Recently, I’ve written about assessment and how we might use technology to make our marking more efficient and more effective.
The first stage is live marking where the feedback aims to be immediate and targeted at the very moment when it is needed.
Second is rubric marking which I have some questions about, but which I believe can be used intelligently to give a sense of ‘skills mastery’.
The third stage might make some of us feel a bit more uncomfortable...but I’d urge you to give it a go.
It involves using screencast software to make a short video where you talk for a couple of minutes about the way various students approached a task, maybe highlighting common errors to avoid in the future or drawing attention to some particularly good ideas.
We’d all do this in a class anyway...right?
This method just commits it to video.
And that brings certain benefits. Think of the student who was ill when you gave the class feedback. If the feedback is worth giving, surely you want everyone to hear it?
Or imagine the student who wasn’t concentrating perfectly during your carefully-crafted performance. The one who might like to go back to re-cap your key points later when he’s not thinking about lunch.
One of the challenges that digital innovation presents is how we can be as effective and influential outside the classroom as we are in it.
This might help.
And it’s really easy to do. The software is readily available. There’s a free Chrome extension called ‘Screencastify’ which is really good. Or you can pay quite a bit for some extra features you’ll probably never use.
Yes, you feel a bit awkward at first. But after a couple of goes, you’ll find the whole process takes no more than a few minutes. I tend to have a few examples of work I want to talk about up on the screen with a video of me in the bottom corner. (You could just have the work if you were feeling particularly self-conscious!)
Don’t worry about minor mistakes or the lighting being perfect. You’re not trying to win an Oscar. Just record it, post it to Google Classroom and move on.
It doesn’t stop me talking to the class, of course. I still do that as well.
I learnt the value of this video summary from my own experience of online courses.
Like many of us, I’ve done a few of these...but I’ve started many more than I’ve finished. Generally, it’s the self-paced courses where I’ve lacked the requisite discipline; the instructor-paced courses I’ve tended to finish.
And those courses often use a video summary to generate an important sense of shared experience.
I know there’s a difference. We see our students face to face where an online tutor doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean we can’t borrow some benefits.
Incidentally, I’d encourage the use of screencast software with your students. I can think of lots of instances where a screencast would be a much better way of demonstrating knowledge than an essay.
And they love making them.
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