Back from a flying visit to the Society for Research into Higher Education conference. Two papers were accepted for presentation, the first on the real opportunities for virtual worlds in HE and the second on formative assessment (FA) practices. The body of work on FA is drawn from two complimentary funded (University of London) projects that have been examining the role of feedback in Open and Distance Learning settings - from the perspectives of the tutor and the learner.
The slides here provide an overview of the more recent work that has been exploring the student view:
This project explored a range of formative assessment practices and examined how they are implemented within Open and Distance Learning environments in higher education. It identified students’ perceptions towards assessment and investigated the relationship between formative assessment and learning technologies in light of the affordances of these technologies. It also put forward a conceptual model of formative assessment and examined how this can be made to work purposefully within the specific constraints of ODL environments.
In an earlier paper we have also explored the relationship between formative assessment and social software. The claim is that the social dimensions of emerging technologies – specifically, blogs and wikis – allow for formative assessment practices to be re-invented or at the very least facilitated by essentially participative and student-focussed interventions. A comparison of these technologies against formative assessment mechanisms identifies the types of processes that these new tools might best support to encourage effective feedback approaches that both empower the learner and enhance their learning experience.
Resources and links:
Hatzipanagos, S. and Warburton, S. (2009). Feedback as dialogue: exploring the links between formative and social software in distance learning, Learning, Media and Technology, 34:1, 45-59
DOI: 10.1080/17439880902759919, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439880902759919
King's Learning Institute project page http://www.kcl.ac.uk/learningteaching/kli/research/assessment/
Centre for Distance Education http://www.cde.london.ac.uk/support/awards/generic2535.htm
Project team:
Dr Stylianos Hatzipanagos, KCLDr Steven Warburton, KCL
Professor Paul Black, KCL
Professor Bob McCormick, Open University
Dr Ana Lucena, Institute of Education
Hi Steve,
I just read about Edelman's view to make a split in Social Media communication, namely Social Brand vs. Social Business (see link below). Basically a differentio
Does this imply that there should also be a differentiation in eLearning, namely Social Learning (external) vs. Social Teaching (internal/mindset/change/collaboration)?
Brigit
http://www.edelmandigital.com/2011/07/01/whats-your-social-business-plan/
Posted by: Brigit Law | July 07, 2011 at 16:17