Andrew Steinman A34091396 TPACK Assignment I would like to see my school adopt an online formal assessment program to improve

the effectiveness of teacher feedback. If we create assessments that are based online, the students have the ability to receive immediate and relevant feedback about their performance. Students would have immediate responses on simplistic questions, and individualized responses to complex questions. The learning problem I am trying to solve is the obstacle students have when they receive feedback on assessments and assignments too far removed from the original date. Students are able to analyze and understand their mistakes when they are presented in a direct and timely fashion; however, as more time passes, the teachers responses to incorrect answers becomes less relevant and more obscure. A second learning problem is related to the ability for teachers to provide effective and responsive feedback. A conundrum exits when teachers give feedback quickly, but the responses lack suggestions for improvement or teachers give effective suggestions, but they take too long to hand it back to the student. In order to create effective, instructional feedback, there needs to be a strong link between the teacher comment and the student's answer, and it must be instructive. Without the two elements of feedback discussed, timely and of instructional quality, students miss out on the ability to learn from their mistakes. The technologies I wish to use in order fix the teacher-student feedback problem can be addressed using the quiz function on Moodle. The subset of my user base would be teachers, and in effect, students would be using the strategy as well. An example of a specific subdomain would be the biological content of mitosis and meiosis. Students often struggle with understanding the similarities and differences between these two cellular processes. These misconceptions include the replication of DNA, separation of chromosomes, and the differences between homologs and chromatids. The first pedagogical practice that would be used in support of the learning-technology initiative would be teacher consideration of the backgrounds and learning history of the students, more specifically, student misconceptions. Teachers must analyze common misconceptions when creating feedback that explains where and why students have made errors. Without the understanding of the basis of misconceptions teachers will struggle to provide relevant and effective feedback. For example, teachers that understand that students often make the mistake to think cells go through interphase between the two rounds of meosis will provide better feedback when students miscalculate the number of chromosomes during the phases of meiosis. Instead of marking the problem wrong with no explanation, teachers can explain that due to the fact that

DNA is only replicated before meiosis I, homologous chromosomes split in Metaphase I and sister chromatids split during Metaphase II. Without this specific feedback, students may not understand why their responses are incorrect. Another pedagogical practice that would be used would be the overarching theme of immediate and relevant feedback. Students learn best when they learn from their mistakes in an instructional way. Immediate and specified feedback is effective while delayed feedback diminished the value of the responses. For example, students who receive a graded assignment a week after its due date may not even remember the basis for their answers, therefore any feedback provided would be ineffective. The content knowledge needed to make this initiative a success is knowledge of the content standards that the online assignments are based on. For example, instructors that teach meiosis and mitosis should have a high level of understanding of the requirements of cells to grow and divide. As stated before, teachers should also have a deep understanding of the common misconceptions involved in the content addressed. For example, when learning about meiosis students often confuse sister chromatids and homologous chromosomes, which makes it difficult to understand the concepts of crossing over and independent assortment. In order to use Moodle quizzes for formative assessments, teachers need to be familiar with the Moodle interface, as well as how to set up a Moodle quiz. What is most important in relation to the TPACK is that teachers know how to make questions that will provide immediate feedback, as well as how to write that feedback. When writing feedback for each question, the teacher should address how the students answer is incorrect and explain why the correct answer is true. The teacher should also provide additional resources, such as videos or simulations to supplement the instructional feedback.