EDUC 7102 Module 3

How should participation in a collaborative learning community be assessed? How do the varying levels of skill and knowledge students bring to a course affect the instructor’s “fair and equitable assessment” of learning?

Participation in a collaborative learning community should be assessed based on the individual’s level of participation in the community. Ways to assess this would be through the usage of a rubric with discussion questions, group assignments, and chat. Instructors are able to assess students according to how often and extensive the individual’s participation is in the collaborative learning community.

Varying levels of skill and knowledge students bring to a course affects the instructor’s the fair and equitable assessment of learning. There may be overachievers, experienced, or inexperienced students in course. There has to be a median point for students when creating assignments. This will create an opportunity for fair and equitable assessment of learning.

If a student does not want to network or collaborate in a learning community for an online course, what should the other members of the learning community do? What role should the instructor play? What impact would this have on his or her assessment plan?

If a student doesn’t want to network or collaborate in a learning community for an online course, group members should attempt to reach out to team member. A lot of reasons may be the cause of the student not wanting to collaborate. I believe the most common reason that will cause a student to not collaborate in a network is a student feeling incompetent in area of study. The student can be aided by receiving feedback and support from team members. The student in need should request help from team members if not, then team members should reach out to team member for support. Once an attempt has been made to communicate with team member, if team member doesn’t communicate or participate afterwards, then the instructor should be contacted. The instructor should serve as a mediator between the group and student. The instructor should assess the student based on the facts communication between group and student was ineffective. As a instructor, I would assess the group as a whole without considering the student who didn’t participate. As for individual assessments, I would assess the student on his/her lack of participation.

Links to additional blogs

http://theweeklygumboot.blogspot.com/2009/02/classroom-community-times-be-changin.html

John Horn suggests that we turn away from the structure of the classrooms in the past where the instructor was at the top of the hierarchy. He suggests changing the structure to a community.

http://www.edutopia.org/envision-schools-learning-community-respect

Bob Lenz speaks of ways to foster a community face to face classroom. He indicates that learner increases in a classroom with a sense of community.