Reflect: Review the (9) nine data image artifacts from this lesson on student enrollments, student progress, communication and feedback in the course. What can you learn about the hypothetical instructors course from each of the (9) nine data images?
From the images, I've been able to determine:
Answer: Based on your analysis of the (9) nine data images, how might the teacher adjust the course in the future based on the previous activity of these students? What other uses does data have for online instruction? What advantages do teachers who utilize data have over those that do not?
The SIS gives the instructor a lot of valuable tools for identifying the individual needs of their students (IEP/504, gifted, etc). The LMS provides valuable data for monitoring the progress of all these students and how they are interacting with the content. Both sets of information (student needs and student progress) are important pieces in the puzzle of assessing student growth. So how can we use that data?
Having the information on student needs (IEP/504, gifted) helps the teacher prepare to differentiated content, instruction, and assessment. It may be used in personalizing the student's experience with the content to include more supports or more enrichment. Having information on student progress and student engagement would be helpful in evaluating the efficacy such instructional plans and assessments.
I found the images showing type and frequency of student usage very interesting. I have similar reports available in one of the online learning tools I use (USATestprep), but it is no where near as detailed as some of these. Viewing how many KB of data has been accessed and seeing the color coding for high/low usage shows that some students are obviously logging on frequently and doing their work in consistent chunks. Others are logging in and working sporadically. Others are not doing much at all. All of these factors are valuable information for assessing student engagement, identifying students' learning styles, identifying needs for intervention, and making decisions on instructional delivery and pacing.
Potential questions data makes us consider:
Are there concepts in this unit I should review in my next synchronous session?
Should I find another interactive learning object to replace the one I'm currently using?
What's another learning support I could include in this segment?
Why did students move so quickly through this module?
Should I pick up the pace or slow down?
The images in the section titled "Students Monitoring Their Own Learning" were impressive tools. The title itself is a goal I believe all teachers should strive to meet. I have said for years that kids in my traditional classes are fluent in "points" and "grades" but they don't speak or understand the language of mastery. They can tell you to the second decimal point what their grades are, but they can't always tell you why their grade is what it is. They can't always articulate (or even determine) what they know and what they don't. Drives. Me. Bonkers. But a lot of that is because of our flawed system of giving points as through they are feedback. As I've said before, grades alone make terrible teachers; good teachers provide descriptive feedback that considers the whole child and the whole course.
I believe I've made strides in my own classroom to help students migrate toward self-monitoring by using some of the strategies shown here, such as making the feedback more specific and descriptive. I've also made it a point to take time to discuss their time management and the time spent on assignments when discussing the outcomes. Reports like what I've seen here would be perfect for helping with this issue.
As I've said recently, I haven't always made data such a priority. But using data to assess our students and to assess ourselves is a crucial part of being an effective teacher. The only way to teach our students in a way that is effective, meaningful, and fair to them is to get to know them, and that means using the data we have. In a totally online classroom, that's almost the only way we can get to know. My point: teachers who use this data deliver more meaningful instruction that is tailored to the diverse needs of their students. Teachers who don't are throwing content out there and hoping it sticks.
From the images, I've been able to determine:
- the teacher has over 160 students to keep up with (WOW! And I thought my 120 was a lot)
- the teacher makes communication a high priority
- the teacher strives to include descriptive feedback on assignments, not just scores
- the teacher communicates regularly with all students and with individual students
- the teacher has an awesome SIS that generates a communication log (jealous — wish my SIS did that)
- the teacher does a great job with differentiation
Answer: Based on your analysis of the (9) nine data images, how might the teacher adjust the course in the future based on the previous activity of these students? What other uses does data have for online instruction? What advantages do teachers who utilize data have over those that do not?
Having the information on student needs (IEP/504, gifted) helps the teacher prepare to differentiated content, instruction, and assessment. It may be used in personalizing the student's experience with the content to include more supports or more enrichment. Having information on student progress and student engagement would be helpful in evaluating the efficacy such instructional plans and assessments.
I found the images showing type and frequency of student usage very interesting. I have similar reports available in one of the online learning tools I use (USATestprep), but it is no where near as detailed as some of these. Viewing how many KB of data has been accessed and seeing the color coding for high/low usage shows that some students are obviously logging on frequently and doing their work in consistent chunks. Others are logging in and working sporadically. Others are not doing much at all. All of these factors are valuable information for assessing student engagement, identifying students' learning styles, identifying needs for intervention, and making decisions on instructional delivery and pacing.
Potential questions data makes us consider:
Are there concepts in this unit I should review in my next synchronous session?
Should I find another interactive learning object to replace the one I'm currently using?
What's another learning support I could include in this segment?
Why did students move so quickly through this module?
Should I pick up the pace or slow down?
The images in the section titled "Students Monitoring Their Own Learning" were impressive tools. The title itself is a goal I believe all teachers should strive to meet. I have said for years that kids in my traditional classes are fluent in "points" and "grades" but they don't speak or understand the language of mastery. They can tell you to the second decimal point what their grades are, but they can't always tell you why their grade is what it is. They can't always articulate (or even determine) what they know and what they don't. Drives. Me. Bonkers. But a lot of that is because of our flawed system of giving points as through they are feedback. As I've said before, grades alone make terrible teachers; good teachers provide descriptive feedback that considers the whole child and the whole course.
I believe I've made strides in my own classroom to help students migrate toward self-monitoring by using some of the strategies shown here, such as making the feedback more specific and descriptive. I've also made it a point to take time to discuss their time management and the time spent on assignments when discussing the outcomes. Reports like what I've seen here would be perfect for helping with this issue.
As I've said recently, I haven't always made data such a priority. But using data to assess our students and to assess ourselves is a crucial part of being an effective teacher. The only way to teach our students in a way that is effective, meaningful, and fair to them is to get to know them, and that means using the data we have. In a totally online classroom, that's almost the only way we can get to know. My point: teachers who use this data deliver more meaningful instruction that is tailored to the diverse needs of their students. Teachers who don't are throwing content out there and hoping it sticks.
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