A confession to be made and an announcement to be declared

February 1, 2011

A confession to be made and an announcement to be declared

I must admit that when I started this paper, I thought that I had known a lot about evaluation especially in educational settings. I now truly realise that a multiplicity of complex terms and interpretations have emerged and drawn different paths in my academic experience.  At some stages I felt overwhelmed and misled. However, Bronwyn’s repeated guidance and feedback have shown me how to be able to evaluate successfully specifically in the fields of e-learning.  Bronwyn’s enduring consistency has indeed been very fruitful.

I also need to state that I experienced at some stages the evaluator’s strict marking criteria was stressful. Nevertheless, Louise and I tried our very best to stick with them. It was also very irritating when at certain stages I felt that I was not following Bronwyn’s instructions.

Bronwyn is a highly experienced evaluator and a brilliant woman. When I met her in Auckland, she seemed to be very kind and helpful. When she was expressing herself, she sounded very confident and knowledgeable. She also was very quiet and gentle as I mentioned in a previous post of mine on this very blog. It is a big surprise that she is a very exacting marker. 
At the end of the day, these are just my thoughts, may be she is not a strict marker at all. May be it is the only way to let someone know about their mistakes and learn better. It worked with me anyway (hopefully).

I also believe that the paper itself involves a lot more work than my perception of its real academic value. This has productively enhanced my learning and perception of evaluation as it required me to ask questions and retrieve related resources.

It was really nice to meet you guys and I indeed enjoyed this paper (well, most of it).

I also must acknowledge Louise’s beautiful attitude and continual encouragement and support. Louise is indeed a good example of a very good Kiwi woman who always contributes positively to society and works very hard to achieve her goals. We both have paddled our waka against the violent waves in the deep ocean of this paper.

Thanks everyone for your contribution to this great paper. Thanks again for your lovely comments and feedback on this blog of mine.

I genuinely wish you all the best.

Bronwyn,…. A big thank you and please accept a lovely flower from Louise and I.

Dana

 

Is it the end? Or it has been like that since the beginning?

January 31, 2011

Is it the end of the course and everything?

Why is everyone quiet?

Come on guys, we need to keep in touch :-)

Who is gonna do another elearning course?

I do look forward to seeing you in another course :-)

For myself I am a lifelong learner :-)


Below are the posts I have contributed to this blog:

·         An updated version of my report

·         Finally, the Final Report is Final

·         Elluminate Live!, the 17th November 2010

·         Wednesday the 3rd of Nov. 2010

·         Survey Questions

·         A PDF Version of Our Plan

·         Limitations and a number of suggestions and...

·         Learning by Evaluation with Michael Winter

·         A draft copy of my evaluation plan

·         Recordings of the web conferences

·         Another Teleconference Session

·         Another meeting on 2nd of Sept. 2010

·         Instructional Product Evaluation

·         Working together with Louise

·         Session 4 dated 25th August 2010

·         Essay Writing Case Study

·         Activity "Done"

·         Taster

·         Session Two

·         Session One

Cheers,

Dana

 

An updated version of my report

January 31, 2011
Hello all,

Please click here to view my updated version of my evaluation report :-)

Thanks,

Comments and feedback are appreciated.


Dana
 

Finally, the Final Report is Final

December 12, 2010

Please click here to view my final report for the project I was conducting.


Nice meeting you all. I truly and genuinely wish you all the best.

Looking forward to doing another course with you guys :-)

 

My very best regards,

Dana

 

 

Elluminate Live!, the 17th November 2010

November 17, 2010

Once again Louise and I met at the Technology Learning Centre to join the planned teleconference. Again, we arrived there very early and it was a great opportunity to discuss our final report. The centre was very quiet.  We also discussed other MIT issues including BN students’ academic concerns. Louise had set up the required tools for the conference and was already in the room, alone, all by herself. Later, Kevin entered the room (of course virtually). Kevin had problems with his mic and could not respond verbally; well, I mean we could not hear him. He stated that people did not like his accent anyway. I told him that my accent was very bad and his accent must be very beautiful. He was being very nice and stated that my accent was great. Isn’t he lovely? Well, I told him that I knew that my accent was horrible. Louise asked him how he was doing regarding his final report. He said that he was doing ok. Well he did not say that exactly. As a matter of fact it sounded that he was pretty much like us. He stated that he’s had some issues. I believe that Kevin is a very lovely person. I have known him virtually since last semester.  Louise and I have a multiplicity of issues. Luckily we have been able to manage and resolve certain issues. Doing this course has brought a number of advantages. In addition to the knowledge we gain, we have been introduced to many wonderful people. Jon, Katie, Misha, Liz, Rachel, Veronique and the rest are all wonderful people. May be one day we should meet up.

Katie later joined the session. Katie greeted us by saying how are you trouble makers…J

I was recording down events and thoughts synchronously. I was doing this because I was going to be very busy and I might not have time to include my thoughts and reflections in my blog later.

Kevin said that he had a bottle of wine and he was drinking already. Louise and I were at work and of course we were not allowed to consume alcohol while on campus. I am not much into alcohol anyway. Liz later joined the session. Misha and Jon joined soon after. Kevin said he felt sorry for Jon as he was waiting for data from him. Kevin said that he had a dyslexic keyboard. Rachel and Bronwyn joined later.

Bronwyn asked us how we were doing and started to record and archive the session. Well, I don’t think I need to reflect on this as everything is gonna be recorded, but never mind, it is OK am allowed to do so.

Louise said that she had already started writing her report and said that she was wondering if it was ok to copy and paste certain aspects of her plan into the final report. Bronwyn said it was ok and we were allowed to do so. Bronwyn later displayed the “proposed indices and headings” of what we should be following. She was displaying them as the session was progressing. Misha later expressed what she was doing and Bronwyn praised her for what she was doing. Misha is a very lovely person. I have met her in person several times at MIT. She is highly educated and a great woman. I respect her a lot.

Katie had a go too.


While Bronwyn was reflecting and commenting, she sounded very serious. When I met her in person last Tuesday at MIT, she seemed very gentle and very humble.  As a matter fact, she was very friendly and lovely.  

Liz later had a turn too. She asked Bronwyn a question.

Well, I really don’t need to record these things, ok ok I am going to focus on the discussion. And people can retrieve the archive at : 1.2 Web conference archive in the References section on the wiki (posted by Bronwyn Hegarty to Evaluation of eLearning for Effective Practice).



Marking Criteria

 

Wednesday the 3rd of Nov. 2010

November 4, 2010

Last night, the 3rd of November 2010, Louise and I met at the Technology Learning Centre to join the intended teleconference. We arrived there very early. We took the opportunity and discussed our plan once again. Louise again thought that the survey questions were too many and students would not be interested.  By then it was 6:00 already and we still were the first people to join the teleconference room. Louise advised it was still early as the teleconference started at 6:30 not 6:00. I don’t know why I thought the teleconference was starting at 6:00. Louise took the opportunity and started marking her students’ assignments. Katie later joined the room and started a great discussion. Well, the truth is she triggered a number of useful discussions. She first asked us about the progression of our work. She kindly asked about the survey we were conducting and the participants we were interviewing. We informed her that we were not doing very well as students did not have enough time to take part and the survey questions required relatively plenty of time.  It sounded that Katie was doing a great job. As a matter of fact it seems (from her plan) that she is doing an enormous survey. Good on her.

Later Liz and Rachel joined in. We asked Liz about the weather in Australia and because I had a problem with my mic, I asked Louise to ask Liz if she had seen Bronwyn in AustraliaJ.

We then talked about certain important aspects of the work we were conducting. Some useful tips and helpful ideas were delivered and discussed.

Later we talked about the “special topic by negotiation” we were doing. Liz wanted to know more about the requirements and the criteria. Katie kindly displayed them on the whiteboard.  Then the link to the recorded chat sessions was retrieved and displayed.

It unfortunately seemed that Bronwyn did not have time to join in and it was almost 7:00 and we thought that we should call it a day.

 

Survey Questions

November 4, 2010

On the 2nd of Nov. 2010, Louise visited the LSC to discuss our final report. We together went through the various aspects of the plan and ammended certain parts requested by Bronwyn. I realised that the survey questions had been answered only by few students. Louise also reported that her survey questions had not been conducted by many students either. Personally I realise that BN1 and Foundation for Nursing students have a lot of things to do and they just don’t have enough time to conduct the survey. Louise agreed with me.<?

Louise followed Bronwyn’s instructions and thooought that the survey would take at least 20 minutes to complete and her students would certainly not do it. She showed me the survey questions and they were four or five pages. Luckily I have been interviewing my students jndividually whenvere appropriate and  have been able to collect some data. I still think that I need to gather more information and I supposse that the clock is ticking and I might not have enough time to do them later. It was time I did many things by now.

Later, Louise and I decided to meet up again at the Technology Learning Centre to join the teleconference with bronwyn.

Bronwyn had indicated earlier that she might not be able to run the teleconference on time but she would try her best to make it for Wednesday the 3rd of November.

 

A PDF Version of Our Plan

October 5, 2010

Louise and I completed our evaluation plan project last Friday, 1st Oct. 2010, and saved a copy in a PDF format for our records. To download and view our plans, please click here.

 

Limitations and a number of suggestions and concerns

September 30, 2010

The generalizability of the evaluation of the “the smiley face approach” can be threatened by a limited number of students participating in the evaluation process. This is due to a number of reasons. Apparently many Nursing and Foundation for Nursing students are mature students and have a number of other obligations and commitments and might not have enough time to participate in the survey.

Nevertheless, it has the potential to be extended to a larger sample once the piloted programme is evaluated.

The evaluation also requires competence with specific anatomical terms that must be learned before participating in drawing the smiley face.

Louise and I met again at the LSC at 3:30 pm. At this time a nursing student came along seeking help with her enzyme laboratory report. Louise took the opportunity and asked her to complete her evaluation survey. Not long after, another student came for the same purpose. It took me an hour and a half to get back to Louise to do our evaluation plan. Louise already had a number of suggestions and concerns in terms of generalizability, reliability and validity as well as references not being properly written. We were able to put a number of ideas together and we amended the references in terms of punctuation, capitalization and format.

It was really strange that after we had included the right APA format and saving the wiki page, they displayed incorrectly again. Maybe we did not save them in the first place :-)

Today, I accessed the page again and I realized that many titles and subtitles were not in italic, which were changes I had made on Wiki Educator. I fixed them again and hopefully things are correct when I access the page again.

Then we had another concern. We did not know how to present our final project plan. Should we keep it in its current format or do we need to create a PDF format or something similar?

I thought it would be a great idea to contact Bronwynh and ask her some other questions. Louise contacted Bronwyn and she was able to ask her about our concerns. Brownwyn informed us to keep it in its current format. She also advised us that we could ask for an extension if we needed one.

 

Learning by Evaluation with Michael Winter

September 22, 2010

The teleconference session was very useful and informative during which a number of interesting concepts and phrases such as SL, SLENZ, MUVO, Researchware, PowerGramoTM and NVIVO were introduced and briefly explained.

Bronwyn had arranged for Michael Winter to present about the evaluation he conducted for the “Second Life” project.

I started my holiday last Friday (I am still on holiday) but did not want to miss the session. I joined the teleconference very early and Michael was already in the room. I greeted Michael but it seemed that he was setting up the audio wizard and was preparing for his presentation. Later Alex and Bronwyn joined the session. Then Jon, Rachel, Katie and Veronique joined the session.  Liz had some connection problems but was finally able to join the session.

At the beginning Michael introduced himself and it sounded that he had done a lot of interesting work. Later, he briefly introduced SL and talked about some related topics in terms of evaluation and e-learning. He displayed a YouTube video about Foundation Studies in Second Life - SLENZ but it seemed that the connection was not that good and we could not watch the video successfully. The video was displaying page by page. Bronwyn saved the situation and included displayed the link to the presentation. I retrieved the video and I did enjoy it. I also realized that I already knew one of the students who is doing a course at MIT. While I was watching the video, I was virtually interacting with the contents. It is an amazing video and I will definitely be telling my colleagues and students about the video.

Later Michael displayed a brilliant PowerPoint presentation about the evaluation he did. I really liked the contents. I also liked the various interactions triggered during the session.

Again, Bronwyn kindly recorded the session and it is available to retrieve, so I am not going to talk more.

The following screenshots are some important aspects of the PowerPoint presentation that I enjoyed greatly.









 
 
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