For my second artifact, I chose the group assignment from MDDE 617, Program Evaluation. This assignment was completed with a partner and involved doing a critical review of a fictitious evaluation report regarding a new online educational program. The program evaluation was provided by our instructor as a case study and was based on John Owen’s evaluation structure, which involves five categories, or Forms. The critical review was in the form of a paper that evaluated the case study based on which of Owen’s Forms it had used, descriptive elements of its developmental stage, and analysis of how well the Form was applied, and whether that application was sound given the program context. I chose this assignment for my portfolio because it was one of the areas in the program where my group work and communication skills were challenged and required some self-reflection and growth. My partner did not have a good grasp of the assignment and we didn't realize that until it was time to put our work together. In the end, the communication breakdown caused a lot more work for both of us. This issue could have been avoided by a more thorough collaboration process. It also made me consider the importance of clarity when creating instructional materials in my own practice.
Comments
Meghan Hann
16 October 2023, 3:39 PM
Kim-
This is a great piece and I can hear you telling the story. It is about 650 words in the main body of writing and might need to be expanded upon.
Suggestions:
“the power dynamic from a teacher-student relationship is absent”.- talk more about this!
“Ninth hour” or do you mean 11th?
emergency meeting using Teams,- for you and the partner or with the professor?
“We both apologized and made a plan to move forward. I added details and removed redundancies. He edited and edited again.”- short- staccato sentences. Could be combined for flow or is this with intention?
Explain more on this: “ connect with them directly (although still at a distance)”
In Moving Forward: Repetitive-” a good group”
Great quote- possibly move it higher- it isn’t very visible and it has a core message.
Love the forest background and concise competency lists.
K Hansen
18 October 2023, 10:46 AM
Thanks Meghan... Yes definitely 11th hour, 9th hour is something much different! Ha, thanks for the catch and will work on the rest of your suggestions!
Tamara O'Brien
18 October 2023, 1:48 PM
Kim,
I like the theme that you chose for this narrative in your learning journey. It resonated with me as I read through it. I like that you included the outline as one of your visuals/excerpts. This was informative. Overall the page is aesthetically pleasing. I like the font choice and the visuals!
I can see that you’ve added substantially more than a few days ago, you’re sitting at around 1150 words. That’s a big chunk to add! Three of the main body paragraphs do not have sub-competencies in them. Are there any that you could add here? I think that 4.4-4.9 are applicable throughout this entire section. 4.9 isn’t used yet, and some of your points could relate to what you note for your other #4 competency points.
You don’t use sub-competency 6.1 yet in this however it sounds applicable to the type of assignment you completed. There may be more that could be linked to the assignment, but I know that you have focused on the collaboration process which is both significant and interesting.
Is the “moving forward” paragraph your conclusion? If so, you’ll need to take out the sub-competencies here or move them higher. This is a piece of feedback that Bonnie gave me on my previous artefact as well.
Note on grammar/word choice:
“…and the evaluation was based on John Owen’s evaluation structure, which involves five categories, or Form’s.” – is there supposed to be an apostrophe in the last word?
I enjoyed reading this. You are a good writer and communicate clearly to your audience. I understood your thoughts that you communicated throughout your reflection. Very nice!
Tamara
BonnieM
20 October 2023, 4:20 AM
Hello Kimberly,
Artifact two is coming along nicely, here are some recommendations for improvement.
Considering changing your font size and 18 font size makes your work a bit difficult to read because you have to scroll down the page so much. It also makes any images out of proportion to the rest of the page.
Your introduction is well done.
In paragraph one you will need to add in more context (since your word count is less then 1200 words you have room to add in more details. For example what type of paper were you working on literature review, or research paper? How did you choose your partner?
This person was a school administrator, so I immediately assumed … why did you make this assumption? Did this become a problem? If so why? Once you explain this you can use competencies 1.1 and 1.2 and define your problem.
This would be a whole paragraph in itself.
Then move on to the technology you used. Why did you use google docs? Why did you choose this technology? What were the advantages? Did you consider any sharing technology? What were the advantages or disadvantages of this software? Did you have a conversation about this software? How did it go? What did you learn from collaborating in this way online?
Artifact two is well organized but needs some context examples and details to provide the whole story behind every learning experience. This in turn will provide more sub-competencies. Note the question I provided for paragraph one and apply this process to the rest of the artifact and it will be more detailed and close to completion.
Good job
Bonnie
K Hansen
23 October 2023, 9:21 AM
Thanks everyone for the great feedback, I have added according to your suggestions, I also created a new skin with a similar theme but more regular font sizing. Hopefully this makes it more accessible.
Tamara O'Brien
23 October 2023, 11:11 AM
This is a very attractive page! You did a great job with the theme, color, and font!
I'm looking at the feedback Bonnie gave you and I think that you could even add more context to the last paragraph of your learning process. The sub-competencies that you note look relevant when I checked them on the list but if you could probably add more specific information about how you demonstrated them in this specific experience. That paragraph in particular reads more like a reflection on your learning path, which is great if it's a conclusion but to add some meat to it you could add a few more points...
-"...to create steps to move forward and still create an effective and relevant paper" - what is an effective and relevant paper in this context? What was irrelevant about your writing?
-"Ultimately, I know that I have strong writing skills, and am able to create purposeful and coherent documents" - Seeing your writing, I'm sure this is true! However, because you list two sub-competencies here you will need to say specifically what you did to show this.
-"Ensuring all team members are on the same page, and equipped to handle their duties within a project, and regularly checking in throughout the process is vital to success (4.6, 4.7)." - again, two sub-competencies are listed but the statement is generalized. You do have the option to move the sub-competencies to an earlier place in the artefact reflection where you describe this in more detail.
This page has changed so much and looks even better every time - I love that you're so responsive to feedback.
Tamara
Meghan Hann
25 October 2023, 4:02 PM
Kim-
I like the changes and layout. I can hear the story In your voice and the growing pains are well described. Good work adding some details to your teacher / student dynamic and the feedback hesitation section.
It is coming along very well. :) M
BonnieM
27 October 2023, 4:11 AM
Hello Kimberly,
Artifact 2 is almost complete. After you include Tamara's and Meghan's feedback. Here are a few minor tweaks.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that my partner had missed the critique portion of the paper and was focusing more on just describing and explaining what the evaluation covered. So, how did you manage this situation? did you remind your partner? Was there conflict? What did you learn from the situation?
Paragraph 4 also needs sub-competencies.
Great job
Bonnie
K Hansen
27 October 2023, 1:11 PM
Thank you all for the feedback. I think (hope) we are there!
I added your notes Tamara, including a few more specifics about the general sentences. I added some more competencies to paragraph 4.
The other questions that were asked, I think were implied by my writing. Paragraph 5 explains I managed the situation by meeting with my partner and discussing the issues, then making a plan to complete the assignment. What I learned from the situation is in paragraph 6-8 and the Moving Forward section.
Thanks again!
BonnieM
02 November 2023, 4:55 PM
Hello basically artifact 2 is complete but there is some editing issues for example:
We chose Google Docs because we both had experience and wouldn’t have to spend time learning a new program, and being free to use makes it appealing to student work (3.5).
Please edit the artifact again and then artifact two is complete.
Bonnie