Tools for input and reporting? Especially for lesson observation?
August 18, 2015 5:27 AM Subscribe
At work, we're creating a digital classroom observation tool. There will be short-answer questions resulting in a report. Google Forms and Survey Monkey aren't getting us there. Do you know other general purpose platforms or specific lesson observation tools I should consider? I'm interested in complete tools, or neat features to include if we end up custom-developing our own.
The tool will collect short-answer inputs from a classroom observer, and then output reports. The reports will be used for feedback and for customizing professional development and other school resources (not for teacher evaluation). We're considering three approaches. Can you suggest existing apps or tools to consider for any of them?
1. We might work with an existing lesson observation tool. Google yields a bunch of possibilities, but I don't know which are worth a look. Can you suggest any that feature:
-Topics and short-answer questions that we create ourselves, not pre-packaged in the tool.
-Reporting that's visual, appealing, concise, and helpful -- see further explanation in 2., below.
-A design that's well-crafted for usability and appeal.
2. We might work with an existing general purpose input & reporting platform (like Google Forms or Survey Monkey). Are there any general purpose platforms with the three capabilities above? Google Forms and Survey Monkey are falling short on the reporting front. I don't simply want a chart of the responses to each question. Rather, I want something synthesized, such as 'the three areas most in need of strengthening,' where each area might be made up of more than one of the questions. So, I'd want a way to pre-specify what charts to show, with what explanatory text, for each of a number of if-then conditions.
3. We might custom-develop a tool ourselves. For this approach, what's out there in terms of great features or designs that I might not think up otherwise? Any notably nice ways to handle input during observation or reporting afterwards would be helpful. Also, any thoughts on the feasibility of a hybrid, where a developer's code would take Google Forms or Survey Monkey output and customize reports to show instead of the canned ones?
(Please note that I'm aware that lesson observation is often used problematically in ways that teachers dislike. This particular tool won't be used for teacher evaluation, and in any case, my purview is to help design the tool well, not to determine whether anything like it should exist.)
The tool will collect short-answer inputs from a classroom observer, and then output reports. The reports will be used for feedback and for customizing professional development and other school resources (not for teacher evaluation). We're considering three approaches. Can you suggest existing apps or tools to consider for any of them?
1. We might work with an existing lesson observation tool. Google yields a bunch of possibilities, but I don't know which are worth a look. Can you suggest any that feature:
-Topics and short-answer questions that we create ourselves, not pre-packaged in the tool.
-Reporting that's visual, appealing, concise, and helpful -- see further explanation in 2., below.
-A design that's well-crafted for usability and appeal.
2. We might work with an existing general purpose input & reporting platform (like Google Forms or Survey Monkey). Are there any general purpose platforms with the three capabilities above? Google Forms and Survey Monkey are falling short on the reporting front. I don't simply want a chart of the responses to each question. Rather, I want something synthesized, such as 'the three areas most in need of strengthening,' where each area might be made up of more than one of the questions. So, I'd want a way to pre-specify what charts to show, with what explanatory text, for each of a number of if-then conditions.
3. We might custom-develop a tool ourselves. For this approach, what's out there in terms of great features or designs that I might not think up otherwise? Any notably nice ways to handle input during observation or reporting afterwards would be helpful. Also, any thoughts on the feasibility of a hybrid, where a developer's code would take Google Forms or Survey Monkey output and customize reports to show instead of the canned ones?
(Please note that I'm aware that lesson observation is often used problematically in ways that teachers dislike. This particular tool won't be used for teacher evaluation, and in any case, my purview is to help design the tool well, not to determine whether anything like it should exist.)
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So to reverse engineer this, if you want to know what PD teachers want/school climate ideas/school resources, why not ask them in some type of anonymous survey? You can prompt them about areas of PD and let them respond. That way you can see that most teachers want to know more about Executive Function or whatever. It also treats the teachers like the professionals that they are, with less of an emphasis on "we're going to watch you and apply some standards and make judgments from that as opposed to respecting your professionalism and letting us know what you think."
* I just feel like as soon as you're observing teachers, you're going to get invalid and skewed results. And possibly pissed off teachers.
posted by kinetic at 7:25 AM on August 18, 2015