That was fast!

Okay, so just finished up week four of my first course. Wow, did that go by fast!

I like the idea of these short courses, you start to get into the course and then they end before you really want them to. That seems better than those courses that seem to drag on and you lose motivation to do your final project midway through the semester.

This week we focused on assessment. The topic really brought up my instructional design courses that I took back at FSU. I feel that I lack experience on assessment since I don't have a background in education. As an online instructor I often wonder how I can improve the useful feedback to students when grading their work. Do I respond to their discussion board posts, do I need to evaluate them? With their short answer exercises do I need to provide thoughtful responses. I find myself giving feedback that isn't very helpful. I worry about how to phrase feedback for students who are obviously not putting in the effort required without making it sound judgmental.

Therefore the idea of using rubrics seems like a great solution to these concerns of mine. I will grade more consistently and students will understand what the expectations are. The thought of creating rubrics for my assignments are a bit daunting. Do I need to make separate ones for similar assignments or can I just use the same one for the weekly assignments that are similar and than another one for the large project at the end of the course? Something to think about.

Now I have all of these ideas that I'd like to implement in my upcoming course - but that starts in a month, and I fear I won't be able to get enough availability to make some major changes. Perhaps I can focus on improving one area each semester until I get the course where I want it to be.