Measurement Metrics for Online Independent Study Courses

In my Web Analytics for Online Instructional Design class, I have been thinking about various metrics that could be analyzed when evaluating online independent study courses. Here are a few that I think would be helpful.

• The amount of time students spend reading the content pages.
• The connection between the amount of time spent reading and the scores on the tests.
• The background of the students (age, ethnicity, demographics, education, etc.) Then it would be nice to find correlations with the students' background and their scores.
  
• How often the students refer to the media resources. It would specifically be helpful to know which media resources are the most used: audio, video, etc.
• For the students that scored high, what did they spend a majority of their online time doing?
• How often are students referring to the Objectives Page?
• Are students using the optional mastery pages? If so, how much time on average do they spend doing them? How many of the master pages do they use? What difference has it made on their score?
• Are the students using the links that go to external resources? If so, which ones seem to be the most popular (or helpful)?
• How much time are they spending with each lesson?
• Which distractors are working, and which ones are not?
• What is the general webpage navigation order that the students follow? Do they read the content pages, or do they skip right to the test?
• If a test is open-book, how many student skip back and forth from the test to the content pages?
• Does additional "fluff" (i.e. content or resources) have any affect on the learning for the high school classes? What about for the college level courses?
• Which of all the resources are being the most used? Do those that use them score better on the tests?
• Does the amount of time studying the content pages correlate to better test scores? What about the amount of extra resources that are used?
• Do students spend more time on content pages that are heavily text-oriented or on pages that are heavily graphics-oriented?
• When students use video/audio clips, do they view/listen to the whole clip?
• Do students spend more time on pages that look more modern with graphics, colors, videos, audio, etc. rather than those pages that look older?
• On which pages do students request for help from the teachers/tutors? (This would help us know what content to change or enhance to prevent the problems in the future.)
• Which webpages seem to catch the most attention of the students?
• The student's intent for taking the class. For example, does the student truly want to learn about the content and do well in the class, or will the student settle for any grade just so that he can graduate? How could we make the class applicable for both parties?

That's all for now, folks!

What I Expect to Get Out of Web Analytics

I am actually very excited for this class. This will be my first exposure to web analytics. I believe that web analytics has been a powerful tool for business, organizations, etc. and I believe it will increase in its importance.

For this class I hope to at least learn the basics of web analytics, and not just from an educational standpoint. I'd like to know how web analytics can apply across disciplines: from education to business. I'd like to know how to read the numbers and how to make important decisions from them.

I am also excited about the set up of the class. I look forward to becoming a teacher-learner in a zion-like class and to growing in my understanding of the gospel.

The Most Embarrasing Church Musical Number EVER

I have often wondered what my most embarrassing moment in life has been. I have never been able to think of anything, perhaps because I don’t get embarrassed very easily. Well, after today, I now have a most embarrassing moment in my life. So we show up to Church and have a nice time in sacrament meeting. The boys are doing great, no trouble there, and we are able to listen to a couple great talks on humility. All of a sudden the second talk was done, and it was time for me to play I Love to See the Temple on the piano. I take the long walk up to the piano and begin to get it ready. It’s a grand piano, so I decided I’d open up the top a bit. I lifted the top up and tried to get the little latch part to come out of the big piece so that I could set the top on the little piece. Well, I couldn’t get it out. I felt like I was tinkering there forever, so finally I decided to just put the top down.

Finally I was able to get the piano all set up. Once it was good to go I used my super-shaky hands to get the music ready. I had made a copy of one of the pages so that I would not need to mess with the one page turn in music. I double-checked the music again and again to make sure I was really on the right page and that the extra sheet of paper was situated in the right spot. I was now ready to play. I don’t know how I got my hands (that were still shaky) to the piano keys, but somehow they got there. Before playing I lengthened out my hand and fingers so that I could be sure I at least played the first chord correctly. “Breath in, breath out. OK, now I’m ready to play.” I started playing. The first measure sounded good, but it only took me to the second to make my first mistake. "Whoops!" I then became more nervous, but I kept playing.

I wasn’t sure if I should look at the music or if I should look at my hands. That just made me more nervous. As a result I lost my place in the music approximately 900 times. I kept hoping that the congregation just thought I was pausing for dramatic emphasis and not because I didn’t have a clue where I was in the music. Halfway through the music my arms were as tense as my shaky hands. That just made things more difficult. “Whoops, lost my place again! Where was I?” The piano tinkering kept going, and music was riddled with mistakes. At last I was on the last line. The end was in sight! If I could just get the last note right I would be OK. Again, I made some mistakes as I made my journey to the last chord. Then I played the last chord. “Hey, I actually got the end correct!” I held the last note for as long as I dared, then lifted my foot from the pedal, closed up the piano, and made the arduous journey back to our bench. I tried not to make eye contact with anybody so they wouldn’t see the shame in my face. Of all the times that I had played the song, this one was definitely the worst I had ever done. I had butchered the song, but at least I was done!

When I reached our bench and plopped myself down. I just looked straight forward, not daring to look at my wife Erin and see her reaction. Fortunately our two boys had been super good while I was up there, including 2-year old McKay. It was nice to have him start climbing over me so that I could get my mind off the musical number. Brother Foster in front of us turned around and said good job to me. I then had the courage to look at Erin. She congratulated me, but I think my face still stayed red. I leaned over and told her that I would never play the piano in church again. She assured me that I didn’t do as bad as I thought I had, and many other members congratulated me as well. I am grateful that Erin and the others were very kind, even though I felt like it was a disaster.

After the meeting Bishop Saffell came to us and told me that I had done a good job. I told him that I would rather give a talk or teach the Gospel Doctrine Sunday school class any day before I would do the musical number in Church. He then informed me that he sided with me. He told me he would rather give a talk in his bathing suit than do the musical number. I said I would gladly do the same!