- Will you grade students on their use of EPost?
- If you grade EPost performance, what criteria will you use?
- Will you ask students to assess what they are learning as a result of using EPost?
- Will you look at the role of EPost in your overall course evaluation?
Will you grade students on their use of EPost?
There are some advantages and some disadvantages to grading:
- Grades can be an incentive to participate more fully.
- Grades can be acknowledgement for good work or collaboration.
- Grading takes time.
- You should specify your grading criteria before students begin using EPost.
If you grade EPost performance, what criteria will you use?
EPost makes it easy to keep track of the number of student postings. But in addition, you may want to grade students on their performance on one or more of the following:
- Comments or questions that promote more discussion.
- Clarifications of other students' questions, ideas, or postings.
- Responses to assigned questions and prompts.
- Indications that students have read the course readings.
- Applications of course readings to other issues.
- Contribution of other sources of information (and citing them)
Once you establish criteria for grading, deterimine how you will assign specific grades or points for EPost participation, and share this with your students.
Will you ask students to assess what they are learning as a result of using EPost?
CIDR (cidr@u.washington.edu) can help you collect student feedback, process it, and review it with you along with a representative from Catalyst. Alternatively:
- You may ask students to write a narrative evaluation of the EPost tool. How did it enhance (or detract from) their learning? What would they suggest for future uses of EPost?
- You may ask students to write a letter of advice to the next quarter's class about how/when to use EPost.
Will you look at the role of EPost in your overall course evaluation?
- You can ask students directly to comment on the role of EPost; for example, by assigning a letter grade to the tool – how effective was it?
- You can use the "Additional Items Form" (on the back of the IAS Evaluation Forms) to have students rate their experiences with EPost. OEA provides Additional Items Template for instructors to use when developing their own questions, including a template for assessing the uses of instructional technololgy in a course.
- You can use the Catalyst tool WebQ to design an online survey to assess the uses of technology in your classroom, or you can use a standard assessment form (which you can customize as you like) developed by Catalyst. See http://catalyst.washington.edu for more information.
Are you willing to share your EPost experiences with others?
Please email CIDR (cidr@u.washington.edu) or Catalyst (catalyst@u.washington.edu) with suggestions or examples from your course.
