Extending Boundaries for Providing Feedback in Large Classrooms: Technology as Fulcrum

August 15, 2011 - 4:09pm | by Chinkley
Presenter(s)
George Bradford (University of South Australia, AU)
Farrah Cato (University of Central Florida, US)
Session Information
November 10, 2011 - 10:40am
Track: 
Learning Effectiveness
Areas of Special Interest: 
Assessment; large class size; rubrics; technology for grading; learning effectiveness
Major Emphasis of Presentation: 
Practical Application
Institutional Level: 
Universities and Four Year Institutions
Audience Level: 
All
Session Type: 
Information Session
Location: 
Europe 5
Session Duration: 
35 Minutes
Concurrent Session: 
6
Abstract
More US students are taking online courses this year than last, and class sizes are increasing. The increase pressures faculty to abandon rich assessments to automated testing. An alternative strategy is streamline grading using technology. This session reviews project history, technology, and experiences to receiving and giving feedback using technology.
Final Presentation: 
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation iconRubricCalculator_Sloan2011_r1.pptx
Lead Presenter

George is a lecturer in academic development with the Learning and Teaching Unit (LTU) at the University of South Australia. He completed his doctorate at the University of Central Florida in Instructional Technology with a dissertation study that took an innovative research approach to the influence of mental effort on student satisfaction with online learning. George has over 20 years experience in multiple roles, such as an instructional designer, technical marketing, consultant to Fortune 100 businesses, and educator. From 2007 to 2011, George worked for the University of Central Florida, supporting faculty development with teaching and learning online. Regarding other research interest areas, George has been investigating the challenge of developing rich assessment strategies for “large” classes and for improving student engagement.

Notes: 

Taking teaching and learning online is increasingly strategic (Allen & Seaman, 2010) and student numbers say it all: one million more students in the US are taking courses online this year than last year; enrollment growth rate for online studies is 21%; and 30% of all US students are now enrolled in online studies. Because of strong online teaching and learning policies and practices, enrollment in online courses over the last decade has propelled a major metropolitan university to second largest in the US and class sizes have been increasing. In one instance, a core marketing class in the College of Business had over 1500 students enrolled in a single online section during a semester. The pressures of class size inflation places increasing pressure on faculty to abandon rich assessments in favor of automated true/false, multiple choice testing. These changes represent a loss to students in the nature of feedback regarding academic performance, when Scantron tests replace essays.

Over the last three years, one of the authors has explored using technology to streamline the grading process of rich assessments using rubrics. The technology has been used in several Anthropology courses and over the last year in English Literature Survey courses. The other author has participated over two consecutive semesters to using the technology with teaching assistants participating in essay grading where the class size has been 119 students for each term. During both semesters, students and the graders were surveyed to collect their perspectives regarding the feedback received and given, prior experience with rubric-style grading, and suggestions for improving the feedback.

During this session in the learning effectiveness track, participants will be given the project history, a brief tour of the technology, and a summary of the importance feedback represents to students' learning. There will be some opportunity to participate in the study and leverage the technology over future academic terms. The technology remains in its infancy and plans are in place for continued development.

Presenter 1 Email: 
george.bradford@unisa.edu.au