CMS Assessment: Part 2

I am currently a TA for one of the healthcare and religion courses at Western Michigan University. I felt it was fitting that I use this course as my frame of reference for my CMS assessment. The "Healthcare and Religion" course is fully online, so there is no use of in class learning. Due to the nature of this course, it only made sense that a CMS would be a great digital tool to use for the both student and instructor. In this version of my CMS Assessment, I delve deeper into the reasoning behind my use of this particular assessment, as well as the fact that it will come in three parts. My goal is to be an instructor that understands her students will not always grasp certain concepts and that some may fall behind if their issues are not addressed. I will be using a "Pre-Knowledge Assessment," "Mid-Knowledge Assessment," and "Post-Knowledge Assessment" so that the students are able to see where they may be having difficulties, as will I. By assessing my students in three parts, I will get a chance to see if anyone is lost or having issues understanding the material and then address it. I don't ever want to leave any of my students behind, so it is imperative that I make sure I know where their understanding lies in the materials we cover in the course. I chose to use BlackBoard CourseSites for my assessment because it is a CMS that can be used at a collegiate level. Some of the CMS's I have explored in this course (i.e. Edmodo and Haiku) were geared more towards K-12 students and I was not able to utilize them in the way I would have wanted to. These CMS's were wonderful digital tools and could be a great addition to any K-12 class, they just were not a good fit for college level students who are taking part in distance learning. It is my hope that through using CMS's in my online courses, that it will be more beneficial for the students to thrive in their educational journeys.

Resources:

CourseSites by Blackboard. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2015, from https://www.coursesites.com/webapps/Bb-sites-course-creation-BBLEARN/pages/index.html

Connect With Students and Parents in Your Paperless Classroom | Edmodo. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2015, from https://www.edmodo.com/

Haiku Learning is a full suite of beautiful, cloud-based tools designed to get you up and running with digital learning in minutes. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2015, from http://www.haikulearning.com/

Western Michigan University | Western Michigan University. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2015, from https://wmich.edu/

WMU Course Offerings. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2015, from https://wmich.edu/classlookup/wskctlg.wskctlg_menu