COVID-19: Assessment for session 2021/22

To craft valid assessment is an art. An art means it is not depends on one’s personal whim and fancy but it must have the element of an assessment – to measure what it supposed to measure. Sound easy? But many of us are struggling to come out with a rubric as a guideline of assessment. So, the short-cut method is just to use whatever available rubric and change it a bit here and there to suit with the course that we are teaching. The real question is “Can we do that?”

Since we are using the new course information (CI) starting next semester (session 2021/22), I decided to revamp the rubrics of the courses that I teach next semester. It is not an easy process. I used the rubric handbook as a guideline and looked at the CLOs and PLOs that will be addressed in each course. One of the challenges is even though the PLOs might be the same for different courses, yet, the assignments could be different and thus, no one rubric is applicable for different assignments.

I thought it might take me a few days to create the rubrics. Well, days turn into weeks. But I am satisfied with the results. There is another one course which I have not “updated” the rubric. I am not the course coordinator. So, I have to wait for the course coordinator’s decision before I make any changes.

For the rest of the courses, I have uploaded the CI, instructions for assignments and rubrics on Padlet. Since Padlet is not cheap, I intend to use it extensively. I do not mind to be called as “The Padlet lecturer” as I know that using Padlet helps me to organise my materials for teaching as well as to monitor collaborative discussion among students. Of course, I can do it using ELearning features like chat and forum, but I just want to give my students different experience of using different platforms and tools available. In addition, Padlet can be used as a platform for formative assessment. (Psssttt…. I also can claim the activity that I give in Padlet as e-content material. Want to know more information about that?)

COVID-19: Strategi memperkasakan budaya positif dalam kelas

Bagi merancang dan melaksanakan strategi memperkasakan budaya positif dalam kelas, pastikan kita ada 2 panduan ini: membina hubungan guru-murid dan proses berterusan.

a) Membina hubungan guru-murid

– Dalam membina hubungan guru dan murid, kita boleh menetapkan perjanjian kelas (class contract) – tetapkan secara bersama-sama apa yang dikehendaki dalam kelas, gunakan bahasa positif dan berfokus, mudah/senang difahami, bersesuaian dengan keadaan, dan mewujudkan suasana yang selamat dan tidak mengancam.

– Perjanjian kelas bukan peraturan kelas kerana perjanjian kelas ditentukan oleh murid bersama guru, bukan guru. Perjanjian dibina dalam bentuk ayat positif, mengandungi tndakan yang mudah diikuti oleh murid, spesifik, sentiasa dipamerkan dan dilihat oleh murid dan diamalkan oleh guru juga. Guru menjadi suri teladan.

b) Proses berterusan dan bukan bersifat “one-off“

4 Strategi memperkasakan budaya positif

  1. Menentukan perjanjian kelas
  2. Menintegrasikan rutin

3. Melazimi “positive narration”

I will try this in my class, In sha Allah.

4. Memberikan penghargaan

– Kalau PDPC, ganjaran boleh diberikan dengan menggunakan buku ganjaran.

– Dalam konteks PDPR, boleh menggunakan PlusDojo. (I will explore more about PlusDojo).

COVID-19: Memperkasakan budaya positif dalam bilik darjah

Budaya positif dalam pembelajaran melibatkan usaha yang terancang. Ianya boleh dibentuk dan memakan masa. Kita perlu mempunyai usaha yang konsisten kerana budaya positif bukannya pilihan tetapi keperluan (penting seperti pentaksiran atau perancangan pengajaran dan pembelajaran). Kemerosotan dari segi minat, pencapaian dan sebagainya akan berlaku sekiranya kita tidak dapat mewujudkan budaya positif.

Pelajar perlu mempunyai keyakinan untuk mengambil risiko untuk salah. Pembelajaran tidak mungkin berlaku sekiranya pelajar tidak melakukan kesalahan atau kesilapan. Kegagalan patut diraikan, bukan dihukum.

Budaya positif dalam bilik darjah boleh diwujudkan dengan melibatkan deria yang pelbagai seperti deria penglihatan, pendengaran dan psikomotor.

4 aspek budaya positif dalam pembelajaran

  1. Komunikasi
  2. Memberi idea
  3. Mengambil risiko
  4. Berani/ selamat

3 Ps (atau TOP)

  1. Purpose (Tujuan)

Kita perlu menggambarkan (visualize) tujuan yang ingin kita tuju. Gambarkan dalam minda kita, pelajar kita seronok terlibat dalam aktiviti yang kita laksanakan. Dari situ, rangkakan aktiviti yang kita akan laksanakan untuk mewujudkan perasaan seronok dalam kalangan pelajar kita. Dari visualiasi, ianya akan diterjemahkan dalam tindakan yang kita lakukan. Akan tetapi, amatlah penting bagi kita memastikan emosi kita selaras dengan apa yang kita gambarkan dalam minda tentang budaya positif (contoh: gambarkan murid sedang berkomunikasi dengan rakan yang lain). Sebagai permulaan, boleh letak apa yang kita gambarkan dalam bentuk peta minda.

2. Processes (Proses)

  • Tentukan nilai bersama dengan murid/ibu bapa/rakan guru

Jangan “syok” sendiri. Tapi, sekiranya sukar untuk menentukan nilai bersama ibu bapa dan guru, kita boleh fokuskan menentukan nilai bersama murid terlebih dahulu.

Nilai yang ingin dicapai seperti penglibatan pelajar (komunikasi), menawarkan/ berkongsi idea, mengambil risiko dan mewujudkan persekitaran yang membolehkan pelajar berani mengambil risiko dan berasa selamat.

Cara melibatkan pemegang taruh ialah dengan cara

– a) Inform (maklumkan perkembangan atau apa yang dirancang)

– b) Consult (mendengar masalah dan aspirasi. Berikan maklum balas bagaimana pemegang taruh telah memperngaruhi hasil.

– c) Involve + Collaborate (memastikan masalah dan aspirasi menjadi fokus guru)

– d) Empower (melibatkan pemegang taruh untuk merancang). Proses ini memakan masa sedikit.

  • Analisa jurang (gap review)

Kita perlu melakukan refleksi dan analisa sejauh mana budaya positif telah wujud dalam kelas. Apakah yang telah dilakukan? Sejauh manakah ianya telah dilaksanakan? Sejauh manakah ianya berkesan? Apakah yang menghalang budaya positif dilaksanakan? Apakah yang boleh diperbaiki/ ditambahbaik?

Apa jua yang kita lakukan, kita kena pasti tempoh masa pelaksanaan teknik, intervensi atau program yang ingin kita lakukan.

3. People (Orang)

People = nilai kemanusiaan. Perhubungan antara guru dan murid tidak lengkap tanpa nilai kemanusiaan. Don’t just teach, create relationships.

Pedagogy of the heart, not just pedagogy to teach.

COVID-19: Penggunaan Aplikasi Zoom

What I like about the Masterclass Pemimpin GSL by Sime Darby is they provide a note that I can refer to. Being a slow-mo and not so tech savvy, having such notes is helpful. But at the same time, since I also attended the synchronous session, I have a chance to do hands-on thing with the guidance from the facilitators.

I notice that the facilitators are young and energetic. So, I hope their enthusiasm would rub off a bit on me. It is not easy to keep myself updated with the technology and teaching/learning tools or apps, but I will learn some of it slowly according to my pace and needs.

COVID-19: Microsoft Teams training

I have been attending trainings on Microsoft Teams since last year but I am still struggling to use it. Of course, some of my students had become my guinea pig to experiment the Microsoft Teams features. Well, take it this way. When I show them what I am setting for their classes etc., they also learn new things.

I still remember one of my RS2 students (Master student) who was my first “sample” in my little experiment. Together we learn that, in order for her to access materials that I put in Microsoft Teams, she needs to have live.utm.my account. It is not an account which is assigned to them automatically. Students need to request or I can request (as an instructor of a course) to UTMDigital team – Email them at software@utm.my. Pssstt it is better if the students request it themselves.

From the training conducted by Dr Azizul yesterday, I learned from Dr Marlia and others (participants) about new features that Microsoft Teams has. Dr Azizul even said :”Saya pun baru tahu benda ini“. It makes the learning process less solitary.

8 september-01.png

Often than not, when I am stuck with something, I would google it up but nothing beats human interaction. So, like yesterday, when Dr Azizul encountered certain glitches like (Take Over) during the demonstration of Microsoft Meet, there were other participants who gave their opinions (possible solutions) and Dr Azizul even used us to experiment with new things. The session became interactive. But being a lecturer, there were times that Dr Azizul instructed us like his students. Well, some of use were a bit unruly to try out things to the point Dr Azizul’s slides “went” missing. Whose fault is that? So many of us were clicking the Take Over button at that time. It was kind of difficult to find the culprit.

But it was so cool! I feel that we are learning together and there is no air or feeling of superiority exists during the training. I feel assured that we are struggling together in learning new things. I feel supported as there are regular users like Dr Marlia and others who shared their experience, tips and certain valuable information. I find that I become more confident in using Microsoft Teams (even though it is still a baby step for me).

After the session, I tried out few things on my own. I told one of my juniors that we can experiment to use Microsoft Teams next semester. She later shared with me videos created by Mike Tholfsen. Wow, there are so many new videos! I like it so much! In sha Allah I will try my best to prepare my Microsoft Teams classroom (errr… a term that I use as it has similar features like Google Classroom).

How to restore and backup a course on your ELearning?

I attended a sharing session today. I waited more than an hour to know about how to restore and back up a course on ELearning which was explained in less than 5 minutes. So, I googled up if I can find anything from the internet.

I found a video by UTMLEAD. (Duh… I should know better, right? Just google it!)

One of the facilitators also did a video about backup and restore but once I get the video, I will upload it later here or make another post.

There is also a step-by-step poster by UTMLEAD on your ELearning (but sometimes, we might overlook it, need to scroll down a bit the main page to find it). But as a reminder to myself, I put it here.

backup

E-Content UTM 2021

I just had a session with Dr Nurbiha about e-content. There is a difference of marking this year for video that you create and upload on Youtube (as an example of platform where you share your material) which you can get 2 marks for that. Make sure you make it “Public”.

Well, honestly I do not know what I got last year but this year, since we are only allowed to upload 5 e-content materials, so I will upload within that limit.

What are the things that I plan to upload this year? I plan to upload these 4 materials.

  1. Gamification (one of my Quizziz questions – I used for last semester’s class).
  • Just make sure that if you want to claim any Quizziz (category: Gamification), the questions that you have in one set of quiz must be at least contains 10 questions (which equivalent to 10 marks if it is one mark for each question or 5 marks if each question is equivalent to 0.5 marks). If you have 3 questions, it might not be enough. Logically, normally the quiz that we give to students might be at least 5 marks or 10 marks. It is quite rare to give students 3 marks for a quiz (unless you give 5 mini quizzes in which each carries 3 marks and only have 3 questions per quiz – but it does not sound like a normal practice, isn’t it?)

2. Video based learning (one of my Youtube videos). Any video that you create and share publicly is 2 marks.

3. Collaborative tool (my Padlet page for MPPU1024 class that I taught with my colleague).

  • For Padlet, to get better marks, make sure you have a class note (you create your own – like a PowerPoint note) and post several questions that your students can answer and generate discussion. Better yet, give a specific instruction for students to give their opinions based on other’s response/answer. You can discuss the answer through synchronous session or students can read other’s opinion asynchronously. In this way, students would interact with the materials (class note plus questions) that you put in a Padlet page and by answering the questions that you post, students have to answer the questions (this is interactive) and when you give a specific instruction to students to give opinion to other’s answer/ response, indirectly you prompt students to interact with each other.
  • Example of instruction that I give to students (pssst… you can copy paste the instruction too for your class). This is the instruction that I gave to students using Padlet.

a) Read your class note (note: make sure it is your class note that you create)
b) Answer the questions based on the given scenarios.
c) If you agree or disagree with your friend’s answer, give your own justification.  Write in the comment box.  You can either remain anonymous if you wish or can write your name.  

  • So, how many marks that I can get for this? Well, I am not the evaluator so I do not know in definite but I can assure you, it will not be 1 mark (tongue in cheek remark!).

4. Communication tool (one of my Prezi notes – just receptive, not interactive even though there was an activity that I posted within the note). This is a recycle from last semester but I added few more slides for more extra information. I was told that you can recycle the same materials provided you add new information, pictures etc. on the latest version. I am testing it this year by recycling old notes which I added new information and changed the background and layout.

There you go. Only 4 materials that I will upload this year. If I get 5 bonus marks for all four materials that I uploaded, I will share with all of you next year, In sha Allah.

Senarai semak sesi segerak

Ada orang beri cadangan untuk letak senarai semak (checklist) untuk sesi segerak (synchronous session). Senarai semak ini digunakan setiap kali sesi segerak sebagai ingatan kepada semua yang hadir. Kalau dalam kelas, sebagai sesi induksi – sebelum memulakan sesi pengajaran dan pembelajaran.

Dulu aku tidak pernah terfikir pun nak buat poster macam ni. Tapi bila dapat tips dari Cikgu Sam yang hebat, aku cuba untuk ikut apa yang diamalkan. Cikgu Sam pun ada pesan untuk tiru apa yang dianggap amalan yang baik. Jadi aku cuba la untuk buat juga. Walaupun aku mengajar di universiti, tak semestinya apa yang cikgu-cikgu guna tak boleh diamalkan dalam pengajaran aku juga kan? Learning happens when we teach. Indeed.