Course Competencies Assignment

I know you have seen the announcement about the Course Competency Extra Credit Assignment in the announcement in Canvas. I won’t take time here to go over that, but encourage you to make sure you read the announcement.

I do want to let you know that we did a pilot of this assignment in Spring term 1 in a medium-sized MSL course. Of the 29 students enrolled in the course, only 7 of those chose to participate in this optional assignment.

Here are the comments from the Instructor:

From your perspective did you feel the students who did the extra credit assignment were more engaged, about the same, or less engaged than the other students?

…the students that participated in this study were more engaged than the other students.  The students that participated would post discussion ahead of the due date or turn in assignments early.  I believe they were overachievers. The participants always wanted to make sure they were on time with their assignments.  Posting first and turning in assignments early.

Did the students who completed the assignment do better, about the same or worse overall than those who did not do the assignment:

all of the students that participated in the pilot study currently have an “A” in the class.

As the Instructor did you feel watching the videos submitted by the students gave you a better connection with them or had no effect?

Yes, I believe it allowed me to have a connection with those students. Why?  Because I knew they were going to have a great post or go the extra mile on their papers.  I enjoyed reading those particular papers.

From my perspective, this is a win/win and I’m proud that we are including this going forward. I hope you find the same results:

1. 1. that the students are more engaged
   2. that their overall performance is better
   3. and that you have a better connection with them.

Thus, encouraging your students to participate in the assignment, which opens to them one week before the start of the course benefits both you and them. I hope you will promote this with your students and that you see similar results.

Blessings,

Rick