Screenshot of My Fall 2012 Course Site.
Course Page Advantages: Some Specific Examples
In one of the core classes I teach, presentation skills are worth 40% of the overall grade. To facilitate the highest possible rate of progress in my students, I video record their presentations individually, give personalized copies of the videos to the students, and require them to view and analyze their own performances. They download the appropriate rubric from their course page, and then prepare a self-assessment in either written (MLA style) or video format. (They can record with their own smartphones or the webcam app I’ve provided on their course page.) Once students have finished their revisions, they can email or upload the final version for me to check. To assist with this process, students are also provided with at least four peer-assessments and a printout of my own formal evaluation. An added benefit of this process is that, if a student disagrees with my mark, he/she is welcome to request a review, which can be done easily from the video.
Another technical innovation involves the use Techsmith Camtasia Studio software to transform my classroom PowerPoint presentations into video tutorials that are posted on students’ course pages. This “flipped classroom” approach increases the amount of classroom time spent on communicative activities and “student-talking-time” plus it allows students to absorb teacher-generated information at their own pace, without fear of being singled out for being slower (or faster) than their peers.
