Online discussions and rubrics

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  One way to establish community in an online class is to require challenging discussion questions. These questions should test whether the students have read the material, but also if possible allow them to apply to their own life. It is not always easy to develop good discussion questions.  

There is a big discussion in online teaching as to whether the discussions should be set up so that most students get full credit, or if the discussions should require research.  If you do require research it is a good idea to ask the students in their initial post to cite references.  Creating good discussion questions is an art, but you do get better as you teach. I am still learning. 

Rubrics are important in grading any work, but are especially helpful to you and the students for group work grading. I like rubrics that go from high to low. I also like rubrics that are not too complicated – no more than 5 categories. In advanced classes I grade using the rubric, and give my grade with the rubric to the student. It looks like this:

Rubric category 1 ( I copy it from the rubric)

·         Points

·         My comments in red

Rubric category 2 (Copied from the rubric)

·         Points

·         My comments in red

That takes a lot of time, but students do see why they got the grade they did

Using the Blackboard Assignment Tool

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The Assignment tool is, without a doubt, THE MOST DIFFICULT TOOL TO FIGURE OUT IN BLACKBOARD. It is powerful, however, it is tricky. It is also confusing to grade. It is suitable for short essays and papers, not quizzes or discussions.

You can weight grades. You do this through the grade book. There is an option at the top of the grade book to weight each grade individually.

Once you get the purpose and the way to handle this you will be fine, but is not intuitive. It is not intuitive for the students either. You will help your students when you give good directions.

Also – you can give feedback with your grade. I don’t know if students look at the feedback, but you can give it to them.

 I now realize I need to tell students where to find the Grade book.

1.      What type of comments should be in the instructor reply in the Blackboard assignments? I would say anything you would normally tell the students in a face-to-face class. If you have them upload a file with their answers then you can use the “track changes” feature of Word (it’s under the Review button in Word 2007) to comment inside the paper. Then you upload the paper for them. Alert them that the Blackboard Assignment is there. You need a calendar somewhere in the course that gives dates needed. You can include an announcement about the assignment. Unfortunately, announcements are often missed. Be sure to move the current announcement to the top of YOUR announcements (just use the little numbered box in front of the announcement) but the institution will always be able to put an announcement higher than yours.  

2.      Warn students about the ! so they don’t think it is a 1. One student was very upset that I only gave her a 1 in the assignment until I reassured her.

3.      Put the Blackboard assignment inside the folder for the week or unit. Once you have deployed it becomes hard to move.

4.      Once you make a comment on the assignment the student can no longer reply to you there. They would have to email you. That’s why I wish Blackbaord had a Journal feature where there could be a conversation. It’s in the newer versions of Blackboard. Now I include my email in my comments. Yes, I have given students my email in the Syllabus and the faculty profile, but I repeat it at the end of my comments.

5.      Is the assignment is appropriate for multiple choice questions? The answer is NO.

Blackboard has a “quiz” feature that will allow us to do that. 

6.      Notice that when you develop a Blackboard assignment it goes DIRECTLY INTO THE GRADEBOOK. You do not have to manually do this, which is a big plus. The grade you assign is automatically added to the total grade.

7.      You can give an example of what you want students to do in the assignments. I like this idea. I know some educational psychologists (especially Ellen Langer from Harvard) believe that giving an example limits students but I disagree. I have been in classes as a student and remember thinking: “What does that teacher want?” When I tried to pin down the assignment I was often told that I had to “be creative.” That’s ok but then I would not want points taken off because of creativity. What I often do is ask students who have submitted good work if they would allow me to use their answers as examples. I give them credit. So far, no students have refused this. They seem happy to do this. By law, you cannot use student work unless you request because it is copyrighted once it is entered by the student. 

8.   There are positives and negatives in giving students a guide to the length you expect. Look at this from a student's viewpoint. If I am asked a question I have no idea how long the answer should be. Personally, I believe it is fair to give them some guidance in this issue.

9.      Students have problems with APA. There are web references you can refer them to if you wish. There is the Flash tutorial  http://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/index.htmhttp://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/index.htm and the Citation machine http://citationmachine.net/ . If students do their assignments using the iPad there is no facility for italics. I wonder what APA will do about this.

More Time Saving Tips for Online Teachers

If you are not available by phone after a certain time at night let the students know this. You may want to encourage students new to the technology, especially if they are in the class with experienced technology users, that it will be easier as they go along. You may need a phone conference with a few.  Be at your computer and encourage them to be at their computer also.

Make friends with the IT support people. 

Set limits on your time. As in life there is a “happy medium.”  If you try to respond to every post within 6 hours you will exhaust yourself. However, if you only log on once or twice a week then you will have a lot to read and respond to and students may wonder if you are reading their messages.  

Set up a comfortable place to do your computer work. Be comfortable. That’s the big advantage. Remember you do not have to dress up, drive your car, find a parking place, and walk to the office. Enjoy that freedom. 

Make up a printable list of all class assignments with due dates and tell your students where it is. Print it yourself so you can keep track of it. 

You will occasionally find a student who “over posts,” replying to every posting. Many times the other students in the class will handle this. An e-mail from you also helps. I would never make a comment to the student in the discussion board itself. 

I do find it helpful, especially for undergrad students, to have specific days assignments are due. In my case, it is Tuesday and Friday. I remind the students: “Every Tuesday and Friday you know you have an assignment. If you wake up and it’s Tuesday or Friday then you know there is an assignment due.” In graduate courses I have assignments due at the end of the week, but I do require original posts earlier than replies. 

 A good question: “What happens if we get sick or something happens in our life that means we will be away for a while?” There may be times when we can’t log on. Maybe we had a horrible thing happen in our lives: sickness, death of one close to us, an emergency at work. I think if we can manage to let the students know they will understand. I have left with my husband a list of contact people in case anything happens to me.

Use copy and paste and other functions of your Word Processor when appropriate. I know an English teacher was tired of seeing the same errors over and over again in student work so she took the time to make up Word macros for common errors like comma slice. She would then just have to press, for example, ALT-C and the information on common slice would appear. You can also use the Track Changes feature to make corrections in a different color inside student assignments. 

Let the students know IN THE BEGINNING OF THE CLASS that this is NOT an independent study course, and that they will have deadlines to meet. If you expect discussion then let them know that also. I do give a short quiz on the Syllabus, worth a few points. If students expect “fun and games” then I want them to drop the course during the drop/add period.  I allow students to retake the quiz until they get the questions correct because I want them to know the requirements.