MEDT 7472 Online course review instrument

Adapted from University of West Georgia 5-Star Online Course Review and National Standards for Quality Online

Course : Assessing Technology Enhanced Instruction

Grade Level: Graduate Student
Teacher(s) of Course: Dr. Linda Haynes
Date of Review: Aug-Sept 2016
Reviewer: J.B. Campbell

Rating Scale
0 Absent - component is missing
1 Unsatisfactory - needs significant improvement
2 Somewhat satisfactory - needs targeted improvements
3 Satisfactory - discretionary improvement needed
4 Very Satisfactory - no improvement needed

Standard A: Introduction and Information Score Comments

The goals and objectives clearly state what the participants will know or be able to do at the The course objectives are clearly stated and supported with cited research
A1 end of the course. The goals and objectives are measurable in multiple ways, and are aligned 4 sources in the course syllabus.
to National/State standards
The course content and assignments are of sufficient rigor, depth and breadth to teach the Each assignment is correlated to which objective(s) it pertains to. In
A2 standards being addressed. 4 addition, discussions and readings are in support of the assignments and
objectives.

Students are encouraged to introduce themselves to the class One of the very first activities is for each student to create their own
Curriculum Vita to introduce themselves to the class in addition to
A3 4 introducing yourself through an online discussion post.

The course syllabus is easily located, and provides complete and clear information pertaining The course syllabus can easily be found under the content heading either
to ALL of the following: course objectives, grading, instructor contact information, required in the table of contents or under the getting started module. All information
A4 materials, the nature of distance learning, and honesty policies ensuring the integrity of student 4 for successful completion of the course is included in the syllabus.
work.

Course requirements are consistent with course goals, are representative of the scope of the The course goals are not stated outright, but are contained in the course
course and are clearly stated. description. The assignments (requirements) are specific to each aspect
A5 4 of the course goals and accomplish the course objectives.

Information is provided to students, parents and mentors on how to communicate with the Information is given on how to contact Dr. Haynes (instructor), D2L Tech
online instructor and course provider. Support (provider), writing support, software upgrade, and orientation tools
A6 4 for navigating Courseden.

Minimum technology requirements and prerequisite technology skills are clearly stated. The syllabus contains all of the minimum technology and prerequisite
A7 4 skills, as does every online course so far at UWG.
 Expectations for academic integrity, use of copyrighted materials, plagiarism and netiquette
(Internet etiquette) regarding lesson activities, discussions, and e-mail communications are
A8 clearly stated.
The instructor provides a biography/photograph, a welcome message, and an appropriate self-
introduction which presents the instructor as approachable and engaged.
A9
Privacy policies are clearly stated.
A10
Content Notes
Every online course that I have taken at West Georgia, including this one, has been setup in a similar fashion. The goals, objectives, policies, assignments, and expectations are clearly outlined in the
syllabus and reiterated throughout the different assignments. For this particular course, I also had to create a curriculum vita in addition to my online introduction, which was something I had not done
before. The instructor went above and beyond with her introduction and communication which led to a welcoming and supportive environment for me as a student. The only issue was the link to the
privacy statement did not connect to the appropriate page, but that is a minor issue and a simple fix.
Standard B: Instructional Design
Course design reflects a clear understanding of all students needs and incorporates varied
ways to learn and master the curriculum.
B1
The course is organized by units and lessons that fall into a logical sequence. Each unit and
lesson includes an overview describing objectives, activities, assignments, assessments, and
B2 resources to provide multiple learning opportunities for students to master the content.
The course instruction includes activities that engage students in active learning.
B3
The course and course instructor provide students with multiple learning paths, based on
student needs that engage students in a variety of ways.
B4
The course provides opportunities for students to engage in higher-order thinking, critical
reasoning activities and thinking in increasingly complex ways.
B5
The syllabus contains all of the stated expectations of the student learner,
as does every online course so far at UWG, and links to the student
4 handbook for further clarification.
The very first link in the course is a welcome video from Dr. Haynes. There
is also a Curriculum Vita posted as an example and to provide students
4 with her professional background.
If you would like to read the privacy policies, the link provided in the
syllabus does not work correctly. In order to read the technology courses
privacy policy, some searching of the UWG website must be done. The
correct link is: https://www.westga.edu/uwgonline/technology-
2 requirements.php
Score Comments
4 Each student has the autonomy to tailor assignments to their specific
content area. The assignments themselves are varied but clearly designed
to help the student master the objectives for each module.
4 Each learning module contains an overview of activities, resources,
objectives, and assignments that progress the student through the course
goals.
4 Every module has multiple activities that force students to participate and
produce to demonstrate their learning.
4 Again, the course is designed to be tailored to the content area of each
student. Even though the activities are all the same, the choices that
students make give flexibility to the course.
Beyond the discussions which require back and forth conversations with
4
classmates, other assignments ask students to create assessment
activities including rubrics and collaborate with clients to design
assessment activities.
 Readability levels, written language assignments and mathematical requirements are
B6 appropriate for the course content and grade-level expectations. 4 All modules and course content are representative of graduate level
course work for professional educators.
The course design provides opportunities for appropriate instructor-student interaction,
including opportunities for timely and frequent feedback about student progress.
The design of this course allows the instructor not only to follow the
B7 4 discussions and interactions of the students with each other, but also
allows the instructor ample opportunities to offer constructive feedback to
students during and after submission of module assignments.
The course design includes explicit communication/activities (both before and during the first
week of the course) that confirms whether students are engaged and are progressing through
the course. The instructor will follow program guidelines to address non-responsive students.
B8 4
The communication activities are imbedded within the modules and the
penalties for not participating in the communication activities is explicitly
stated in the syllabus.
The course provides opportunities for appropriate instructor-student and student-student
interaction to foster mastery and application of the material.
The discussion board is the main source of this interaction between
B9 4 students and the instructor, however, the instructor is available through
email and provides timely feedback on all email inquiries and assignment
submissions.
Each activity and assignment is well-written, providing students with a clear understanding of
what is expected and how they should submit their work. The very first assignment asks students to review a test or instrument
measure. There was very little preparation by the instructor for this
B10 3 assignment, although there was a list of questions to answer about the
instrument of choice. An explanation about the purpose of the review and
an example or two of a test review would have been very helpful in
completing the assignment.
Students have access to resources that enrich the course content. Several extra resources beyond the textbook are offered in every module
B11 4
of this course.
Instructional Design Notes
As previously stated, each module was well designed with readings and activities that related to the learning objectives for that module. The back and forth nature of the discussion posts required
students to not only share some of their best practices, but to also reflect on how to change their assessments in light of the knowledge learned from the readings, assignments, and from other
classmates. This course was taken during the summer semester, so there may have been a slightly abbreviated timeline which resulted in the lack of preparation for the first assignment covering a
meaurement instrument. In addition, in my opinion, this course should only be offered during the fall and spring semesters because of the assessment design project. It is extremely difficult to recruit
anyone in education during the summer months for projects such as this one. Overall however, I felt very prepared to not only design a technology based assessment complete with an evaluation tool
(rubric) as well as deconstruct the positive and negative aspects of the assessment plan afterwards.

Standard C: Student Assessment Score Comments

Student evaluation strategies are consistent with course goals and objectives, are
representative of the scope of the course and are clearly stated.
Assignment evaluations use clear language as does the entire evaluation
C1 4
process of the course. Each assignment has specific requirements that
must be met to demonstrate proficiency and understanding of specific
course objectives.
The course structure includes adequate and appropriate methods and procedures to assess
students mastery of content.
C2 4
Current assessment strategies are appropriate ways to measure student
understanding and mastery of content materials.
 Ongoing, varied, and frequent assessments are conducted throughout the course to inform
instruction.
Even though all assignments are graded in a timely fashion, there are not
C3 3 many such assignments and they are large in scope. The majority of the
assessments must come from discussion posts. Smaller assignments with
timely feedback might prove useful for gauging progress as well as
content mastery.
Assessment strategies and tools make the student continuously aware of his / her progress in
C4 class and mastery of the content. 4 Students have the ability to keep up with their progress and grades in the
class
Assessment materials provide the instructor with the flexibility to assess students in a variety of
C5 ways. 4 The rubrics for each assignment are broad enough for the instructor to
grade students according to their individual content areas.
The grading policy and practices are clear and easy to understand.
C6 4
The grading policy is very straight forward and easy to understand.
E
The major concern any student has in an online course is whether or not their work is up to the standards set forth by the instructor. This information usually comes in the form of constructive feedback
from the instructor, although sometimes it also is reflected in the grades given by the instructor. In either case, timely feedback is important. In this class, the instructor was able to provide updated
feedback in a very timely fashion on all types of assignments and discussions. The grading details were explained before each assignment and students had access to the grading rubric for each
assignment. The different assignments provided the instructor with different types of work samples for all students, thereby providing students with many chances to demonstrate their understanding
of the material. In addition, the assignments, especially the major project, aligned very well with the objectives and goals of the class. As previously stated, an improvement to this course could be the
addition of some smaller scale activities with appropriate feedback which may be possible if the course was offered only during the fall and spring semesters.

Standard D: Technology Score Comments

Clear and consistent navigation is present throughout the course. The course is very well laid out and easy to navigate using the tabs at the
D1 4
top.
The course is complete (does not have any section under construction).
D2 4
The course is complete with every section ready to go.
All external links are functional Every link is functional however the privacy policy link does not take you to
D3 4
the privacy policy.
Supplementary resources and links are available to students and are labeled as required or
D4 4 Every resource link is either a suggested link or a required link, although
optional.
not expressly stated.
Rich media are provided in multiple formats for ease of use and access in order to address
diverse student needs. Although certainly not required, more videos from the instructor
D5 3 concerning upcoming projects would have been beneficial to more visual
learners.
The course uses content-specific tools and software appropriately. All suggested tools are appropriate. The course makes effective use of the
D6 4
D2L software as well.
Technology Notes
The D2L platform (CourseDen) works extremely well and this course makes extensive use of all the features available. All posted videos played correctly, links to internal documents and files worked
correctly as did links to outside resources. The course content was available to access from multiple areas and the checklists made it simple for students to determine when they had completed all
required parts of a module. Dropbox worked flawlessly although there were some issues with posting to the discussion boards. For some reason, students were not able to start a new thread at
different times during the semester if they were in reading view. However, by changing the settings to grid view, they were then able to start a new thread. The problem did not persist from one post to
the next, so I did not mention it above.

Overall feedback
The quality of this course is a great example of what I have come to expect from West Georgia and their online classes. This particular course was taken as part of an Instructional Technology
Specialist Degree program and is intended for graduate students in the general field of Media and Instruction. Although not all of my graduate courses have lived up to this standard, the majority of
them have. This particular course description outlined exactly what students would be learning and had specific objectives that aligned with the course goals. The instructor created a classroom type
environment with her introduction and introduction activities. The assignments themselves were designed to increase student knowledge and expertise in designing assessments as well as evaluating
assessments. The activities within each module helped students build upon their current knowledge base and there was a scaffolding effect from one module to the next. The technology used by the
online classroom functioned as it was supposed to as all content was available at the scheduled times. The instructor was available to her students and provided timely feedback on submitted student
work samples. Other than only offering this course during the fall and spring semesters, there are very few changes that need to be made. However, I do have one other suggestion relating to the final
project. As time allows, students could review the measurement tools of their classmates before the implementation of the final project. I would have appreciated another math teacher evaluating my
The quality of this course is a great example of what I have come to expect from West Georgia and their online classes. This particular course was taken as part of an Instructional Technology
Specialist Degree program and is intended for graduate students in the general field of Media and Instruction. Although not all of my graduate courses have lived up to this standard, the majority of
them have. This particular course description outlined exactly what students would be learning and had specific objectives that aligned with the course goals. The instructor created a classroom type
environment with her introduction and introduction activities. The assignments themselves were designed to increase student knowledge and expertise in designing assessments as well as evaluating
assessments. The activities within each module helped students build upon their current knowledge base and there was a scaffolding effect from one module to the next. The technology used by the
online classroom functioned as it was supposed to as all content was available at the scheduled times. The instructor was available to her students and provided timely feedback on submitted student
work samples. Other than only offering this course during the fall and spring semesters, there are very few changes that need to be made. However, I do have one other suggestion relating to the final
project. As time allows, students could review the measurement tools of their classmates before the implementation of the final project. I would have appreciated another math teacher evaluating my
rubric before using it to evaluate my 'student' work samples. My client teacher did help devise the rubric, but another set of eyes would have been helpful as would the practice of critiqueing a
measurement tool.

Assignment requirements (to be filled by Professor only) NOT APPLICABLE TO PROJECT 1 ANALYSIS Score Comments
OF ONLINE COURSE

A syllabus that tells the students the objectives of the lesson and provides detailed and clear
instructions on how to complete the weeks activities and explains how the learners will be
evaluated. It also must include instructors contact information and office hours

The course is complete

At least two well-thought-out discussion topics pertaining to the lesson

Some type of pedagogically-sound project the student must complete pertaining to the lesson.

Some form of advanced technology on display. This might include a narrated PowerPoint
lecture, podcast, video or movie cast, interactive tutorial, etc.

Some form of assessment (quiz, rubric, checklist, etc).

The integration of the interactive tool (blog, wiki or digital storytelling) you chose in the Tools
for online engagement and communication discussion, with instructions on how to access and
the activities your students will develop.

Total points 127 of 132