Assess for Success

Do you know why you give students exams, make them write papers, or present reports? Have you considered never giving an exam, never requiring a paper, or just forgetting about those reports all together? Why do we, as teachers, put ourselves through the tedium and drudgery of grading papers, creating and grading exams, and coming up with other ways for students to demonstrate their learning? Simple: assessment is an integral part of the teaching and learning process. Without assessment, we have no way to measure what was taught and learned.

What to Measure

According to the George Lucas Educational Foundation (2002) assessment should:

• Provide diagnostic feedback
• Help educators set standards
• Evaluate progress
• Relate to a student's progress
• Motivate performance

Provide Diagnostic Feedback

Assessment can be used to establish the baseline for students' knowledge of a particular subject or field. Once this is determined educators can begin sculpting the curriculum for review of previous learned knowledge and the introduction of new information. This assessment is usually given in the form of pre-tests. It also helps instructors determine the material to be taught in during a course of study.

Help Educators Set Standards

How do we determine standards for measuring learning? Each field of study defines how we are to assess students? understanding. Performance on exams, procedures, and application of knowledge are used to establish standards in the field. These standards are usually determined by the governing body of the profession, enforced by the department, and measured by the instructor. How these standards are measured may be governed by the professional body or left to the discretion of the instructor.

Evaluate Progress

Assessment is not just about measuring individual student performance; it is also used to help instructors measure progress through the material for a class of students. All instructors know that each class of students is unique and this semester's group may not progress through the material at the same pace as those in previous semesters. Group dynamics may push students to learn material more quickly, or they may be progressing more slowly. Instructors can use assessment to determine whether they should make changes in the course structure or implement alternate strategies to help students with the material.

Relate to a Student's Progress

Think of learning as a never-ending continuum. As we progress through a field of study there are benchmarks for understanding. Familiar labels help define our place on the continuum; novice, amateur, expert, beginning, intermediate, advanced. Assessment is used to gauge students' progress along this continuum and their readiness to advance to the next level.

Motivate Performance

For Student Self-Evaluation:

In the ideal world of education, all students would have an inherent drive to learn. They would know that every class had meaning and significance in the shaping of their mind and helping them along the path of knowledge. In the real world, we know that some students may be more motivated by other factors, such as grades. Assessment is used to measure performance and provide feedback to students about the gaps in their knowledge base. This feedback should motivate them to study, seek new levels of learning, and apply the knowledge to new situations. Students want to know how they are doing,; assessment is how we help them answer this question. Whether they are motivated by the grade, personal excellence, or the thirst for knowledge, the assessments provided by instructors help them gauge their place in the continuum of learning.

For Teacher Self-Evaluation:

How students perform on the assessments also provides feedback for instructors on whether teaching strategies are working and if students are ready to move on to the next level. If the majority of students seem to lack understanding of a concept, this is a signal to the instructor to review this information before moving on. If students seem to be devouring the information and excelling, this is an indicator they may be capable of handling more in- depth or advanced information. Thus the assessment helps instructors customize the learning experience for the students.

Assessment provides guidance throughout the curriculum planning, creation, and implementation process. Through assessment, educators can determine what students know and need to know; establish standards to measure that knowing; gauge their progress; and reflect on the level of understanding and improve performance.

How to Measure

The guiding principles require the identification of what is to be assessed, the student's level of understanding, and ability to demonstrate that understanding. We look to Bloom's Taxonomy to provide the framework for formulating assessment measures, or how to assess the learning.

Benjamin Bloom (1956) provided a hierarchy of student competencies to assist instructors with developing assessment criteria for meeting educational goals and objectives. These competencies are arranged from less to more complex. The more complex the cognitive skill to be measured is, the more subjective the assessment. The following diagram represents Bloom's Taxonomy as a pyramid, with Knowledge, the lowest level on the cognitive scale, as the base. The second pyramid shows the variety of assessment techniques that can be used to gauge students' learning.

What second pyramid

Cognitive Level	Indicators	Assessment Strategies
Evaluation	Make choices based on reasoned argument	Essays, projects, problem-based cases, portfolio, critique, performance
Synthesis	Use old ideas to create new ones	(Objective), essay, take-home or open-book exams, open book, journal/portfolio, performance, case studies, any type of critique, collaborative learning activities
Analysis	Recognition of hidden meanings	(Objective), essay, take-home or open-book exams, open book, journal/portfolio, performance, case studies, online discussion forums
Application	Solve problems using required skills or knowledge	Multiple-choice, essay questions, open-note exams, take-home exams
Comprehension	Translate knowledge into new context	Multiple-choice testing, basic essay questions
Knowledge	Observation and recall of information	Objective tests (all types), vocabulary, recitation

Assessment is not just about one student's performance in one instructor's class. It is about how well an institution plans and implements an educational experience that prepares learners to think and react in a global society.

So the next time you give your students an exam or grade a paper, consider how that one assignment not only addresses not only the student's understanding of the course objectives, but also your instruction of them as well. Reflect on your assessment practices. Here are some questions to get your started:

• Are there opportunities for improvement?
• Am I measuring what I am teaching?
• Does this assessment answer the question I am asking about their learning?
• Is there another way to do this?

Resources

Bloom, B.S. (Ed.) (1956) Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals: Handbook I, cognitive domain. New York ; Toronto: Longmans, Green.

The George Lucas Educational Foundation. (2002). Instructional Module: Assessment. Retrieved November 9, 2005, from
http://www.edutopia.org/modules/Assessment/whyassess.php

From Spring 2004 ITC Topics

Making the Most of Online Assessment

Continuing improvements to Online@UT, in combination with increased bandwidth, storage capacity, and computer literacy among students and faculty, have provided us with a wealth of online assessment options. Few of us use them to their full potential, however. Below is a general introduction to a few of these tools, accompanied by practical and proven strategies for implementation.

Online Quizzes

Online@UT's most popular assessment feature is its quiz tool, and for good reason. Automated grading, instant feedback, and a user-friendly interface eliminate much (but not all) of the grunt work typically associated with creating and grading those multiple-choice, short-answer, and true/false quizzes with which we measure knowledge recall and comprehension.

Students like online quizzes, too, but for different and, occasionally, less honorable reasons. You should assume that your students are taking your quizzes with their books open and in the company of their classmates. Use this knowledge to your advantage - set a time limit on each quiz, randomize the ordering of your questions, draw questions from a large test bank, and, perhaps most importantly, provide good feedback to reinforce important learning goals.

Digital Drop Box and Assignment Tool

If you've ever asked students to submit electronic documents to you via email, then you've probably had that experience of opening your mail to find forty messages waiting, each using different naming conventions, and each downloading (slowly) onto your hard drive. Managing files can quickly become a burden. The Digital Drop Box is a depository of sorts on the Blackboard server into which your students can spill their documents, thus keeping them off of your computer. One nice perk of the Digital Drop Box is that each document is time-stamped and dated.

Blackboard 6.0 also introduced the Assignment Tool, a new feature that, like the Digital Drop Box, facilitates the transfer of electronic documents but with improved functionality. Most importantly, the Assignment Tool is fully integrated into the electronic gradebook. When you create an Assignment, the gradebook automatically generates a new entry into which you can enter point or letter grades.

Discussion Boards and the Virtual Classroom

Along with email, Online@UT also facilitates student-teacher and student-student communication via its synchronous and asynchronous tools. The discussion board, in particular, can be a site of genuine learning where students are expected to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate course content. Such critical discussion, however, does not happen by accident. It is your responsibility to establish clear standards for participation (even stating them in your syllabus) and to steer the discussion in a productive direction by asking quality questions.

Additional recommendations that are applicable to the Discussion Board and the Virtual Classroom:

• Determine specific grading criteria. How often will students be expected to participate? What constitutes a "good" post? How will online communication factor into the student's final grade?
• Model best practices. Your posts should exemplify exactly what you expect from your students.
• Provide specific feedback. Students are motivated by your response. Short, generic responses like "Good job" and "I agree" will likely be interpreted as a lack of interest on your part.

Group Work

Finally, Online@UT allows you to break students into smaller groups. As in the traditional classroom, online groups provide students with an opportunity to collaborate on projects and to participate in closed discussions. Group members can share information with one another through email, through the Student Pages within Blackboard, and through a members-only Discussion Board and Virtual Classroom. Again, you are responsible for providing specific grading criteria.

Suggested activities:

• Ask group members to peer review their formal writing assignments by attaching electronic documents to a discussion thread.
• At the beginning of each unit, assign a research topic to a group, who will then be expected to work together to synthesize and evaluate the material before presenting it to the class as a whole.
• Give your groups a case study and assign specific roles to each member. Rotate roles throughout the semester so that each student will gain the full breadth of practical experience.

From Spring 2004 ITC Topics

Mystery of the Rubric...Solved

What constitutes excellent work in your courses? Have you ever actually tried to describe the characteristics of excellent work—if only for yourself? Do your students know what you consider to be excellent? How well do your students know the standards against which their work will be compared? How would it affect student learning if you told students what you are looking for in their work? Are you confident that you apply the same criteria to all students' work when you grade assignments or is there a possibility that your criteria shift as you work through the papers or projects?

Using a rubric just might be the answer for you. What exactly is a rubric? Webster defines a rubric as "an authoritative rule." When applied to the assessment of student work, a rubric outlines the scoring "rules" for an assignment. A carefully designed rubric, defining precise criteria for success, is helpful to both instructors and students. For students, it provides key criteria that that informs their development, revision, and judgment of their own work. For instructors, it helps reduce grading subjectivity, reduces student grade anxiety, and drives pedagogy.

Rubrics are classified as either analytic or holistic. Analytic rubrics detail performance levels for each stated performance criterion. Using analytic rubrics, instructors are able to assess each part of the whole assignment or product.

Holistic rubrics, on the other hand, do not detail separate levels of performance for each stated performance criterion. Instead, holistic rubrics use multiple criteria as a whole to assess overall performance. In many instances, analytic rubrics can easily be converted into holistic rubrics.

A rubric is typically a one or two page document that should be shared with students at the same time an assignment is made. It should be carefully reviewed with students to ensure a shared understanding about the assignment and the performance standards. A popular format for rubrics is a grid. The rows of the grid list the performance criteria (what counts) for the assignment or project. The columns of the grid contain descriptions of quality or levels of achievement, which usually are assigned a numeric value.

The notion of using rubrics sounds good, but how does one get started creating one for a specific assignment? Good rubrics are the product of a thorough analysis of existing samples of student work. Consider for a moment how you currently grade student assignments. You probably spend time reading and sorting student work into piles of differing quality. How often do you stop and take a look at how the piles differ, and more importantly, why they differ? This analysis is the first step in establishing appropriate descriptors for quality or levels of achievement for the assignment. It will also help you examine and re-examine your target performance objectives (what counts) on the assignment.

While rubric creation can be time consuming, the payoff for both instructors and students is great. Learning increases when learners have a sense of what they are setting out to learn, a statement of explicit standards they must meet, and way of seeing what they have learned (Loaker, Cromwell, & O'Brien, 1986, p. 47).

Reference

Loacker, G., Cromwell, C., & O'Brien, K. (1986). Assessment in higher education: To serve the learner. In Adelman, C., Assessment in American higher education (pp. 47-62). Washington, DC: US Department of Education.

From Fall 2004 ITC Topics

How do I grade this? Designing rubrics for multimedia projects

Traditional assessment happened in a defined space between a student and a professor. With collaborative and problem-based learning becoming more prevalent, the structure of assessment has changed. Your students may no longer be "writing" just for you. A next generation assignment might contain four core elements:

• Subject
• Purpose/goal
• Media
• Audience

Media is the new element in this mix, and the rubrics/criteria by which we examine projects that move beyond text are under development. If the project can now be a series of Web pages, a PowerPoint presentation, or a video, how are you going to assess that project? How are you going to determine if the student has provided evidence of mastery?

With visual, multimedia-based outcomes, both student and teacher need a core understanding of the assessment standard upon which the assignment will be judged. Both groups must also understand elements of visual literacy and multimedia architecture. A common mistake of students in creating a digitally enhanced project is the over-emphasis on the tool while neglecting the subject. The technology should not impede access to the content; it should enhance the content. As the instructor, it's easy to become intimidated by the latest-and-greatest techniques that you may not have yet mastered.

A rubric for technology assessment could include any of the following areas:

Subject

This area would be the same as traditional, paper-based assessment and might include:

• Thesis statement
• Logic and flow of paragraphs
• Authentic sources
• Persuasive writing
• Depth of understanding
• Supporting details
• Evidence of synthesis of ideas

Purpose

This could be derived by the professor or the student.

• Project meets the desired outcomes
• Project demonstrates mastery of the subject.

Scope

• Content covered to the depth and breadth required by the assignment

Creativity and Vision

• Subject addressed from a unique point of view

Appropriate Use of Media

• Effective use of the technology
• Enhances the exploration of the subject
• Media selected magnifies the subject
• Media consistent with professional models of practice

Navigation Through the Content

• Content clearly ordered
• Includes an introduction, supporting content, and a conclusion
• Navigational elements (buttons, links, etc.) consistent and easy to use
• Content relatively easy to proceed through
• Provided links assist in the movement through the content

Visuals

• Supporting images included
• Visuals engage the user rather than detract them from the content
• Font choices legible
• Text size easy to read
• Colors pleasing and complementary to the subject
• Readable length of text on each page

Audience

The audience is traditionally the faculty member. You may have defined the audience as the students' peers or a mock boss or client.

• Language appropriate to the audience
• Project has the potential to impact the reader
• Colors and style are consistent with other types of media that speak to the particular target group or individual

From Spring 2004 ITC Topics

Honesty in Testing

Technological advances that change the traditional classroom environment create both opportunities and challenges in testing and evaluation. Although additional contacts, augmented communication channels, and automation all present an instructor with more tools and chances to assess student progress, the setting under which the instructor takes these measurements is more fluid and less susceptible to control. Instead of measuring learning in the classroom laboratory, the teacher will often be "field testing."

Sometimes, that's irrelevant. In the case of practice or self-tests, automatic grading and increased availability of testing materials are advantages that outweigh the minimal disadvantages of the instructor's loss of control. When such measures count for credit and grades, however, the situation becomes more problematic. Outside a controlled testing environment authentic evaluation of student performance carries an additional burden to ensure integrity of the testing process.

The first question the instructor should ask in the enhanced academic setting is no different than that asked in the traditional classroom: What am I trying to measure and why? A bad test will generate even worse results in a non-traditional environment than in the brick-and-mortar classroom because 1) students will have greater opportunity to exploit testing flaws; 2) confusing or poorly worded tests will take place under conditions that allow few student-instructor interactions.

If the instructor has used open-book tests in the past, that will be to his or her advantage in adapting to the online environment. Additionally, the teacher needs to communicate with the students the expectations of them that come with moving outside traditional classroom strictures. One much touted advantage of educational technology is increased collaboration, so the instructor must delineate carefully where collaboration ends and cheating begins. For which assignments is collaboration okay and for which will it be forbidden? Even within the physical classroom, instructors have to consider the collaborative opportunities present whenever students are able to go wireless.

Plagiarism is an especially pernicious problem, not so much because of technologically enhanced teaching--a term paper written on paper with ink is almost as easy to copy as one generated by laser printer--but because of student access via search engine to virtually the full scope of human knowledge...including term-paper mills. Combating plagiarism requires the instructor not only be aware of the problem and how easy the Internet makes it, but also strive for original measurements to begin with. Don't plagiarize your evaluative measures and it will be harder for students to plagiarize their responses!

Here are some additional online sources for practical tips on using technologically enhanced evaluations:

Aldridge, A., Elmore, G., Gora, B., Helms, A., Holton, R., Keough, D., et al. (2000). Online testing: Best practices from the field. Creating a Virtual Learning Community 2(1). Retrieved November 12, 2003, from North Carolina Conference of English Instructors Web site:
http://www.nccei.org/blackboard/testingadvice.html

Esteban, J. (n.d.). Security for on-line testing. Retrieved November 12, 2003, from San Diego State University, College of Education Web site:
http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/security/start.htm

Pink Flamingo's Resources Lists. (2003, November 12). The virtual professor: Dealing with plagiarism, cheating, and student honesty in online classes. Retrieved November 12, 2003, from
http://www.ibritt.com/resources/vp_plagiarism.htm

Strategies to minimize cheating online. (2003). Retrieved November 12, 2003, from The Illinois Online Network Web site:
http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/tutorials/assessment/cheating.asp

From Spring 2004 ITC Topics

Assessment? Evaluation? The CAT is out of the Bag!

Assessment and evaluation are integral to teaching/learning and are used to guide and improve learning and instruction. However, they have distinct roles in teaching and learning.

Assessment is:

• Use of information for the purposes of improvement.
• Used to determine current understanding and improve subsequent learning.
• The act of gathering information on a regular basis in order to understand student learning and needs.
• Focused on the process of continued improvement.

Evaluation is:

• Use of information for the purposes of arriving at a decision.
• Used to determine mastery of learning goals and objectives.
• The culminating act of interpreting the information gathered for the purpose of making decisions or judgments about student learning and needs, often at reporting time.
• A concrete measurement against an existing standard.

In a short period of time, CATs allow instructors to find out what students are learning, then use that information to make changes in teaching methods or assignments. According to Angelo and Cross (1993), a CAT is characterized as learner-centered, teacher-directed, mutually beneficial to students and instructors, formative, context-specific, ongoing, and rooted in good teaching practice.

To Assess Students' Prior Knowledge, Recall and Understanding, try:

• The Minute Paper: Students address "what was the most important thing you learned in class today?" and "what important question remains unanswered?"
• Memory Matrix: Students organize important course content by filling in an empty matrix with related topics

To Assess Students' Analysis and Critical Thinking, try:

• Pro and Con Grid: Students identify the advantages/disadvantages, costs and benefits, pros and cons of a plan, idea, or concern.
• Analytic Memo: Students write a one- or two-page analysis of a specific problem or issue.

To Assess Students' Synthesis and Creative Thinking, try:

• One Sentence Summary: Using the format of "who did what to whom, when, where, how, and why?" students answer questions about a process in one clear, long, and grammatically correct sentence.
• Word Journal: Using single words chosen by students from assigned texts, they write a paragraph about meaning and a second paragraph explaining why they chose that particular word to summarize.

Reference:

Angelo, T.A. and Cross, P.K. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers. 2nd ed. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass.

From Spring 2004 ITC Topics

Making the Most of Online Assessment

The American Association of Higher Education lists "9 Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning."

They are:

1. The assessment of student learning begins with educational values.


2. Assessment is most effective when it reflects an understanding of learning as multidimensional, integrated, and revealed in performance over time.


3. Assessment works best when the programs it seeks to improve have clear, explicitly stated purposes.


4. Assessment requires attention to outcomes but also and equally to the experiences that lead to those outcomes.


5. Assessment works best when it is ongoing not episodic.


6. Assessment fosters wider improvement when representatives from across the educational community are involved.


7. Assessment makes a difference when it begins with issues of use and illuminates questions that people really care about.


8. Assessment is most likely to lead to improvement when it is part of a larger set of conditions that promote change.


9. Through assessment, educators meet responsibilities to students and to the public.

This document was developed under the auspices of the AAHE Assessment Forum with support from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education with additional support for publication and dissemination from the Exxon Education Foundation. Copies may be made without restriction.

Encouraging Student Reflection

One of the most interesting challenges and opportunities in teaching Digital Natives is to figure out and invent ways to include reflection and critical thinking in the learning process (Prensky, 2001). In what ways do you encourage your students to reflect about their learning? What tools and/or strategies might you employ? You might consider the use of portfolios (paper or electronic). Momentum behind the use of portfolios in the class-room is considerable, and many fields are beginning to use portfolios as a tool for professional self-assessment and development.

Just what is a portfolio? First, a portfolio consists of a collection of student work (artifacts). Second, the collection is purposeful rather than random. And third, a portfolio provides the opportunity for students to reflect and comment on their work. Reflection is displayed in portfolios via written reflective statements in which the author (student) comments not only on their work, but on the process of creating it and what they experienced and learned in the process. Think of it as a focus on student Performances, Processes, and Perceptions. Absent of reflection, a portfolio is simply a scrapbook. Digital technologies (Web, CD, DVD) and portfolios are a great match. Digital technologies allow portfolio authors to include graphics, audio, and video, and provide them with more options for showing what they have learned. You'll often hear digital portfolios referred to as "electronic portfolios," "ePortfolios," "digital portfolios," and "Webfolios."

Portfolios, regardless of their form, provide opportunities for students to document and reflect on challenges and learning that emerge over time. There are primarily three types of portfolios: developmental, assessment, and showcase.

Developmental portfolios can be used to demonstrate the progression of student skills over a given period of time. They are considered works in progress and include self-assessment and student reflection and feedback from the instructor.

Assessment portfolios can be used to demonstrate student competence and skill in a well-defined area. They are especially useful in evaluating student competence as defined by specific standards and outcomes.

Showcase portfolios can be used to demonstrate exemplary work and student skills. Students typically show this type of portfolio to prospective employers. Most portfolios are hybrids and, according to Barrett (2002), "ePortfolios are much more than innovative resumes or scrapbooks. They show reflection, evolution of thought, and professional development."

How might you guide student reflection in your course? You might ask students to consider the content of their learning, the context of their learning, and the process of their learning. Asking students to reflect on what they have learned, how their learning is relevant, and what they have discovered about their own learning process can be very powerful.

References:

Barrett, H. (2003). Electronic portfolio development. Retrieved November 10, 2005, from
http://ali.apple.com/ali_sites/ali/exhibits/1000156

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants, part II: Do they really think differently? On the Horizon 9(2).

From Fall 2005 ITC Topics

Speech Communication

An important aspect of Dr. Linda Sennett's teaching is the extensive feedback she and students provide after each presentation -- to the tune of about four reams of paper per year, until she started using Online@UT. Two and a half years ago, Dr. Sennett approached Dr. Julie K. Little, Executive Director of Educational Technologies and the Innovative Technology Center, for assistance in providing real time feedback and lessening the mountain of evaluations. Dr. Little quickly understood the situation, helping Dr. Sennett build the components of a real time system. She encouraged Dr. Sennett to apply for an ITC grant so that the evaluation forms could be programmed into Online@UT. Dr. Sennett began using the online forms in Fall 2002, and has been improving them each semester since. In 2003, Dr. Sennett received a Faculty First grant from the ITC, and used the award to have evaluations programmed into an application she can use on a PDA. This allows her to move her students outside the classroom, giving them more opportunities to practice impromptu speaking in a variety of environments. She notes that using PDAs would be applicable to a wide variety of classes, such as ecology -- even laptops are bulky to carry around, but a PDA can be taken and used anywhere, for reference or for storing data.

From Improving Communication Using Technology; 2004 Spotlight on Linda Sennett, Speech Communication

Foreign Languages and Literatures

With the assistance of the ITC, Dr. Dolly Young incorporated the Daedalus program (http://www.daedalus.com) into Spanish/French/German 512: Teaching a Foreign Language. The Daedalus program is comprised of six primary features:

• Invent leads students through a series of questions that help them explore and develop topics.
• Write is an easy-to-use word processor ideal for in-class writing activities.
• Respond guides students through the process of reading a peer's draft and writing suggestions for revision.
• Mail serves as a bulletin board where students post messages about course readings, group projects, and other collaborative activities.
• InterChange provides a place for online class discussions such as brainstorming, analyzing readings, and other collaborative activities.
• BiblioCite creates correctly formatted Works Cited and References pages based on source information that students enter into simple forms--now with extensive support for citing online sources.

One of the most revealing experiences using Daedalus occurred midway through the course. In one class session, students engaged in individual note taking while engaged in oral discussion. The student assignment was for them to collaboratively create a mind-map of the concepts discussed during class based on their notes. As a result of this activity, Dolly discovered that many students had not grasped the full context of some of the concepts discussed in class. The class activity provided Dolly with some very valuable formative assessment data that suggested she revisit some of the topic areas. Additionally, students gained valuable experience in the collaborative construction of knowledge.

From Integrating Technology into Foreign Language Teaching and Learning - 2003 Spotlight on Dolly Young, Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures

Engineering Fundamentals

In a discipline where the process of arriving at a solution can be as important as "getting the right answer," giving students access to solutions when they need to compare their calculations to a correct model poses a problem. Dr. Richard Bennett and Dr. D. Raj Raman have "engineered" a solution that works for them and their students. They keep homework solutions as a separate link on the course's web page and use FTP to upload the PDF document when students are ready, having already struggled with the assigned problems.

From Collaboration and Teamwork Energizes Freshman Engineering; 2002 Spotlight on Richard Bennett and D. Raj Raman

Social Work

In general, Dr. David Patterson has found that technology broadens the capacity for the exchange of information. It has enabled him to make a rich set of resources available for his students, and has allowed the testing process to be paired with immediate feedback through Online@UT's assessment module.

However, a greater benefit has been his ability to enter into dialogue with his students more easily. He teaches an experiental class around the group therapy process. Students write a paper every two weeks, which they submit to him through email. He reads their work in a word processor, adding comments that are highlighted with bold, italic or colored text. He then emails the paper back to the student. He has found that this process adds a richness to the classroom experience. It adds a layer of exchange and depth to the teaching relationship that is valuable for student and teacher. The class itself is conducted without technology; but the communication and dialogue about the therapeutic process are enhanced by the use of email in conjunction with the classroom experience.

From Deepening the Dialogue: Extending Classroom Communication; 2001 Spotlight on David Patterson, Social Work