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

Adapted from the work of Alana Robinson (@anrcreative)

• 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.

The project overview

Research

Design Point #1: Connectivity as learning goal

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 #2: Connected Course Design

Details available at http://bit.ly/1S5nErP

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

Blogging

HYPERLINKS

EMBEDDED MATERIALS

How students used annotations in blogging.

“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]

QUESTIONS?

Sample Embedded Materials

Aesthetic Illustrate Extend

Areas of Alignment

Citations/ReferencesAdditional Resources

Definitions & Description

Personal Context

Connecting to other concepts

Building a personal narrative

Aesthetics, Illustration, Extension Multimodal expression

Missed Opportunities.

A LACK OF DOCUMENTATION/INTENTIONALITY

LACK OF ENGAGEMENT W/ PEER IDEAS

How students used annotations in tweets.

Tweeting

HYPERLINKS

MENTIONS

HASHTAGS

• Contribute resources• Promote their own work

In general, students used hyperlinks to:

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

Graphic VisualizationsRubrics

Dashboards

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

Questions