danaleeling

The year-on-year rate of nonsubmission of final examinations increased sharply this fall in classes in which the final examination was comparably structured to a year ago. A year ago courses were residential, this fall courses were online with the exception of the laboratory portion of the science courses. The following report looks at MS 150 Statistics and SC 130 Physical Science final examination nonsubmission rates fall 2019 versus fall 2020.  Details In MS 150 Statistics the final examination was substantively similar to the final of a year ago. Both final examinations were done in Schoology using the test material item. Fall 2019 the final was held in room A204 during the prescribed two hour time slot. Fall 2020 the students had from 8:00 AM Pohnpei time on Wednesday December 9 to 6:00 PM Pohnpei time on Friday December 11. Once the student began the test there was no time limit set to complete the test. To accommodate possible power outages, the students were able to resume a...

 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.” - Mark 2:22 Since the summer term I have been and I remain concerned about finding ways to provide for administrative and supervisory oversight and insight into online asynchronously delivered classes. One of my core concerns with Schoology is the lack of oversight capabilities, the lack of supervisory and assessment dashboards to assist administrators in their supervisory duties.  l gather there is interest in having faculty schedule synchronous teleconference sessions with students during spring 2021 to provide an opportunity for supervisors to observe the class and complete the required faculty observation. With all due respect to my esteemed colleagues, observing a teleconference session for a class that is primarily operating asynchronous is more likely to generate what in English we term a "dog and pony s...

As the first full term of online courses draws to a close for the college, I wondered what the grade distribution might look like in my courses year-on-year. Modern western higher education has a focus on assessment via measuring student learning outcomes. Yet most institutions of higher education still produce transcripts of courses with grades, only a few report student accomplishments as student learning outcomes. The reality for students is that grades are what are on their transcript, and graduation requirements are written in grade point averages not student learning outcomes accomplished. Job applicants are asked to submit transcripts of courses with grades, not banks of student learning outcomes mastered. For all of the focus on student learning outcomes, the core engine of higher education runs on grades and student attention is on their grade, not outcomes mastered. A strict year-on-year comparison is not possible in the fourteenth week because the fall 2019 data is term end ...

 Laboratory eleven was residential and looked at reflection and apparent depth. The lab led off with a demonstration of refractive effects which is more often covered on Wednesday during a fully residential term.  MJ and Devon work on the relationship between image distance and object distance for a plane mirror Hart and Marlin Jaylino, Pendura, and Belsin MJ and Devon Marlin and Hart Pendura, Devon, and MJ work out the apparent depth of a penny Jeimy and Miyuki Semihma and JacyAnn Miyuki and Jaylino work on sorting out reflection Rhea and Rojane Semihma and JacyAnn

With the assistance of the division of information technology, a ChromeCast unit was brought up and online in A101 permitting the casting of a mobile phone screen to a fifty inch monitor in the room. As a test of bandwidth and connectivity at the far east end of the campus, a streaming service was used to cast the first image. This image is from the the original series pilot for Star Trek. The core use of the technology will be to display Desmos graphing calculator, Google Slides, and science documentaries from a mobile phone  After testing the unit in A101, an impromptu informal demonstration of the technology was done for the director of the Media and Information Technology Center, a unit that delivers content for classes on site with video home system tapes (VHS) and digital video discs (DVD).  In MITC I demonstrated a streaming video service and Google Slides. 

A previous rambling look at Instructure Canvas explored Canvas on a laptop from the instructor and student point of view as seen by a veteran user of Schoology. Of concern has been that a significant number of the students at the college connect only via mobile devices, and the Canvas student app, although free, can only log into a Canvas registered school. This would leave students using their browser on their mobile device to access Canvas. This author's experience with attempting to user Schoology in a mobile device browser has been that Schoology is not mobile ready. In the following screens the student is using a three year old Motorola Moto G5 Play, an older budget grade mobile device, a device that might still be more capable than some of the mobile devices in use here.  After logging in and  After logging in Angelina is offered a tour of Canvas a new user. Setting aside the tour, Angelina is asked to review notification settings. The defaults are left in place. The no...