courses (There has to be irony hiding in there somewhere.). I completed other such trainings in the past that use specific rubrics; and then I have used that training to review materials, from students’ exams (e.g., FCAT & AP Calculus) to course materials being adopted by the State of Florida’s K – 12 system. This training was different in the fact that subjectivity was built into the review process and the focus seemed to be on providing “rich feedback” instead of determining if a course met the standard or not; if a course doesn’t meet a standard, then I understand providing feedback so that the course could be upgraded and improved so it eventually meets the standard. But, I had difficulty in understanding the rationale of providing feedback for the met standards.
For the sake of an analogous example, consider a simple standard that states: “1.A: All compound sentences will be written correctly.” Further there are annotations that say: “A compound sentence will be judged correct if each independent clause contains a subject and predicate, and the independent clauses are properly connected with conjunctions and/or punctuation. For example, John is a man, and he works as a housekeeper. Another example, Sue is a woman; she works as a carpenter.” Then you are given an example to evaluate:
“The fox crossed the road, and he liked it there.”
From my experience and training, it appears the sentence is correct and therefore meets the requirement. I would simply mark it as met and move on.
But, in the training I just experienced, I’m expected to write something like:
“I really like the way you started the sentence. This compound sentence meets standard 1.A and is correct because each independent clause contains a subject and predicate (e.g., fox & crossed). Further, according to the annotations, you used the conjunction “and” and a comma, which is correct. I would, however, recommend that you may wish to use the word ‘being' instead of ‘it.’ Overall, it was a great job.”
If I were the person submitting my course for review and received this kind of response, I would believe the reviewer had too much time on his/her hands and needed to get a real job… I completely understand the use of the sandwich approach to constructive criticism, but when something is correct, why spend so much time on saying so? And, what makes the reviewer’s opinion on stylistic writing better than the person who wrote the sentence?
In the online course review process, I don’t see how my “opinion” (as a reviewer) of the way a course should look matters, as long as the standards are met.