In-Class Activity: Transitioning from Learner to Designer

Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students. — Paulo Freire

To develop useful Educational Technology, you will need to think like a teacher in addition to a student.

Submitting your Work

In groups, use this shared Google Doc to create a Single Point Rubric for grading a programming assignment and explain your reasoning for each part above.

In your groups, each person should take on the following roles:

• Facilitator: manages the group to stay on task, be aware of time constraints for the overall discussion, and that there is room for everyone in the conversation
• Recorder: takes notes on the discussion, including keeping track of who initiated major ideas within the discussion
• Representative: represents the group in reporting back to the class and for any discussions between groups

Specifications

Pedagogy is the study of teaching and learning methods, the "why" of the topics, assessments, interactions, and activities that take place in a learning environment. A principled pedagogy enables more effective learning by taking into account the needs, backgrounds, goals, and cultures of students and teachers.

Rubrics are an important pedagogical tool, a set of criteria that provide a standardized framework for assessing student work consistently and equitably. Good rubrics also help students by communicating expectations, clarifying purpose, providing feedback, and allowing self-assessment. A rubric consists of the following parts:

• Criteria: the distinct performance elements being reviewed
• Performance quality: statement describing an expected quality standard for students to meet
• Scoring strategy: how to allocate and combine "points" that can be earned based on the quality for each criteria

When designing these parts, it is useful to keep in mind:

• Criteria should relate to the learning students are being asked to demonstrate (not the "tasks")
• Performance quality should allow for a continuum of effort
• Scoring strategy should weight criterion to reflect the importance of learning objectives being assessed

Consider these questions about a student's submitted code when discussing the goals for your rubric:

• How much should missing one test count versus multiple tests?
• Are some functionality requirements worth more than others?
• Should there be a penalty for code that works but is very poorly written?
• What should you consider beyond correctness?