lunes, 16 de abril de 2012

Last assignment/post


This was the most difficult exercise of all. Since the use of these methodologies is so intuitive for me as I explained in the beginning of the course, this rationalized and organized, compartmented assessment structure has not been necessary. So far, I have evaluated them instinctively: "you know when a concept map is good when you see one." For reporting is convenient, but it takes a disciplined approach that I probably lack. The creative content is impoverished by strict guidelines, or at least it has been my opinion so far. In any event, the activity was extremely informative, and also formative. I will impose to myself the organization of these grading criteria if at least to explain to the students the most elementary expectations that I would consider for a topic to be well covered (reviewed, outlined, reported) using these tools. It should at least help them.

I specially enjoyed the exchange, reading what others had to comment and say, although I regret that I could not attend the contact session, also that we did not engage more actively in discussions. I recommend, for other e-courses to arrange for electronic meetings. Not only it would create a sense of connection among participants, but it could also teach us how to do the same with our own. This is what I would like to learn next.
Since I had to anyway invest time and energy on this short course I am incorporating its message to the development of my lectures: Legal Environment of Business, and the response has been surprisingly positive. Grades are not calculated yet, but the engagement of the students has improved to an extent I can barely believe myself. The use of exciting, different and interesting methods invites them to try completing their assignments. By doing that I can be sure they at least have gone through the class materials. Only that is a plus. What will happen when they all handle these new methods well? How can I make legal topics interesting for non-lawyers? This will be again my biggest problem.
I very much enjoyed the course, and hope to be able to continue much further in the learning of technologies applied to education. I am even considering applying for the master program at Tallinn University...