A few final words to end another semester, and wow that means I'm half done! Even better, that means I still have half to go! I've thoroughly enjoyed and and begun to see how these courses build off each other, and all carry a practical association back to my own context. Through this blog activity, I found a host of resources that have helped further my thoughts on many current learning needs, and have fostered many thoughts of change. I'm a paramedic by training, and am finishing my second year of full-time teaching, after about five years of part-time teaching, and with a change in program leadership, find myself in a position where evidence based change is encouraged. There really hadn't been any significant changes in the past decade, the former coordinator had largely built the program, arguably one of if not the most successful in the province, and based on those results it had always worked, so changes were not seen as a good thing. As student cohorts changed, and educational views changed, all current faculty recognize that we are not here to teach the content and administer the tests, allowing students to pass or fail on their own, but we're here to teach the students, and provide them with both the best education and the best opportunity to succeed that we can.
Through these reflections I've come up with many ideas that are exciting to think about, and that my program colleagues are intrigued by. Classroom delivery will be a work in progress for a while, but my lecture based theory classes are going to change to better incorporate full participation, and my method of stand-alone high-stakes evaluation will be changing. For my thoughts on various multiple choice scoring systems, although very intriguing, I still fear that it may produce an atmosphere of gambling, of spending too much time on debate between options. I am however encouraged by the notion of utilizing an evaluation system that scores the best possible outcome, weighting tests in 3-5 different schemes as discussed in a previous post. The only difficulty will be my school's eGrades used for tracking marks, as it relies on a given outline, however I may just change this to a final grade value, and track all marks separately, it will just involve clear structure within the course outline. I'll take this chance to thank everyone for sharing your views and comments throughout the course, I genuinely enjoyed both courses I took this semester (801 was the other), and move on to some of the Classroom Specialist courses, with an elective in Assessment, as clearly that seems to have become a large component of my thoughts throughout this blog. Thanks for reading, and good luck going forward!
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AuthorI teach Paramedicine at Cambrian College, in Sudbury, Ontario. I also continue to work as a paramedic, and ride bikes. This is my third semester in the PME program, and I look forward to learning with everyone! Archives
March 2017
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