Currently I have one professor who is interested in putting one of her class assignments totally online. During the semester her graduate students tutor an adolescent reader. They gather reading data throughout the semester such as fluency reading and comprehension, as well as running records of the student reading aloud. Then the students analyze the data they have collected during the semester and write a professional report detailing the student’s strengths and areas for improvement, with specific strategies to achieve the reading goals. In the past she has had students write their report/paper and then attach selected work examples to the back which support their conclusions. She wants to strengthen this project by requiring that students include artifacts such as audio sample of the child reading (which will support their analysis), a spreadsheet of a fluency chart (timed reading from a selected passage each week), writing samples from the student, and possibly a video clip of one literacy session with the child. The professor told me that in previous classes most of her graduate students had the option of completing everything electronically and most of them did. However, none of them was really able to create a final document in which the artifacts could be linked with the report.

The main components of the case study are scanned artifacts of the student’s work, audio files of the student reading, photographs and video clips, spreadsheets of the test data, fluency chart, and other assessments given during the semester, and a Word document of the actual case study which ties it all together.

The great thing about this project is that the professor wants to learn how to do it herself. I welcome suggestions and ideas. I’m looking for ease of use, short learning curves on the web tools, and a product that will be useful for all the students in the class as well as others who are interested in the content.