Assessing Student Performance in Twitter-Based

Discussion Forums: A Connected Learning Approach

Presence. Attendance should mean something (but not everything). It can be measured in terms of
number of tweets during a session, but this might send the message to students that quantity
means more than quality. Besides, active listening in discussion forums is as important as
speaking, and listening is not captured by counting tweets. Consider using a short pre-discussion
survey in which students assess their own preparation (see Dr. Gardner Campbells APGAR for Class
Meetings: http://www.gardnercampbell.net/blog1/?p=421 ). The completed surveys can indicate
presence while encouraging self-assessment and providing data that can be de-identified and
aggregated for group-level feedback. This method also values everyone who shows up to the
forum, regardless of their natural tendencies towards intro- or extroversion.
Mechanics. On Twitter, proper grammar and spelling do not play significant roles in the quality or
communication of ideas in fact, strict adherence might reduce a students ability to express their
ideas within the 140 character limit. The Twitter equivalent to good language mechanics is the
consistent use of the course hashtag. It is an important detail, because tweets are difficult to see,
evaluate, and respond to if they are not aggregated with appropriate hashtag.
Willingness to experiment. Curiosity should be rewarded. Students who experiment with the
annotation systems of Twitter mentions, retweets, favorites, hat tips, vias, photos and gifs, etc.
increase their digital, network, and transmedia skills while spending more time on task and making
connections. Student use of these annotation systems can be easily extracted through open source
software and reflected back to students in real time for use in formative and summative feedback.
Ability to connect with people. Discussion forums are for dialogue. Successful students read the
tweets of other participants, engage with those ideas, and relate them to their own. They mention
other classmates directly by using their twitter handle. They reply in a timely manner when other
students mention them. Mentions and replies can be easily extracted and reflected back to students
in real-time. Furthermore, social network analysis can be performed easily and in real time to provide
students and instructors with visualizations and metrics about student interaction.
Ability to connect ideas within course context. During Twitter discussion forums, successful students
reference the ideas found in the assigned or recommended reading. This can be indicated by reading
the content of the tweets, but also through student use of hyperlinks to the reading. Students can
curate their own tweets easily for self- or peer-assessment of content. The presence and content of
hyperlinks can be extracted and reflected back to students in real time for formative assessment..
Ability to connect ideas across contexts. Successful students relate discussion topics to their own
research, areas of personal interest, and/or life experiences. Connections across contexts can be
indicated by content of tweets, but the use of hyperlinks to other web documents is often an effective
way of helping others follow a train of thought. Hyperlinking should be encouraged. The presence and
content of hyperlinks can be extracted easily and reflected back to students in real time for formative
assessment.