Ideally, I would say that the learners are the ones who can use/connect what they know and what they can do to real-life situations, but that would be difficult to observe and measure. On the surface, I would consider those who do well on the exam as the learners. However, I would be impressed with those who can remember course material weeks after the exam not only as it may mean they have good memory but also as it may mean that they actually learned something…and not just studied to do well on an exam.
I believe there are various reasons why my students learn or
what makes them make the effort:
- go to college, be with friends, and hopefully learn something on the side
- get a degree that will help them land a job or get higher salary
- earn good grades and try to do better than classmates
- know more about something—this would be especially true for those who have an idea about their major (e.g., networking, multimedia, applications development, etc.)
- be prepared for work after graduation
At HCT, all courses are designed to include learning
outcome. In the past, even sub-outcomes
were included, but I think they have now been removed to give instructors
leeway on what topics to cover. Furthermore,
the HCT curricula are designed to reflect graduate outcomes:
- communications and information literacy
- critical and creative thinking
- global awareness and citizenship
- technological literacy
- self-management and independent learning
- teamwork and leadership
- vocational competencies
- mathematical literacy
The main ways that students learn are through lectures,
demonstrations, group work, presentations, field trips, reading assignment, and
competitions. There is definitely a lot
of memorization (and hopefully understanding), but there are also many hands-on
work for students:
- installing software, hardware and networks
- creating databases, Web pages, computer programs, and multimedia files
- using various application software to produce documents and other course work
On the other hand, projects, research papers and case
studies often require synthesis and analysis.
Lastly, IT students often demonstrate what they have learned
through finished products:
- configured software, hardware and network
- computer code that works
- finished Web page, program, video file, audio file and image file
- diagrams and flowcharts
- project plans, etc.
In addition they have a set of measurable software skills to
master and theory to know. Quizzes and
exams would definitely not suffice.
Presentations and interviews are essential to ascertain if students
really learned or did something, especially in group work.
No comments:
Post a Comment