CEP 930 Educational Inquiry

Grade A
Credits 6

Final Grade Feedback

Formative Assessment Promotional Film

This Digital Storytelling project to make my research interests compelling to others was a rewarding assignment for me and I am pleased with my final product. I chose to create a video in which I discuss formative assessment. Much of the content comes from the article "Inside the Black Box" by Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam. Through the visualization of the concepts of formative assessment and the results that can be obtained through its use, I believe that I have effectively communicated the heart of my research interest. I anticipate that this video will capture the attention of and motivate others.

On a technical note, the audio was recorded in Audacity and the movie was created in Flash. They were combined and published as an AVI file. Finally, I converted it to an FLV file and embedded it into flowplayer.

Digital Storytelling Feedback

Motivation in an Online Class Student Interview

For this project, I interviewed 10 undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds. Because the assignment called for a time restriction, I could not use the audio from each student in the final product and the hardest part was deciding who would make the cut. With the all the student interviews, I was surprised to hear so many common threads. The only question that drew a completely different response for all the students was, "what motivates you?" Given the large variation in the participant’s ages and backgrounds, this was to be expected.

When I asked what kind of Web sites they like to visit, there was a strong preference for social networking sites. Many questions were asked of each student, but the most significant was, "what motivates you to do well in an online class?" Given the preference for social networking sites I was not surprised to hear that students liked interaction with other students and wished there could be more opportunities to do just that. However, I was surprised to hear how many students attributed the navigation of an online course to their success and motivation. Many relayed stories of the difficulties that they had in not being able to find their assignments and not being able to find other vital information necessary for their success in the course.

Audio Interview Feedback