Presentation related to a little in-house research project concerning online writing. This is the first small step. We are wishing to more fully characterize the effects of online environments on student writing. This little mini-project uses the metrics of word count, readability and subsequent content-based exam scores.
17. • summary assigned at culmination of
unit- prior to exam
• student lineup by age- counted
off by twos- split into two groups
of ten
• laid out comprehensive summary
assignment: use all concepts, cite
at least once source.
18. • differentiated assignment for each
group:
• group 1- use MS Word, e-mail
product directly to me
• group 2- add directly to blog
on class network at: http://
mwsu-bio101.ning.com
19. • copy/paste each summary into MS
Word to analyze word count &
reliability
• score exams
• analyze all data in class with
students
• students & teacher reflect on the
project in network discussion thread
21. (Table 1) Students who constructed comprehensive
summary of nutrition unit via online blog post for a
wide and potentially global audience (even group):
22. (Table 2) Students who constructed comprehensive
summary of nutrition unit via MS Word document handed
in directly to teacher (odd group):
23. a closer look...
traditional online
average exam score: 43.2 43.4
readability: 9.1 8.2
word count: 638 399
28. “It appeared that the papers had a
higher readability and word count,
which I kind of expected because I
think people tend to write more
formally on papers, whereas the
blog posts tend to be more opinion
and informal writing.”
~RH
29. this:
d
lize orum
uti n f
s
rk i cussio
n etwo dis
t h is r the
y fo
la r g el
30. vs. this:
s to
k tend os ts
twor blog p
i s ne mal
e th e for
wh il mor
uti lize
32. •writing a comprehensive summary seems to be an
effective pre-exam strategy, regardless of format
•the nature of the summary seemed to do little
to affect overall scores in this study
•students writing online submitted significantly
more concise summaries with smaller word counts