eModeration for asynchronous & blended learning (Part 3): Assessment

Introduction

This is a series of three posts on eModeration aimed at educators who wish to create discussion forums to maximise communication in their asynchronous or blended classes. With COVID-19 forcing schools and universities to move their classrooms online, forum discussions can extend engagement and learning beyond the live class. Edmodo, Moodle, Google Classroom, Blackboard, Schoology and even Facebook closed groups are just a few examples of platforms that can host our online learning communities and asynchronous discussions. 

The number one essential ingredient for creating and maintaining engagement and successful interactions is eModeration and this three-part article will look at how we can use it to our advantage.

Part 1 introduced you to the concept of eModeration, and suggested ways to establish quality forums.

Part 2 discussed how we can develop and sustain meaningful interactions by guiding the forum discussions and asking the right questions. 

Part 3 discusses assessment. Should students’ forum contributions be graded and what implications may this have on their participation in forums?

Part 3 – Assessment 

Some educators believe that students are more likely to engage in forum discussions if they know they will be assessed; others think that this ruins spontaneity and adds an extra layer of stress to the students. As always, the correct answer is not simple as it depends on the expected learning outcomes and the students themselves. In the next section we will discuss both sides of the argument and consider some pedagogical applications.

Against grading

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Grading online discussions may force students’ participation, meaning that students’ contributions will increase but may not be meaningful. Students may only do what is necessary to get a grade without engaging in active exchanges. Also, a rubric or pre-set criteria may interfere with the very nature of the discussion, allowing little room for risk-taking, spontaneity and creativity.

Moreover, students who know that their contributions will be graded, may direct their posts primarily at the instructor, rather than interact with other students. This can lead to a teacher-centred forum which will contradict all the principles it was initially set up to follow e.g. students’ engagement, collaborative learning, feeling of belonging and so on. 

Then we have differentiation; acknowledging that students learn in different ways means that we also need to accept that some students will be happier taking an active part while others would prefer lurking, which means that they will be reading comments without actively posting their own. Lurking online has been recognised as an alternative form of participation (Sutton, 2001) and may work well for certain types of students e.g. introverted.

On a very pragmatic level, teachers need to consider the time that grading students’ contributions may take up. If you have 15 students (and I am very well aware that language teachers may well have more than this) then assessing each student’s contribution can be extremely time-consuming. Much more so if this will be on top of your regular marking which usually takes place outside of school hours. 

For grading 

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If you teach students who are highly interested in grades and they won’t be engaged in anything that does not, in one way or another, lead to grades, then some form of assessment may be necessary. 

It also depends on the main goals of the course. For language students, a forum should be part of their language practice so it makes sense to grade it. Make it clear to them, however, that it is not their writing you are assessing but their participation and interaction with their peers. Bear in mind that introverted students may prefer interacting in a forum rather than in a face-to-face discussion as it is less direct and gives them time to reflect on their replies. 

If the main goals of the course are to teach students online participation, netiquette and interaction, then again there may be a good reason for grading participation. Always remember your goal though and grade accordingly. If the goal is interaction, then you may need to focus on quality comments i.e. comments that show some kind of critical thinking and engagement with what another person has said.  

I would finally argue that grading may be essential for asynchronous ONLINE courses as forums do not just complement the course but are main channels of interaction and communication for students. 

Tips for grading online participation

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• It should be clear to students what they are graded for. If the goal is vague to them they may be posting long responses in order to get a higher mark; or they may be directing the discussion at you without engaging with their peers; or they may be avoiding taking linguistic risks for fear of making accuracy mistakes. 
• Give them achievable tasks; if your goal is to get them to agree/ disagree politely make sure they have the language to do so; if you want them to reflect on the face-to-face class be sure to ask simple and concise questions. 
• A forum should vary in grading weight from class to class but it should make up no more than 20% of the student’s final grade. You want the forum grade to be a means to an end, not an end in itself.
• Make it easy for you to grade. There are platforms e.g. Canvas, Blackboard that show the tutor a percentage of students participation. You can use this along with your judgment when reading through your students’ comments. The idea here is that a student with a low percentage will probably get a low grade anyway. So you will only need to read through students’ contributions who were ranked high by the tool. 
• Raise awareness of the forum’s importance so that they realise that it’s not yet another chore. Even better, ask them to come up with tasks, questions and guidelines themselves so that they develop ownership over it. 

Conclusion

Online discussions can be as rewarding and meaningful as face-to-face ones and have great potential for language practice.   However, merely creating forums and online communities does not necessarily lead to students’ participation and learning. As in all forms of teaching, setting up and sustaining online meaningful discussions requires pedagogical decisions, skill, planning, and time. Institutions should not expect teachers to work over and above their contracted hours to maintain quality forums and thus additional support should be factored in. 

References

Sutton, L.A. (2001). The Principle of Vicarious Interaction in Computer-Mediated Communications. International Journal of Educational Telecommunications, 7(3), 223-242. Retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/9534/.

A version of this article first appeared in the IATEFL Learning Technologies Newsletter LT and has been adapted and published here with the permission of the LTSIG editor Graham Stanley.

Adapted from Mavridi, S. (2019). All in eModeration, Part 3. LT (3). IATEFL LTSIG Newsletter.