Performance Assessment in the Virtual Classroom
Institution: UCIrvine (Coursera)
Date: April 14, 2014 - May 16, 2014
Bio: "Performance Assessment in the Virtual Classroom" is part of a four course Specialization Certificate for Virtual Teaching on Coursera. The course covers general use and administration of learning management systems, with a specific focus on grading and assessment in virtual programs used for K-12 public schools.
This course is more like a seminar then a class. A lot of the material they covered seems to be common sense obvious, though to be fair it may be the kind of things people don't consciously think of until someone points it out to them.
It is hard to tell if the intended audience includes teachers who will be required to use virtual learning platforms, or administrators who are tasked with implementing and maintaining them. Topics ranged from managing grade books and considering at risk or disabled students; to setting up proctoring locations for testing.
Accomplishments: I scored a 99.2% with distinction by completing all of the quizzes and assignments. It was possible to ace the quizzes without even watching the lectures for the most part, but the assignment was rather interesting as it had you analyze a virtual grade book and predict the intended and unintended consequences. (Weighting of grades making certain assignments insignificant, course pacing and course load, automatic grading vs student/teacher interaction balance, and so on).