A presentation from Group D for E-moderations course May-June 2011. The resource pack attempts to put together considerations for e-tutors assessing asynchronos and synchronous discussion and provide activities for the end of course wrap-up.

1. An e-moderation resource pack :Rounding up a course - assessment and ending a course Ideas for what, when, why and how Presented By: Tommy and Kristin

3. Assessment criteria for (a)synchronous discussions / chat: participation, content/knowledge and language skills

5. Quantity or quality or …? Quantity is often NOT the chosen route as this may lead to a high volume of postings /chat with potential for a lack of quality Quality could be considered from many angles: in a language course this could be about the accuracy/fluency of the English used; in other contexts quality may come from aspects such as ‘relevance’ (how relevant are comments to the topic?), ‘initiative-taking’ (do the learners initiate a topic or another direction in the discussion?), ‘facilitative’ (do the learners facilitate understanding of their / others’ ideas by offering explanations and or questions) and ‘originality’ (how original are the discussion comments?) What?

9. Tips for synchronous and asynchronous assessment As online discussions forums are examples of written and spoken English, the tutor may wish to exploit descriptors as used in public exams such as IELTS or FCE to assist in grading learners’ use of English The e-tutor need not be the only person to assess postings – there could be self-assessment, peer assessment or a mix of these Communicate the grade system and criteria to learners as soon as possible (preferably in a document that outlines the assessment items and the relevant criteria at the start of the course) Provide models of appropriate/ inappropriate/exemplary postings to aid understanding of (less concrete )criteria Group discussion threads rather than whole class discussion could be used – this may tie into task achievement, and also bring up the issue of awarding the same grade to all members of the group, rather than individual grades How?

10. Wait until students are familiar with the chat forum before 1st chat assessment Plan chat sessions in advance in order that you provide opportunities for all learners and so that the assessment is done appropriately Have questions prepared in a word processor to quickly copy and paste to the chat For voice chat, use record function so you can assess the chat later For role play, you can send students private messages about their role. In order for different learners to have a chance at utilising different skills or language functions, tasks could be given in which learners are assigned (secret) roles to play e.g. the protagonist, the antagonist etc If assessing content / simulations have follow-up questions ready and strategies to deal with incorrect responses Not only tell students what is being assessed, but point out what is not being assessed to encourage achievement of the aim

11. Assessing Participation Assessment Criteria 1

12. Assessing on Language Courses Assessment Criteria 2

13. Assessment Criteria 3 Assessing Knowledge / content

14. Assessing Simulation Assessment Criteria 4

15. Activities to wrap up a course

16. Parting gifts (as in this course): Participants leave a personalized ‘gift’ for the group (Hockly & Clanfield 2010: 89) Compose a how-to guide to take away from the course: Similar to the present task – give different groups different aspects of the course to some up. Farewell message: A space (forum, wiki or soundboard) for course participants to leave a goodbye message to everyone else. (Hockly & Clanfield 2010: 89) Or these could take the form of ‘fun’ certificates that students jointly construct on a wiki to be given to/ printed out for their colleagues. Advice for the next group: A forum or wiki e.g. Wallwisher where all participants leave at least one piece of advice for future participants who will take the next course. (This could be a fun activity and useful for the tutor as implicit feedback).

17. Create a composite of the perfect e-tutor: (Example for our course) Using a cartoon character as an image, participants create a profile of the perfect e-tutor. It might say: Super E-tutor knows all about the tasks inside Moodle Super E-tutor can weave and summarize as fast as lightning Super E-tutor can answer 100 emails a day from students Super E-tutor can resolve arguments using a single line of chat (This activity encourages participants to sum up skills developed on the course, but in a light-hearted way.) A Yearbook: Similar to the yearbook in high school. Using a wiki, participants add a line to describe each participant and the tutor (photos included if possible), keeping the focus light-hearted and positive. A time-capsule: Participants create a ‘time-capsule’ in a forum or wiki. Each group should describe one aspect of the course on the assumption that a future generation will look at the time-capsule to learn what happened on the course. Five years from now: Similar to the yearbook idea, but participants predict what others will be doing five years from now based on their strengths during the course.

18. Take it from here (Hockly & Clanfield 2010: 90) In a forum or wiki, participants leave a brief note saying what they take away from the course. Useful for individuals to reflect and for the group to have a record of what each person thought was most worth remembering from the course. A reflective journal piece of extensive writing: this may be around a page or so in length. In this the learners document their major pieces of learning and or reflect on what was their most influential ‘lighbulb’ moment. This piece may be a composite of ‘Take it from here’ + ‘Five years from now’. A review quiz: made for them to take as a review of the course content OR as a group task for them to make to give other groups. An end-of-course evaluation survey/questionnaire : candidates provide comments about and or a grading of the course.