the end of Section 6

At this stage of the course I am very tired again but also quite satisfied. I have a feeling of achievement and advancement, but I also feel overwhelmed by the vastness of resources I still have to explore. At the end of the course we all have concentrated more on our own projects, but there is still a sense of the group work felt on the forum and we still support each other even out of the ATM402. I believe we all are on the top of the 5-stage model of e-moderating (http://www.atimod.com/e-moderating/5stage.shtml): development, where we are able to seek support and resources from the outside, where our independent learning has increased. The UELPlus template for the course does not leave any mysteries any more to myself, however, I am not very familiar with other functions of the software. I find it less foreign though and I am more apt to adapting its functions than before. It seems that I can learn other parts of it in the same way as I had learnt how to operate with ATM402. Despite one objective of Section 6, it is a huge activity. To design evaluation, think it over, read on related problems and finally redraft the evaluation plan was a great effort. In my case, all the study on Section 6 has brought a dramatic shift from the initial draft of my evaluation plan to a very different, pre-design idea of how to evaluate the use of blog. Through studying the supplied materials, I have learnt that to evaluate means to choose less than more. I realised that only through very clear objectives grounded on a small area, evaluation becomes coherent and feasible. I still have some gaps in the questionnaires, but I hope to fill them in co-operation with my own teaching team and the e-learning specialists from the School of Distance and E-Learning, of course, if the evaluation has any chance to be put into practice. Especially, reading Evaluation Cookbook edited by Jen Harvey enabled me to see how the tiniest problems of e-teaching and learning have to be pre-tested before being implemented (pp.44-48 and 46-52). From there, and due to peer and tutor’s feedback, I decided to change my evaluation plan. In my own context I would like to apply evaluation of the blog technology on a pre-design level and use the results before I start teaching with the adaptation of blog for assessment. I also need to practice blogging on my own and I am going to ask two colleagues to join me (one from the course and one from the Learning Services).
Other skills to be developed: I need to study more methods of assessment and evaluation, especially quasi- experimentation as described in Advances in Quasi-Experimentation on http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/advquasi.php. I need to learn how to write an evaluation report: the Evaluation Cookbook provides some good examples, but I need to consult the format with Learning Development Services and the School of Distance and E-Learning.