Evaluation / Assessment

Successful students in this course will:

1. Authentically engage in and contribute to the course content
2. Develop their research skills to answer compelling and important questions about leadership issues
3. Develop their skills to interpret research data/information from multiple perspectives
4. Develop abilities to make compelling, clear, and concise arguments.
5. Further develop their skills and habits of mind to engage in deep, critical reflection upon information, personal experiences as leaders, and class activities.
6. Develop clear, thoughtful, and effective communication through discussion and writing.

To demonstrate engagement and growth in the skills, knowledge, and abilities developed in this class students will be evaluated on the following assignments:

1. Class participation & Social Media Presence (20% of final grade)

• The quality of the learning experience in this class is largely determined by the engagement of the students. All students are expected to participate in class discussion, group activities and class feedback. (10%)
• Please note: Twitter will be used with the course hashtag #gse575 throughout the semester. The expectation is for students to send between 3 to 5 tweets a week on related course contest. A self-evaluation rubric will be distributed during the first class. (10%)

2. Weekly reading questions (5% of final grade)

• Over the course of the semester students will post 5 - 7 questions on Mighty Bell about the reading, in order to guide discussion for the week they are group leaders
• The questions should cite a quote or topic from the readings, and then develop a question based on that quote or topic
• Questions will be evaluated based on two criteria:
  • The relevance of the quote or summarized topic
  • The creativity, importance, thoughtfulness, insightfulness and/or interesting perspective of the question

3. Class facilitation (40% of the final grade)

• Starting in Week 5 students will have approx. 60 minutes to facilitate/lead lessons for the class.
• Topics are the choice of the students.
• Students can create their own pedagogical approach.
• Suggested ideas are case-studies; bringing in guest speakers; presenting a video and leading discussion; role-plays based on a salient issue in education leadership; or an arts-based or creative project relevant to a leadership issue
• Rubric will be shared with criteria for presentation

4. Weekly Reflection Journal OR Policy Research Project (35%):

Go to bottom of this page for detailed rubrics

OPTION A: Personal Learning Journal (Mighty Networks)

• Journals reinforce an active learning approach to leadership by giving you the opportunity to relate some of the theories/concepts covered in the course to your own experiences. You are to write about your observations/ insights-reflections about education leadership issues stimulated by the course (i.e. readings, activities, guest speakers, in-class discussions/activities).
• Possible suggestions for these entries are:
  • Summarize and critically reflect on one or more of the assigned readings;
  • Analyze your organization’s practices in light of the course concepts;
  • Reflect on how a concept reviewed in the course could be applied to address an issue that you are facing in your professional context; and,
  • Begin to articulate your philosophy about educational leadership issues, indicating how it is being influenced by the course. Additional suggestions will be offered in class by the instructors and other students.
  • A total of 13 entries are required to meet this criterion. They are posted weekly and due before the start of the next class.
  • The personal learning journal entries may be reworked once in order to benefit from instructor feedback and improve the grade received provided that they were submitted on time.

OR

OPTION B: Policy Research Project

• Students will undertake a policy research project to address an important educational issue in educational leadership. The project is broken down into 4 phases to facilitate a high-quality final project:
  1. Research Project Plan Proposal (5%): Students will come up with an important question after discussion and preliminary research, and propose their project, including the final delivery method (Week 4)
  2. Research plan finalized (5%): Students will finalize their plan and begin working on their project (Week 5)
  3. Final project(25%): Each student will create a deliverable to be submitted as a final project due one week after the final class. A rubric will be provided for reference.

Students will receive constructive feedback on assignments over the course of the semester via email, blog comments, and text messages.

Graduate Grading Scheme ** coming soon

The do's and don'ts of online discussion:

Rubric:

Rubric for facilitating online discussion: