Moving a course from a classroom to an online environment seems like a massive undertaking. To make sure that students are understanding the concepts, the requirements are a little different. If a student is in the classroom, unless they have a cheat sheet or you offer an open book test, it is much easier to determine the retention of the information. Online assessments don't truly gauge how much a student knows because they could be sitting there with the book or, if the test allows, they get crafty and print out the test, go answer the questions, and come back and complete it. I am certain there are some tools available to take care of the latter, but having that complication will be tough to overcome.
Having an asynchronous environment will also make assignment grading interesting. No matter what class I have, if something is due it is turned in when it is due. However, in an online environment you may have students that are gung ho and get it done early, some that turn it in right on time and some that are late. That could make grading a complete nightmare, especially if you are having them turn in answers to matching or true false questions or even essay questions.
The other thing that I will definitely have to think about is the capability of the users home computer. In a lab environment, I have a pretty good handle on what software is there and available to the students. If I have an assignment that requires the use of a certain piece of software, it should be available to the student in the lab. You don't get that guarantee in the online environment and students may have to come up with creative ways to submit assignments.
No comments:
Post a Comment