Wow. Blackboard doesn’t make it easy. Is there any way to get more of a portfolio feel for students, any way for students to contribute self-assessment data? The dominant theme of Blackboard suggests that assessment is strictly a one-way street, teacher checks/speaks/grades and students receive. That relationship in itself is problematic, at least it would be for me if I weren’t a retired professor.
Yeah, you're correct, and it's a pain! The best I can do (on Blackboard) is to make freeform assignments where students can upload reflections and self-assessments, but that's still a one-way street (at least on Blackboard).
There is some concept of a "course conversation" that seems to be a way to allow discussion threads on documents or assignments -- but NOT in feedback.
Terry makes a really good point. This is one of the reasons why I use the Journal tool on Blackboard for some of my assignments: in addition to being ungraded by default, it does allow for some degree of back and forth between student and professor. That being said, the Journal tool does have its drawbacks, and I imagine it would be harder to make it work in a class with lots of smaller assignments. (It's kind of a pain to organize more than a couple of journals.)
I remember even back in the day (ten years ago:) even the platforms that billed themselves as “eportfolios” struck me as assignment collections. It was as if the architects had no insight into the reciprocal nature of feedback—teachers need it, too, and thoughtful self-analysis from students is good stuff. I’m sorry you have to go to these extremes. It’s another case of high-level inertia in a quickly changing world.
Wow. Blackboard doesn’t make it easy. Is there any way to get more of a portfolio feel for students, any way for students to contribute self-assessment data? The dominant theme of Blackboard suggests that assessment is strictly a one-way street, teacher checks/speaks/grades and students receive. That relationship in itself is problematic, at least it would be for me if I weren’t a retired professor.
Yeah, you're correct, and it's a pain! The best I can do (on Blackboard) is to make freeform assignments where students can upload reflections and self-assessments, but that's still a one-way street (at least on Blackboard).
There is some concept of a "course conversation" that seems to be a way to allow discussion threads on documents or assignments -- but NOT in feedback.
Terry makes a really good point. This is one of the reasons why I use the Journal tool on Blackboard for some of my assignments: in addition to being ungraded by default, it does allow for some degree of back and forth between student and professor. That being said, the Journal tool does have its drawbacks, and I imagine it would be harder to make it work in a class with lots of smaller assignments. (It's kind of a pain to organize more than a couple of journals.)
I haven't used journals -- this is an interesting idea that I'll have to look into!
I remember even back in the day (ten years ago:) even the platforms that billed themselves as “eportfolios” struck me as assignment collections. It was as if the architects had no insight into the reciprocal nature of feedback—teachers need it, too, and thoughtful self-analysis from students is good stuff. I’m sorry you have to go to these extremes. It’s another case of high-level inertia in a quickly changing world.