Here is my final report
Have a read and post comments, all feedback is much appreciated!!
From this course I have definitely gained a greater insight and understanding of Evaluation in elearning. Although I often found tasks difficult (especially for a newbie like myself), the support of my lecturer and peers made it so much easier, thankyou to all for this!!
I look forward to your comments...
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
My reflection on Evaluation for Best Practice
After seeing how effective Katie’s reflection was, I too am going to take some time to reflect on the evaluation course as a whole – This may seem a little late, but as the say ‘better late than never’.
Demonstrates an understanding of evaluation (theoretical and practical) in their context and the wider educational sector.
The only prior knowledge of evaluation I had before starting this course was what I did in my work place, evaluating students throughout the learning process and evaluating units of work on completion. My biggest learning curve during this course was participating in writing an evaluation plan and report, working with a partner made this task so much easier to get my head around. Being introduced to new terminology was tricky, ‘triangulation’ and ‘trickle down method’ were terms I was not familiar with. Now feel I have gained this newly acquired knowledge that not only I can benefit from but also my workplace. I have gained a deeper understanding of the eLearning guidelines, how to successfully create a survey and analyse data and share this knowledge with work colleagues and the ICT team within my school. Advising them of alternative ways of engaging staff in professional development sessions, taking lessons in classes to support teachers and overall adopting new ways of meeting staff’s needs, in order for them to provide for their students the best ways possible. My understanding of evaluation in online learning is that it is a tool in which we can measure success or effectiveness, of an application or learning and that it goes hand in hand with the learning process.
Produces evidence of their learning and reflections about evaluation - including eLearning guidelines and quality.
When I started this course, I was a little unsure of what I would learn and how I would relate it to my work. Now I feel like the new spokeswomen of ‘Evaluation for best practise’, sharing my newly acquired knowledge with colleagues and all its benefits. After completing my final report, the results stood for themselves, this made approaching evaluation with staff easy, it made sense to them, highlighted positives and negatives and provided suggestions on how it improve current practises, this made the report something of value. The whole process of this report took time and effort. I feel the many hours of draft writing and bits of paper were all part in parcel of this learning process. Learning to evaluate successfully is deciding on key questions (what do you want to achieve), how will you get the information you need and what is the best way of getting it.
Reports and reflects on the progress of the evaluation project and discusses and critiques the findings of their evaluation project.
I feel I kept everyone up to date through the planning and implementation my evaluation, commentary and discussion around my findings in my blog posts: Update of project, changes to plan, Update on Questions, A few words make a difference, Creating our survey, Last few changes to plan, Planning evaluation report, As one venture comes to an end another begins.
Critiques at least two other evaluation projects of participants in the course.
I provided comments and feedback on people’s blogs throughout the course. I have also provided feedback on Alex’s and Louise’s reports via their blog pages.
Demonstrates an understanding of evaluation (theoretical and practical) in their context and the wider educational sector.
The only prior knowledge of evaluation I had before starting this course was what I did in my work place, evaluating students throughout the learning process and evaluating units of work on completion. My biggest learning curve during this course was participating in writing an evaluation plan and report, working with a partner made this task so much easier to get my head around. Being introduced to new terminology was tricky, ‘triangulation’ and ‘trickle down method’ were terms I was not familiar with. Now feel I have gained this newly acquired knowledge that not only I can benefit from but also my workplace. I have gained a deeper understanding of the eLearning guidelines, how to successfully create a survey and analyse data and share this knowledge with work colleagues and the ICT team within my school. Advising them of alternative ways of engaging staff in professional development sessions, taking lessons in classes to support teachers and overall adopting new ways of meeting staff’s needs, in order for them to provide for their students the best ways possible. My understanding of evaluation in online learning is that it is a tool in which we can measure success or effectiveness, of an application or learning and that it goes hand in hand with the learning process.
Produces evidence of their learning and reflections about evaluation - including eLearning guidelines and quality.
When I started this course, I was a little unsure of what I would learn and how I would relate it to my work. Now I feel like the new spokeswomen of ‘Evaluation for best practise’, sharing my newly acquired knowledge with colleagues and all its benefits. After completing my final report, the results stood for themselves, this made approaching evaluation with staff easy, it made sense to them, highlighted positives and negatives and provided suggestions on how it improve current practises, this made the report something of value. The whole process of this report took time and effort. I feel the many hours of draft writing and bits of paper were all part in parcel of this learning process. Learning to evaluate successfully is deciding on key questions (what do you want to achieve), how will you get the information you need and what is the best way of getting it.
Reports and reflects on the progress of the evaluation project and discusses and critiques the findings of their evaluation project.
I feel I kept everyone up to date through the planning and implementation my evaluation, commentary and discussion around my findings in my blog posts: Update of project, changes to plan, Update on Questions, A few words make a difference, Creating our survey, Last few changes to plan, Planning evaluation report, As one venture comes to an end another begins.
Critiques at least two other evaluation projects of participants in the course.
I provided comments and feedback on people’s blogs throughout the course. I have also provided feedback on Alex’s and Louise’s reports via their blog pages.
As one venture comes to an end another begins!
With a busy end of term and a hectic family reunion, I have had an eventful 2010/2011! Ive spent many hours completing my draft report during my stay on the lovely Waiheke Island, not to mention the wet laptop incident when lounging round the pool in Mt Maunganui. PS Laptops do not like sitting on full chilli bins!!!
Stay tuned to see my Reflection of this course 'Evaluation for best practise'
Monday, November 1, 2010
Four eLearning Guidelines and why they are important in my organisation
Below I have chosen four standards from the eLearning Guidelines for New Zealand and reasons why I feel they are important in my organisation.
Teaching Staff/Other Support
TO2 Are staff provided with opportunities to learn online so they experience e-learning from a student perspective?
My organisation is currently part of a 3 year ICT cluster. This provides opportunities for staff to experience online learning during professional development sessions. It allows staff to play with elearning resources and learning activities before implementing them into classroom programmes (learning from a “student” perspective). Professional development sessions can often be overwhelming for new staff and infrequent users, for these staff, additional online learning (a course like this for example) or support groups within the organisation would benefit.
Teaching Staff/Other Support
TO7 What ICT support is in place specifically for e-learning, and is this support reviewed regularly?
The schools elearning policy is available to all staff and accessible on either the school server or hard copy in the resource room. This provides staff with information on the purpose and delivery of elearning in classroom programmes. This document has the names of lead teachers including contact details, they are the first port of call for staff requests in ICT. All policies are reviewed and updated yearly or on a needs basis. Technology technicians are on sight weekly and a log book can be filled in by teachers who have technical difficulties. For the past few weeks there have been major glitches with the server due to an upgrade, resulting in very frustrated teachers. The risk of using technology to support learning can have serious impacts on teaching and learning when technology is unreliable.
Managers/Learning Design
MD6 Does the institution value the work of e-learning innovators by supporting, celebrating and disseminating their work?
It is a requirement of my organisation that, elearning is be part of our daily classroom program. Staff are aware of the benefits of e-learning. With confidence, staff will continue to be more actively involved in e-learning, learning the skills and knowledge needed to ingrain it into our school culture.
Managers/Other Support
MO16 Does the institution support creativity and innovation in e-learning?
Staff attend regular facilitated professional development sessions which tend to focus on learning new tools and resources each time. Teachers require more time to practice using one e-learning tool/resource well. I feel this develops teacher confidence, retains high interest levels and sustains creativity and innovation in e-learning, rather than feeling bombarded with an overload of information each P.D session.
Teaching Staff/Other Support
TO2 Are staff provided with opportunities to learn online so they experience e-learning from a student perspective?
My organisation is currently part of a 3 year ICT cluster. This provides opportunities for staff to experience online learning during professional development sessions. It allows staff to play with elearning resources and learning activities before implementing them into classroom programmes (learning from a “student” perspective). Professional development sessions can often be overwhelming for new staff and infrequent users, for these staff, additional online learning (a course like this for example) or support groups within the organisation would benefit.
Teaching Staff/Other Support
TO7 What ICT support is in place specifically for e-learning, and is this support reviewed regularly?
The schools elearning policy is available to all staff and accessible on either the school server or hard copy in the resource room. This provides staff with information on the purpose and delivery of elearning in classroom programmes. This document has the names of lead teachers including contact details, they are the first port of call for staff requests in ICT. All policies are reviewed and updated yearly or on a needs basis. Technology technicians are on sight weekly and a log book can be filled in by teachers who have technical difficulties. For the past few weeks there have been major glitches with the server due to an upgrade, resulting in very frustrated teachers. The risk of using technology to support learning can have serious impacts on teaching and learning when technology is unreliable.
Managers/Learning Design
MD6 Does the institution value the work of e-learning innovators by supporting, celebrating and disseminating their work?
It is a requirement of my organisation that, elearning is be part of our daily classroom program. Staff are aware of the benefits of e-learning. With confidence, staff will continue to be more actively involved in e-learning, learning the skills and knowledge needed to ingrain it into our school culture.
Managers/Other Support
MO16 Does the institution support creativity and innovation in e-learning?
Staff attend regular facilitated professional development sessions which tend to focus on learning new tools and resources each time. Teachers require more time to practice using one e-learning tool/resource well. I feel this develops teacher confidence, retains high interest levels and sustains creativity and innovation in e-learning, rather than feeling bombarded with an overload of information each P.D session.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Last few changes to plan
We have received feedback!! Bronwyn has had a look at our plan and indicated a few minor changes to be made, these will be complete by Friday (ready for marking). After many hours of hard work we are nearing our destination woohoo, well for the first part anyway. Am I asking too much if this could be my final destination (or am i dreaming hehe).Image from: http://2ndcity.wordpress.com/
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Creating our survey
Hi all, just a quick update on a sunday morning... After a great discussion with Katie on Wednesday evening, working through the changes on our plan, we have decided to have a look at another site to create our survey using Obsurvey. I found it very user friendly with simple clear instructions and it is FREE... We had previously decided to use Survey Monkey which is good but we chose not to do lots of screen shots and I really didnt want to have to pay to download it.
I have had a go at creating our survey to begin our data collection. Will now wait for Katie to have a look and talk again early next week. Once we are both happy with how it looks I will post the link for you all to see... In the meantime, I have included the link below for you all to check out 'Obsurvey'...
http://obsurvey.com/default.aspx?cookie=true
Have a great Sunday afternoon
I have had a go at creating our survey to begin our data collection. Will now wait for Katie to have a look and talk again early next week. Once we are both happy with how it looks I will post the link for you all to see... In the meantime, I have included the link below for you all to check out 'Obsurvey'...
http://obsurvey.com/default.aspx?cookie=true
Have a great Sunday afternoon
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Changes to plan!
I have just checked my emails and seen 124 to work my way through. I'm away on holiday and have limited internet access (i should have brought my laptop!!!) Although, im not really sure its regarded as a holiday when your looking after 11 children all in one house, its funny how i become the best aunty, friend and sister in-law during the school holidays, oh well home in the morning and back to reality...
I've read Katie's emails and seen the changes we need to make, thankyou for the feedback Bronwyn. I have started on changes and fingers crossed they're ok, still more to do... I'm going to need my scrapbook to scribble ideas. I intend to talk to Katie tommorrow night and go over what we have done and discuss our survey.
Will keep you all posted on our progress.. Back to Auckland in the morning, can't wait!!
I've read Katie's emails and seen the changes we need to make, thankyou for the feedback Bronwyn. I have started on changes and fingers crossed they're ok, still more to do... I'm going to need my scrapbook to scribble ideas. I intend to talk to Katie tommorrow night and go over what we have done and discuss our survey.
Will keep you all posted on our progress.. Back to Auckland in the morning, can't wait!!
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