Italian Studies Faculty – Collaborative Assessment for Italian

Posted on by admin in Analytics + assessment, Discipline, Language instruction, Method

Summary

Professors of Italian Language (Italian Studies) developed a shared assessment bank to gauge students’ comprehension, listening, and writing skills.  Using the Tests & Quizzes tool within NYU Classes, they created rich, multimedia quizzes that provide automatic grading and instant feedback for students.  

Learning objectives

  • Increase formative assessment opportunities for students by providing instant feedback
  • Support collaboration in the assessment-building process
  • Allow for custom assessment creation associated with a department-created textbook

Italian Studies assessmentItalian Studies created its own textbook and workbook to reflect the cultural, grammatical, lexical topics prioritized by the Department, and provide a lower cost option to students. Formative assessment, ongoing monitoring of student performance and learning, is essential for learning as it helps students and instructors identify learning gaps or areas of improvement.  Director by Professor Nicola Cipani, Italian Studies faculty used the NYU Classes Tests & Quizzes tool to create a shared multimedia test bank that could be used by the entire department for courses in New York and Florence.

Student experience

  • Access multimedia quizzes through NYU Classes
  • Receive instant feedback

Project workflow

  • Coordination of assessment creation, distributed across multiple professors

Technology resources

Outcomes

  • Online test bank that can re-used across professors and courses
  • Increased opportunities for students to assess their learning
  • Exploration of a low cost, online textbook (initial estimates could save 400 students in NYC and Florence between ~60 in textbook costs)

Naoko Sourial – Creating a Cross-Institutional Language Community

Posted on by admin in Discipline, Language instruction, Method, PBL + collaboration

Summary

Professor Naoko Sourial (East Asian Studies) designed a cross-institutional linked course project between University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) students (intermediate level) and NYU students (beginner level) of Japanese.  Students built a community of practice for shared learning by posting on a WordPress blog and engaging in collaborative projects.

Learning objectives

  • Beginner students: improve writing and typing skills
  • Intermediate students: learn to spot and correct grammatical and spelling errors
  • All students: engage in authentic written correspondence in the target language

Professor Naoko Sourial and her UPenn colleague designed prompts to leverage the diverse language levels and interests of the students.  Each week, NYU and UPenn students communicated through the shared blog, and supported each other’s learning. At the end of semester, Professor Sourial conducted a survey to assess effectiveness and student satisfaction with the project.  She incorporated theories on Communities of Practice, groups of people interested in the same topic that support each other in their learning.

Student experience

  • First week: post in English with option of posting in Japanese to create social bond between New York and UPenn Students
  • Next week: NYU Students post to blog as part of homework assignment. UPenn students work together in class to come up with correction/suggestions for NYU Students (which are then approved by the UPenn professor), and post to blog as part of homework
  • By the end of the semester: students recording and posting video comments as well as written comments

Technology resources

Outcomes

  • March 2016: presented at APVEA (Asia-Pacific Virtual Exchange Association) in Princeton with partner from UPenn and got suggestions for improving future iterations
  • 85% of students said the project was “very helpful” in improving typing skills (the remaining 15% ranked it as “somewhat helpful”; same distribution for improving grammar and vocab
    • “It pushed me to apply the Japanese we learned in context and construct original sentences and paragraphs.”
    • “I learned more about the other students because of their blog posts, but I didn’t really talk to many others very much.”
    • “I enjoyed having a mentor in my Japanese studies.”
    • Suggestions for improvement: more blog post assignments and more frequent communication with the UPenn students
microphone and laptop stock photo

Stefanie Goyette – Podcasting for Presentation

Posted on by ds4583@nyu.edu in Discipline, Humanities, Method, PBL + collaboration

Summary

Professor Stefanie Goyette (formerly of Global Liberal Studies) assigned a podcasting project in lieu of a final paper in her Cultural Foundations II course. She knew many of her students listened to podcasts, and wanted to provide a creative means for students to synthesize and demonstrate knowledge.

Learning objectives

  • Work on a team to perform and present research.
  • Properly frame a text for a non-specialist (general) audience.

Professor Goyette developed learning objectives and technical specifics with the FAS Office of Ed Tech. She created her Tumblr blog and offered an in-class session (20 minutes) to expose students to the basics of creating and editing audio.   Leveraging the medium of podcasting challenged students to distill scholarly arguments and gain transferable technical skills that apply to a wide range of experiences.

Student experience

  • Make and edit a basic podcast (20-25 minutes of high-quality audio in which each member of the group gets to speak about the same amount).
  • Demonstrate familiarity with text, original analysis, and research on topic.
  • Devise an interesting format or debate topic to liven up the podcast and provide a thematic core.
  • Divide up project tasks effectively with team.
  • The Tumblr post must include: the podcast audio; any necessary documents or images; Works Cited; outline of who was responsible for each part of project.

Technology resources

  • Audio recording and editing software (GarageBand and Audacity)
  • Freely available music and audio assets (see a list on our website)
  • Microphones and recording spaces (NYU LaGuardia Coop)
  • Web publishing (Tumblr)

Outcomes

“The students loved it and it was mostly very productive in terms of learning.” – Stephanie Goyette