Documenting Student Connectivity and Use of Digital
Annotation Devices in Virginia Commonwealth University
Connected Courses: An Assessment Toolkit for Digital
Pedagogies in Higher Education
Laura Gogia, MD - @googleguacamoleVirginia Commonwealth University
February 12, 2016#gogodoc
This is a design project:
“An enterprise that combines CREATIVITYand INSIGHT to TRANSLATE theory and fact in ways that makes things better for people.”
-- The Design Council http://www.designcouncil.org.uk
LEARNING THAT MATTERS
Education at the intersection of open education & connected learning
Digital Fluency + Integrative Thinking
• Most if not all course materials are housed on open web
• Students are engaged in public blogging
• Students are engaged in some sort of public discourse
Connected Courses
The identified need:
If we are to design, implement,and evaluate the kind of learningcalled for by the VCU QEP, we needa “toolkit” that offers strategies forassessing student learning inconnected courses.
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORIESBandura, 1977; Bruner, 1960; Harel & Papert, 1991;
Lave & Wenger, 1991; Mezirow, 1991; Vygotsky, 1980
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFERBransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2010; Anderson,
Krathwohl, & Bloom, 2001
SCHEMA, THRESHOLD & CONCEPT MAPPINGAusubel,1968; Bruner, 1966; Downes, 2006; Meyer &
Land 2003; Novak & Canas, 2008; Piaget, 1983; Vygotsky, 1980
People
Concepts
Space and Time
Connectivity draws from:
Design Point #3: Learning Objectives
LO1. Forming, reflecting, & acting on connections
LO2. Engaging in networked participation
LO3. Developing digital workflows
GOALS
Integrative ThinkingConnectivity
Digital Fluency
PEDAGOGICAL STRATEGIES
Connected Courses
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Details available at http://bit.ly/1NWccXN
How do we document or assess student connectivity in connected
courses?
Important forStudent assessment • Learning innovation •
Faculty development • Course evaluation
Blogging
HYPERLINKS
EMBEDDED MATERIALS
Tweeting
HYPERLINKS
MENTIONS
HASHTAGS
Design Point #4: Digital Annotations in Blogging & Tweeting (inspired by research in
business analytics, social media, & networked learning)
1. Explore 2. Apply 3. Reflect
How are digital annotations used now? What are
some best, common, and missing uses?
How do we document
student progress towards stated
learning objectives?
Consistent with 21st century assessment strategies?
The project trajectory
“Smith (2010) suggests that verbal and
nonverbal communication can impact…”
Sample Hyperlinks
“Last week, I proposed a list of questions meant
to inspire my research for this course...”
“For more information, check out [hyperlink]”
[#1]
[#2]
[#3]
[#4]
[#5]
Areas of Alignment
Citations/ReferencesAdditional Resources
Definitions & Description
Personal Context
Connecting to other concepts
Building a personal narrative
Aesthetics, Illustration, Extension Multimodal expression
ArticleContribution
Interesting article about student loans [hyperlink]
[course hashtag]
Connection to course material
Reminds me of what we talked about last week in
[course hashtag] [hyperlink]
Targeted contribution
@Mention might find this on financial aid interesting
[hyperlink][course hashtag]
Co
mm
on
Rare
Layers of Contribution
My latest blog post [hyperlink] [course hashtag]
Blog PostPromotion
Check out my latest blog post [hyperlink] [course hashtag]
Audience
I blogged on my financial aid difficulties at [#VCU]
[hyperlink] [course hashtag]
Hook, Hashtag, & Hyperlink
Co
mm
on
Rare
Layers of Self-Promotion
Missed Opportunities.
LACK OF USE (BUT INTERESTING SPACE FOR STUDY!)
FAILURE TO PROMOTE OTHER STUDENT WORK
LACK OF TARGETTED
CONTRIBUTION
STUDENTS FAILED TO COMBINE
ANNOTATIONS
LACK OF DIVERSITY IN
COMMUNICATIVE IMPACT
LACK OF WORKFLOW
LO1. Forming, documenting, & reflecting on connectionsLO2. Engaging in networked participationLO3. Developing digital workflows
LEARNING GOALS
Integrative ThinkingConnectivity
Digital Fluency
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Connecting to ConceptsConnecting People to ConceptsDeveloping Digital Workflows
Connecting with PeopleNetworked Participation
HYPERLINKS
MENTIONS
HASHTAGS
[Connecting to Concepts][Connecting People to Concepts][Networked Participation][Developing Digital Workflows]
Areas of Alignment
Student
Hyperlinked Source URL
TOP MATERIAL SOURCESNUMBER OF STUDENTS WHO LINKED-
EMBEDDEDNUMBER OF LINKS-EMBEDS
Twitter.com 16 19
Embedded Images 6 13
YouTube.com 7 13
CNN.com 5 11
Student Posts 5 6
HuffingtonPost.com 5 5
Data Visualizations
http://www.jonbecker.net/new-media-and-higher-education/
Assessing a blog post.
QUANTITY • 600 words• 8 hyperlinks and 1 embedded image
DIGITAL MECHANICS • All hyperlinks work• Image is properly embedded & auto-
citing
COMMUNICATIVE IMPACT
• Citations (3)• Definition/Description (4)• Example (1)
Connections to other ideas or things within & outside Jon’s discipline
http://www.jonbecker.net/new-media-and-higher-education/
• Author-generated
• Extension
• Connection to personal experience
• Connection to colleagues
How do these assessment strategies conform to published recommendations for
21st century digital assessments?
• Integration• Sustainability• Scalability
3. Reflect
Next Steps & Limitations
• Get these into integrated course designs• Streamline data collection & analysis• More piloting