ACA Distance Educator's ToolKit
Authentic Tasks
Strategy | Example 1 | Example 2 | Example 3
Once a student leaves the academic world, what kinds of daily tasks will be required of her in the work force? Will he frequently take timed pencil and paper tests in a room full of people? Probably not. Unlike undergraduates, most of us only take the traditional paper and pencil timed test when we are up for a driver's license renewal. Meanwhile, the bulk of white collar professionals and graduate research assistants spend their day doing research, attending and giving presentations, compiling data, completing projects, and filing reports. Learning assignments that mimic the activities of the working intellectual are known as authentic task assignments. These employ the Contructivist perspective, and in the case of group web projects, the Social Psychological perspective. These assignments should emphasize active problem solving over the more passive transfer of information associated with programmed instruction. The independent learning schedule of a distance web based course is a suitable venue for learning assignments that tap and develop authentic task skills.
As a college instructor, you probably already employ a number of authentic task assignments in your residential courses such as debates, journals, research papers, essays, presentations, and special projects. Many of these assignments don't have to change significantly for a distance course. However, a distance assignment requires pre-emptive preparation on your part to compensate for spontaneous interactions with students that occur in a residential course environment. Anything you normally would say in a residential course to describe an authentic task should be written down for the distance learner. When selecting authentic tasks for distance learners, there are three primary considerations:
- Assignments have to be submitted electronically in an accessible file format and size. For instance, a dozen students each sending a five megabyte Powerpoint as an email attachment will quickly shut down your account. It may be possible to give the students a user account on a file server specifically for this purpose.
- Online group assignments require a different strategies.
- Consider a live chat room as a debate venue, with limited participants and many viewers.
- Group web or presentation projects may require a separate Wikki server.
- Another group option is to have different components delegated to individuals, and have a moderated listserv or discussion web devoted to the subgroup.
- In many cases, group projects can be scaled down to a solo project level.
- You should consider tools on the web. There are more information resources available on the web than in a brick and mortar library. Since the course already requires access to a computer with an internet connection, you could require that students properly use the internet for their research or other tasks. You could ask students to use online databases or simulations. Be creative with the possibilities!
In many situations, not every instructional unit will require an authentic task. Some distance instructors will use authentic tasks as summative assessments, while others will use them as formative assessments or mastery tools. In any event, these assignments should be designed to allow students to apply cumulative learning from other exercises (parsimony, formative quizzes, online discussions) to a new situation. The transfer and application of existing knowledge to a new situation is the best indicator of deep learning and intellectual development.
In addition to a major marketing project due near the end of the semester, Professor Naff requires her online Intro to Marketing students to complete short written assignments related to each of twelve instructional units. For each assignment, she attempts to model the desired behaviors for her students by including an example short paper which demonstrates the proper construction.
Professor Ashook requires his students to experience first hand the instability of the world markets. As an authentic task, he requires his students to participate as research investors using one of the stock mirror simulators available to educators. Throughout the semester, students submit justification reports for any purchases or sales of stock, just as any paid investor might do for a managed fund. Research might include Edgar online searches, company press releases, and competitors' filings, etc. Grades are determined as much by strategy, reports, and risk management as the performance of individual stock portfolios. Professor Ashook compiled a frequently asked questions web page about the assignment, and developed additional resources pages to complement an externally developed stock mirror simulator such as the one below.
Professor Whited requires her journalism students to follow and report on a fabricated breaking news story for a fictional employer. During the assignment, she corresponds via email with her students in the persona of their stodgy "just the facts" editor, Mr. McCracken. The students receive news wires, local newspaper articles, taped interviews, press releases, police reports, and news footage via the assignment web pages. All of these materials are in fact fabrications to lend credibility to a controlled virtual environment. Video and audio segments were prerecorded using volunteer actors. The prewritten press releases and other contrived facts relevant to the story are made available to each student only after each stage of the assignment is completed.
Reward Video Clip (MPEG) ©2000 L. Whited
Continue to the next section: Instructional Units
Seven
Perspectives Assignment
Virtual
Stock Trading Site