Using Online Tools to Improve Student Writing

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Using Online Tools to Improve Student Writing

• Professor Susan Slavicz
• Florida Community College
• At Jacksonville

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Student Quote

• No, I didnt post my rough draft on the
  discussion board in Blackboard. I didnt because
  at the last minute, I had to change the person
  that I was interviewing because the paper that my
  uncle wrote that I was going to get the
  information off of, didnt give enough
  information. I just ran out of time.
• Say What?

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Presentation Overview

• Descriptions of original assessments
• Suggestions for Evaluation Questions
• Student comments
• What worked
• What needed improvement
• Challenges

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Assessing Student PapersFall 2005

• Assessment Question
• How useful are peer evaluations?
• How useful are teacher conferences?

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Assessment Data

• Initial
• Final

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Follow-up

• If you chose to post your draft to Blackboard,
  how helpful were my comments on a scale of 1-5?

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Follow-up

• When you have written papers this semester you
  have been given the opportunity to post those
  drafts to the discussion board for feedback from
  other students and from your professor.
• On a scale of 1-5 how effective was the
  professor's feedback?  What suggestions would you
  give for improvement

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Follow-up

• On a scale of 1-5 how effective was the student
  feedback?  What suggestions would you give for
  improvement?

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Discussion

• What questions would you like to ask your
  students?

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Student Evaluations

• Decide on your objectives for the paper.
• Consider student knowledge and capability.
• What is important to you?

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Sample Questions Introduction

• Does the writers introduction give the
  following information in the spaces provided?
• The theme discussed?
• The source names?   
• The thesis?
• Write the thesis here

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Sample Questions Body

• List five signals or transitions (however,
  although, first, in addition) the writer uses.
• Write one quote from each author that the writer
  uses.
• Write one paraphrase from each author that the
  writer uses.

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Sample Question Conclusion

• In the final paragraph, does the writer provide
  us with an evaluation of the two sources? What
  was that evaluation?
• If this were your paper, what would you do to
  the paper before turning it in for a grade? 
• Note Other questions will be shared in handout.

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Discussion

• What questions or information would help your
  students to improve their writing level?

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Giving Directions

• Post your rough draft here.  Read other students'
  papers and complete a peer evaluation for a peer
  that has not been evaluated.  Post that
  evaluation to this discussion board.

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Student FeedbackSpring, 2006

• Comments are very helpful and point in the
  correct direction of where to go. Led me in the
  right direction
• They are helpful.
• Very helpful. They helped me finish my
  conclusion.
• They pointed me in a better direction.

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Student Feedback

• The peer evaluations had specific questions to
  answer.  These answers were good to see if your
  paper had the required information,

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Student Feedback

• The feedback from the professor, or instructor,
  is critical to learning the material and knowing
  if you are responding correctly. I would not
  change the ability to get feedback.

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Student Feedback

• I liked that validation of my essay. I enjoyed
  comments from other students and especially the
  professors advice. This is probably why all my
  essays scored in the 90s.
• I would say 4, because I learned as much from
  doing feedback as I did from receiving feedback.
  It really helped to understand each assignment.
  I really enjoyed reading the essays on the same
  subjects that I selected.

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Student Feedback

• Professor Slavicz is the most effective online
  instructor I have had so far! Her feedback was
  right on what she was looking for and is
  reflected in the grades. She also used the
  information and questions to improve timing of
  assignments and give additional information as
  needed to the entire class.
• I would give it a 5 because it gave me a chance
  to fix things before I submitted it.

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Room for Improvement

• I understand the professor's time is limited but
  if more extensive comments could be made that
  would be nice.
• I felt unsure about how to handle and trust the
  criticism from other students and unsure about
  how to give constructive criticism without
  offending someone. I also did not look at the
  other students essays until my own was finished.
  This is because I sometimes find that if I look
  over another persons work, that is on a similar
  topic, it sometimes hinders my ability to get the
  ball rolling in my own and unique way. I think
  that this is because I compare and contrast my
  work with the other work a little to much rather
  then simply focusing on getting my message across.

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Room for Improvement

• I think students are, sometimes, afraid to give
  feedback because we might offend someone.  After
  all who are we, but the student.  The student
  does not know the mind of the instructor and what
  they are looking for.  Also the student might
  give improper suggestions or wrong answers. 
• Feedback did not go anywhere.  Student or
  instructor.  We did not have any discussion on
  where topics were going or who was getting good
  information. 
• I would have liked to have seen the same
  questions answered that were in the peer
  evaluation.  That would have also been helpful to
  me.

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Challenges

• Time Both Student and Instructor
• Clarity
• Participation

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Questions

• Time for questions/discussion

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Additional Student Comments

• Sometimes I did not quite understand the feedback
  so I had to ask further questions but the
  majority of the time the feedback was precise and
  meant to allow you to think about how to correct
  your mistakes instead of just telling exactly
  what was wrong.

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Additional Student Comments

• Your comments were very helpful. I had forgotten
  a detail about writing this kind of paper and
  you reminded me about it.
• They were very helpful for me because I could see
  what you were talking about and I went in and
  changed the paper around.
• Your professional opinion and criticism is always
  helpful.
• You were helpful and very understanding when I
  had questions.

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Additional Student Comments

• These feedbacks from professor and students
  helped me know where I needed work and the other
  groups work helped me to understand their
  objectives. I could read theirs and then know
  where my essay stood for improvement. I would
  recommend it for all of writing studies.

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On a scale of 1-5 how effective was the student
feedback?  What suggestions would you give for
improvement?

• I think students are, sometimes, afraid to give
  feedback because we might offend someone.  After
  all who are we, but the student.  The student
  does not know the mind of the instructor and what
  they are looking for.  Also the student might
  give improper suggestions or wrong answers.  This
  is very embarrassing usually for everyone, but
  may have far reaching repercussions for the
  on-line student as some take on-line courses to
  avoid classroom style confrontation.  In the end
  a mistake that is easily seen by all students
  sometimes goes unchecked because nobody has the
  heart to mention it or they themselves are
  confused.   This course was really confusing, the
  instructions were not clear.  I think it would
  have been extremely valuable to have a place
  where students could ask question on the
  discussion board.  In this way all the students
  would be able to see the question and answer. 
  Students more familiar with on-line coursework
  would be able to answer questions and/or refine
  the question so all could benefit from the
  answer.  A side benefit for the instructor would
  be not having the full burden of answering every
  question immediately.  The instructor would
  simply be able to check in and either provide
  clarification or guide the students to the
  correct answer.  I have seen this type of area in
  past on-line courses and I think it allows the
  students to bond, so to speak.  When the students
  get a feel for who has a better grasp