancing their learning experience. They set up three different scenarios including nine lecturers (unit convenors and tutors) in order to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of including Google Docs within units taught at the School of Education. Preliminary data (collected over four consecutive semesters and featuring online survey responses of 963 students) showed a potential use of Google Docs to facilitate group assignments, to share information between students and academics, and to gather information via online surveys. The authors believe this powerful online application can be an excellent resource to overcome students’ isolation and engage them in online knowledge construction.

Lecture Capture as a Tool to Enhance Student Accessibility

This case examines the incremental introduction of lecture-capture as a learning technology at a research-intensive university with the goal of addressing issues created by increases in both undergraduate enrolments and disability accommodation needs. This process began with podcasting lectures, leading ultimately to a lecture capture system with closed captioning. At each step, the changes were evaluated in terms of their impact on student learning, acceptability to students and faculty, and application to different disciplines. This evidence-based approach is in keeping with the research culture of the academy and has been helpful in advocating for budgetary support and encouraging faculty participation. As a result of this project, the authors unexpectedly gained substantial knowledge about the complexity of students’ lives, the impact of that complexity on their approach to learning, instructor misperceptions about the impact of this form of learning, the presence of many unreported disabilities, and the many different ways in which students used the system.

Attitudes towards Diverse Learners

University educators are often faced with the challenging task of equipping both pre-service and in-service teachers with the knowledge, skills, and resources to effectively teach diverse students. It becomes even more problematic to teach mathematics when using a problem solving approach where mathematical ways of knowing are emphasized. These teachers tend to believe that mathematics is “just numbers,” “speaks a universal language,” is “culturally neutral” and has no relevance whatsoever with social issues that affect students. Coupled with this is the mistaken belief that “people know or don’t know math.” Pre/in service teachers, often meet the notion that math literacy can be achieved by all learners with skepticism and patronizing behaviors. However, given the space to step outside the classroom, talk with peers, and argue with veteran teachers, a shift in attitude about the potential for diverse student potential is self-evident. These preliminary findings were assembled when a hybrid course that enrolled eight pre/in-service teachers was developed.