The Graduate School

Certificate of Accomplishment in Teaching Program

Reflection Worksheet for Workshop Developers and Guest Speakers

Part I: Describe

Title of the workshop/seminar/event/session?The workshop we developed was entitled “How to Give Student Feedback Using Audacity.”

Give a brief purpose statement for this event (1-2 sentences)?There were two main purposes for this workshop, including (1) to discuss the concept and process of audio feedback as a grading and evaluation method, and (2) to introduce students to Audacity and design workshop content that would help them experiment with and discuss the tool.

Lead presenter(s)?Dr. Honeycutt and I developed this workshop together and we were both involved as administrators within the Moodle workshop space.

Date(s) of the event?This workshop was a week long and extended from Monday, February 14th to Friday, February 18th.

Location(s) of the event?This workshop was delivered in/conducted through Moodle.

Approximately how many people attended the workshop?29 students signed up for this workshop.

What happened at this event? Students in the workshop were asked to view an introductory video explaining what audio feedback is in reference to grading and evaluation. The video was meant to answer the basic “What is” question. Then, directly following the video and as the first workshop task, participants discussed the concept of audio feedback in a forum. The next assignment asked students to complete some work on their own. Using instructions provided through the website, students worked directly with Audacity by following download steps and watching video screencast tutorials. After working with Audacity directly, students read a case study detailing a conversation between two graduate students about the audio feedback process. Finally, students completed the last assignment—another discussion forum—that asked them to reflect on Audacity, audio feedback, and their thoughts about this grading and evaluation method. If

students choose to view additional resources, those were featured at the end of the Moodle homepage as a “last step.”

How was the workshop organized? The workshop was organized using a topic-based Moodle structure. The introduction to the website, featured on the top of the site, welcomed students and had an optional link to a description of my Audacaity/audio feedback experience. A quick schedule followed, asking students to pay special attention to due dates. Next, we divided task descriptions by the due date of the assignments. At the end of the website were optional resources, which I added to in order to address participant questions or discussion topics.

How did you open/introduce the workshop? We added a couple resources to the top of the page that were introduction specific, like a listing of tasks and due dates, a link to more information about my experiences, and contact information for those who felt they were having trouble with the website. I think it was especially important that we add this background information about my experiences, which Dr. Honeycutt suggested, because I think it gave participants a better idea of why I was leading this particular workshop and the kinds of experiences I was bringing to the table.

Part II: Analyze

I prepared for this workshop by…I prepared for this workshop by meeting with Dr. Honeycutt multiple times, first establishing the description and learning outcomes, and by considering the audio feedback audience. To prepare for creating the actual workshop materials and Moodle space, I talked with other TA acquaintances about the types of assignments they graded, collecting basic grading/evaluation resources from Dr. Honeycutt, and used current online workshops as an example space.

Before the workshop started, I was most concerned about…Before the workshop started, I was most concerned about providing participants with accurate and useful information. I was anxious to read their forum posts and make sure I could provide resources and advice that really suited their questions and concerns. I was also nervous that my experience with grading and evaluation might be limited by my teaching experience—I have experience with teaching, but only in one department. As such, I wanted to make sure that I addressed a myriad of concerns from different majors with a perspective beyond of my particular program experience. Luckily, Dr. Honeycutt worked with me to provide some opening resources and to provide resources as the workshop continued.

I felt that participants received the activities…I felt that participants received the activities well. I did not receive information about issues playing the videos, viewing the instructions, downloading the case study files or participating in the forums. Also, during the forum discussions, students commented on how the resources and activities helped them gain a better understanding of Audacity and audio feedback. Additionally, many students commented in the second forum that their initial fear of Audacity and a new software program was relieved when they followed the easy download instructions and viewed the video tutorials.

I felt that participation was…

I felt that participation was great throughout this workshop. The participants completed their forum entries with thoughtful discussion ideas and questions. When they commented on their fellow participants’ forum posts, they were responsive to different concepts and willing to add creative solutions if participants discussed possible drawbacks to Audacity or audio feedback. I think that the forums helped to connect participants to other types of degrees and majors. The diversity in the workshop helped students consider many different uses for audio feedback that they may not have considered originally. Finally, a majority of the participants finished the workshop requirements in a timely manner.

If I did this workshop again, I would…If I did this workshop again, I would add more content to the case study in order to better address time concerns with audio feedback. The discussion following the case study focused on participant concerns with using audio feedback in larger classes. Adding content about this issue to the case study might help participants feel more comfortable with the idea of using audio feedback, as many participants expressed concern with the time commitment due to large class sizes. In this workshop, I addressed this issue by discussing the concerns in my summary posts and posting additional resources in the Resources sections. However, these actions were reactive instead of proactive. Instead, if I did this workshop again, I could address additional ideas for adapting audio feedback to large classes within the case study to preemptively facilitate discussion about these issues. I think I could address those concerns through the case study rather than adding an additional resource to the workshop.

I can use this workshop design experience in my own teaching because…I can use this workshop design experience in my own teaching, because in this experience I learned more about distance education and online workshop environments. While I was experienced with Audacity, audio feedback, and other COAT program workshops, I had not used Moodle in an online-only based course. I am familiar with Moodle because I use the website as a TA in the Professional Writing Program; however, my classes are traditional classes. As such, I’m able to talk with students when they are having trouble, explain things that are confusing to them, and stress the meaning of important assignments or lectures. In this online forum, I was not able to communicate with students in the same way. As such, I worked hard to develop the online workshop in a way that was directive and intuitive. I wanted participants to know what was expected of them and what they had to do next.

I think students walked away with an understanding of…I think students walked away with an understanding of audio feedback, the process required of integrating audio feedback into assignments, the pros and cons of audio feedback, and the Audacity software. I also think that students began to consider other ways they could use this software, like posting lecture content, providing content summaries, or explaining complicated assignments.

Developing a workshop is different than teaching a course because… Developing a workshop is different than teaching a course because the time span is so much shorter. As such, instead of focusing on connecting a series of lessons or ideas you are more concerned with addressing specific goals and ensuring that participants get those “take away” ideas that you establish when developing learning outcomes. One of the best things about developing this workshop was outlining the objectives and goals in the beginning. As I worked to develop assignments, I continued to refer back to those. It was also different in that there was less time to get to know participants or learn about their goals and background. That being said,

knowing a little bit about teaching experience, goals, etc., was important to this workshop because that information impacted how the participants would need to consider this method. The types of classes the participants worked with really impacted their abilities within this type of feedback. In order to facilitate that information, we integrated the welcome forum with the first forum, so that students were adding background content to their first forum post. This background information definitely helped make the content more focused on the participants’ specific information.