[1] At Friday’s D-WRD meeting we looked at Qualtrics survey software, for which DePaul has a site license: http://depaul.qualtrics.com/
- We looked at how to create a Qualtrics survey, the different kinds of questions you can pose, and various ways to collect data and responses
- We talked about how to use responses — for example, as discourse analysis in classes, and information sharing and comparing
- We noted that DePaul students have access to Qualtrics as well, and can create surveys of their own for classes, community, and project use (you need a Campus Connect log-in to create and to share a Qualtrics survey, but not to participate in one with responses)
[2] The newest issue of Computers & Composition, Vol. 31 (March 2014) is a special issue on “Multimodal Assessment”: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/87554615. I think that many of the articles in this issue look great, and would recommend two in particular:
- “Notes Toward the Role of Materiality in Composing, Reviewing, and Assessing Multimodal Texts.” — Matthew Davis, Kathleen Blake Yancey. For those of you who heard Kathi Yancey speak at UIC last year, she uses her scrapbook project in this article. http://tinyurl.com/mdc98ws.
- “Current Conversations on Multimodal Assignments and Assessments: A Collaborative Review of Four Recent Texts.” http://tinyurl.com/k82f537. A collaborative book review (we should do something like this!) on multimodal composing titles, contextualized thusly:
- Composing practices
- Theory
- Identity
- Pedagogy
- Assessment
- Politics
- Discord and concord
Good stuff here, and it aligns nicely with the ways in which we’ve been talking about multimodal composing here in WRD.
[3] Pete Vandenberg wrote an article about audio responses to student work in 1992 (!) — it’s attached: “Excuse Me, Is This Thing On? Audiotape Commentary in Dialogic Classrooms.” ERIC.gov abstract:
Asserts that audiotape commentary on student papers should not be considered a panacea for composition teachers. Argues that, although its effectiveness always depends on a greater dialogic context, it can be a collaborative, enabling method for reader and writer to exchange information about intention and effect that exceeds the limitations of traditional written commentary.
Thanks for reading —