For class 1/31: Nielsen and Loranger

Nielsen and Loranger

All–

I’m away on buisness travel this week (in Florida!), so I’m providing some thoughts responding to this week’s Discussion Questions.  I’ve tried to hit on some of the key ideas without rehashing the chapters.  I’ve uploaded the response within this post.  (Above)

See everyone next week!

5 Questions on the Learning Record

1.  As I understand it, part of the purpose of the Learning Record is to move away from set rubrics, but how will the expectations of quality for this course be communicated to us?  Will we just refer to the sample Grade Criteria http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olr/grades.html ?

2.  The Learning Plan takes into consideration evidence of student learning and success.  Step 2 on the “Moderation Comment Form for College-Level Courses” requires readers to look for clear signs of development across the five dimensions of learning.  In terms of assigning a final grade, how is a learner’s improvement and development weighed against the determined class expectations?

3.  I was a little concerned about the repeated mention of the Learning Plan being a public record.  I understand why any peer work wouldn’t be anonymous, but who will have access to our records?   

4.  I’m a little confused about the partnering—in terms of the review/assessment, we’re only pairing up once?  Not at all?  Similarly, I see there’s a space for Instructor comments for the Midterm Evaluation.  I know the document says that college students maintain their own Learning Records–will you still be providing feedback at this point?

5.  The other comment I kept coming across that confuses me is concerning Observations:  Do they focus on actual observations of what the student knows or can do, rather than on interpretations, opinions, evaluations, or on what hasn’t been done or what should have been done?  I understand the value of measuring what I can do and have done, but if I have failed to do something that I should have or am lacking in a particular area, does this mean it shouldn’t be addressed in the Learning Plan?  Confused… 

The Learning Record

I will begin by saying that the Learning Record is completely foreign to me.  The Learing Record site made repeated reference to the limitations of standardized testing and rubrics.  Coming from a high school that was becoming overwhelmingly test driven, I’d begrudgingly become used to these forms of assessment.  

I guess it goes without saying that grad school follows a very different philosophy–some of you may also have gone through an entire course without a single grade until you logged into Student Self Services at the end.  Many times I’ve heard professors say that grad school isn’t about the grade; it’s about the learning.  The Learning Plan seems to emphasize both, and while it’s a little overwhelming right now, hopefully by the end of the course we’ll be glad we’ve had it as a resource of sorts.  Right now I’m a little confused    but here go my questions…   

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