Throughout ONL181, it has struck me how the course design is in perfect sync with its content. When we discussed digital anxieties, for example, we came to the conclusion that the way to handle the problem is to do exactly what ONL181 does. Now, at an advanced stage of the course, we realize that the scaffolding prescribed for productive collaborative work (Salmon, 2013) is right there, in our PBL group!
There is one aspect of ONL181, however, that is different to all courses that I teach. In the fields economics, finance, and business (and many other), students who pass a course are graded on a scale from E to A.
With so much focus on the collaborative group work, how can the ONL181 format be transferred to a setting with individual grades?
In the ONL181, at least to me, the PBL group work has been where I have put most effort. The individual work, writing blog posts such as this one, is mandatory but less structured. In a course with multiple grades, I would set the balance differently. I would let the blog posts be an arena for the students to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding, and critical thinking. The collaborative group work would still be at the core of the course, but its output could be graded on a pass/fail scale.
In brief, let the group work form the basis for learning, and treat the blog posts as the basis for assessment.
There are some obvious hurdles. Portfolio assessment is costly, and there should ideally also be formative feedback during the course. Reeves (2000) provides a useful discussion of such challenges (and many other), with specific focus on assessment in the context of online learning. Furthermore, making the blog posts the basis for assessment may require more structure, which could undermine the creativity. Any ideas on how to overcome these issues?
References
Reeves, T. C. (2000). Alternative assessment approaches for online learning environments in higher education. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 23(1), 101-111.
Salmon, G (2013) The Five Stage Model. [Website]