Application: Small and Large Groups

Table of Contents

Introduction
Application assignments
Descriptive rubrics
Conclusion
Reference List

Introduction

One of the most important purposes of any learning task is to improve the effectiveness of work and to enlarge people’s awareness about the chosen sphere. To achieve the desirable success in the offered learning task, it is necessary to plan each step and think over about possible outcomes and effects. In this paper, two types of settings and possible application assignments for large and small groups will be discussed.

Nowadays, much attention is paid to various alternative methods of assessing knowledge, this is why many people need to be involved into these activities (Desrochers et al, 2007). The importance of rubric discussed by Suskie (2009) has to be mentioned as well because it allows to grade assignments and define what can improve learning processes.

Small groups may prepare captivating presentations to demonstrate their own approaches to disclosing a topic, and larger groups may evaluate case studies to prove their abilities to think logically and to use their knowledge according; and properly designed rubrics will certainly help to analyze these application assignments and clear up what can be done more to improve education processes.

Application assignments

An application assignment for the learning task in small group setting needs to be captivating and informative. To make people get involved into such activity, it is obligatory to make their imagination and creativity work to their full extent. According to Tian (2007), a proper assignment should have a kind of marking line that will help to distinguish deep and surface learners.

In my opinion, it is also very important to provide each member of the group with a chance to evaluate each other’s works, this is why one of the possible application assignment for this learning task is a presentation. Another important step in this activity is to choose a proper theme for a presentation.

It is possible to ask the group to make a presentation about their academic and professional goals and about the ways of how the chosen subject may improve their attitude to work. Each group member is able to pick out any methods and any approaches to amaze the rest and to demonstrate his/her own background in the sphere. Presentations may help to develop new strategies to study material and use it properly with time.

Learning task in large group setting should have another type of application assignment. It is necessary to admit that such works like presentations or informative demonstrations can hardly demonstrate the whole potential of a person. This is why it is better to think about the application assignment that is more personal and narrower. Evaluation of a case study may be chosen.

This choice is closely connected to the idea of academic dishonesty and cheating (Nath & Lovaglia, 2009). When people need to present essays on the same topic, the idea of plagiarism may soil the results. This is why it seems to be more effective to ask each member of a large group to choose a case study and evaluate it from one concrete perspective. With the help of case studies, each member should:

Demonstrate his/her own backgrounds and awareness of the subject;
Rely on theories;
Introduce proper citations;
Be able to structure the paper according to certain requirements;
Be coherent and informative.

This type of application assignment should be interesting not only to the writers but to the instructor as well. All case studies differ from each other, and instructors will hardly get bored with reading and checking writers’ maturity and abilities to share thoughts in a proper and correct way.

Descriptive rubrics

The use of rubrics in educational process has many positive sides due to the fact that graduation of the paper’s quality seems to be easier and clearer (Andrade, 2006). The process of evaluation written papers or oral presentations may be improved in many ways. To achieve more effective results it is possible to follow Cassidy idea (2007) and ask each member of the group to evaluate their papers according to a rubric given.

Descriptive Rubric for Small Groups: Presentation

Points to consider	Excellent	Good	More improvements	Failed
Organization	Clear, informative, presence of supporting facts, interesting examples	Evident progression of ideas but without clear supporting facts and examples	Vague fact, unclear ideas, poor use of examples	Lack of clear ideas, absence of examples, no supporting facts.
Format	All requirements of the chosen style are met, proper structure, informative topic sentences	Slight mistakes in structuring, punctuation mistakes, partial following of the format	No concrete format followed, a few citations with wrong punctuation, poor structure	No structure, wrong arrangement of quotations, absence of topic sentences
Clarity	Bright colors, background, properly chosen fonts and margins, appropriate text size	One color, font and margins are proper, length of sentences are not always appropriate	Absence (or oversaturation) of colors, variety of fonts, too long paragraphs	Poor color gamut, unreadable text, absence of points
Additional improvements	Person’s appearance, attention to details, music background, participation of other group members	Other group members’ participation, properly chosen	Wrong choice of music, inability to involve the audience, technical problems	Inappropriate appearance, absence of background constant technical problems

Descriptive Rubric for Large Groups: Case Study

Points to consider	Excellent	Good	More improvements	Failed
Description of a case	Brief, clear, informative, support of examples	Informative but poor supported by examples	Too much attention to details of the case	Absence of case description
Format	One concrete format, proper structure, clear topic sentences, coherent connection between paragraphs	Clear structure but poor connection between paragraphs, slight mistakes with quotations	Poorly organized structure, absence of clear topic sentences, wrong arrangement of quotes	Absence of structure, quotes, and topic sentences
Theoretical background	Correct use of theoretical material, explanation of the case from theoretical perspective, clear and smart definitions	Theoretical background, explanation of terms, clear explanation of material	Poor theoretical background, inattention to theory, inability to connect theory with case examples	No theoretical background, wrong interpretation of the case, absence of explanations
Clarity	Interesting, clear, readable, correctly written text, personal evaluation of the case, proper use of examples	Readable text, slight grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes, proper use of examples and demonstration of personal attitude to the case	Evident grammar, spelling, punctuation mistakes, wrong use of examples, clear but not always interesting text	Boring text, plenty of mistakes, absence of examples

Conclusion

These two descriptive rubrics turn out to be helpful in order to evaluate such important application assignments in the two groups. Both small and large groups are able to evaluate personal works and the works of other writers with the help of these rubrics. It does not take to much time to analyze the evaluation process and comprehend what is expected from the paper.

Reference List

Andrade, H. G. (2006). Teaching With Rubrics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. College Teaching, 53(1), 27-30.

Cassidy, S. (2007). Assessing ‘Inexperienced’ Students’ Ability to Self-Assess: Exploring Links with Learning Style and Academic Personal Control. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 32(3), 313-330.

Desrochers, M. N., Pusateri, M. J., Jr., & Fink, H. C. (2007). Game Assessment: Fun as Well as Effective. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 32(5), 527-539.

Nath, L., & Lovaglia, M. (2009). Cheating on Multiple Choice Exams: Monitoring, Assessment, and an Optional Assignment. College Teaching, 57(1), 3-8.

Suskie, L., & Banta, T. W. (2009). Assessing Student Learning: A Common Sense Guide (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Tian, X. (2007). Do Assessment Methods Matter?: A Sensitivity Test. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 32(4), 387-401.

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