Assignment #2 – Feedback for Peer Group D

Review completed on June 20th, 2024

https://classroom.google.com/w/NjkwMDcwNjA0NDMw/t/all

Course code: ifhvbmi

Thank you for letting us review your ongoing project. It was great to see your ideas and all of us really enjoyed the creative activities involved. For this feedback, we have sectioned it according to the grading rubric, although there are areas when these inevitably overlap. 

We all hope that you find the feedback given constructive, and use it to make your resource even better than it already is. 

Structure and Organization:

Your GoogleClassroom was easy to work through and see the order of learning when the lesson headings were used. We liked how we had our own assignments to work through – google docs/excel/forms. We also really appreciated having clear examples available for certain tasks as this allowed us to model our work on your introduction and gave confidence with our learning. EdPuzzle isn’t something we have come across before, but being able to complete questions during the video was a great idea and helped apply the ideas you are setting out.

It might be a good idea to break up sections 2-5 as we weren’t as confident in the order that these activities should have been completed as we were from 6-7c. The tasks were a lot of fun in this section, in particular the excel task which all of us really enjoyed completing. As well as this, it might be a good idea to give some additional information at the start of each section, for example in the video for lesson 1, to explain that we need to work with a group/partner and ensure that we might want to prepare writing materials  to take notes or solve the multiple choice questions. The content was very clear in the classwork section of your GoogleClassroom, but finding the information about the learning design in the stream was a bit trickier. To make this super easy to find, we would suggest making a new topic at the end of the classwork to give this information.

Relevance to Course Topics:

Your rationale for creating the resource is both compelling and well-articulated, highlighting the significance of the concept and its potential impact on learners. Your overview is concise yet rich with essential points and references. We were especially intrigued by how this lesson aligns with the Ontario curriculum and its practical approach to achieving these specific objectives.

It would be interesting to see your learning theory and environment rationale, as your activities are so engaging. You do make a comment about the learning being “experiential, social, and cooperative”, some expansion on this and how it relates to specific activities would be great to learn about. It might just be that this needs a heading or direct language to make this clear for all who are reading your information. We did wonder whether the idea of problem-solving approaches in your “Big Idea” section needed some further citation – you do mention Ding & Li (2010) in the overview section which seems to link strongly to these ideas. 

One final thought. We weren’t sure who we, as the learners, were meant to be. In your video you talk about what the adults should do as a teacher, but the resources and activities are targeted at high school students. This caused some confusion about who the resource is aimed towards, as teacher professional development, or as a 9th grader completing the learning online. Perhaps some clarification along the way and at the start of each assessment could be given. For example you could include a brief introduction specifying the intended audience for each section, such as “This section is designed for teachers to enhance their instructional strategies” or “This activity is intended for high school students to complete independently.” This way, it would be clear who the resource is addressing at each stage.


Step Interactivity:

We unanimously enjoyed the creative tasks and found them engaging. We all interacted with the initial video/Edpuzzle, not just by being passive watchers, but by taking part in the activities outlined and referring back to your given examples to make concepts clearer. We noted how this initial activity was great for us, as learners, to assess our knowledge, and would also give the instructor valuable information about where people are starting from. We all really wanted to complete the excel tasks, and noted that the instant feedback and given examples were beneficial to our feelings of engagement and the way we interacted with the task. The breakout room would also have been super engaging however there was a problem getting past the first question (screenshots below):

We wondered if this was a formatting error as this also popped up in the google form for the assessment.  – perhaps multiple choice might be easier to ensure that the learner can easily progress. Just an idea!

We think that having some additional clarity in the order would increase engagement with section 2-5, but the activities themselves were creative, fun, and allowed for much interaction between the student and material. We believe that this is a key strength of this resource. 

Recording yourself talking through the PowerPoint really helped to discuss the ideas. We wondered if you plan to do this for the follow up ones in the revisit days? It might be helpful to, as the Edpuzzle giving some ideas for answers definitely gave us more motivation and deeper learning as an online learner. 

Inclusivity:

Your resource has used a variety of media, including text, video, and spreadsheets. We also noted the pdfs of written information, and thought that being able to print off the ‘paper’ resources would be helpful for those learners who find physically writing more beneficial to their learning. The variety of assessment methods (not just tests) helped to engage us in the assessments, and we can see how they would add to the instructor’s overview of the learner and increase opportunities for success with all learners. Additional signposting (now you have done that
  next we will do this
) is a great convenience to readers as it helps them make their way through learning appropriately (Kimble, 2021). This approach is especially helpful for learners who need step-by-step instruction. 

One way of increasing inclusivity might be to add a transcript of your video, or subheadings. For some reason the CC option wasn’t working when playing the video, this might be an integration issue on the GoogleClassroom. Another idea is to voice record your example in section 2-5, talking through the decisions made in your working out.

Technology Use:

Google Classroom does seem a good place to organize this resource, and you have utilized the headings in a helpful way. As a google user, this is all very familiar, and we have also come across GoogleClassroom being used in many educational settings as a platform for online learning so it should be something that learners and teachers are more confident using. As a teacher, this would allow easy integration with google documents and drive, and would make sharing and adapting the resources quite straightforward. Despite a few tweaks (like the answers on the forms), this does seem an appropriate and helpful platform to be using. Teachers would need to be on top of who is registering in the class, but the time involved in this wouldn’t be onerous. It would be good to see the write up for your technology choice, as this didn’t seem to be on the blueprint/overview. Your choices of media are also wide and have a good impact on the learning taking place. 

Thank you for giving us access to your project! We hope that you find our feedback useful, and would love to see the final edit if that would be possible. 

References:

Kimble, J. (2021, December 28). The importance of signposting — and following through. Retrieved from judicature.duke.edu website: https://judicature.duke.edu/articles/the-importance-of-signposting-and-following-through/