Assessing+Forums

The article makes some very good points to consider when assessing (or why you should assess) online discussion: 1. If you aren't grading it, they aren't doing it. 2. It's not quantity, it's quality. 3. The key is creating a high quality rubric which: a. is quick and easy b. doesn't stifle creativity c. provides consistency in your course

In our discussion, we also thought of some other ideas for a successful assessment: 1. Clear expectations and guidelines from day one 2. Real world criteria (no one in the real world would speak three times in a conversation) 3. Some type of commonality/school-wide rubrics

Here are six sample rubrics we thought were interesting: []

A quick and easy rubric: http://sites.lafayette.edu/alleyj/files/2009/09/forumrubric.pdf

Here is an example of an asynchronous rubric

Here is an example of a discussion forum rubric that does not take real world criteria into account. http://www.pbs.org/teacherline/courses/common_documents/disc_assess.htm