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Miscellaneous

Lowering the stakes through student choices

Author(s)
Barb Cherem
Assistant Professor, Special Education
University of Michigan - Flint
Session Information
Instructional Design/Course Development and Pedagogy
Poster
April 19, 2010 - 5:45pm
Salon B
Salon C


Students have varying levels of online familiarity and technical updatedness so online glitches can be problematic for high stakes assignments. Some twenty blended course have provided some better ways for this teacher educator whose found classes run more smoothly and students lower frustrations when choices are provided and "formative" is the word over "summative

Since special educators especially need to use Choice with students' varied learning styles, Barb has incorporated choice in to the blended learning courses for teachers working on an endorsement in special education. Teacher candidates take pre-assessments online before class begins which assists the instructor in both group formation (experts with novices) and areas of uneven development which demand greater time than other areas since each graduate groups tends to have both experienced and inexperienced teachers. Assessments on every month' content may be selected from a formative quiz which has items which will help create the summative final exam, or they can choose to apply several concepts to their practice in an application paper instead of the online quiz. Teacher candidates also have decisions about choice assignments during online weeks. This allows from more immediate feedback and model effective practice both in providing choice and feedback that is more timely.