Assessment Toolbox

I spent so much time and effort on my group project this week that I completely missed the discussion board postings of problems. When I did go into the discussion board I discovered several of the teams were using the space for discussions about their projects. Reading those postings made me feel like a peeping Tom but I learned about tinyurls, and the code with which to load the Our Story widget to a wiki, and that it would be possible to create a video paper in which one would look at a short video clip of each product in the toolbox. I also saw and was very jealous of the site set up by Stags for his group.

Our group was wonderful, working as a team, and everyone trying to do their fair share and more. There were supportive comments and helpful suggestions at every turn. We discussed things and made decisions as a team. It was a wonderful experience.

We communicated via UWStout email and home email. We used a Google.docs site for our discussion as well the Learn@ UW chat room for synchronized communication. A team member posted our completed portions in a pdf file on her school site. It was easy to use google.docs except when I wasn't granted editing access for two days. A team member added my home email address to the group members list and that seemed to fix the problem. Within google.docs we were able to post our sections, then make corrections, or suggestions when proofreading. Those could be highlighted or written in a different color, making them very easy to see.

Our group chose to write about Adobe Acrobat Connect and wiki for peer-to-peer collaboration tools, ePals as a blog/reflective tool, and 1st Class Grades for the course-tracking tool. Each piece was well-researched and good reports were generated.

This was a way to get to know classmates and I really enjoyed that aspect of the collaboration. Of course, the experience was positive because, other than the member who was almost completely absent because of vacation, the rest of the group's level of commitment to the project was at the same level as mine. That made for a compatible group.

I wish a group project had been assigned earlier in the class. That might have alleviated some of the feelings of isolation. I'm thinking along the lines of a group project as an introduction. There would have to be tools chosen, like a blog spot, and the basics of managing the blog would be taught. Then, people would be assigned to a group, either 3 or 4 members per group. They would interview each other and then each would post an introduction for someone in the group.

After looking at the projects completed by each group I am greedily wishing for one great big toolbox that would include all the reviews. Right now that would seem like Christmas!