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6 Ways Videoconferencing Is Expanding the Classroom
You Need a Comic in Your Online Class!
Lee Keller
Believe it or not, eLearning is expected to reach even the lower grades of K-12 in the next 10 years. The expectation to learn asynchronously online is already being implemented in upper grades, often as a graduation requirement to prepare students for post-secondary experiences. You can imagine your first grader coming home to log into his or her social studies experience or mathematics lesson. It is already happening to some extent with the “flipped” classroom concepts being implemented across America.
Teachers managing these online courses will want minimal responsibility in monitoring student progress, but at the same time must produce assignment results that indicate learning has taken place. Assignments that allow the students to express what they have learned creatively carry a lot of bonus points. Enter the comic strip.
This is just one of many formats I use with adults to allow them to express knowledge gained while giving them the opportunity to create something that can be used in their workplace. It is the most popular format selected to create a solution to an assignment. This concept actually works as a simple assessment at all levels and could be applied to most subject areas. Assignments usually require a minimum of eight frames that respond to one of several scenarios or questions posed by the instructor.
What happens? Your students apply what they have learned to a script they create and then apply a story. The student does not require artistic talent. We allow them to select a “free” site that does the artwork for them. For example, programs like Makebeliefscomix.com or Toondoo.com are a couple of sites that offer free or trial opportunities. There are many more sites. The student then selects backgrounds, actions, characters, and text-bubbles to create a comic strip that demonstrates their transfer of knowledge.
How does this help the instructor? First, these are easy to grade and recognize the students’ learning process. You want to create clear instructions that guide students towards your grading rubric. This also helps the grading process. Second, they are usually short. This helps grading go quickly while satisfying the need to evaluate learning. The third effect is that these are actually fun to grade. Imagine having to read comic strips to give grades. The time you spend grading assignments goes very quickly.
This past year in a Florida statewide project in professional development with educators we used this as one of the processes for assignments. Our program staff was amazed at the creativity and quality that was produced through these submissions. While this does not replace an in-depth evaluation process, it is an excellent way to provide an assignment that also produces an item that can be used again. Students also learn a new skill set that can be used beyond your class.
Assignments don’t have to be boring. They don’t have to require the student have extensive writing ability to show they learned the content well enough to transfer the knowledge into a useful format. This is a solution you should try.
Lee Keller now works for the School District of Palm Beach County in the Department of Professional Development where he contributes to the eLearning environments for staff development programs.
Flocabulary-An Online Library of Educational Music Videos to use in Class
(This article was published by "Educational Technology and Mobile Learning")
