Kim Hunt of
the West Central
Learning Academy
separates her lan-
guage arts course
content into daily
modules on Moodle.
Students can see
a list of upcoming
topics but can’t ac-
cess a specific as-
signment until the
instructor releases it.
miss important information ele-
ments in online courses. Put each as-
signment, along with the rubric, in
a PDF and highlight the important
parts. This keeps the information
organized and allows for easy down-
loading and printing. Include numer-
ous assignment or activity examples
to help students understand what they
are expected to do.
Set up an additional “open”
forum where
students can ask
questions about
assignments or
share other ideas,
because this will
allow you to respond to several ques-
tions simultaneously or for students to
answer each other’s questions.
Collecting assignments can become
time intensive, so plan carefully how
you will do this. Know your CMS’s
assignment-collection tools and learn
their potential. For example, Blackboard has an assignment manager feature that provides a place to collect as-
signments and share comments. Hunt
uses a similar feature in Moodle for
her language arts class. To save time,
use e-mail only as a last resort, as student assignments would be mixed in
with your personal and professional
e-mails. The students’ addresses also
may not resemble their real names,
making searches difficult.
Be aware that files created on different platforms or with different
software versions can create problems. Students may have no trouble
uploading their assignments to the
CMS, but without the right software
you could spend a lot of time trying to
open them. Define the file formats you
accept well in advance.
After you have organized your
course into content modules or by
week, you can begin setting up the
content’s availability within the CMS.
Most systems have an “availability”
feature that allows you to roll out assignments in sequence. Make current
assignments available while caching
others until it is time to reveal their
content. This prevents students from
jumping ahead before you deliver the
content and hold discussions, so that
Evaluation Rubric for Participation
this rubric will be used to assess the quantity and quality of participation in this course. the student is expected to be an
active participant throughout the course through assignments, the discussion board, and all modes of communication used
throughout the course.
No revision needed
Major revision needed
Minor revision needed
Does not meet requirement
10 8 6 0 Exhibits positive, supportive attitude toward course and class members.
5 3 1 0 Assignments reflect work done at a high level.
10 8 6 0 Assignments and activities are completed on time.
20 15 10 0 complete a minimum of 3 meaningful postings per week to the discussion board. this should include
reaction to readings, discussing the topic issue of the week, and sharing information and resources
with classmates.
0 communication is free of spelling and grammatical errors.
53 1
instructor comments:
Making your expectations and grading rubrics available at the course’s launch will help you and your students avoid the frustration
that can result from misunderstandings.
