ETC645: Lesson 3 Instructor's Notes: Common Feedback for Lesson 2 Discussion

Dear ETC645 students,

You should receive your Lesson 2 discussion grade and feedback in your NAU Email.  I hope you find them beneficial.  Here are more of my reflections to advance your learning experiences. This is a longer common feedback for the lesson discussion because this is the first time we participated in the graded lesson discussions. I want to ensure that you have a full understanding of the expectations of the class discussions.

Why do we have two posting-periods? The purposes are to engage you in a network or community learning which emphasizes a cycle of inquiry. In the first-posting period, through the readings and responding to the key questions, you focus on a problem of practices that, if improved upon, significantly and positively impacts yourselves. You learn or unlearn in order to discover your best options. In the second-posting period, you refine and reflect your learning by interconnecting with our classmates and me. You should take time to reflect on the received feedback to move toward your learning success. This is an ongoing, iterative process. We will almost certainly fail along the way, but that is a natural part of this messy, nonlinear, and sometimes scary process.

What we did right:

·         KEY Discussion Questions: Most of us responded to the key discussions thoroughly and comprehensively with effusive participations.

·         Cite Relevant Literature: Great to see many of you cite research-based literature beyond the readings to strengthen your arguments.  Continue your outstanding logical reasoning, participation and contributions.

·         Two Posting Periods: Continue following this requirement for all upcoming lesson discussions, unless specified.

• 1^st posting period (M-Th): Respond to the selected key question thoroughly.

o   2^nd posting period: Respond to others, at least two to engage in learner-learner interaction.

§  Respond to the "Follow-Up" questions posted by the instructor.

§  Compare/contrast different postings.

Here are few strategies to help you to advance lesson discussion participations:

·         Reply: When we reply to a specific person's posting, we can greet them with "Chih & Gayle, Your questions are very interesting….." In this way, we know who is talking to whom. We do not need a greeting if we respond to the discussion questions and/or to the entire class.

·         Post early: Post your thoughts early so your good ideas won't be taken, particularly responding to the original discussion question in the 1^st posting period.

·         Moderation: Group 1 has done a great job in facilitating our lesson 2 discussions. 

To improve:

·         Respond to others: It is common for our classmates, the moderators, and I respond to your postings and raise the questions based on your postings.  As a courtesy, respond to these postings.

·         Questions for me: If you have any questions for the instructor, avoid posting them in the discussion board because I may not get back to you in a timely fashion.

·         Additional responses: It is appropriate to respond to the questions not direct to my posting. If you have any reflection, share it with us.  It is a community-based learning.  Any additional reflections are welcome.

·         Q: Do we need to read more than just the required readings to respond to the questions?

o   A: Dependents on your knowledge in the discussion questions. Conducting additional readings could raise the challenge and enable you to strengthen your knowledge.

·         Key word for Subject field: Did you update the Subject field for each of your postings?  Do update it with the relevant keywords so our threaded discussions will be easier to follow when we are ready to read and to reply to the postings. See my postings for the examples.

·         How do I know who responds to my postings?

o   Two ways:

§  Use "Search" Function to search your name if others respond to your postings with name greeting. View the image.

§ 

§  "Collapse All" the discussion thread to view it as a tree/nested interface. View the image.

§ 

 

Data-Informed Discussion Feedback

 

Purposes:

In the Data-Informed lesson discussion feedback, we re-envision and leverage the discussion feedback by providing both each individual student with personalized qualitative and quantitative feedback to promote data-driven student success through learning, engagement, self-discovery, and metacognition. By enhancing the learning process through guidance and recommendations, students are prepared to develop critical thinking and decision-making skills, to encourage exploration and discovery, and to foster self-awareness.

 

For me as an instructor, data-driven instruction is a teaching strategy to identify students who need additional support; therefore, I can facilitate a learner-centered space that encourages engagement and personal development in a holistic approach to student success. Learner-centered discussion feedback is not prescribing or instructing a grade but facilitating learning through meaningful discussions and opportunities that allow students to process, evaluate, and articulate their learning goals and decisions.

 

Qualitative feedback

Qualitative feedback is provided to support continuous improvement and to facilitate rapid cognitive learning progress and to foster your self-reflection and metacognition as well as create opportunities to embrace a more learner-centered approach.

Without a certain degree of quantity, the quality could be limited.

 

Quantitative feedback

The quantitative feedback is based on your individualized personal Learning Analytics (LA) data of interconnectivity.  

 

The data-informed instruction provides data that help students track mastery of their learning outcomes, recognize and respond to any improvements, and analyze details to improve discussion practice. I hope it will increase your learning ownership and promote reflection and effective decision-making for your learning. Learning Analytics (LA) is an emerging instructional technology to build our PLEs. We explore it further in ETC655.

 

Extracting these individualized data from the BBLearn is an arduous task; however, I will continue doing my best to adduce these learning analytics in support of your PLE. I truly believe that data-informed learning allows for that interaction to be deeper, more meaningful, and more developmental rather than prescriptive and cursory.

 

Moderation

Lesson moderators receive different data-informed feedback to support your facilitation knowledge, skills, and values.  The approach of student discussion moderation results in restructured processes and resources, better comprehensive support, and more opportunities for your learning ownership and engagement.

 

In Lesson 7 discussion, we will visit using data-informed feedback with social network analysis (SNA) and learning community design and assessment. These interconnectivity data serve as a measurement of the development of our learning networks and community.