Objectives:
Plan, design, and incorporate strategies to encourage active learning, application, interaction, participation, and collaboration in online environments
Utilize a range of digital technologies, both existing and emerging, that effectively support student learning and engagement in the online environment
Student Video
The Gapminder video project requires students to explore 2+ variable data using global data sets. After learning some of the basic skills of recognizing variable types, looking for associations between variables, and understanding the difference between correlation and causation, students use the highly visual and customizable data viewer at Gapminder.org to explain what is going on in a large data set. They work in teams of 2-3 in order to bounce ideas off one another, give each other constructive feedback, and offer a more varied perspective while talking about the information. The story, with the visual tool in the background, is recorded with free screencasting software by students at school or at home. When finished, the video is easily shared with peers who are in the classroom or at home.
The video below was produced by two students, Shannon and Jessica, in the Fall of 2015. They did a great job of studying the graphs, researching potential lurking variables, and practicing their narrative to make sure it made sense and flowed well.
Reflection
I selected this artifact as a concrete example of how students utilize my course content. Students really enjoy working on this video project. The way it is setup gives them a lot of autonomy over how they spend their time researching rehearsing, and seeking feedback during the process. Nobody has ever questioned the relevance or purpose of the project, probably because it is all real-world data and even I have no idea what they are going to find. Student questions are genuine, and the process used to see if the data and outside research support the conclusions truly build understanding of the core material.
This example video highlights some of the best of what is possible when having students work in this kind of project environment. They immediately started working, asked many clarifying questions, asked for help when the tool was not clear to them, and used a lot of outside research to support their predictions. They practiced multiple times to make sure they ended with a high quality recording. However, not all students do these things, as evidenced by other videos that have weaker data, external evidence, clarity, production quality, or analysis. To help with this, I built two rounds of peer feedback into the week. I also checked in multiple times with each group to observe and comment on progress. In the future, I could provide a structured compare/contrast session of some past videos where I focus on some key elements that prior students struggled with vs. examples where that concept was well-addressed. Even 20 minutes of that in class, as a teacher-guided exercise, would give students concrete things to be prepared for when they design.
Project grading is also a challenge. I am torn between grading for content skills (causation, correlation), requirements (production quality, length, format) and 21st century skills (teamwork, oral communication). In the end, I grade all three, but I think information is lost in this process. I find myself looking for places to take points rather than reasons to give them. I added some clarity with different categories in the gradebook, but even when given feedback on a rubric, students focus on total score. Another potential change could be the way I grade the draft. If this was more like the final grading process (except for production quality), it may be able to catch bad work early while it can still be fixed.