Now everyone knows I ‘luvs me some skool’. And, even though I haven’t attended a classroom lecture in over 3 years, today’s session on “Evaluating Online and Blended Learning in Higher Education” had me reminiscing to my days of post-graduate glory! Four fulfilling hours of narrated PowerPoint’s sprinkled with quasi-relevant anecdotes, off-topic tangents, randomly requests for learner participation and frequent interruptions for potty-breaks. Professor Thomas Reeves (from UGA) put together a rather rich and exhaustive presentation on a myriad of evaluation methodologies, philosophical research paradigms and current models used to understand and “make-sense-of” online learning initiatives and/or blended teaching strategies. I personally think it was a tad too peppered with scholarly jargon that *may* have gone over folks’ heads, but it was nonetheless a great (albeit expansive) introduction for conducting successful evals. My highlight of the session was the simple explanation of differentiating between “assessment” and “evaluation”, I realize they are different and hold different weights depending on the context of their use - however I am ALWAYS hearing them used interchangeably - oft times incorrectly. I commonly associate assessment with the pre- of the test (before treatment) and evaluation with the post- (after the treatment). As in conducting a needs assessment THEN a program evaluation.
Reeves simply stated:
Use the term assessment when referring to what you are doing to people and/or their learning experiences and engagement. Use the term evaluation when referring educational projects, programs and initiatives.
Now I hope I interpreted that correctly cuz I cain’t have Reeves reading this post and calling me out. Lol, that would be an epic fail on my part. Nonetheless, this was a good way to start EDUCAUSE 2008 and I can officially say I am in conference mode (meaning that my feet hurt, I’m miss my bed and I have a nifty tote bag full of technology literature, mouse pads and advertisements that I’m sure I’ll read and recycle). Here’s my schedule for the next two days:
Wednesday
The Unique Human Brain: Clues from Neurology
Session Details
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
8:15 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.
West Hall WE2
Fostering Learning in the Networked World: The Cyberlearning Opportunity and Challenge
Session Details
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
10:30 a.m. - 11:20 a.m.
West Hall WF5
Don’t Call It a Blog, Call It an Educational Publishing Platform
Session Details
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
11:40 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Room W330D
Mashups, Remixes, and Video Culture: Engaging the YouTube Generation in the Classroom
Session Details
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
11:40 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Room W230CD
Breaking Out: Learning Spaces to Inspire Faculty and Engage Learners
Session Details
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
11:40 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
West E/F Foyer
Learning Space Design
Session Details
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
12:40 p.m. - 2:10 p.m.
Room W340A
Library Lightning Round
Session Details
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
2:15 p.m. - 3:05 p.m.
Room W230AB
NITLE Reception (by invitation only)
Session Details
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Room W307CD
Thursday
Social Media and Education: The Conflict Between Technology and Institutional Education, and the Future
Session Details
Thursday, October 30, 2008
8:10 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
West Hall WF5
Faculty: Scholars or Software Developers?
Session Details
Thursday, October 30, 2008
11:45 a.m. - 12:35 p.m.
Room W209C
ELI Member and Newcomers’ Meeting
Session Details
Thursday, October 30, 2008
12:50 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.
Room W307CD
The Launch of Google Apps for Education at USC: Determinants, Decisions, and Deterrents
Session Details
Thursday, October 30, 2008
2:20 p.m. - 3:10 p.m.
Room W330D
Holla at me if you see me!
I wasn’t there, so I can’t say for sure but that sounds like a good starting rule of thumb for assessment/evaluation. However, we do course “evaluations” which might ostensibly be about the course effectiveness, but are really about instructor “assessment” by that definition. I wouldn’t call it that because it is really a performance appraisal of sorts and thus an evaluation.
You know I love an endless philosophical discussion around definitions.