Another innovative and impressive MOOC led by Bernard Bull of Concordia University Wisconsin. This one explores what learning could look like “beyond letter grades“. From the course description:

Bernard Bull
Assistant Vice President of Academics at Concordia University Wisconsin

This six-week course will allow participants to carefully consider the history, benefits, limitations, and alternatives to using letter grades in learning environments. It will include reflection about the role of formative and summative assessment, strategies for leveraging technology for assessment, as well as exploration of authentic and alternative assessments. Other topics will include peer assessment, badges, self-assessment, and a variety of feedback sources in learning environments. As a way to develop a deeper understanding of the subject, participants will experiment with different forms of assessment and examine a variety of real world examples of learning organizations that do not use letter grades.

The MOOC itself goes beyond letter grades; it uses BadgeOS and Credly to help recognize achievement among students. In his week one blog reflection about the course, Dr. Bull writes:

This is our first experiment using the WordPress BadgeOS integration with Credly.com to review and distribute badges. So far it is working well. I have a few suggested features, but this is version 1.2 of the product, so it is bound to continue to improve in the upcoming months. For now though, it seems to be an excellent option for those of us who are comfortable the WordPress platform. It took our team well under a day to get all the technology set up and ready to go, and it has an intuitive interface for reviewing submissions to earn a badge and providing narrative feedback.

We’re impressed with Dr. Bull’s leadership in offering open courses in innovative ways on timely topics.

More reflections on Dr. Bull’s blog.

Visit the MOOC site and participate at:
www.beyondlettergrades.com