With the permission of Ygraine Caerndow, who developed both rubrics, I have added some more content to the assessment section on the
skills pages. There is a page that looks at
assessing a project in Second Life and a page that looks at
assessing learning.
One of the things that, in particular the pages on assessing a project look at, is how Second Life adds value to a teaching experience and by extension to any other project.
There has recently been a rather heated debate on the SLEducators list regarding this. There is a vocal group of people who are saying "You must not do X in Second Life." There are counter-arguments which basically say such sweeping generalisations ignore the specific needs of the class and there may well be reasons for doing something that specific way.
However, there was a broad consensus that using Second Life should add value to what you are doing. Sometimes that value may not be tangible: if you are teaching in Second Life for the first time, something where you achieve similar results to the course you taught not using Second Life, but where you have gained skills in using Second Life may be value enough. For long term sustainability however, it is likely that you will want to be finding value for the learners as well. That might manifest in hard measures - better retention, better results, new skills etc. - or it might manifest in softer measures - better social skills, more familiarity with using a computer, better understanding etc.
The new rubrics give you a possible framework with which to assess the expected and actual impact of the new materials and the use of Second Life.
Please feel free to discuss the rubrics directly with Ygraine, or in the comments here so they can be developed over time to become a useful resource for all.
