John Wallace: Okay, so this short orientation video is about the engagement component of the final grade portfolio and how I assess that.
John Wallace: And the first thing that I'd like to say is what engagement means it's not the same as class participation and it's not the same as attendance. So those are part of it. Basically what I'm asking is, has a student
John Wallace: brought an intellectual curiosity and learning energy and care to the work to be done in the class, whether that is a group meeting or just participation in a regular zoom session or submitted material.
John Wallace: And the working assumption here is that for the most part, instructors are unable to actually assess all that you have learned
John Wallace: midterms and finals are like spot checks, they, they asked about specific things and then they make a statistical assumption that if you did well on those specific things you must have learned, other things.
John Wallace: As well and what I do instead is lean fairly heavily on the engagement portion for making those conclusions, so
John Wallace: I work under the assumption that if you seem to be a student who's brought your curiosity and your energy.
John Wallace: And is doing the work with some care and thought it is very likely that you're the successfully learning whether or not I have directly assessed that
John Wallace: So the engagement grade affects how I make conclusions about what the knowledge component of the
John Wallace: Great portfolio will be and what the skills component of the grade portfolio will be although it must be said that in cases of skills.
John Wallace: I'm able to observe you doing something. So I have a more direct way of assessing that in the case of knowledge. I'm making an assumption that if you have read
John Wallace: The textbook or whatever. It's been assigned with some care and intellectual curiosity.
John Wallace: It is very likely that you have learned something that's valuable to you from that process, whether or not you show it to me.
John Wallace: So the relationship between engagement greater than knowledge great is pretty tight. It's a little less tight with the skills, great, but both in both cases.
John Wallace: Because of the nature of what I teach, which is not factual information, but rather opinions and conclusions and deductions and analysis.
John Wallace: And where I have to make a judgment grade rather than a yes or no grade, I will lean upwards. When I feel that the student is engaged in the class and I will be more skeptical. When I feel the Student Isn't engaged in the class. So
John Wallace: What engagement looks like depends on the situation. But let's just take as an example, a zoom session and engage student in my opinion will not be multitasking will
John Wallace: Seem to be alert to the coming and going of the questions that are being asked and is ready to live is listening to other students and is ready to respond to that.
John Wallace: Was something that comes out of preparation for that session, rather than just a casual thought of the moment. So
John Wallace: For zoom class you prepare you attend you listen you share appropriately when you can
John Wallace: And you avoid multitasking and when that's done. I feel like you've just been a normal student has done a good job at day and you can establish that sort of presence fairly easily. And it will go a long way towards scoring well in my classes if, for example, the we're looking at an assignment.
John Wallace: I can tell whether or not you have approached that assignment with some care. Did you follow the instructions did is it based on the material that was assigned for this for that assignment itself.
John Wallace: Was it left blank and places where it looks like he rushed through it. Does it seem like rush to work or does it seem like thoughtful work those things will affect my conclusion about how engaged, you are in a class as well. What I don't do is
John Wallace: Lean very heavily on
John Wallace: If you've missed an assignment coordinate. If you've created a pattern of missing assignments that suggests to me that here. This class is just not enough of a priority for you to keep up with the word
John Wallace: But in general, everybody has things along the way that prevent them from submitting or submitting on time.
John Wallace: And if your fundamental pattern has been a student who is getting the work done in with some energy and thoughtfulness
John Wallace: That you missed some assignments here and there has zero impact on your grade.
John Wallace: I will make account at the end as to how many you submitted, and if it seems like you're missing a number of them on, go to the Google Form and try to figure out why.
John Wallace: And if that's fitting into a pattern of other things that seem casual, it will have an effect if you seem to be somebody who's just
John Wallace: Doing your best and something came along, it will have no effect. So that's how I would derive some sense of engagement based on an assignment. There's often areas and assignments, which are not required.
John Wallace: And I just invite you to share your opinion that area you can often tell me how thoughtful, you have been about an assignment. So if you want to communicate to me that you've been working with the material in a way that's interesting to you that's often a good area to share those thoughts.
John Wallace: I think that's it.