From what you’ve seen of the course so far and in the course outline, which of the assessment strategies in your reading this week are being used in this course? Which are not being used?
This fully online class centers around practically teaching students learning theories and strategies by allowing them to articulate their knowledge through creating an online resource for others to learn from with a team of their peers. This creative group assignment implements the authentic assessment strategy by allowing students to collaborate on a project similar to one they would find outside of the classroom. Working in groups creates an environment conducive to peer-to-peer teaching, further establishing this authenticity. However, although teamwork and replying to others’ blog posts is necessary, formal peer assessment is not a strategy of this class. This class also uses reflective strategies by requiring students to independently write blog posts to reflect on their learning.
What learning theories (from Week 1) do these connect to?
Behaviorism is the belief that consistent feedback is core to learning and growth. This classes implements behaviorism through the grading of assignments on brightspace.
Constructivism is the belief that students derive meaning from individual experiences with real-world contexts. This course uses constructivism through the assignment of group work with an open ended prompt.
Cognitivism emphasizes the use of existing knowledge to help students learn. By assigning students to create blog posts like this one, they are encouraged to explain their new understanding in a way that makes the most sense to them given their existing knowledge and experience.
How does it compare to other courses you’ve taken in your studies?
As a computer science student, most of my classes measure competencies through rigorous assignments with little room for error and examinations that rely on mostly independent study for success. This means that students are usually coerced into performing well by the threat of getting poor grades on their assignments, not necessarily by their own interest. I appreciate how this course acknowledges the flaw in traditional assessment systems as described in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfRALeA3mdU, and aims to establish a more dynamic approach to learning through self-directed group projects. Although some discussion between peers can be helpful in computer science and math classes, collaboration is usually discourage for the sake of academic integrity. I believe this fundamental difference in this class helps students learn much more effectively. Not only in their ability to learn from one another, but also in how they develop collaborative skills that are pertinent in the real world.
Reply to Ziming Dong’s blog post:
https://zimingdong.opened.ca/2024/05/25/blog-post-1/?unapproved=1&moderation-hash=1860f48e12cbed6c9580ad63183f9676#comment-1
27 May 2024 at 12:40 am
Alex’s article makes a lot of sense, first of all for this class we effectively used practice teaching, the professor only provided us with the basic ideas for our assignments, we needed to study the information provided by the teacher on our own while dividing up the work with our group members to achieve our goals. Also this is a new experience for computer students, we can avoid the harmful effects of traditional grading and make us understand more about what we need to learn through open-ended assignments.I look forward to working with group members on next week’s assignments and the brainstorming that will happen as we move forward.