Week 5: STAR

This week, we have created a method of assessment for nine tools we have been using in the Resources and ICT course. These tools were selected by each team, following three categories: forced to use, discovered, and used before and incorporated to our couse. 

So, in our case, we choose the following ones: Aula Virtual, Blogger, and Instagram; Google Keep, Blabberize, and Prezi; Canva, Google docs, and Picsart. Once we had selected the tools, we had to evaluate them following a special rubric. For example, this is the one for Aula Virtual.

As you can see, the rubric is divided into 8 different categories, divided as well into criteria and indicators. The next step was to organise all 8 categories into 3, and this is the division we made:

- Privacy

- Functionality, accessibility, technical, mobile design

- Social presence, teaching presence, cognitive presence

Finally, with the classification already done, we started creating our method. The maximum mark a tool could have was 6 stars, so we had to create the method based on that. We took into account the number of indicators of each category, as well as the level of acquisition these indicators had (works well= 3 points; minor concerns= 2 points; serious concerns= 1 points; not applicable= the criteria is removed and the points are adapted). This is a summary of our method, which I will now explain.

For the first category (privacy), we choose that it could receive up to 3 stars (the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd star). There are 3 indicators included in privacy, so the maximum number of points it could get were 9 (3 indicators x 3 points). If the tool has 3 points, it will receive 1 star. With 6 points, 2 stars; and with 9 points, the 3 stars, but it can get the third star with 8 points as well. With intermediate punctuations, you get half stars. ⭐⭐⭐

The second category (functionality, accessibility, technical, and mobile design) could get a maximum of 2 stars (the 4th and the 5th star). There are 15 indicators, which means there is a total of 45 points possible (15 indicators x 3 points). If the tool has 23 points, it will receive 1 star (12 points for half a star); with 34 points, 1.5 stars; and with 40 to 45 points, 2 stars. ⭐⭐

Finally, for the third category (social, teaching, and cognitive presence), we established a maximum of 1 star, which will be the 6th one. There are 9 indicators here, so the maximum number of point would be 27 (9 indicators x 3 points). If the tool has 14 points, it receives 0.5 stars; if it has form 25 to 27 points, it gets 1 star. ⭐

Following the explanation, we evaluated all the tools. You may notice that our marks tend to be high. That is due to the fact that we gave 3 stars to privacy, and the majority of the tools we analysed had a very good privacy system so they have 2 stars minimum on that area.

Aula Virtual: 2.5 stars + 2 stars + 2 stars= 5⭐

Blogger: 2.5 stars + 2 stars + 1 star= 5.5 ⭐

Instagram: 3 stars + 2 stars + 0.5 stars= 6 ⭐

Google Keep: 2.5 stars + 2.5 stars + 2 stars= 5 ⭐

Blabberize: 2.5 stars + 1.5 star + 0 stars= 4 ⭐

Prezi: 2 stars + 1.5stars + 0.5 stars= 4 ⭐

Canva: 3 stars + 2 stars + 1 star= 6 ⭐

Google Docs: 2.5 stars + 2 stars + 1 star= 5.5 ⭐

Picsart: 3 stars + 1.5 stars + 0 stars= 4.5 ⭐

In order to be more clear, I leave here a video of myself evaluating Aula Virtual 🌝

Evaluation of Aula Virtual

This task was very hard. As we are used to be punctuated and punctuate from 0 to 10, adapting our method to 6 was quite a challenge. Besides, we had never thought that creating a method of assessment could be so difficult, both because we have never done one before and because we had never thought if our teachers had come up with an original evaluating method or it was just a repetition. Our first approach to real evaluation was in the Planning course we did last semester, but we never actually got to create a method, so this experience was revealing for us, and it was motivating at the same time, as it has been an opportunity to develop our creativity to come up with something completely new and that ended up being pretty effective! 

Dividing the 8 categories into 3 big ones was also interesting because it shows the different believes people have, and it also reveals that a tool that for a person would have a number of stars, for another has a different mark, and that is curious because it shows that evaluation has a subjective part.

Ana Almagro Moya, week 5 star ⭐