What makes a good assessment or slide deck?

 This week has been peppered with preparation and evaluation. I've been making several presentations (for my June 9 talk for AML's Media AQ course, for the June 14 ONLibChat event promoting TMC, and for a June 27 session for IMLRS [International Media Literacy Research Symposium]). Educators in my school board did not teach on Friday, June 3 because we had a report card writing day; even though I am no longer a classroom teacher, I still had plenty of things to mark to get ready for calculating those final grades. It got me thinking about what makes a good assignment for assessment and what makes a good online presentation. 

Good Presentation Slides - Tips

When I took my Presenter's Palette workshop with ETFO in 2016, I learned a lot about structuring professional learning. One of my favourite take-aways was the difference between offering content and allowing processing of ideas. The facilitators called it "giving the gum" and "time to chew". Learners of all ages (and especially now, with Zoom fatigue and increased distractibility) cannot be lectured at for long periods without something for them to "do". I believe that Mary and I have designed an engaging, fast-paced talk for this coming Thursday. Our topic is "Comics, Cosplay and Consoles: Worthy Media Texts". There's lots of "gum" and lots of "chewing". I hope the AQ participants agree.

Neil Andersen taught me not to be stingy with my slides. He has shown me big images and words, without a lot of clutter on the screen, can lead to big impact. Duplicate a slide and use shapes to highlight something you want your audience to notice. Our presentation, on Practical Media Literacy Teaching Strategies, has a lot of information to impart. We pared down the amount of examples but used lots of slides as evidence.

For more suggestions on making good slide decks, check out the TED Talk blog with 10 tips for better slide decks, or the 6-6-6 rule explained by Helen Jane Hearn on the American Express business website.

Good Assessment Tasks - Tips

There are some assignments that I dread marking. The ones that I don't dread marking (and that even can be fun to mark) have some shared characteristics:

• the marking criteria is very clear (and developed beforehand) - for instance, the Grade 1-2 students and I determined how both our clay cakes and real cakes would be marked. We had it on a big piece of chart paper so there was no mystery about how the grades were generated.

• processes that can be automated are - the final tasks for my social studies classes were some Google Form quizzes. Since they were all multiple choice answers, the students received their results immediately after completing the evaluation.
• creative individual results make it entertaining for creator and evaluator  - I loved watching the fake news in Francophone communities video assignments that the Grade 6-7s and 7-8s made. I'm excited to see the Grade 3 animated figures from communities in 1780-1850 and the green-screen paired inquiry videos. 
• the students are set up for success - the tasks are not so hard to complete that excelling is a rare event. The social studies inquiry projects were structured with ample time to finish and easy entry points (drawing for the Grade 1s, almost Mad-Lib level fill-in-the-blanks for the Grade 2s). Some of the Grade 2s did very poorly because they did not follow the simple directions (or complete all the requirements properly). The Grade 1 health task did not make it necessary for students to read words, only to use numbers to label body part locations on a blank form. The Grade 2 health task just involved them placing sticky notes with descriptions on the drawings that indicated various life stages; they only had to write their name on the sticky note and place it on a picture.

When I searched online for suggestions related to this, one site (that automatically downloads a Word file with the information, so I don't recommend clicking it) says:

• has clearly stated goals/objectives
• lack of a pre-determined outcome: you learn something new
• personally relevant and memorable
• uses real-time, current data
• logistically do-able (for both students and instructor)
• synthesizes prior information and concepts
• no clear right or wrong answer - open-ended

Hope this helps!