To answer the following question after reading Chapter 6 of the required reading:
Drawing on your experience at your university, where do the language learning tasks (ideally that involve IT) fall on the flexibility continuum? Give one or more examples to illustrate. Can tasks that are "liberated" or "free" be easily incorporated into your teaching?
Incorporating Online Tasks into English Language Learning
The China Central Radio & TV University (CCRTVU) organizes 44 provincial RTVUs and up its teaching resources. The idea of founding the RTVUs system comes from the Open University in Britain. Dalian Radio and TV University, which is my work place, is one of the RTVUs.
While making use of television, radio, and computer networks and so on, efforts have been made in other forms of teaching and learning, such as self-study, tutorials, question-and-answers and practice. RTVU runs its school carrying out the policy of "lenient-in and strict-out", running school with multi-levels, multi-functions and multi-forms. It trains qualified personnel with all sorts of patterns.
In my school, the English teaching has been completely student-centered, which means a lot of online tasks are incorporated into the students’ language learning. In the following text, I will take the course English Writing as an example to further illustrate what kinds of online tasks are conducted in my current teaching.
In the current practice of my own work place in China, Dalian Radio and TV University, where most of the students are adult and not necessarily to attend every tutorial, the class attendance rate of the course of English Writing is comparatively lower than the other courses, simply because of the students’ negative attitudes, which quite effectively dampens the teaching enthusiasm on the part of many writing teachers and the learning morale on the part of the few willing and conscientious learners.
It is under such circumstances that the traditional way of testing English Writing is changed through an online assessment system called Electronic Testing and Assessment System (ETAS), mooted by China Central Radio & TV University, with the aim to encourage students to take responsibility for their own writing and to focus on the process and progress rather than on the product or even the grades alone. This system breaks the students’ grade into 70% of process assessment and 30% of final test, the process assessment consisting of 4 parts: self-study report, offline assignment, online quiz and online discussion.
This practice of online assessment is based on the principles of communicative teaching approach and process teaching approach, striving to influence the students on becoming more confident writers, being more conscious of their own writing process and strategies they employ in resolving their writing problems.
The online assessment decomposes the writing process of the whole semester into 8 self-study reports, 4 online quizzes, 4 offline assignments and 8 online discussions, which stretch along the whole semester and make writing a dynamic, flowing process.
The students, who take the module of English Writing as a compulsory course, should enroll the online testing and assessment system first by identifying their matriculation number, and then they are divided into groups according to their user names for online peer assessment. At this starting point, students begin the online assessment.
As aforementioned, students begin to accomplish a set of tasks consist of four main types (namely self-study report, online quiz, offline assignment and online discussion), and the tasks are achieved seriatim with different types taking turns. For every task, there is a time limit of 7 to 10 days, and at this period of time, students are provided enough time for drafting, revising and selecting.
Upon reaching the deadline of each task, the teacher begins revising students’ assignments, marking online quizzes, as well as evaluating their online discussions and self-study reports. After all those laboring, the students can get the feedback via ETAS.
The last step of the assessment is just like the traditional testing, to conduct a real test which requires the students to write a timed composition online. The time slot of the test is notified on the online bulletin board, and the test is conducted at exactly the same time throughout the country, down to the 44 Radio and TV Universities.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Revised WEBOGRAPHY on CAA (7)
Critical Issue: Reporting Assessment Results
(The Webography contains a collection of web sites related to the topic of Computer-Assisted Assessment)
After introducing so many useful Web sites on computer assisted assessment and assessments, this Web site of critical issue: reporting assessment results will mainly give you some assessment tips.
The Web site provides many links of article of some specific issues in the implementing of assessment as well as the research done in the area. For example, the article on "using assessment in school improvement planning". If you want to learn some particular knowledge and pactical issue in the field of assessment, probably the target Web site is a good choice, because it focuses on the 'tips', not abstract theory, not profound knowledge, so that you can solve some problems by surfing the articles.
Moreover, this is a good Web site for educators, as it lists some misunderstandings from people who are doing the research on assessment, and who have been involved in some certain kind of assessment. The reports given on the Web site can be observed with sufficient data, which is of great usefulness to the researchers as well as the educators.
To see is to believe, just visit the site and explore by yourself.
Revised WEBOGRAPHY on CAA (6)
Instructional Assessment System (IAS)
(The Webography contains a collection of web sites related to the topic of Computer-Assisted Assessment)
The Web site of Office of Educational Assessment is a Web site to provide services to the students and faculty in the University of Wanshington. It is called Instructional Assessment System, and IAS for short.
If you visit the main page of the Web site, you will find that the structure of the Web site is very clear, with subsections of services, resources and reports as the most important subsections. Of course, the most useful part for teachers and learners is the section of resources, of which there are also 6 categories included: assessment, course evaluation, program evaluation, survey, tests & grading, and teaching. And what I strongly recommend in these categories, and also the most relevant one to my webography, is the categary of assessment.
By simply press the link of the 'assessment', you will find many useful information of the related field, as well as some significant works in the area of assessment. The theme of CAA is thus appears in the Web site, because it helps you to know more about the real assessment going on in a particular university, what are some of the things they've done, and you can just go into it, find a gap, and do your research.
As you go into the subsection of report, you will find the following categories: End-of-Program Assessment, Faculty Surveys, Graduation Rates, Progress and Attrition, Special Programs, Student and Alumni Surveys, Student Writing and Quantitative Skills, Other Topics, and Newest Reports. Just judging from the names of the categories, you can directly get what you want to get.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Revised WEBOGRAPHY on CAA (5)
National Council on Measurement in Education
(The Webography contains a collection of web sites related to the topic of Computer-Assisted Assessment)
The Journal of Educational Measurement is a well-known Journal in the field of computer-assisted assessment, and to get access to the publications of the journal, you can go to the Web site of National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), which is a professional organization for individuals involved in assessment, evaluation, testing, and other aspects of educational measurement.
The Web site is incorporated exclusively for scientific, educational, literary, and charitable purposes. Its advances the science of measurement in the field of education; improves measurement instruments and procedures for their administration, scoring, interpretation, and use; as well as improves applications of measurement in assessment of individuals and evaluations of educational programs.
From NCME, you can learn theory, techniques, and instrumentation of assessments, which are available for measurement of educationally relevant human, institutional, and social characteristics, so it's very helpful for individual researcher to do personal research. Also, as the other few Web site listed in my webography, some useful external links are provided for further study of the related issues.
Revised WEBOGRAPHY on CAA (4)
Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation
http://ericae.net/intbod.stm
(The Webography contains a collection of web sites related to the topic of Computer-Assisted Assessment)
To seek for additional searchable indices, Ericae.net will provide you with valuable information on assessment and evaluation. Moreover, it provides balanced information concerning educational assessment, evaluation and research methodology, resources to encourage the responsible use of educational data, and it also promotes the best resources within the scope.
When you get access on the Web site, you will find a lot of links on the page, and among them, the most important recommendation I make are the links of language assessment, definitions, action research, research support and tests construction. If you press any of the links, you will be impressed by the sufficient information it introduces, and learn a lot from.
Tests online is the sub-section for you to practice computer-assisted assessment. Although the editor claims not confident of the quality of the tests provided in the section, I checked some of them and find that they are particular useful for college teachers and students as well. On the other hand, you can regard this Web site as a pathfinder, because it gives a lot of information of external links related to the topic. To learn to access with the help of computer and online resources, the Web site of Assessment and Evaluation on the Internet is so reader-friendly for you.
Revised WEBOGRAPHY on CAA (3)
National Association of Test Directors (NATD)
(The Webography contains a collection of web sites related to the topic of Computer-Assisted Assessment)
If you want to get some academic hints on the theme of CAA, then the publications from the Web site of National Association of Test Directors will offer you good examples. It is an association of professionals responsible for assessment programs in public educational settings.
The Web site shares information about testing in educational settings, encourages the appropriate use of testing in educational settings, improves the applications of measurement to students and educational programs, as well as encourages research in the area of elementary and secondary school testing and measurement. Even if you are not a number of the organization, you can still search online fairly good knowledge on academic issues in assessment. NATD provides a forum for test directors to promote best practices in service of learning.
The articles in the sub-section of publication are provided in the format of pdf, so it's convenient for downloading and reading on your own computer or just keeping for later use when you decide to write up something in the field, that's the reason why I invite you to the Web of National Association of Test Directors.
Revised WEBOGRAPHY on CAA (2)
American Evaluation Association
www.eval.org
(The Webography contains a collection of web sites related to the topic of Computer-Assisted Assessment)
Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness. And sometimes, evaluation could be regarded as a synonym of assessment, so the online materials from American Evaluation Association, which is an international professional association of evaluators, is also related to the theme of CAA.
AEA devoted to the application and exploration of program evaluation, personnel evaluation, technology, and many other forms of evaluation. It provides two most significant sub-sections, which should be paid special attention to, are publications and resources.
In the sub-section of publication, three mainstream magazines are presented online, which are American Journal on Evaluation, Guiding Principles for Evaluator, and Educational Evaluation Standards. A great deal of useful related knowledge could be found from these publications.
And In the sub-section of resources, you can find plenty of online resourses regarding professional groups, collection of links, foundations and discussion lists. Here, you can learn a lot as long as you go deeper into every part of the section to explore.
Revised WEBOGRAPHY on CAA (1)
Indiana University E-portfolio
(The Webography contains a collection of web sites related to the topic of Computer-Assisted Assessment)
Some academic Web sites provide additional examples of electronic portfolios, which are purposeful organizations of learner-selected evidence of school and nonschool accomplishments. One of the Web sites is the portfolio page for Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolic.
From this Web page, students can log in and revise their portfolios, or visitors may search for a portflio by typing in a student's last name or ID number. As the students have to develop criteria and expertise to evaluate their own works in the portfolio, it has become a more and more popular kind of assessment, especially in writing. So what is the most valuable point for this Web site is the part of "document", in which some useful powerpoints and publications on porfolio assessment are introduced and updated accordingly.
If you are a newcomer or beginner of e-porfolio, I strongly recommend that you visit the Web site of Iniana University E-portfolio, because it's a typical one in related area, and worth learning from. Especially in the part of publication and news, you can get information on the latest development in the field of portfolio assessment as well we other issues.
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