Creating a Community to Make Sense; Josh Hite, Volunteer State Community College at Brightspace Ignite Tennessee in Murfreesboro on February 13, 2015

1. Creating a Community to
Make Sense
Josh Hite
Volunteer State Community College

2. Take the testing out of the classroom
• Problems with testing: devours time in taking and in
grading, not only way to make students feel accountable,
often from a pressured environment, creates teacher
versus student dynamic in classroom
• But needed…assessment, accountability, as a goal to
overcome (pass)
• Quizzes (daily) – short answer, fast paced, one screen,
timed
• Midterm & final – multiple levels of questions including
long answer, choices, questions available, timed, (right
click disabled)
• Builds community by putting students in cooperative
balance with teacher

3. Build a foundation for online content
• Question banks
• Study guides
• Section content – discussion
starters & overviews (new
delivery)
• Calendar and modules (keep
together)
• Response files folder

4. Create a community that engages students
• Quizzes unlock discussions so forgo sense of summary needed for
proof of engagement; can tell how well student read from quiz score
• Many choices for discussions to show content mastery
• Discussion topics become rooms in which students converse
• Remember those study guides where they have all questions?
• What’s on the NEWS(feed)? Train to expect the update
• Hotlinks and reading more than just words – make connections

5. Maintain the community and facilitate
learning
• Teachers enter the discussion instead of sit on sidelines
• Let students come up with new discussion questions (fame & fortune)
• Let students challenge quiz questions (they already have list of test
questions) so you can refine & they feel a part of what is built
• Direct students & student combos. Strong students can help the
weaker ones. Raise the community but all students learn (together).
• Make it accessible – a safe, but challenging, environment in which
students can learn

6. Look to Learn
“Were this done, young students, I
think, would become exact in
science, clever in practical matters,
fluent in eloquence, imaginative in
understanding poetry or painting,
and strong in memorizing what they
have learned in their legal studies.”
- Giambattista Vico, 1708, On The Study
Methods of Our Time (trans. Elio
Gianturco)