The purpose of this mini-assignment is to prepare you for the mid-term exam. The basic flow of this assignment is:
Analysis, synthesis and evaluation skills are difficult to teach and can be difficult to assess. More often than not, students are confronted with exams that test the three lower levels contained within Bloom's Taxonomy and they do not get any practice writing exams which cover the upper levels of the taxonomy. This mini-assignment is an attempt to help make you comfortable with an exam which tests the higher levels.
I recommend that your group construct your question is in either an Analysis/Synthesis form or an Analysis/Evaluation form.
In an Analysis/Sythesis question, you provide a situation which the student must analyse. Specifically, the student must analyse the situation to determine what the question really is. The student is then required to construct a solution based on one or more aspects of the course material. Both the Analysis and Synthesis components of the student's answer must be supported.
In an Analysis/Evaluation question, you provide a situation whereby there are multiple possible courses of action each of which can result in a different outcome. The student must analyse the situation (ie. determine the context of evaluation) and then use that context to evaluate the various outcomes. Usually the student is required to make a decision about which course of action is best for the stated context.
The question that you come up with must be relevant to the course material and your answer must be supportable (again, based on the course material). Please note: this does not mean you have to agree with the course material as presented by the instructor. You must support any answer you give, even if you do agree with the instructor (simply parroting the instructor will not get you full marks). :-)
You will post your results on a web page. Your web page must contain the following information:
Presentations
The presentations for this mini-assignment will be completely different than those conducted by the first mini-assignment. During the presentation day, I will ask for volunteers to present their question to the class. If, at any point, there is more time left in the lecture and there are no volunteers, I will randomly choose groups from my class list. You will be given as much time as you need to present your question, but I would prefer it if you could keep your presentation time below 15 minutes. I also encourage discussion of these questions during the presentation time.
You will be evaluated based on the information presented in your web page. You must email a link to your web page to the instructor by Saturday, October 30. On Saturday, October 30, I will post all of the questions/answer links on a web page. Also, I will be posting the ACTUAL EXAM QUESTIONS that you will be asked to answer during the midterm on November 2, 2004.
To receive an A, your question must deal with the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy and your answer must answer the question at the same level.
If your question deals with the lower levels of Bloom's Taxonomy or your answer is not appropriate, your group members will receive the mark of C.
Please note: If there are not enough volunteers to fill the lecture time and your group is chosen to present, you must present or your group will receive a penalty for the mini-assignment.