Performance Tasks and Portfolios

This page describes an implementation of an assessment method by a lecturer or group of lecturers. The content of the page is the result of an interview conducted through the RAFT project in DIT in the 2013-14 Academic Year. 

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Lecturer and Contact Details

Deirdre Lawless

Programme and year on which assessment was offered

MSc Computing

Description

Getting Students to Use Twitter To Explore and Report on Research Resources. 

Level of Learning Outcomes

Level 9

  • Knowledge of and ability to use research resources
  • Ability to identify thought leaders in the area
  • Participation in finding useful knowledge and sharing
  • Ability to identify and report findings in a concise manner

What have you found are the advantages of using this form of assessment? 

  • Lowers barrier for engagement in searching body of knowledge;
  • Encouraging students to start writing in a familiar form;
  • Building connections with classmates.

What have you found are the dis-advantages of using this form of assessment?

  • Some students have little experience or are wary of using Twitter for other than personal purposes
  • Conversations between students can create clutter, making it difficult for others to get clear understanding
  • Requires monitoring to track trends

Alternatives

  • Get students individually note progress in a Journal which is public
  • Get students to participate in constructing generalised Wiki pages 
  • Get students to create concept maps of research area including resources and names of researchers

Assessment in practice

  • Suitable primarily for smaller groups as monitoring is required
  • Recommend setting up a grouptweet account rather than getting students to follow each other – minimizes setup for student
  • Recommend using seed tweets to stimulate discussion and report on progress to the group

Assessment Time

  • Preparation time - 2 to 3 hours 
  • Student time to complete – can be done in 5 mins per day. Time schedule recommended would be at least 3 weeks to allow students to get familiar with sources and start refining searches and so findings.
  • Marking time - for a group of 60 students, marking took 1 day
  • Ease of Feedback – a rubric was used and students were mapped against this.

Writing guidelines for staff

  • Frame using a guiding activity e.g. a Webquest where resources to use are identified. Outline a goal for this activity.
  • Strategically use seed tweets planned in advance. Tune these to the cohort interest areas.

Guidelines/Handouts for students

Guidelines were created to cover:

  • Create a Twitter Account and Get Familiar with Twitter.
  • Get Authorisation to Contribute to and Follow the GroupTweet Account.
  • Introduce Yourself to the Class via the GroupTweet Account.
  • Search the given set of resources to identify topics of interest.
  • Tweet your findings with the class.
  • Tweet in Response to Seed Tweets from Lecturer
  • Submit a Report on Your Findings and Experience.

Introduction to Twitter: YouTube video from CommonCraft , Getting Started Guide from Twitter, Twitter's own rules. A Twitter etiquette.

List of research resources to get started with.

Seed Tweets

Templates /Marking Grids/ Rubrics

Rubric used is available at http://www.comp.dit.ie/dlawless/RWSL/webquest/evaluation.html

Resources links

All details of the assignment as delivered are available at http://www.comp.dit.ie/dlawless/RWSL/webquest/index.html

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