Engaging Learners with New Strategies and Tools

In an online learning environment its important that students are aware of the learning objectives and how grades will be issued. Online classes should be rigors and to create a environment of rigor its important to implement the 21st century skills and problem base learning.

Communication between the instructor and students should occur on a weekly basis this can be done in various ways such as discussion board and wikis. Collaboration is the key to all learning environments through the process of collaboration students are able to share the knowledge with others and gain new knowledge as well. All three components plays a role in keeping students engaged. 

Assessing Collaborative Efforts

         Based on this week’s learning, there are various ways to assess students in collaborative learning environments. The assessment tool should be fair and able to assess the learning objective. A rubric should be developed for each learning task. The rubric is a tool that will display to the learner the requirements of each assignment. It can be used a checklist for the learner and a way for the learner to assess their own work before submission. Rubric helps to eliminate any misunderstanding because all of the requirements are listed for the learner. According to Pallof and Pratt, “This activity not only provides a realistic picture of how a student interacted with course material and their peers, it also reduces the possibilities of grade inflation, dissatisfaction and grade appeals by providing evaluative material that is objective and quantifiable”(2005,p.44).  The instructor can take into consideration the amount of contribution the learner added to the environment and the quality of the work the learner produce when assessing collaborative assignments, but it should be listed on a rubric as well. The use of a rubric is one of the best tools to used helps to eliminate the possibility of being graded objectively.

        When groups are form for collaboration roles should be assigned to each group member. Each member knows his or her responsibility for the group assignment. The instructor should be aware of each group’s member role. The instructor should monitor each group member’s participation regularly. If necessary the instructor will have to address a students lacks of participation.  Swan states, “ make participation in discussion a significant part of the course grades”(2004,p.2).  If its stated that participation will be a major part of the student’s grade may courage students to participate more.  Since participation is part of the rubric the student grade will suffer due to the lack of participation.

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Swan, K. (2004). Relationships between interactions and learning in online environments. The Sloan Consortium.

StoryBoard Draft

http://www.scribd.com/doc/135282520/Storyboard-Draft