Higher Education in the Digital Age (CTCH603)

Meghan Arias
Final Project: Online Graduate Student Orientation
April 14, 2014
Final Project Grade (160 possible)

158

Project Pitch (5 possible)

Project Proposal (5 possible)
Outline (15 possible)
Description (15 possible)
Implementation (100 possible)
Reflection (20 possible)

5
5
15
15
98
20

Implementation Detail:
Content (30 points)
content; learning objectives

29

Digital Tools/Resources (30 points)

30
integration; enhances content learning; purpose; creativity
Learning (20 points)
20
engagement; active learning; learner assessment
Planning (20 points)
19
organization; cognitive tasks; creativity
This final project activity focused on improving Masons graduate student orientation, especially
materials related to policy information and academic rules, through online resources, including an
interactive story and a quiz. The main goal was to compare the act of learning through the
interactive story with the act of reading the Mason catalog.
This was an excellent project that creatively used several digital tools to explore new solutions to
a real world higher education problem. The project integrated digital resources effectively and
seamlessly, presenting two paths through the same information and using an online quiz to assess
differences in learning and retention.
The activity reflected significant planning, preparation, and practice as well as growth throughout
the semester. The Inklewriter story was well-crafted, achieving a light tone appropriate to the tool
without compromising the quality of information. Your experiments with tone, feedback, and
paths through the story paid off! The informal assessment confirms related research on
knowledge acquisition having a narrative or purpose promotes learning and retention as does
learning small bits of information at a time.
The feedback from students was thoughtful and responsive to the information presented. During
the activity, classmates were engaged and were able to draw on their own experiences in higher
education.
The experience and feedback proved valuable, as demonstrated in your thoughtful reflection and
ideas for things you might approach in a slightly different way if you were to do this activity
again (including accessibility and compatibility issues and adding a direct link to the quiz at the
end of the story). Korey Singleton would be a great resource on screen readers and accessibility.

Your thorough evaluation of various survey and quiz tools modeled well that each tool has
strengths and limitations and the importance of balancing that with your instructional goals.
Overall, this was a very successful activity! I look forward to hearing how it goes if you test or
use this with current or incoming graduate students.