Effective Online and Blended PD
From LiteracyTentWiki
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1223] Monday Q: Effective Online and Blended PD
From: Taylor, Jackie jataylor at utk.edu
Date: Mon May 21 07:46:23 EDT 2007
PD List Colleagues:
Today is the last day of our formal guest discussion.
Our discussion of posting and not posting last Friday has really
prompted some questions. While many expressed the ease of posting or not
posting, how is the provider to know whether and to what extent the
discussion list helped its constituency meet their professional learning
needs (formative and summative)? In particular, how does one measure the
effectiveness of listservs and learning, and at various levels of
evaluation?
Further:
- What models do you use to evaluate online and blended PD (Guskey, Kirpatrick, others)?
- What professional development strategies do you use to elicit participant feedback at each of the levels? In other words, how does the PD Design lend itself to collecting evaluation data at any of the levels? How does one design online or blended PD in ways to capture outcome achievement?
- How do you use this data to inform and improve your practice?
Last, is effectiveness of the PD an indicator of the quality of the
online professional development? Can you have "quality PD" that is
ineffective?
Below are the raw questions from subscribers regarding evaluation of
online PD. Feel free to address Qs above or below, and as always, share
your own unique questions and insights.
Thanks! Jackie
=============================
Evaluation
- What is the impact of on-line learning and how do we track that?
- How can we track learning to application?
- How can we best obtain follow-up and gather feedback?
- How can we find out if the folks we interact with on line and
using what they learned? -- Marie Cora
- For F2F learning and online learning or any blend of these two, how can you use Guskey's five levels of evaluation to effectively measure systemic change and impact on student learning? How can you be sure that the changes you see are the direct result of PD delivered? --
Catherine Green
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1224] Re: Monday Q: Effective Online and Blended PD
From: Leecy Wise leecy at fone.net
Date: Mon May 21 10:38:20 EDT 2007
Jackie, Thanks for the excellent job of moving the discussions in
this forum. I've been "perching," but in touch. (Hope the term gives
my actions a little more of a positive tone now that lurking is out!) ;-)
In response to some of your prompts - Evaluating the long term
effects of any instruction is a challenge. It is also a challenge I
hope to address more specifically after these two weeks!
In the short term, I am a strong proponent of performance-based
assessment and "project-based" learning. If we agree that learning is
change, and that learning is invisible except through its outcomes,
those approaches make sense. Forum comments are strong evidence of
learning. I can trace the changes that occur in my best students as
they process ideas and dialog about them. Those who are less "vocal"
in forums sometimes, not often, show some evidence of growth in their
journaling. Observing that process is my reward for
"teaching." Projects require the application of the skills targeted
in the course or session. Invariably, those who participate most in
discussions produce the best and most creative projects. Before
projects are due, I always open forums and either require or invite
participants to provide feedback to each other. (I don't consider
"Good job" feedback.) They love it.
The use of blended instruction allows participants more than one type
of environment in which to contribute. Therefore, it allows students
a greater chance to perform and grow in the process. Online
instruction tends to be very text-based, whereas blended instruction
invites more intelligences (Gardner) to function. The broader/richer
the playpen environment, the greater the potential.
Leecy
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1232] Re: Evaluation and Effectiveness
From: Dr Elizabeth Hanson-Smith ehansonsmi at yahoo.com
Date: Mon May 21 17:47:29 EDT 2007
I agree with Leecy on the value of project-based learning, but am surprised at the comment that online instruction is text-based.
I've done multimedia projects with kids and adults, and the result is awesome--both in terms of visual impact and in the dedication, hard work, and team work that emerged. I think digital media can really play a big role in stimulating all the different "intelligences" or learning styles, as I would prefer to call them.
And I have to take back my earlier comment about blogs being mainly for reflection. At our WiAOC conference I went to a great presentation by Carla Arena, Erika Cruvinel, and Ronaldo Lima, that used class blogs for interactivity. The instructor gives everyone the same PW so they don't each have to register separately. Thought-provoking questions, collaborations with international participants, a digital art contest--these all produced excellent results. Their suggestions were to
- (1) provide connectiveness
- (2) focus on good content, particularly that produced by students
- (3) provide sufficient guidance and promote dialogue
- (4) vary the ways that posts are handled (e.g. art, text, dialogue, personal response, etc.)
and all these will get students involved and motivated.
And in the end, that involvement will be a good means to evalute student work, Particularly if there are detailed rubrics so that students known how they will be graded or assessed (as in #3).
Among the many sites they gave was
<http://internationalexchange.blogspot.com>
another is the scrapbooking project, which resulted in cultural artifacts that students exchanged (very visual!):
<http://brazilargentina.blogspot.com/>
You can see the whole slide presentation at Slideshare:
<http://www.slideshare.net/carlaarena/blogging-with-students-ideas-to-enhance-communication-52372/>
Cheers---
--Elizabeth
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1233] Re: Evaluation and Effectiveness
From: Leecy Wise leecy at fone.net
Date: Mon May 21 19:52:51 EDT 2007
Elizabeth, I should have talked more specifically about the type of
instruction that I so often offer, which uses classroom management
systems and in which discussion represents the interaction in the
classroom. Certainly, all of the good classes in these systems add
oddles of interactives and multimedia to inform, but the text-based
discussion forums and journals still offer students the best learning
vehicles, according to student reports in multiple classes. Teachers
who are not articulate, prefer other types of vehicles, which blended
instruction can offer.
Certainly, online learning has additional vast opportunities for other types of interaction and learning. Sorry I wasn't more specific. Thanks, Elizabeth. Leecy
