Hello, kairosnewsers:
I am working on a research project which involves learning about methods of assessing the effectiveness of e-learning tools, particularly socially-collaborative and "informal" learning tools. I am thinking community blogs, wikis, virtual worlds and such as well as platforms that combine all of the above and perhaps others. In other words, I am not interested in the type of electronic behemoths which are focusing on grammar drills and which are put out by all the textbook publishers. Here are some questions that I'd need to answer:
--design effectiveness
--measuring participation and interaction
--measuring the learning outcomes.
If anyone knows of any methods of doing that, could you please point them out to me.
Many thanks.
pz
Methods of assessing eLearning
You might consider the Flashlight Approach, a set of principles for formative evaluation of any technology, facility or resource used for learning:
http://www.tltgroup.org/Flashlight/Handbook/flashlight_approach.htm
The crux of the gist: whether you're talking about a campus or Second Life, its educational importance lies in ways that it make important teaching/learning ACTIVITIES easier or harder, possible or impossible. The learning outcomes stem from the activities, not from the facilities that support the activities. In other words, there are (at least) two sets of evaluative questions, not one:
a) how good is this facility at supporting the activities we want to carry out? what evidence could guide us to use facilities more effectively to support those activities?
b) how good are these activities at fostering the outcomes we want to achieve? What evidence could guide us so our activities are more likely to achieve those outcomes?
All of this is part of the Flashlight Evaluation Handbook, which contains hundreds of web pages of explicit advice, techniques, links to model research tools, etc. As a non-profit, we could do this work because of subscription fees from several hundred institutions over the last few years. If this looks good to you, we'd appreciate it if you'd try to get your institution to subscribe, so we can continue the work. The Handbook is just one of many resources we've created for assessment, faculty support, planning, etc. For example, we're now developing workshop materials to help faculty learn some new techniques for gathering evidence from their students in order to improve teaching and learning with technology in their own courses. The program is called, "Asking the Right Questions (ARQ)."
http://www.tltgroup.org/Flashlight/ARQ/Index.htm
Steve Ehrmann
**********
Stephen C. Ehrmann, Ph.D.
Director of the Flashlight Program for the Study and Improvement of Educational Uses of Technology
Vice President, The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Group
One Columbia Avenue
Takoma Park, MD 20912-4635.
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Thank you, Stephen
Stephen,
this is incredibly useful and detailed--thank you. Does anyone else have any suggestions.
-pz
Below, please find links to
Below, please find links to interesting assessment websites in education that may be of interest to you. If you know of other sites that would make good additions to this list, please contact Dr. Susan Platt. Send an E-mail to platt@csulb.edu.
nces.ed.gov
The website of the National Center for Education Statistics, which includes numerous statistics and sources pertaining to educational research.
aera.net
The website of the American Educational Research Association, which includes numerous divisions devoted to educational concerns at all levels.
crede.org
The website of the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence. A national institute of the Department of Education.
eric.ed.gov
The website of the Education Resources Information Center, sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education.
edtrust.org/edtrust/etw
The website of the Education Trust West, devoted to K-16 intiatives, state educational policy, and more.
cde.ca.gov/index.asp
The website of the California Department of Education.
ed.gov/index.jhtml
The website of the U.S. Department of Education.
http://www.edweek.org/
The website of Education Week and Teacher Magazine, a source for K-12 news and analysis, research, teacher resources.
gseis.ucla.edu/heri/cirp.html
The website of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, a national program for collecting assessment data in higher education.
ahe.cqu.edu.au
The Assessment in Higher Education website of Central Queensland University; provides links to online articles, books, journals, and other relevant information pertaining to assessment in higher education.
acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/assmt/resource.htm
Internet Resources for Higher Education Outcomes Assessment from NC State University.
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