EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT CONFERENCE 24-25 November 2003 [email protected] Online - Oncampus: The best of both worlds in a ‘blended learning’

EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT CONFERENCE 24-25 November 2003 [email protected]

• Online - Oncampus:

The best of both worlds in a ‘blended learning’ project.

Darrall Thompson, Senior Lecturer

UTS Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building

Paper Theme:Online Assessment


• Classic Adelaide Car Rally

• Sir Stirling Moss



• Car Design

Criteria-Based Assessment

• All parts to last a max.

of five years

• Maximum profit on

replacement parts with

‘dealer only’ fitting

• Ensure that all bumpers are built-in, look silly and don’t

protect any part of the vehicle



• Building Design

Criteria-Based Assessment

• All parts to last a max.

of twenty years

• Maximum profit per

square foot

• Ensure complete insensitivity

to aesthetics and existing architecture



• What are the core criteria if the context is always changing?

• David Suzuki... ‘Earth Time’

> Attributes of a life form for survival and evolution

1.

2.



• What are the core criteria if the context is always changing?

• David Suzuki... ‘Earth Time’

> Attributes of a life form for survival and evolution

1. VERSATILITY

2. DIVERSITY

In an educational context LEARNING OBJECTIVES aligned with

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA need to encourage these



• In Education we provide CONTEXT and criteria

• Learning activities need CONTEXT management systems alongside CMS

> Subtle, unresolved aspects of the context can encourage students to

adopt surface approaches

> Students bring attitudes from previous learning experiences to the

university context

> They (and we) need to be developing versatility and diversity in

changing contexts



• How to design a learning task to facilitate students deep engagement in a design history subject component?

> Design History undergraduate subjects often taught in lecture

tutorial mode with minimal student engagement / satisfaction.

> Individual essays were costly to assess with little parity between

tutors

> Design curricula already overloaded with new media, new

software, converging work practices

The Problem



• Students to work in learning groups:

> Problem: Group-based assessment is unfair - does not reflect

individual contributions

• Students to do it online:

> Problem: Online subjects require a great deal of design time and

are expensive for monitoring and assessment

The SOLUTION ?



• Students to work in learning groups:

‘role-playing’ designers from history, and using an online criteria-based Self and Peer Assessment system (SPARK) to alter group marks to individual marks using agreed criteria.

• Students to do it online:

no allocated class time... an online research and debate with guided research questions and a live face-to-face creative / drama presentation at the end of the project.

A ‘blended learning’ solution



• CONTEXT from student briefing:

‘Imagine we have just been joined on our UTSOnline website by eighteen

famous typographers / artists / designers. They represent strong views about

the ‘expressive’ versus the ‘functional’ approaches to typography and design.

Some of them are in disagreement and want to have a discussion / argument

about their approaches. However quite a few of them are dead and the others

not here in Australia so we have arranged for this to happen using your

tutorial groups as champions of their points of view and philosophy.’

(from the online debate brief BDesign Visual Communication 2003).

Contextuals

Online-Oncampus: the best of both worlds in a

‘blended learning’ project


• Holistic Research Questions ...

•

• ‘First person’ submissions online and live

Contextuals




Contextuals



Self & Peer

online system

for group

work


Contextuals



Online

Criteria

Based

Assessement

system

(my design

using Flash

and FileMaker

Pro.)


• Implementation of Self & Peer online system

showing students being responsible in the

process

Results and Reflections




• Online Criteria Based Assessment system...

Grad. Attr. and other criteria blended in situ.

• Many dimensions of student learning

• Online submissions created dynamic tension

• Live performance assisted Kolb cycle +++

• Online facilitated anonymity, group schedules

and role adoption.





• The video ... in process





• Online - Oncampus:

The best of both worlds in a ‘blended learning’ project.

Darrall Thompson, Senior Lecturer

UTS Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building


Documents

EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT CONFERENCE 24-25 November 2003 [email protected] Online - Oncampus: The best of both worlds in a ‘blended learning’