Powered By Blogger

Sunday, January 8, 2012

EDUC 8842 Blog Post: Assessing Collobarative Method


The formats for distance education are reflecting the degree of closeness in a global world.  People are becoming assessed in the work that they do, but also in the degree of participation within that group.  Someone who “does all of the work” cannot hope to become promoted because they  are showing that will do the work, but won’t work with others in the group.  In order
to assess the productivity of an individual in a collaborative environment, they can assess their peer by rating contribution,  quality of work and assistance.  In addition, their supervisors and educators can assess their students and subordinates by assessing the time on task. In an online environment this can be determined by how many times they log into the community.

However, as in the real world, some people do not want to participate.  They feel much more comfortable “lurking.” They would rather read and contribute only as much as they need to meet the requirements of the course.  A way to help them overcome this is to respond to their posts and encouraging their answer by asking questions or asking from more information.

Distance Education requires individuals to change their way of thinking in regards to collaboration and response to assessments. This is difficult.  I can relate to this situation because even though I find technology very exciting, it is difficult for me to participate because I like to see the reaction of the person and based on that I can gauge their reaction and I like a response so I know the quality of my response. .

References:
Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for
the virtual classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

1 comment:

  1. Michelle,

    I agree that distance education requires people to change their ways of thinking, and this a very difficult task. Students are very used to face-to-face interaction, but change is good. How would you respond as a teacher to a group that has a student that will not participate in the online learning community?

    Kasey

    ReplyDelete