Month: January 2019

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Reflections

What are 2-3 of the most important ideas that you have studied during this course?

The ideas that stand out are:

  • The continued need to give higher level feedback in an online setting. I can anticipate that it would be easiest to give level one type feedback, as it would be the easiest to give in a text based form. It it important to give feedback that encourages the learner to reach higher than their current level.
  • The approach of aligning the assessments to the outcomes. If you are aiming for more than surface level understanding, then it is best to align the outcomes so they reflect that.

What are 2-3 questions that you have as a result of this course? Identify ways that you can begin to answer those questions.

  • How willing are learners to engage in Socratic based questioning when taking an online, self-paced course?
  • How does the asynchronous nature of online, self-paced courses influence the feedback process?

I intend to answer these questions by engaging the students I will have in Socratic type questions. I will reflect on the students responses and any evaluations I receive. I will also ask my fellow open learning faculty their experiences when giving feedback.

Identify 2-3 specific goals that you would like to achieve in light of what you have learned about cognitive presence, approaches to learning, and feedback;

  • I will evaluate if my open learning courses intend outcomes are matched by their actual evaluations and assessments within the next 6 months.
  • I will explore different ways to give feedback other than text in an online setting over the next 2 months.
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Feedback – Please sir, can I have some more?

Are there any gaps between your practice of offering feedback to students and what Hattie recommends:

Oh I have no doubt there are some gaps. I imagine the largest gaps surface when trying to achieve the following two concepts:

1) Students from Socratic cultures “preferred more direct feedback particularly related to effort…and preferred more individual focused self-related feedback” (Sutton, Hornsey, Douglas, 2011, p. 8)

2) “The hypothesis is that it is optimal to provide
appropriate feedback at or one level above where the student is currently functioning” (Sutton, Hornsey, Douglas, 2011, p. 7)

I identified with these largely due to the idea trying to achieve them at the same time in my current teaching context. For one, I am usually teaching in a setting where the students vastly out number me and where time is limited. This makes it difficult for me to consistently individualize feedback on an on-going basis. Secondly, it is difficult for me to identify areas in need of feedback for each student. Generally speaking, my interactions with students are usually in the context of adding new content, information, or tasks. This often means there is little time for me to assess each students performance before moving on to something new. I could assess at a group level yes, but as explored but Sutton, Hornsey, and Douglas (2011), that has its own drawback.

In what ways can you improve the effectiveness of the feedback that you provide for your students?

I can attempt to improve my feedback effectiveness by continuing to incorporate the third feedback level of self-regulation.  namely phrasing feedback in a way that encourages student self-reflect and self-discovery.

In my experiences working with students during their clinical practicum, I have had multiple opportunities to work with students during different levels of mastery. Through these experiences I can relate to the feedback levels described by Sutton, Hornsey, and Douglas (2011). The feedback level of self-regulation was always the ultimate goal, as it aligned with the ultimate goal of  creating independent and reflective professionals. My ability to do this previously was supported by the reality that I worked with a low number of students and had a good amount of one to one contact. In moving to an online space this reality will change. I anticipate I will need to utilize more text based Socratic questioning to probe and identify where the student current is, rather than me provide the easier, but not as effective, level one feedback of task or product (Sutton, Hornsey, Douglas, 2011).

Hattie, J. (2011). Feedback in schools. In R. Sutton, M. J. Hornsey, & K. M. Douglas (Eds.), Feedback: The communication of praise, criticism, and advice. New York: Peter Lang Publishing. Retrieved fromhttp://visiblelearningplus.com/sites/default/files/Feedback%20article.pdf

 

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A SOLO approach to Pulmonary Function

The course I will examine as an example is that of Pulmonary Function Testing. This is a mandatory course within the Respiratory Therapy program. It was also taught be me last year between September and November, 2018.

What are the intended learning outcomes of the course?

– Understand the importance of quality control (QC) in pulmonary function (PF) testing and apply QC on PF equipment in the lab

– Analyze and interpret PF test results as obstructive vs restrictive

– Understand the purpose and significance of the various PF tests and how these tests aid in the diagnosis of lung diseases

– Safely, and according to ATS criteria, perform the following pulmonary function tests: test 1,2,3,4 ,etc (edited for this post)

Do the learning outcomes reflect high-level cognitive skills or low-level skills (pay attention to the verbs)?

– Analyze, apply, and interpret reflect higher-level cognitive skills. Perform reflects lower-level. Understand is more difficult to easily categorize, as I would argue it is vague and could be interpreted different ways. Robert may interpret it as memorizing or describing, where as Susan may perceive it as explaining or reflecting. If I had to decide I would categorize understand as a lower-level skill.

How is student learning assessed in the course (essays, quizzes, journals, machine-gradable tests, portfolios)?

– Examinations (multiple choice and short descriptive answers)

In what ways are the intended learning outcomes and the assessments aligned or not?

– Alignment would very much depend on the type of questions being asked. If the majority of questions only challenged lower-level skills then there would be mis-alignment. For example if the teacher wanted students to apply but asked questions where one could easily answer if one memorized the key points.

Identify 2-3 items or assessments that are worded in such a way that they limit students to a unistructural or multistructural response at best and re-write them so that they require a relational response at worst and include the results in your post.

– I would focus on the understand learning outcomes and try to add greater clarity. For example:

Compare and contrast between high and low levels of quality control (QC) in pulmonary function (PF) testing, and apply QC on PF equipment in the lab.

Justify the purpose of various PF tests and apply each in the diagnosing of particular lung diseases.

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My presence on cognitive presence

  • What do I know now that I did not know prior to starting the course

I didn’t know the percentage distribution of post according to the practical inquiry model. As measured by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2004), trigger phase having 8%, exploration phase having 42%, integration having 13%, and resolution having 4% is interesting.

  • What gaps or discrepancies do I notice between your ideas in post 1 and what I have learned in lesson 1?

Oh I get it;trying to make me reflect on my past to help me move to higher order thinking are ya! Nice try.

One discrepancy would be my response that engaging content was the most important aspect of online learning. It appears Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2004) placed more emphasis on the teacher and the processes they use to support students to critically engage with the content.

  • What questions would you like to explore on the topic of cognitive presence?

What processes do more successful online learning teachers take to encourage students to critical think and engage with content.

  • Provide and example of how you have seen effective cognitive presence modeled in online learning.

In one online course I appreciated when the teacher went beyond the general introductory step and directly responded to one of my posts. Seeing the teacher take time to comment to a level where it showed they actually read was appreciated. It made me more likely to put effort into future posts; if they cared than I would respond in kind.

Cael Field

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2001). Critical thinking, cognitive presence, and computer conferencing in distance education. American Journal of Distance Education, 15, 7-23. doi:10.1080/08923640109527071

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In the sea of Post 1’s, a new fish joins

How’s that for an interesting title! Darn right!

I think I will stick close to the suggested topics for this one.

Favorite vacation spot: I can not think of a favorite. Over recent years I have had the chance to go to a number of different places internationally and nationally. Each has something to offer, which is a joy of travelling I guess. I enjoyed Japan for its architecture and organization. I enjoyed parts of Africa for its people and rugged beauty. I enjoyed Croatia for its vistas and natural beauty.

Synopsis of last novel: Open recommendation from a previous teacher I grabbed The Tipping Point. Like many books around leadership I found it light on content but rich in contextual story telling. It used real world examples to put forth the idea that seemingly large sudden changes are often a result of a few key principles; the law of the few, the stickness factor, and the power of context. In other words:

  • Certain people, due to qualities and/or influence they possess, are often critical to spreading more so than a huge mass
  • While the content of the epidemic is important, what ever it is needs to be presented in such a way that it actually sticks with people. A key aspect being that whatever it is sticks enough that the person is willing/wanting to pass it on.
  • Still reading this chapter 🙂

Here’s a wiki summary that likely explains it better than I could:

http://www.wikisummaries.org/wiki/The_Tipping_Point#Chapter_3:_The_Stickiness_Factor:_Sesame_Street.2C_Blue.E2.80.99s_Clues.2C_and_the_Educational_Virus

What is the most important characteristic of high quality online learning environments?

  • Engaging content

Why?

  • There is never ending options for posting, sharing, blogging, forums, etc. The reason why I am in this place engaging in this activity is because I am interested in the content being discussed.

What is one thing I learned about about teaching in the last year and what was its impact?

  • My tendency to over-value covering new content over providing opportunities to practice content being covered. This has resulted in my constantly asking myself before moving on to the next topic, “how can I tell if students are actually learning what I am intending for them to learn?”

What questions do I have about online teaching and learning?

  • I question the impact that online blogs/forums/posts  have on the overall process. The more I participate in online learning environments, the more I believe that they are missing something . I don’t mind doing post like this, and I do wonder if it just a more elegant form of a lot of social media; breathe vs depth and shallow exposure vs deeper understanding.

I am interested in this course though. I would argue online learning environments are still in an early stage of development, so I am sure there are more perspectives I can learn from. I do believe in the power of online learning environments, and I am still trying to figure out how to best utilize them.

Cheers,

Cael Field

Showcasing: I liked this post as upon reflection, some of my initial ideas were supported in the following lessons.