Week 05- Assessing Learning and a Learning Plan

I have spent a great deal of time developing a learning plan for this topic.  I have used a template I developed for Understanding by Design, used an ADDIE model assessment for what problem needs to be addressed, studied and synthesized common methods in constructivism, schema, scaffolded-learning, problem-based learning, learning for understanding, 5E’s and the Big 6 learning theories and models.  The more I studied them, the more I realized that I am in the perfect area of training to incorporate these ‘real-world’ situations to teach the relationships between Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – STEM -- the buzzword acronym in Career and Technical Education (CTE).  And that I have already been teaching in many of these ways.  Now I need to apply these models and methods completely and build many of these classes into online, distance education courses to better benefit students and to be more efficient.

Often we are afraid of stepping outside our comfort of being in the classroom and our already comfortable way of presenting.  We like being with the students, feeling like the ‘professor’, not changing (yes I am lazy, if left alone).  We are afraid that we will work hard at developing a course that makes us unseen and unimportant, that our loads will be increased and our pay and recognition decrease, that our job will be erased, that a person with little teaching skill will replace us, that the face-to-face will become space-to-space.  Are we afraid at times of technology, that we will become another app, just another download?  YES!!!

As we talk assessment, we need to have clearly in mind two things:  are we assessing important, real, valuable skills that an adult will need in their life, and is this assessment a valid measure of that knowledge?  I see things like ePortfolio, discussions, rubrics for self- and peer-evaluation as critical in developing critical thinkers.  We must also keep in mind the assessment tools and DRSL’s as we create the online course and activities that will lead to the assessable knowledge.  We must not just add activities to 'make it look cool or to have more is better'.