McMurtrie, B. (2021, March 17). Good grades, stressed students. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/good-grades-stressed-students
Many colleges invested in professional development over the spring and summer to help faculty members create online versions of their courses. Instructors learned how to make short, engaging videos, use more formative assessments and fewer high-stakes exams, encourage group discussion and collaboration, and add flexibility to accommodate students challenged by online learning and the pandemic.
There’s a lesson in here, said Arum. “When you move to more engaging, participatory, interactive instructional strategies, student academic engagement goes up.”
Ross. S. (2021, March 17). UPEI prof develops ‘plagiarism-resistant’ online exams. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-online-plagiarism-resistent-exams-1.5954079
Greene, J. (2020, December 13). The strange case of the exploding student workload. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/guest-post-strange-case-exploding-student-workload
students used to having two midterms and a final, or those used to taking their exams only once, might experience continuous low-stakes assessment as continuous a-stress-ment. Similarly, being given the option to take an exam a second time to get a better grade could feel like an offer you can’t say no to, in our grade-driven higher education landscape. And, perhaps most crushingly, no-stakes assessments -- that is, quizzes and assignments that help students gauge their learning but are not graded -- can feel to many students like busywork, a phrase that appears again and again in criticisms of the pandemic learning scene
Nowak, Z. (2020, November 4). Using online quizzing better. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/11/04/how-make-online-quizzes-more-effective-opinion
Davidson, C. N., & Katopodis, C. (2020, October 28). 8 ways to improve group work online. https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/10/28/advice-how-successfully-guide-students-group-work-online-opinion
Since students now are contending with such things as illness and even death, unreliable bandwidth, and inadequate work and study environments, it is unfair to burden them with interdependence. They suggest that it is particularly difficult online to manage students who fall away, “ghost” the class for a period of time or fail to contribute, leaving their peers to shoulder the responsibilities for the group. Katz writes, “It serves neither you nor students to spend the semester managing group work dynamics that increase students’ anxiety instead of building community.”
While many of those suggestions are helpful, we would like to push back at the notion that managing group dynamics doesn’t serve students. It is complicated -- almost too complicated. However, guiding students in effective collaboration is one of the best ways to mentor them in this crisis.
Toor, R. (2020, October 27). How to build community in a Zoom class with personal essays. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-build-community-in-a-zoom-class-with-personal-essays
Writing personal essays about their experiences at the beginning of the pandemic helped students cope, they said. Funny stories about toilet-paper hoarding and stress-cleaning mothers abounded, but they also talked about stuff that was hard for them. What they wrote reminded me, as their instructor, to be patient and empathetic. I learned how and what they were struggling with, and the sandbox gave them permission to vent.
Darby, F. (2020, September 24). 7 ways to assess students online and minimize cheating. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/7-ways-to-assess-students-online-and-minimize-cheating
How can you make sure your online students take tests without cheating? It’s one of the most-frequent questions asked by new online instructors and even some experienced ones. The short answer: You can’t.
So mix it up. Give students a variety of ways to show their learning, and not just the usual papers, projects, and homework. Get creative. Ask students to: (a) submit a weekly reflection on the reading, (b) create a brief video or audio about their stance on some current event, or (c) interview professionals in their desired career. Adding other forms of assessment — when weighted intentionally in your grading scheme — allows students who struggle with test anxiety to show their learning in other ways.
CBC. (2020, September 22). University of Regina students worried anti-cheating software will invade privacy. CBCNews. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/university-regina-students-proctortrack-privacy-concerns-1.5734005
Dumbaugh, D. (2020, September 9). Revitalizing classes through oral exams. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/09/09/how-use-oral-examinations-revitalize-online-classes-opinion
With solutions and other resources readily available online, students can gain a false sense of security about content, and faculty members can have a difficult time assessing what a student knows. Oral exams provide a way to deal with both issues simultaneously. Updating oral exams for the 21st-century virtual classroom helps students improve their communication, conquer anxiety, solve problems quickly and think creatively.
McMurtrie, B. (2020, August 27). Teaching: Getting creative with course assessments. The Chronicle of Higher Education [Teaching newsletter]. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/teaching/2020-08-27
Southworth, J. (2020, August 25). The problem with argumentative writing. University Affairs. Retrieved from https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/the-problem-with-argumentative-writing/
Professors, instructors, and students across the nation are moving various kinds of exhibitions online to showcase students’ term works. Holland College, for example, has moved the exhibition of “All about Hue” –a showcasing of School of Visual Arts students’ works–to the school’s online gallery. Meanwhile art history and museology students and a lecturer at Université du Québec à Montréal have taken their project to organize an exhibit online, showcasing the works of four artists that explores the fragility and complexity of human relationships with living things. In a bit of a different vein, 105 students participating in the University of Fraser Valley’s CityStudio Abbotsford Hububb—a show-and-tell community building event—are delivering their projects addressing civic challenges virtually. “I hope this new method of collaboration in experiential learning will further highlight the role that the higher education plays in the community,” said UFV Experiential Education Coordinator Larissa Horne.
Contact North. (2020, August 20). How assessment is changing in the digital age: Five guiding principles. TeachOnline.ca. Retrieved from https://teachonline.ca/tools-trends/how-assessment-changing-digital-age-five-guiding-principles
Mintz, S. (2020, January 9). The future (revisited) of online education. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/future-revisited-online-education
DeCoster, B. (2020, January 7). 2020 Conference Preview: “Back to reality: Writing assignment, hyperreality, and the ‘problem of plagiarism’”. ICAI blog. Retrieved from https://academicintegrity.org/integrity/2020-conference-preview-back-to-reality-writing-assigments-hyperreality-and-the-problem-of-plagiarism/
However, one thing has persistently failed to advance, and that is the type of assignment and grading used in higher education.
Bowness, S. (2019, November 28). How to bring students into the feedback loop. University Affairs. Retrieved from https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/how-to-bring-students-into-the-feedback-loop/
Eubanks, D. (2019, November 24). Weaponized learning outcomes. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/guest-post-weaponized-learning-outcomes
Lederman, D. (2019, May 1). Do colleges measure what they value? Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/05/01/study-student-learning-outcomes
Flaherty, C. (2019, April 2). When grading less is more. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/04/02/professors-reflections-their-experiences-ungrading-spark-renewed-interest-student
Schroeder, R. (2019, January 9). Disrupting the disrupters. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-education-was-disruptive-force-25-years-ago-now-it-being-disrupted
We can begin disruption anew with microcredentialing of just-in-time modules that anticipate the tech-driven training that industry will need in the coming year or two. We can offer microcredentialing of the communication, leadership and social skills that businesses say our graduates lack such as online leadership; communication skills (verbal, video and interactive); creative and innovative thinking; and more. We can serve international markets where growth is faster than domestically and needs are even greater. And we can seek to collaborate with other colleges and universities to jointly offer programs that draw upon the more diverse base of knowledge experts across multiple institutions.
Even if enrollments have not yet reached a plateau in your traditional online programs, now is the time to begin to look at the life-cycle curve and plan for the eventuality that your university will also be disrupted.
Flaherty, C. (2019, January 4). Grading smarter, not harder. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/01/04/do-historians-miss-ideals-assessment-some-have-suggested
Markowitz, T. (2018, September 16). The seven deadly sins of digital badging in education. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/troymarkowitz/2018/09/16/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-digital-badging-in-education-making-badges-student-centered/
Houck, D. (2018, September 20). Why are we still grading? Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/09/20/phd-student-ponders-alternatives-current-grading-approaches-opinion