Sue Hellman

Thank you, Tara, for sharing this comment. I didn't want to be the first to say how useless I think such 'mushy' rubrics are. The descriptors you listed reminded me of high school computer generated report card comments such as 'good work' and 'improvement needed' (not to be confused, of course, with 'some improvement needed'). 

For me the 2 key criteria for judging the effectiveness of a rubric are: (1) [from John Hattie] whether it provides 'actionable' guidance to the learner, i.e. specifies what or how to improve, and (2) [from Bonnie Mullinex] reliability of scoring by other insructors or by students (either or their own work or that of peers). 

I think this Alberta rubric for assessing online course quality fulfills both of the above. Courses are judged as meeting all 'Essential' requirements, 'Excellent', or 'Exemplary'. Most standards offer criteria at all 3 levels. A few such as Mechanics of Writing (p.10), have only 1 level, the implication being that a course which does not have the Essential elements is not ready for release. 

The biggest problem with the Alberta model and alternatives shared in this forum is that they can be very challenging to write if you have not previously made yourself spell out in detail the measures by which you differentiate between success, the lack of it, and whatever stages you've put in between. On the other hand, the potential to transform assessment 'of' into assessment 'for' and 'as' learning is enormous. Using this kind of rubric puts the onus on students to make the improvements required to elevate the their standard of work and relieves instructors of the need to dedicate hours to correcting papers and making hand written comments. I think a powerful use would be create checklist and have students submit self-evaluations with their work. Comparing student to instructor assessments would give the instructor useful feedback about where the students need more help. The students would gain insight from discovering the differences between how they vs. their teachers see their work.

Re Popcorn: I included the Popcorn article more because it seems to be permission/encouragement from TED to add layers to their videos (contrary to what their copyright restrictions suggest) more than to suggest is as a technology choice. Sorry that was not clear.

Re HTML5 vids: although HTML5 is being touted as the fully compatible alternative to flash, there is a problem getting them to play on iPhones (seems better on iPads. but not 100%). One site I read said this seems to have been improved in the most recent iPhone iOS but I'm running an older version so can't test it. The problem seems to be that iDevices don't play embedded videos inline. Hitting the big play button triggers the opening of the full screen Quicktime player & Apple seems to have locked out HTML5 like it did flash. What I see is the original video without your Questions, etc. I'm assuming you used some sort of embed code to get the video to display on the test page. I probably used an iframe and that in itself may be part of the problem. (I've just skimmed the articles found online as I'm not actually trying them out so am tossing out bits & pieces that were mentioned as causes & solutions.)

The folks at H5P are aware of this (as I read in their forum on video), but make no suggestions as to how to work around it. Unfortunately, despite the fact that they know their videos don't work on iPhones because of the HTML5 problem, they don't make that shortcoming clear to prospective users of their product. Unlike some companies which have developed their own HTML5 video/product players or player apps, H5P seems to have decided not to do that, yet still advertise their product as working on smartphones!

Suggested solutions found online include changes to the code &/or using a different video player on your website. The idea seems to be to turn off the big play button & add replace it with a set of controls that will allow the video to play inline (small screen on the page). I haven't checked Moodle forums yet to see if they already have an alternative video player plugin that works, but that might be an avenue to try. Can you download your H5P video & upload it to YouTube? They have apparently fixed their player so HTML5 vids play universally. That might work.

I've been looking for a video player app to install, but no joy there. The fixes all seem to have to do with adjustments to the website not on the iDevice. 

Wish I had better news & that I knew more about code. You may have to develop a parallel experience on a different linked page that participants can jump to if the first 'test' fails on whatever computer or device they're using. This could be a good model of how to make online activities available to all and there may be someone in the next workshop who knows the solution :-) 

That's all I have for now & coffee some time would be fun. I'll see what the Moodlers have to say.

My video teacher would have called this a good lesson in the value of testing the production path before investing a lot of time developing a full end product. He used to have is do 30 sec. takes of anything & test all functions as the first activity in any lesson so we wouldn't be tearing our hair out when an assignment was due ... Wise man!

PS I checked the H5P website & apparently their videos not playing on iPhones is a known one. Then I looked around online & it seems to have to do with getting the video to play inline rather than triggering the normal Quicktime player. This seems to have been a problem in IOs which some people say has been fixed in the most recent update which I don't have & can't test. There are ways to fix the code at your end which are supposed to take care of the problem (I can send links if you are confident about playing with code) or there may be a player app you can recommend to people who are having this problem. Oh the joys of technology!!!!

Re copyright: I found this from the TT people << http://blog.ted.com/meet-popcorn-maker-beau-lotto/>> which encourages people to add layers using Mozilla Popcorn, so I think your original work will be OK after all.

Re viewing on iPhone (using Safari) -- if the overlays are flash-based, they won't show up on this device. For example, I get a message on that Kink I provided that I need a flash player to see Popcorn popups. 

I'll try it in Chrome to see if it works. 

[Did that -- not seeing it on Chrome either. It could be the location. In that frame I think you'd be safe to set it in a more central spot & make it bigger if you have that kind of control.]

Hi Sylvia,

I watched on my iPhone to about the halfway mark  but no questions came up.  What is the time stamp on the first one? I'm not sure if it's working correctly or not. I know you're sensitive to participants' desire to use their time well, so here's what I might do (learned in a video production course) especially if this is your first time using a new technology.

(1) Expect glitches so create a way for users to test for them very early. You could, for instance, put a brief 'production path' test at the very beginning overlying the opening title. In the text intro to the activity, say what to expect & when, how to tell if it's working, & ask for a response either way in a special 'production path' thread or forum. Make sure to tests all functions the (eg. -- question appears, answer is accepted, feedback if used is provided, process can be skipped or not as you wish). That way the participants will not have to watch beyond the 30 sec mark before knowing if the technology is working on their device. You can't possibly test them all so enlist the help of the group.

(2) Don't assume because the first one worked, they all will. Providing a list of the time stamps of all subsequent questions can give those who want to jump ahead a way to do so. Some may have seen this TedTalk & may not want to watch it all again. Others may like to preview and work back & forth. Knowing where the questions are can help them stay engaged. There may be a few hot shots who on their own will take on the role of tech previewers & send you feedback. You can thank anyone who does that (e.g. sends you a message or posts twice in the production path test thread) with a surprise merit badge. They do wonders for morale as I learned when my brother sent them to me when I was in hospital last year!

That's my 2 bits worth for today. As for the video, it must be several years old ... Interesting that the audience was so receptive to her results (they even applauded the stats). I'm not sure this far post Coursera start-up if her results would go unchallenged as indicators of successful learning. And now if you want a certificate I think you have to pay, so it's moved from free to freemium. So much for altruism in higher ed.

-Sue :-)

PS One final note -- you may want to check with your campus copyright people to be sure the TT copyright is not infringed by editing their video in this way. The statement of what one can/cannot do without the speaker's permission is quite limiting, but our fair use for education regulations may supersede that.