One of the things we think a lot about at ExtensionEngine is creating new and improved mechanisms for authentic assessments in online learning. Traditionally, online learning hasn’t done authentic assessment well due to limited faculty time, costs, and the limitations of machine grading. We are proposing a Microsoft Office Mix xBlock for Open edX (and eventually edX itself) that would address these limitations and, thus, increase the ease of deploying such assessments.
Office Mix is an extension of Microsoft PowerPoint. It was developed as a tool to quickly create video-based presentations on top of PowerPoint. Our Instructional Design (ID) and User Experience (UX) teams collaborated to produce a concept for an xBlock based on Mix. Currently, there is an existing xBlock that enables faculty to embed a non-editable Mix into courseware. However, we think an interesting use case exists for using Office Mix as an assessment and feedback tool within the edX platform. Our concept proposes a new xBlock that both enables learners to use Office Mix to produce assessment artifacts and also enables faculty to give feedback on student work that is more qualitative and robust.
Take a look at the attached video for a walk thru of our concept and remember that we love talking about this stuff, so if you’re interested in this concept or any other assessment related ideas, let’s chat. Open edX is a very powerful platform enabling organizations to drive their mission, strategy, and generate revenue.
If you want to talk to the people behind this concept and this video, then please reach out to either Jared Moore or Scout Stevenson.
