The
Connecticut Department of Education and several other curriculum-based education organizations
combined their resources with the objective of creating an innovative curriculum-based
web site for Connecticut teachers, parents, and students. The vision was to create a web
site that could be used by other state’s educators in the future, for Connecticut’s
vision was not unique, but their approach certainly was.
The Challenge
An outline of this vision was presented to Business Edge in the Spring of 2000 and the
project was aptly named “Goals 2000”. The project would allow media files such
as video, audio, and imagery, to be associated with student tasks so that a visual connection
could be made between scoring tasks and the experiences teachers had with their students.
Care had to be taken however that students identities were not compromised, and at the
same time the media had to be of acceptable quality in order to judge the task scoring.
Connecticut State Department of Education
CTCurriculum.org
The Goals 2000 project would enable the user to access student assessment tasks, scoring scales, and student work based on the Connecticut standards. Educators could also use this site to share their own curriculum ideas with other teachers, by entering new tasks. The multimedia student work found here brings curriculum to life, by enabling users to see and hear the level of performance called for by Connecticut’s standards.
Solution
Since teachers throughout Connecticut and other neighboring states would be contributing
content and media files to the Goals 2000 web site, the web site’s usability needed
to be both cutting edge and easy to use and understand by first-time users with minimal
training and intervention. Thus a combination of creative administration tool layouts and
intuitive web forms were designed so that new tasks (which could be very complicated to
describe) could be databased and indexed by teachers with little web experience.
The task data was stored on a SQL Server database and allowed users to interact with the new and exciting ways. Not only could full-featured searches allow quick access to specific tasks, but teachers wishing to upload media files and score tasks could do so automatically, as the task input screens allowed for dynamic generation of Task scoring by multiple users.
Results
Not only were teachers empowered to create their own tasks and have other teachers grade
and review them, but the viewing of actual task results performed by actual students and
viewed by teachers allowed comparisons of tasks levels and abilities of students that could
never have occurred before.
Hundreds of teachers have used this site to compare tasks with other teachers, review the
State’s list of standards, and compare those standards to tasks created by teachers
across Connecticut and New England. A teacher can log in, view tasks graded by others,
and also view the work that was graded so that a visual connection can be made between
superior work, and work that either does not meet standards or needs improvement.
By giving educators the ability to dynamically upload and grade student work according to published state education standards, future standards can be applied consistently through the state, and eventually the nation.
Why Business Edge?
Business Edge Internet Design, Inc. provides Internet strategy consulting and comprehensive
Internet-based solutions to Fortune 1000 companies and other emerging international market
leaders. We help businesses identify how the Internet can be used to their competitive
advantage. At Business Edge, we use our expertise in strategy, creative design, and systems
engineering to implement customized solutions for e-commerce and other Internet applications.
