(Self) Assessing Your Participation

One of the practical aspects of teaching and learning online is assessing participation. It’s an important topic, and so we’re going to “bookend” the FLO with it as follows:

  • At the beginning, you will review the FLO Rubric and think about any additional methods you might use to structure and guide your self-assessment of your own participation in the workshop. You may want to use a visual map or flowchart to highlight the important elements or behaviours you identify as important to evaluate. You may prefer to use the summary tables to quickly calculate your score each week.

  • Throughout the workshop, use your personal journal to track your learning and the FLO rubric to review your participation. Each week, contribute some reflections or thoughts about your learning and self-assessment process to the Weekly Journal Share forumAfter your team facilitation event, complete a reflective form (FLIF - Feel, Like, Improve, Feedback).

  • Think about your learning. At various points throughout the workshop, you are prompted and encouraged to reflect and assess your learning. Thinking about your learning is known as "metacognition" and it is recognized as an important learning skill and an integral part of becoming a better online learner and facilitator.
  • During the final week, the last team of facilitators will be asking you to reflect back on your course experience and your teaching practice in general. This will give you a chance to dig deeper and make plans for your future work online.

    Above all…!

    Consider both the quantity and quality of your contributions.

    As you are asked to post your thoughts and questions to various discussion forums and participate in online learning activities, remember that the quality of your contribution is more important than the quantity/length of each posting.

    In terms of quality did you—

    • Help solve a problem or lend support?
    • Challenge an idea? Offer some alternatives? Come up with a creative solution?
    • Ask good questions? Assist someone in clarifying his or her ideas?
    • Share examples from your personal experience? Contribute solid evidence to support your opinion?
    • Show respect? Acknowledge and affirm someone else's ideas? Bring a derailing dialogue back on track?
    • Explain yourself well? Give good examples? 
    • Respond to others as well as add your own comments?

    In terms of quantity did you —

    • Pace your contributions to the discussion? 
    • Remain too silent? 

    Ask yourself whether you did your best to engage your peers in a productive dialogue!

    Adapted from: Generating and Facilitating Engaging and Effective Online Discussions