Evaluation of Electronic Learning Resource (ELR)

I have observed and used NEO many times throughout the past couple of weeks in my content placement (7th grade science). Students are encouraged to check NEO regularly to keep an eye out for grading mistakes and to occasionally complete online assignments. Online assignments are typically assigned once a week and have included watching a video, completing a quiz with instant feedback, or answering a couple open-ended questions. Students always have at least one night to complete any online assignment and they also use computers in class on Fridays to ensure each student has access to a computer when needed. In addition to giving homework assignments, I have alo seen my CT post announcements/reminders for students as well as receive messages from both parents and students about homework.

This ELR seems to be a great teaching/learning tool that not only allows students to display their learning with instant feedback but also enables communication among students/parents/teachers any time. In the rest of the post, I will evaluate the use of NEO according to the ELR criteria posted on my Projects page.

Is the tool easy to use?: Yes, all students have been walked through the process of setting up an account and the process of taking a quiz or entering free response questions in consistent for each assignment. Teachers and students must both learn to set up and use the website but once they do, the options and layout are pretty intuitive and don't require extensive problem-solving to navigate the site. I learned to use the site very quickly last week to create/give an assignment. There is a useful feature that allows you to sync classes so that if you create an assignment for 1st period, you can copy it to other periods without having to re-create the file. However, if a change is made to any period, it does not reflect the change across all classes. It would be nice if this could be an option to "change for all classes" or "only change this class".

Is the tool accessible?: Yes, the tool is mostly accessible because it can be used on computers, tablets, or smart phones. However, students who do not have access to these devices away from school may have an extra challenge to complete assignments. Using ChromeBooks/iPads in class gives these students extra opportunities to check NEO in class.

Is the tool reliable?: As far as I know, NEO hasn't deleted any grades or been unavailable to use when needed by students or teachers. Depending on the teacher's settings for the quiz, students are able to save a quiz and return later without work being erased.

Utility: NEO is useful for reducing the number of papers students have to carry for notes or resources. NEO also greatly reduces the amount of time it takes for a teacher to grade quizzes because scores are automatically calculated and entered into the gradebook.

Expands access to resources: The discussion board feature of NEO would enable collaboration among students away from the classroom. However, I have not yet seen this feature used. Teachers are able to include links to videos, articles, sound clips, or documents with assignments. This is nice because it allows teachers to suggest resources for students to gain further understanding of a topic outside of class.

Choice: Students do not have much chocie when using NEO. Unless an assignment allows for multiples way to respond to a question, or choice of question type, students are expected to complete assignments as they are given. However, NEO could provide an interesting opportunity to give students an assignment of researching a topic of their choice related to "x subject" and report back on their findings through an open response question. This still does not provide creativity in terms of medium of expression. However, students are typically able to work at their own pace unless a teacher deliberately creates a timed assignment.

Aids formative assessment: When a quiz is created, it is easy to add feedback to be given to students after any assignment is completed. Teachers are also able to track how long students spent on an assignment, which questions were answered correctly/incorrectly, and how many attempts the student made to answer questions correctly. Data is automatically attached to the student and is easy for the teacher to look at data by student or by assignment. Unfortunately, using a computer requires students to demonstrate their knowledge/understanding through typing responses. Maybe students could create a presentation or web page to demonstrate understanding and provide the teacher with a link for assessment?

Overall, NEO does well with the ELR criteria. As the official website, this resource is used by many teachers but it is certainly up to the teacher to decide how it is best used. Using NEO simply for entering assignments and keeping track of grades is fine for utility but the ability to create assignments and interact with students while away from school makes NEO especially useful for classroom tech.