In the scenario, I observed several problems. In one of the
groups only one of the students was writing the research paper while the rest
of the team only edited minor details. Another problem I identified was that students
were deleting each other’s entries. A third problem was that there was not a
rubric in place so the students were focused on their wiki looking pretty
instead of worrying about the content. A fourth problem was that students in
another group were not collaborating and were therefore writing their own
paragraphs separately. A critical problem that I also identified was
plagiarism, which meant that students were just copying content from other
websites without giving credit. The last problem I found was that students were
posting content that had nothing to do with the research questions.
I would prioritize problems as followed: not having a rubric
in place that explained student’s expectations, and how the participation of
each student would be graded. The second problem I found was that students were
plagiarizing. The third problem I found was that Jane did not write comments to
her students after checking their engagement. The next problem would be of
students erasing each other’s entries. Another problem was students not
collaborating and having just one student do the whole work. The next problem
in order of importance was that students were posting content that was
irrelevant to their assignment.
A possible solution to the first problem would be: for Jane to have given the students a rubric
where it explained what was expected from each student. She should have
mentioned that each student needed to write a paragraph and write their name
after their work was added to the project. She should have also said that students
are only allowed to edit and not erase entire entries of their team. By doing
this, the students would know what was expected and would respect their
classmate’s work. They would also understand that the content, images, and
videos that were uploaded needed to be related to their research question. By
giving students a rubric, I think that it would have avoided the problem of
groups focusing their attention of changing the formats to make it prettier
instead of on the actual content. The solution for the second problem is for
the teacher to explain that plagiarizing is academic dishonesty and that work
that is not theirs will result in an automatic zero for the entire group. I
think this would help students realize the importance of giving credit and the
groups would abstain from copying work. A possible solution the third problem
would be to have Jane send feedback about the student’s progress as she checked
their engagement. One of the links below mentions how Tim King would project
the Assessment Tool on his screen during class and this motivated the students
because he provided instant feedback. Another article describes how to be
notified when there are updates made to projects.
The following are some links that would help Jane learn how
to use wikis more effectively.
I agree with you regarding to the importance of Rubrics and doubt clarification about assignment to the class when assignment is released to students. If they do not know what is going to be graded, they might miss something important and expend time in something irrelevant. In addition, training about how to use Wikis is also important. If students do not know how to use it properly, they might make some errors like missing to save changes. Finally, some students miss to give credits to others because they do not know that they have to do it and/or how to do it. We have to address on it.
ReplyDeletethanks,
Maria