Authentic Learning and Authentic Assessment

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Implementing Authentic Activities in Website Designing

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
D E S C R I P T I O N Introduction Definition of Learning Activities Characteristics of Authentic Activities Principles of effective Web-Design Conclusion P A G E 2 2 2 4 5

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Introduction
New technologies can provide meaningful learning experiences for all children, especially those at risk of educational failure. The use of technology helps learners to develop higher order skills and to function effectively in the world beyond the classroom. A well designed website appears to have a great potential to support learners performance authentic tasks. A website based learning have a positive impact on authentic activities. It can stimulate the development of intellectual skills, contribute to the ways of learning knowledge, skills and attitudes. New technologies spur spontaneous interest more than traditional approaches.
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The definition of authentic learning and assessment

Authentic learning is a educational approach that allows students to explore, discuss, and meaningfully construct concepts and relationships in contexts that involve realworld problems and projects that are relevant to the learner. Authentic assessment refers to assessment tasks that resemble reading, writing and experimenting in the real world and in school. The following are characteristics of Authentic Learning and Assessment which are used in the development of a website. A well developed website within a learning environment is built around authentic activities where learners have their own roles similar to those found in real world. 1. Authentic activities have real world relevance. oActivities match as nearly as possible the real-world tasks of professionals in practice rather than decontextualized or classroom based tasks. 2. Authentic activities are ill-defined orequiring students to define the tasks and sub-tasks needed to complete the activity oProblems must be open to multiple interpretations rather than easily solved oLearners must identify their own unique tasks and sub-tasks in order to complete the major task. 3. Complex tasks to be investigated over a sustained period of time. a. Activities are completed in days, weeks and month rather than minutes or hours, requiring significant investment of time and intellectual resources.

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4. Authentic actives provide the opportunity for student to examine the task from different perspective using a variety of resources. b. The task affords learners the opportunity to examine the problem from a variety of theoretical and practical perspective. c. The use of variety of resources rather than limited number of pre selected references. d. Requires student to detect relevant to irrelevant information.
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5. Authentic activities provide the opportunity to collaborate. oCollaboration is integral to the task, both within the course and the real world than achievable by an individual learner. 6. Authentic activities provide the opportunity to reflect. oActivities need learners to enable learners to make choice and reflect on their learning both individually and social. 7. Authentic activities can be integrated and applied across different subject areas. Activities encourage interdisciplinary perspective and enable diverse roles and expertise rather than a single well defined field or domain. 8. Authentic activities are seamlessly integrated with assessment. Assessment of activities is seamlessly integrated with the major task in a manner that reflects real world assessment. 9. Authentic activities create polished products valuable in their own right rather than as a preparation for something else. oActivities culminate in the creation of a whole product rather than an exercise or sub step in preparation of something else. 10. Authentic activities allow competing solutions and diversity of outcome. oActivities allow a range and diversity of outcomes open to multiple solutions of an original nature, rather than a single correct response obtained by the application of rules and procedures.
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Principles of effective Web Design

1. Dont make users think The web-page should be obvious and self-explanatory. 2. Dont squander users patience Try to keep your user requirements minimal. The less action is required from users to test a service, the more likely a random visitor is to actually try it out. 3. Manage to focus users attention As web-sites provide both static and dynamic content, some aspects of the user interface attract attention more than others do. Obviously, images are more eyecatching than the text just as the sentences marked as bold are more attractive than plain text 4. Strive for feature exposure Letting the user see clearly what functions are available is a fundamental principle of successful user interface design 5. Make use of effective writing Talk business. Avoid cute or clever names, marketing-induced names, company-specific names, and unfamiliar technical names. For instance, if you describe a service and want users to create an account, sign up is better than start now! which is again better than explore our services.

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6. Strive for simplicity

From the visitors point of view, the best site design is a pure text, without any advertisements or further content blocks matching exactly the query visitors used or the content theyve been looking for. This is one of the reasons why a userfriendly print-version of web pages is essential for good user experience.

7. Dont be afraid of the white space

Organize: provide the user with a clear and consistent conceptual structure. Consistency, screen layout, relationships and navigability are important concepts of organization. The same conventions and rules should be applied to all elements.

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8. Communicate effectively with a visible language

Organize: provide the user with a clear and consistent conceptual structure. Consistency, screen layout, relationships and navigability are important concepts of organization. The same conventions and rules should be applied to all elements
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9. Conventions are our friends

Conventional design of site elements doesnt result in a boring web site. In fact, conventions are very useful as they reduce the learning curve, the need to figure out how things work. For instance, it would be a usability nightmare if all web-sites had different visual presentation of RSS-feeds

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10. Test early, test often

Test not too late, not too little and not for the wrong reasons. In the latter case its necessary to understand that most design decisions are local; that means that you cant universally answer whether some layout is better than the other one as you need to analyze it from very specific point of view (considering requirements, stakeholders, budget etc

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Conclusion
The website that is built around authentic activities brings to the classroom experiences, knowledge, beliefs and curiosities. Authentic activities provide a means of bridging those elements with classroom learning. Learners no longer simply learn rote facts in abstract or artificial situations, but they experience and use information in ways that are grounded in reality.

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