Evaluation

OK, now I'm really a bit behind I know..however:
There were some interesting reads in this section.
I have linked governance and policy evaluation to the Bruce King 'evaluation' of the Enabling programs at CQUniversity.  What do we do with evaluation and how do we process evaluation information?  Often there is organization resistance to many forms of evaluation - that is of course unless the evaluation is organizationally based.  As we are all aware, all evaluations are, and can be, open to manipulation to suit the 'requirements of the evaluation'.  In the example I have stated above - it is important to consider the conditions of the evaluation - are they merely a source of legitimization as Boswell indicates can be the case.  That is: has the decision of the evaluation outcome already been decided?.  In the example indicated - while extensive research was carried out - it is far easier to have an external party offer an evaluation in that they can come and go and not be part of the fall out of the evaluation findings - or to experience the 'wash-back effects' as Anderson and Wall discuss in this article. 
In terms of Course Evaluations - good or bad, they are used as parameters of teaching productivity and outcomes.   Educators need to keep in mind that difference forms of evaluation vary in effectiveness from student to student depending on learning styles are preferences.  I recently attending an International Enabling Conference - various speakers here indicated the need for flexible and creative evaluation techniques that they were implementing to align with students learning styles, which is quite the opposite to the norm.  Evaluations here allowed students to show understanding of course materials by which ever means worked for them, so long as they meaning was clear.  Examples here included building workable scale versions of constructions to show understanding of elements of pre-Engineering requirements, such as measurements, weights etc.

OK will keep it brief..onward and upward folks!

Echo...echo...echo

HI folks, have been out of action for a little while on annual leave, and then couldn't get back into my blog!

Apparently I have a 'conflicting' account issue that the fabulous ITD team at CQUni have been working on for me..so I currently have dubious access :)

So...Week 6:

I explored areas related to generational differences in my Annotated Bibliography.  What to do with the 'Net Generation'?  It would seem that many of these users come with the skills to find..but not critically evaluate..what has been found.  I think as educators we need to work with the skills this generation has, in that they don't really need to be taught how to search, but why, and need assistance in locating relevant and reputable information that is suitable for academic use.

So, we need to recognize the abilities of the ‘net generation’ of university students to confidently read images and text, but question their ability to critically evaluate the information.  The challenges for educators, is to adequately consider students current knowledge and to address the imbalance of teacher and student within this context by refining the teacher-directed approach and the student-centered approach to course content that focuses on critical reflection and to understand texts in relation to contexts. This in itself requires a paradigm shift from old practices and the embracing of flexibility on the part of the educator to distinguish what does and does not work in the new millennium of education

As a “generation X-er” and having experience with Generation Y youngsters (J) there is a focus to have it all now.

Week 7 & 8

Ok, thanks for the links provided there Scott.  The fist link to the article outlining the power of 6 model was great.  The six ares of potential value adding, areas of professional capacity and the six strategic APD Initiatives do look really beneficial.  As I deal solely with external students, having a working and relevant online learning system and area are crucial to the students success.  I did have a chuckle at the ‘current approaches to developing staff skills’ section – as I remember when CQUni switched from Blackboard to Moodle and the staff conflict that surrounded the transition! You would think that academics would be eager to learn new skills!

Planning for Learning and Assessment – I don’t think that there was anything in these slides that we haven’t already really covered in the overall content of this course. This said, I have passed this slide show onto colleagues to take a look at.  I have seen the ‘8 Learning Management questions’ before and YES they are very handy in course design.