pICT Innovations Assessment Rhetoric and Writing Studies 100 January 10, 2006 Maureen Sipp Peter Manley Liane Bryson

Innovations 1. Students created group PowerPoint Presentations to explain a central course concept 2. Students examined blogs to ascertain to what extent their findings confirmed arguments about the nature and effects of blogs as means of civic discourse. 3. Students imported and altered an image from the internet to create an image of dissent. 4. Instructors used audio feedback to comment on essay drafts.

Assessment Approaches Blackboard surveys Criteria-based assessment allowed for comparison of student proficiency before and after innovation

Contributing Factors Statistical data compiled automatically on Blackboard Easy student access to survey Ability to also solicit written feedback/comments to specific aspects of the innovations

Assessment Conclusions Criteria based assessment showed marked improvement in student work—higher grades in projects one and four.

Project 1 Assessment Question To what extent did using technology help in understanding the basic course concepts and demonstrate that understanding?

Sample Student Comments This project helped me better understand how to break the articles down and organize the material to better understand it. The use of Power Point made it easy to organize the different concepts and breakdown the topics to make it easy to present and also easy for our classmates to understand what was being discussed. This was especially true for me because I am a visual learner, so being able to see the breakdown of the articles was very helpful for me personally. Using power point presentations was good because it was easy for groups to explain their assigned texts. It was also very visually appealing. I think doing a powerpoint was very helpful for this project and I feel like I've learned a lot from it.I was never really taught to highlight texts and really analyze the author and how they wrote their texts, so this will be something I will be using for the rest of my college years.

Project 1 Assessment Question How much of the following do you think you will remember and carry with you into other classes or aspects of your life—the possibilities offered by technology to create new text forms or enhance conventional text with textboxes, annotations, highlighting, etc. for explanatory purposes?

Visual Literacy Assessment Question How much did each of the following aspects of the project help your learning? Applying your understanding of the texts to create your own rhetorically effective image.

Expanding your understanding of academic papers by integrating an image with the text.

Audio Feedback Instructors responded to student writing via mp3 audio files posted on Blackboard. Students were asked the following questions to assess their views on the pedagogical value of the experience.

Compared to written feedback on my work, I found the information provided in the audio files to be:

I feel the audio feedback resulted in more improvement in my revised drafts than written feedback would have:

I found negotiating the technology (accessing files, listening to the audio, etc.):

If I were given the choice between a writing course with traditional written feedback and one with audio feedback, I would choose:

If I find myself in another writing class in which the instructor provides audio feedback on my drafts, I would suggest the following change(s) to the process: I found the feedback to be very helpful, and easy to access. I wouldn't change anything. The volume was hard to understand at times. If the mic was set to a more sensitive volume, the speech would be easier to hear. Pause more often in order for students to catch up or create multiple files that deal with separate parts of the paper. Make sure you point out specific spots in the essay that need to be fixed. In written feedback you can circle or write on the exact spot, but in audio you need to describe exactly what you are talking about

If I were asked to describe my overall experience using audio feedback files, I would say: That the audio feedback files are a good idea. I have never heard about it until this year and I thought it was a very interesting way of revising papers and drafts. It was very effective and definitely helped with revising my paper. Audio feedback is excellent! It was so much fun to actually listen to the comments on my paper because you can hear the emphasis in the professor's voice. It's way easier than reading yet another response. And it's especially great when they are complimenting your work. It's inspiring. I think the audio feedback is a unique and effective way to help students.

Conclusion Feedback from criteria -based assessments and Blackboard surveys confirmed our expectations and observations.