Sultan Qaboos UniversityCollege of Education

Instructional and Learning technologies DepartQuality control & assurance in instruction

TECH 4211

Evaluating Student Performance

Yousuf Al-khanbashi Dr.Alaa Sadik.

Nasser Al-Sulti. ILT Dept. – SQU Univ.

Hussein Al-Salmani

2008/2009

General Overview of the Study:

The study is an example of evaluating student performance. And it focuses on the course of Dissemination of educational innovation. The course is taught for ILT’s students in the sultan Qaboos University in order to increase the awareness of disseminating the educational innovation even in Oman society or others society. It emphasizes the four major areas of the adoption process: awareness, interest, observation, and adoption of educational innovation.

There is one topic suggested by the tutor in the course of dissemination of innovation to be discussed which is about the issue of problems/difficulties associated with the dissemination of an educational innovation. Even if an innovation is recognized, experience and research show that numerous difficulties arise in the dissemination and adoption of an educational innovation, particularly one that is technology based.

Problem statement to be discussed:

1- The subject matter is discussing online issue of problems/difficulties associated with the dissemination of an educational innovation. Even if an innovation is recognized, experience and research show that numerous difficulties arise in the dissemination and adoption of an educational innovation, particularly one that is technology based. 2- Discuss what some of these problems are and how they can be overcome.

Study Question:

1-To what extent is the effectiveness of utilization of the discussion form in this course?

2-What is the quality and quantity of each student to participate in the discussion form?

1. The average number of messages sent by students during studying dissemination of innovation course:

In dissemination of innovation course, one discussion topic was suggested by the tutor. Results from dissemination of innovation course records showed that students responded to the discussion boards while studying the course by sending a total number of 332 messages. Assuming that every student in dissemination of innovation course (32 students) should participate by sending at least one message to each discussion board, this number (138) represents only 99.9% of the predicted total number of messages (332) that should be sent to the discussion boards.

Number of students

Total number of messages assumed to be sent

Actual total number of messages sent by students

Percent

32 138 332 99.9%

2. The minimum and maximum number of messages per student

Number of messages per student

N Minimum Maximum32 1 4

3. The relationship between students’ level of participation and tutor’s participation in discussions

The number of messages sent by the tutor to discussion boards was 1 out of a total of 332 messages, which represents 0.003% of the total number of messages. And that is because the tutor just gave the topic and asks all students to response.

4. The total number of messages posted to the discussion boards

Student number

Number of messages Number of related topic

Number of response for other

1 16 1 152 7 1 63 24 1 234 16 2 145 2 1 16 19 1 187 7 2 58 14 1 139 22 3 1910 6 1 511 3 2 112 4 1 313 16 1 1514 7 2 515 20 2 1816 13 2 1117 5 1 418 9 1 819 8 1 720 6 1 521 9 1 822 3 1 223 9 2 724 5 1 425 11 1 1026 6 2 427 3 1 228 9 3 6

29 10 1 930 9 2 731 12 1 1132 20 2 18tutor 2 1 1total 332 47 285

According to the presented information in the table, it seam that most student add at least one new title and more than two responses. There are many new topic added by the student related to the issue of problems/difficulties associated with the dissemination of an educational innovation and each topic has many response and that what the tutor asked for. This way of presenting the information in one e-learning environment helps to exchange the ideas between the students.

5. Interaction:

Discussion in the model always increases the interactivity between the student and their teacher. Teacher should present the role that student should follow in the discussion form like what the teacher says down:

Rules of discussion:

1. Each student will have to post and describe AT LEAST one problem (by clicking on new discussion topic) you are aware of or foresee in the dissemination and adoption of an educational innovation. Talk about the reasons for the problem(s) to arise and why it is a barrier to diffusion and implementation of an educational innovation. You can see one example of a problem that I have put up for a sample. Each one of you similarly will have to come up with AT LEAST one problem.

2. Each student will also have to respond/reply AT LEAST ONCE to the ideas posted by another student in the forum. You can respond by saying whether you agree or disagree with the views expressed by the other students. You could also propose solutions to the problems posted by other students.

6. Time of access

Since discussion boards were provided every students portfolio which include their

information. It was possible to know at what time students accessed the discussion boards.

designed to show the sender’s name, date and time of sending, it was possible to know at

what time students accessed the discussion boards. Analysis of discussion logs showed that

around 65% of students who responded to discussions participated on the day of studying the

lesson concerned. However, the rest of the students (35%) responded after one or two days.

The majority (85%) of those students who responded on the same day accomplished this task

in the last 10 minutes of the learning session (Figure 9-2). About 50% of them responded in

the last 1-3 minutes. However, only 15% of students were able to manage their learning

session and time well enough to respond to the discussion boards before or during other tasks

(e.g., accessing external Web resources or doing self-tests).