STOMP ePortfolioPresenter: M. HortonFall 2015

ePortfolio ContentsThis ePortfolio documents the major deliverables I created for the completion of Successful Teaching Online Mentoring Program (STOMP) at Harper College. The contents are as follows:○ Community-Building Activity○ Time Management Tip List○ Final Project: Lesson idea, assessment and

rubric developed using Backwards Design principles

○ Final Reflections/Lessons Learned

Community-Building ActivityInstructions:○ Share an asynchonous community-building idea on the Week

2 discussion board (Discussion board link below.) Through reviewing the resources above, please come up with one community-building activity that can be implemented in an asynchronous online learning environment. This activity can be an icebreaker, but it can also be an activity that makes sense later in the semester when relationships have already begun to form. When sharing your idea, please include the following information:○ Title○ Task○ Objective(s)○ Instructions○ How this idea builds community

Community-Building ActivityTitle: Community-building a Safe Space (Based on "Truth and Lies" from Engaging the Online Learner)Task: There are two discussion threads, one titled "Truth (Anonymous)" and the other titled "Truth (non-anonymous)." Your task is to post one positive true fact about yourself in each of the forums. Is there something you're proud of? Do you have a hobby you enjoy? Is there a career goal worth sharing? Anything positive, and perhaps distinctive, of you is perfect. The second part of this task is to try to match the anonymous facts with the non-anonymous facts by replying to the posts in "Truth (non-anonymous). Have some fun with this! Let's get to know each other in a fun, constructive, community-building way! [This will not be graded. Because it is low stakes, more congenial participation can be expected.]

Community-Building ActivityObjective(s): (a) To get to know a little bit about each other. (2) To learn how posting, replying work in an online discussion environment. (3) To foster a collegial community with positive self-images and mutual respect.How this builds community: Having a low stakes conversation about something presumably personal and potentially emotionally charged contributes to a positive self-concept. Negative self-concepts can de-motivate, so it is best to produce positive self-images early on. It cultivates the right kind of environment for future discussions, both student-participatory and student-lead discussions. Because it is emotional (because it is personal), it can lead students to engage and participate better, setting the groundwork for future discussions at higher stakes.

Time Management Tip ListInstructions:○ Read through 

time management strategies for online instructors from the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

○ Create your own time management tip list for your professional use, focusing on the tips that will be most important to you. Feel free to copy and paste directly from the webpage, and add your own notes as well. This assignment should be incorporated into your journal submission for this week.

Time Management Tip List(1)Take notes as you read discussion forums. Look for general themes, but reference students by name if you

reference their contribution.(2)Create a forum where students can ask general questions (set notifications on it so that professor can

respond quickly).(3)Use e-tools for self-graded assignments. [I prefer test

yourself style quizzes that can be taken multiple times (questions drawn from a sizeable pool of questions). Immediate feedback before student feels confident

going on.(4)Establish a time during which everyday quick things can

be done: email responding, forum feedback, etc. Establish student expectations on when this time or

times will be.(5)Establish Email name/subject protocols (or use only in

house, BB, messaging).

Time Management Tip List(6) Use rubrics and keep a file with previous discussion

forum comments, especially the lengthy ones, to be used again in the future. Organize this file by topic.(7) Save examples of good work to be shared

(anonymously) with future students. It can help set expectations, i.e., "This is what A-level work looks like."

Final Project SummaryThis presentation showcases an assessment, rubric and lesson idea created for my Critical Thinking course. This culminating project demonstrates my ability to apply Backwards Design principles to lesson plan development. We were asked to choose 1-2 learning objectives that fulfill the student outcome(s) of an existing course and then create an assessment, rubric and lesson idea that align with those objectives.

Critical Thinking, PHI 101Course description:"Introduces the student to reasoning in a language-centered context. Students will learn how to identify arguments and distinguish them from other types of discourse. Some topics covered will be: evaluating claims, recognizing informal fallacies, problem solving, evaluating media. Students will also learn how to cast issues in a neutral manner, to recognize and appreciate a variety of perspectives, and to argue for and against more than one perspective on an issue. The focus of this course is on everyday practical reasoning." IAI H4 906

Student Outcomes (course level)

Students will…

...identify and create original examples of fallacies.

Learning Objectives (lesson level)(1)Review definitions and examples of standard

logical fallacies, both formal and informal. (2)Select three errors around which to develop an

essay.(3)Review the structure of moral arguments.(4)Select a moral statement for which to construct

fallacious arguments. Your moral statement will be your thesis statement.

(5)Develop your fallacious argument (exhibiting the three fallacies you chose) into an argumentative essay. The essay should have a clear thesis statement (the moral claim you picked) and should use all three fallacies in supporting that thesis.

Explanation of Alignment○ How your assessment aligns with the outcomes and an

explanation of why you chose it.○ I liked this assignment because it gives students lots of

choice, but within a rigid structure. They are learning fallacies by making fallacious arguments--learning by doing. They are working on writing in a way that incorporates fallacies, which will help them identify fallacies. They are reviewing structures for moral arguments since the position they are supporting is a moral position. The assignment combines many topics of the course and synthesizes it into a short, tidy assignment all with a single course level student outcome in view.

Explanation of Alignment○ How your rubric effectively measures competency in the

assessment, and any design choices that may need explanation.

This assignment is an assignment that works on synthesizing two previously done components to a critical thinking course: study of fallacies and study of moral arguments. It is looking for competence at deploying the terminology of those two topics as well as comfort with writing in support of that thesis, albeit, in a deliberately fallacious way. Measuring that amounts to ensuring that students are competent: were terms used correctly? Were they used in a way that demonstrates mastery of the course material? Also, the assignment has very specific instructions. Because it involves several moving parts, the rubric had effectively to measure how well students structured and put together their assignment. I think it gets at the two aspects of what this assignment is going for.

Explanation of Alignment○ The outcome is specifically about identifying and creating

original arguments and examples of fallacies. Aligning the sub-tasks with the course level outcome was straightforward. The task is broken down into its pieces, each of which leads directly to the course level outcome. Assessing that students have successfully completed the assignment amounts to looking for evidence that each sub-task was successfully completed. The rubric look for those two primary things: mastery of course material and instruction following (including essay structure, etc.).

Lesson PlanPurpose: The purpose of this assignment is two-fold: first, you will practice writing structured essays that support a central claim. Of course, your essay will consist of bad arguments. Deliberately making bad arguments, with the knowledge that they are bad, can help you learn to recognize them in the future.

General Assignment

Your assignment should be typed and submitted via Blackboard Learn. Find the assignment in Learn and open it, and either copy and paste your essay into the submission box or attach a saved copy of your file and then submit it before the due date. The only acceptable file formats are .doc, .docx, and .pdf (Microsoft Word and Adobe). The page limit is one (about 300 words).

Lesson Plan (continued)You are to construct an argumentative essay that contains three and only three errors for a moral claim you endorse. One error should be a formal fallacy and another error should be an informal fallacy. The third error can be of your choosing. Bear in mind that if your argument is going to commit three mistakes, it will be at least a paragraph long. I’d think about it as if the argument were being said on a news program by a pundit. In a paragraph or two, present the argument as prose. Don’t present the argument with numbered premises or in outline form. Write a paragraph like you might find in an op-ed page and write it as if someone were really making that argument. Your paragraph will have an introductory sentence serving as a thesis statement. The remaining material will be written in support of your thesis statement. The thesis statement will express a moral claim. Your claim should be controversial (not obviously true and not obviously false).

Alternate Part 2 to AssignmentCreate a discussion forum entitled "Finding Bad Arguments."

Have students post their essays to it, using dedicated threads for each (could be anonymous or non-anonymous). Then, have students work together to identify the fallacies used in each argument. Did they get them right? Might the original author share her insight to help people spot the flaws?

This would be graded as normal discussion.

Assessment RubricGrade Earned:

F - D C - B AComprehension and Argumentation

Reflection demonstrates little to no understanding of or attention to the moral principles/positions used or to the assigned topic.

Reflection demonstrates adequate understanding of assigned topic and key issues raised as part of the assigned topic.

Reflection demonstrates complete understanding of the assigned topic and the key issues raised and displays engagement with the key issues.

Style/Grammar/Instructions

Does not address assigned topic. Late, or shows no attempt to use correct spelling and grammar, formatting or reference citations.

Address assigned topic in part. Typed in incorrect format and/or font, and had errors in reference citations. Paper contains few spelling or grammatical errors.

Fully addresses assigned topic. Typed in correct format with no spelling or grammatical errors. Citations all correctly formatted.

Lessons LearnedIn constructing an assignment based on the principles of backwards design, I became more conscientious about something I already knew was important, namely, course outcomes. We all care about outcomes. We all want our students to leave our classes with the skills and knowledge indicative of successful mastery of a course. How do we tie lessons to outcomes? How might we do this in an online environment? Thinking about this is interesting. Who similar to f2f is online instruction? What assignments will work for both environments? Often what happens in class is that course content is synthesized and contextualized without deliberate effort. It happens in the course of discussing things. It happens when students ask questions aloud. It happens during lectures. In an online environment, what happens organically might need to be structured more deliberately. (continued)

Lessons LearnedStructuring assignments and tasks more deliberately is helped by paying explicit attention to the course outcomes and aligning those to lesson outcomes and assignment assessment. It is just the kind of structure that an online environment calls for. We must be careful to synthesize our material and to help students learn in a variety of modalities. (continued)

Lessons LearnedI learned that variety is the spice of online life. Have students test themselves on automatically graded quizzes. Have students engage in small working groups in addition to larger groups and discussions. Have students take content from earlier in the course and synthesize it with more recent content. Have collaborative sessions. Have flipped classrooms. Variety. Variety. Variety.

Lessons Learned (final)Variety takes work. I learned that my colleagues are all willing to work to ensure that their classes are well-oiled machines and that their students give and get the most out of it. It was inspiring. Thanks for inspiring me!