E. Mitchell's Communicate 4.1.2 – Rubrics Quest

I had the chance to redevelop the AP Psychology course at GaVS about 6 years ago.  During this time, I created numerous rubrics that catered specifically to each assignment created throughout the units.  When the Brightspace rubrics tool was published I was excited because now I could take all of my Word format rubrics and enable an easier process of grading by creating them within the course system.  The system within the course itself easily allows me to copy and paste from my previously made rubrics into the system to use for all students.  Here is a screenshot of a unique rubric:

E. Mitchells' Communicate 4.1.1 – Evaluation Methods and Communication Practices Quest

• How do communication practices in the online environment correlate to effective feedback?
• Communication practices establish an environment of comfort that an online instructor and have with their students.  By not getting to know their students better, one may be hesitant to be critical of their work.  By establishing an environment of open communication, an instructor should feel comfortable providing the necessary feedback to students in a manner that fits that student best.  Maybe some need to hear it in a voice recording while others could easily read feedback and not have the details misconstrued. 
• Why is authentic feedback important for online learners?
• This is important for progress purposes.  In the class I teach, I am ultimately looking ahead to the national exam.  My goal is to make sure students are abundantly prepared and don't feel lost or confused going into the exam.  That means checking their comprehension of topics along the way is important.  In all honesty, I grade nightly, even on the weekends.  This instant gratification for my students I feel is necessary especially when preparing themselves for unit assessments.  Additionally, I think authentic feedback makes the online classroom more real to them...like a traditional class.  Things I may comment to my face-to-face students I should also comment to my online students.  I want them to know I do truly care about their success and authentic feedback gives me a way to provide that to them.
• In what ways might an instructor enrich a student’s online experience through feedback?
• With authentic feedback, one of the things I like to do is provide links to additional resources for further information about the topics we are studying.  Additionally I suggest books to read that match our unit content.  I also provide encouragement for trying new websites to produce work, like Weebly or Voki.  I want to encourage them to move out of their routine and feel it is important to acknowledge more than just the work they produced--give them a purpose which students ask so many times "When am I ever going to have to know this in real life"---easy to find answers in psychology =)

E. Mitchell's Communicate 3.2.2 – Differentiation Quest

Create an example of differentiated communication practices to post for students or parents and share on your blog. Reflect thoughtfully on the concepts presented in the Differentiation section of the Communicate skill and utilize three resources.



1.  This is not one that I created but found online.  I usually provide supplemental powerpoints to my students, but I know they feel like "death by PPT" is happening.  So I found the same material I present just provided in a different format, such as Prezi.  I do not prefer Prezi's because I think they are dizzying but they do allow the integration of cool graphics so I could post THIS in addition to the PPT notes I provide.  

2.  Here is a Wordle showing the various important names students have to be familiar for AP Psychology.  In the past students have mentioned the importance of specific names.  This Wordle would be great a review reminder for studying the names.  



3.  I've made Voki's many times before and for a class assignment, my students have to make one.  Here is a sample one that I could put in the news announcements.  I like Voki because it makes the news announcements a little more personal.

E. Mitchell's Communicate 3.2.1 – The Newsletter Quest

Identify three highly effective methods of communicating with stakeholders and create an artifact for each utilizing the resources outlined throughout the module and discuss the topic in your blog.

1.  Here is a LINK to a previous newsletter I created for this semester.  It was the first edition for Spring 2015.  I like using Smore because though I am listing out the information as would be in a Word document, I can enhance with images, background and color options, as well as the various formatting options.  

2.  Here is a LINK to my Thinglink example.  This is a new tool for me and one that would be great to accompany notes.  If I wanted students to further read about a section, such as Psych Disorders since much of that information has recently changed, this is a good way to communicate a link to updated information.  

3.  Here is a LINK to my FlipSnack.  This is first time using FlipSnack so I just uploaded some AP Exam review documents.  It seems pretty cool to use and can centralize some study documents so communication is more efficient.  

E. Mitchell's Communicate 3.1.2 – News Quest

As an online instructor, how do you plan to incorporate news items and announcements? What resources would you reference to format news items?

I post at least two news announcements a week.  They range from reminders about assignments and meetings to review videos and demonstrations.  I like using YouTube to embed videos.  I feel if the video is in the actual announcement students are more apt to view it rather than click on a link.  Additionally, I use the animated art from Animation Factory in order to capture their attention.

E. Mitchell's Communicate 3.1.1 – Homepages Quest

This is what my current classroom bulletin board looks like.  In the past I have used it to post remediation opportunities but the National Exam information is most important at this time.

E. Mitchell's Communicate 2.1.3 – Ongoing Communication Quest

Integrating the ideas presented in Communicate: Stakeholders quests, create a blog post in which you discuss reasons why effective communication remains an essential part of online instruction. In the blog post, create an example of an ongoing communication that could be sent to all stakeholders. Ensure the product is creative, informative, and adheres to FERPA guidelines.


Effective communication is essential because that is the main way I connect to the students as their educator and mentor.  The delivery of online courses is asynchronous (mainly), so there are few guaranteed times students have direct access to me live in their course.  Though some assignments (like quizzes) are autograded by the computer, everything else is assessed by me....my standards and my expectations.  This means that students have to know I am a person not a computer instructing them in the course.  By first establishing a connection with students and parents by call and email, they know I exist but they need to know I exist throughout the entire course.  This means communicating with them at least once every week to create a constant reminder of my presence even when not there while students are working.  Additionally, this means hearing from the instructor beyond issues like grade average and academic honesty.  When I send my course newsletter I do include facilitators because I often include news about due dates and GaVS policies for which they may be unaware of.  

Here is a sample of a newsletter I have sent out.