Grading Reflective/Response Blogs
I'm teaching a compressed class this semester, and when I say compressed, I mean compressed. Five three-hour class sessions plus online time to do 3 credits worth of work. I told the class it'd be like ripping off a band-aid (or maybe duct tape): Painful, but over quickly. I wasn't lyin'.
I say this to offer some context over the comments that follow. I am using blogs for a couple of different applications while teaching this class, but I'm not using them in a way I would consider "well." I'm not, for example, requiring that students read and comment on each others' posts, which I would normally do if the course ran over an entire semester. My goal there would be to follow Chris Long's model to get more interaction and discussion going.
The course is instructional systems--basically, multimedia design for instruction. The goals are to teach the students to integrate multimedia and other technology into instructional design and teaching. Teaching this in the two-month time frame I've got was insane, so I started looking for ways to maximize the student experience while still being able to stay (somewhat) sane. Teaching them to code in XHTML seems a bit "old school" to me at this point (don't get me wrong, it's still a useful skill); given we had to cover OER, video, still image editing, webquests, and Web 2.0 technologies, something had to go. So I started looking for another platform.
Enter Blogs @ Penn State (aka, Moveable Type). The two purposes I'm using blogs for are to replace the individual papers (reflection and response papers) that were in the class, and to use the blogs as a kind of CMS for course content the students are developing. For the CMS usage, I'm basically using the platform so that the XHTML could go. For the reflection and response posts, the blog technology allows me to have the students post their work in the cloud, and also offers them the potential to begin building (or to continue to build) their portfolio.
I also need to thank Mike Rook for the beginnings of the blog assignments, too. He rocked at sharing his materials from teaching the same course. The reflective blog entries asked students to look at the project they'd just completed, think about using it in the classroom, and decide how it could be used to replace, amplify, or transform teaching. The response entries asked the students to think about the course readings in a larger context, how they might affect teaching and learning at either the K-12 or university level.
But these posts need to be evaluated. And I never like doing so without a rubric to go by, so I created one. When you look at it, keep in mind that I would add to this the requirement of commenting and reflecting on others' posts if I were doing this over a full semester, too. I thought I'd share it here and see if folks had thoughts to improve it for next time. So...thoughts?
Reflective/Responsive Blog Posting Rubric
I say this to offer some context over the comments that follow. I am using blogs for a couple of different applications while teaching this class, but I'm not using them in a way I would consider "well." I'm not, for example, requiring that students read and comment on each others' posts, which I would normally do if the course ran over an entire semester. My goal there would be to follow Chris Long's model to get more interaction and discussion going.
The course is instructional systems--basically, multimedia design for instruction. The goals are to teach the students to integrate multimedia and other technology into instructional design and teaching. Teaching this in the two-month time frame I've got was insane, so I started looking for ways to maximize the student experience while still being able to stay (somewhat) sane. Teaching them to code in XHTML seems a bit "old school" to me at this point (don't get me wrong, it's still a useful skill); given we had to cover OER, video, still image editing, webquests, and Web 2.0 technologies, something had to go. So I started looking for another platform.
Enter Blogs @ Penn State (aka, Moveable Type). The two purposes I'm using blogs for are to replace the individual papers (reflection and response papers) that were in the class, and to use the blogs as a kind of CMS for course content the students are developing. For the CMS usage, I'm basically using the platform so that the XHTML could go. For the reflection and response posts, the blog technology allows me to have the students post their work in the cloud, and also offers them the potential to begin building (or to continue to build) their portfolio.
I also need to thank Mike Rook for the beginnings of the blog assignments, too. He rocked at sharing his materials from teaching the same course. The reflective blog entries asked students to look at the project they'd just completed, think about using it in the classroom, and decide how it could be used to replace, amplify, or transform teaching. The response entries asked the students to think about the course readings in a larger context, how they might affect teaching and learning at either the K-12 or university level.
But these posts need to be evaluated. And I never like doing so without a rubric to go by, so I created one. When you look at it, keep in mind that I would add to this the requirement of commenting and reflecting on others' posts if I were doing this over a full semester, too. I thought I'd share it here and see if folks had thoughts to improve it for next time. So...thoughts?
Reflective/Responsive Blog Posting Rubric
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| The blog posting met the requirements of the specific assignment; that is, if the blog posting was to be a reflection on the assignment, it met the requirements of a reflective blog posting. If it was a weekly blog post (due Sunday) it carefully and thoroughly considered the question for the week. | 5 points |
| The blog posting was reflective, discussing the ideas in the readings or what was learned in the assignments in a way that extends knowledge beyond what was given. | 15 points |
| The blog posting was well-written and largely free of spelling or grammatical errors | 5 points |
| TOTAL | 30 points |
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