Motivation and emotion/Evaluation/2010

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Best aspects? Needs improving?
I really enjoyed the tutes. I liked working in small groups to help with the assignments. Maybe an assignment due mid semester-ish just so people could know how they're doing in the course.
- I did not like the nature of the assessment items in this unit. I did not feel confident in the actual criteria for assessment and I believe that this will be expressed in the marks that I receive for this unit. There was no clear guidelines for any of the assessment items, and I feel that the guidelines set out in the unit outline were vague and ambiguous. I was given no feedback with my marks for my textbook chapter and thus was unable to dispute what I believe to be an unfair mark. I also strongly object to the 'ranking' of our textbook chapter by mark on a public website.

By the end of the semester, most people knew who had written their chapters on what topic and I believe that we should be asked for our consent to post information about our grades on a public domain.

- James was very, very helpful, was always available to talk to when we needed to ask questions or have something clarified. - It was great to do an assignment (textbook chapter) that is a bit out of the ordinary and not an essay or a lab report.

- I liked how we were able to choose and refine our own topics for the textbook chapter, it made it a lot easier to write (because you choose something you were interested in) and a lot more fun to research. - Flexibility of the tutes was great.

- I think that next semester it might be a good idea to replace the journal with some other form of assessment e.g. fortnightly quizzes in tutes. The workload became a bit too much towards the end of semester, as the textbook chapter required a LOT of time and planning, having to write a minimum of 250 words each week on that week's topic was extremely hard. Combined with assignments from other classes, the journal proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of workload.
* The lecturer was very enthusiastic which motivated me to put lots of effort in. * I liked having one 2 hour tute every 2 weeks. * I liked not having an exam. * I enjoyed learning about

Wikiversity through the assessment pieces which is something very different compared with what I have ever done before. * I liked how we were able to choose our own topic for the chapter we had to author. * I think it's great that we get a copy of the text book chapter that we all wrote, I look forward to reading it!

* I think it would be good to have a few tutorials in the computer rooms dedicated to Wikiversity.

Having never used anything like it before, I found it was a lot to get my head around to start with.

A text book written by students. Awesome idea More options for tutorial times, i.e., during the day so parents can organise child care.
An amazing unit, one of the best of my degree.
Fleibility of the assessment tasks, understanding and knowledgable teacher None!
fresh new learning experiences, loved the different format, always felt supported, best and most

fun unit I have done in psychology

no
I do not understand the meaning of the questions 'I found this unit intellectually stimulating' therefore I just put neutral to reply it. Please explain this question in a simpler language in the future. I do not understand the meaning of the questions 'I found this unit intellectually stimulating' therefore I just put neutral to reply it. Please explain this question in a simpler language in the future.
assesments are all due so close to exam time, move some of them earlier. Textbook chapter is rather large assesment
I loved the online assessment. It was daunting at first, but i found it much more rewarding than handing in sheets of paper with an essay on them. Liked that there was no final exam.

Interesting subject and James did well to explain aspects of it. James was quick to answer queries and understanding that this was a new and scary type of assessment.

It would be better to have more spread out assessment over the semester (e.g. maybe the e.portfolio mark could be split up through the semester so we feel like we are earning something as we go). I felt more stressed having everything due in november. A mid semester exam on a few quizzes would also have been good.
This was a great unit. The topics were interesting. Tutorials were great, I enjoyed filling in the various scales and discussions were entertaining and informative. It was a nice change to have assignments other than essays, quizzes, or exams. The chapter was a great idea, it was fun, had a bit of leeway to do pics and stuff, and we got to pick our own topics - so much better than choosing the best of boring essay topics! Thanks James, this has been my favorite unit so far! I know it's personal opinion but I found the text a bit boring, some of it just droned on and on.

Some of the lectures were a little dry - material-wise. I think the e-portfolio should be worth a greater % than the multimedia because it was so much bigger and took so much longer to put together.

James (the lecturer/tutor) made a real effort to make things interesting by setting unique assessment items. He was also very organised with everything and very helpful to all students having and difficulties with the work.
James did a great job of integrating what are new ways of learning for most students into the unit. The assessments were great, teaching people valuable new skills using technology.

Tutorials were great!!! Good mix of activities, help and questions sessions. James is a pleasure to have a lecturer, very approachable and willing to help and great knowledge in a huge number of fields.

Lectures were fairly slow, James seemed uncertain of content at times and they were fairly uninteresting.
James is a fantastic teacher, he tries to make tutorials and lectures interesting. feedback and marks back quicker. I understand that James has a lot of his plate, however, I found it extremely frustrating that it is now the 11th of december and i have not got ANY marks back.
James seemed to put a lot of effort into choosing tasks that would motivate students to do their best work and would separate those who do last minute cramming from those who work consistently throughout a semester. Chapters were great although having more time to complete them would have helped, further an assessable draft may have encouraged people to start their chapters earlier and produce much higher quality work. The content became repetitive, would have liked more focus on emotion as well as less heavy reliance on the txt book for course content as I think more resources would have encompassed more approaches. The e-portfolios were extremely demanding and hard. I think weekly online quizzes may have been better or we needed more emphasis of the word limit (only meant to be 400 words a week but ppl wrote thousands) as well as guidance on what to write or examples
Presenting the work on wiki as it forced me to learn new IT skills that I am now glad to have. I found the eportfoli quite tedious each week. I think an exam would have been better for that type of assessment
That we were able to choose a topic that interested us to work on. Not everyone has broadband access at home, we have dialup and went through considerable expense since broadband is not accessible in our area), it was a big ask and I was lucky to get an assessment item (the screenr item) done on time as a result, there needs to be facilities available within the uni(with sound cards and microphones available).My Internet was slow, I had to drop parts. This wouldve been better done live in a classroom as a powerpoint presentation.
The assessment items were designed really well and were a good way to assess knowledge.

As there is alot of information to take in for this unit, the eportfolio was a much better alternative to an exam. I understood alot more of the content from this method.

Not receiving much feedback on assessments before the others were due but that didnt matter too much as they were all separate assessments anyway.
The assessment was like nothing i had completed before, it was interesting and new and not boring. James Neill helped a lot too, he made the unit very interesting and always offered to assist me when i needed it. I think the main problem with this unit was the assessment (although very good) as it took a lot more time to generate the skills needed for wiki then any other assignment would.. Which meant more time was needed to prepare/complete assignments.
i liked the learning journal i think the learning journal should be worth more due to the amount of effort it required