CMS Assessment

CMS Background: For this assignment I have created a portfolio assessment in Connexus, the CMS that I use to support students for my work. All of the curriculum and assessments within Connexus are designed by a curriculum team and are added into the courses that I teach. Connexus is still new and is only in its third year of use, or company has slowing been transitioning us from our old platform to this platform, so at this time teachers have not actually been using the assessment features in Connexus to create our own assessments. I do have flexibility to drop or modify assessments as I see fit, however this is the first time that I have actually used the assessment features within Connexus and created my own assessment that is built into my student’s course.

Purpose of my Assessment: Teaching online has many advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that it can be difficult to connect with some students synchronously. Students are not required to answer the phone when we call or attend our weekly Live Lesson sessions, so I have designed this portfolio assignment as a way for me to connect with each of my students in order to assess their understanding and learn how I can best support them.

Teaching Context: I have designed this portfolio for Geometry students, however this is an assessment that I plan to use with students in each of the courses I teacher. However for my Geometry course I have assigned this portfolio in the first lesson for Unit 3. Unit 3 is about 25% of the way into the course, and if students have not contacted me by this point in the semester it is a great opportunity for me to meet with them. There is still a lot of course remaining at this point for students to change their habits and to get students on the right track if necessary, so this is a good time for us to have a progress check-in. Also, Unit 3 is on Reasoning and Proof, which is often a challenging concept for students, so this is a great chance for me to work with students and support them with this unit.

Check out the screencast below to view my assessment:

Connexus Assessment Screecast

Assessment Design Checklist: There are a lot of aspects of this portfolio that match my assessment design checklist. My first question asks “Does my assessment provide me with insight regarding student progress towards learning objectives?” During the LiveLesson that will be scheduled for this portfolio, students will solve problems on the whiteboard and we will practice problems together, so I will be able to watch how students work out a problem which will reveal a lot of their progress towards to learning goals and also help me to understand where my students are at with objectives.

My next question is “Does my assessment allow for exchanges between the teacher and student for learning opportunities?” During our meeting together there will be a ton of opportunities for exchanges and interacting. Students will be able to ask questions, and I will be able to give content specific feedback along with suggestions on strategies for improvement.

Another question from my checklist that I would like to address is “Does my assessment provide students the opportunity for self-assessment?” My hope in having students write a one page reflection after our meeting is that they will spend time reflecting on what is going well this semester and any changes that can be implemented in order to be more successful. I will discuss this reflection with students during our meeting and encourage students to spend time reflecting as they write their paper.

Affordances/Constraints: There are 3 main features in Connexus that are being used for this assessment: 

First is the WebMail feature that students will use to schedule an appointment with me. One constraint that I see with this tool is that there will be some back and forth between myself and the student to schedule an appointment, as it will take both myself and the student time to get back to each other between messages while squaring away a time that works for both of us to meet. There is not an instantaneous chat feature that can be used to schedule our appointment. However, one affordance of the portfolio assessment I created is that in the setting options I have it set so that students can continue working through their course while our meet is being scheduled by leaving the box showed below unchecked.

The next feature is the LiveLesson tool, which is a wonderful tool for assessing. When students click on the link to my LL room they will be taken to a virtual room with a whiteboard and chat pod that is great for interacting and working on math problems together. We both have the ability to use our microphones so we can talk and use web cams which makes the interaction more personal. Students can use their mouse and keyboard to draw on the whiteboard and solve problems which will allow me to watch them solve problems and assess their understanding and thought processes. There is also a screen share feature which allows me to share my screen with students and show them features in Connexus they may not be familiar such as additional resources for help or tracking their progress.

The third tool is the drop box feature that I used when creating my portfolio. This is a nice feature which allows students to upload different file types for their teachers to view. For this portfolio students will most likely use Microsoft Word (or a similar program) to type their reflection and upload to the drop box, which are accepted file types for the drop box feature.

Overall: Overall I think that Connexus and all the different features that are used for this portfolio will enhance students learning. When students see this assignment in their gradebook it will encourage them to contact me and meet with me since they will be receiving a grade for doing so. The design of the portfolio will motivate students to have a progress check-in with me which they otherwise may not have. Progress check-in’s are beneficial for students to receive help in their courses on the content they are learning and also to learn new strategies for success, and it is beneficial for me as well to get to know my students and how I can support them.