Marking Scheme for online evaluation.

The first 20% are rewarding the presence of students online, in other words their absences are punished. When you are at school, everything happens during the class hours so the students have to be here during that time to learn something. Online, it is different because the input from the teachers is theoretically available 24/7. Most of the time online the concept of absence is therefore a little biased because a student could be working hours on the subject during the night if that suits him/her better. This absence concept would be Ok if a student really had to be here because of no possibility to ask a question at another moment, during a life Q&A session for example. But again, the question could be asked beforehand, answered and posted online by the teacher and available at any time of day or night.

The second 10% are rewarding punctuality which is even less relevant than the concept of presence/absence.

The next 50% are rewarding the work during the hour of teaching. For the same reasons than before, it is not relevant if we think that our students should be online from 8 to 9 for example. Is it necessary that they answer this or that question during that specific time? What if their mother asks them to help in the house at this moment? What if the internet connection is not good at that specific moment but better at another time?  This can be true for the learner as well as for the teacher.

Nevertheless, this focus on presence at specific times and punctuality can be understandable because our students are not used to study on their own. In fact, they are not used to think and reflect individually! 

The last 20% are awarding homework and personal research. The idea is good but our students are far from being able to research systematically on a subject!

But here is a GREAT NEW:

Online teaching can make us improve our in-class teaching a lot!

How: Less talking from the teacher and more learning for the student.  

It may sound strange but it is true: the more the teacher talks, the less the students learn!

So, when we come back to normal classes, hopefully soon, we shouldn’t go back to our old way of teaching!

But that’s another story!