Language Primer FAQ This FAQ is designed to help administrators and instructors understand how to incorporate the Language Primer into their curricula. What is the Language Primer? The Language Primer Digital Course Pack focuses on the fundamentals of grammar, punctuation and word use, giving your students unlimited access to essays, practice drills and feedback. When they're ready, they can take the "final exams" for each section to see how much they have learned. How does the Language Primer work? At the heart of this course are drills and feedback. We introduce each topic with a brief explanation and examples. Then students can use practice questions to apply what they've learned. With each practice question, they will see whether their answer was correct and will receive feedback about their answer. The Language Primer takes full advantage of the dynamic online learning environment at Poynter's News University. About the Drills: Each drill section focuses narrowly on a single aspect of grammar or punctuation or emphasizes correct word usage and spelling. (See Appendix A for a list of topics covered in the Language Primer Digital Course Pack.) Students can zero in on areas where their skills are weak, choosing to spend time practicing drills on specific topics, while skipping topics where they excel. This gives each student a learning experience tailored to his or her strengths and weaknesses. Students have unlimited access to the drills. On answering each drill question, they will receive feedback that explains why their answer was correct or incorrect. The drills are intended to provide confidence-based learning, which means that students can see how well they are mastering the material. The drills use feedback to reinforce concepts introduced through the teaching text, enabling students to learn by doing. About the assessments: When students believe that they have mastered the material in all subtopics of a section, they may take the assessment for that section. This serves as the "final exam" for each section. Students will take a separate assessment for each section (Grammar, Punctuation, Word Use). The assessments randomly draw questions from a pool that encompasses all of the drill questions for that section plus additional questions that appear only on the assessments. To ensure academic integrity, each student sees a unique set of assessment questions presented in a unique order. The assessments are designed to measure proficiency with the content, not to extend the learning. Unlike the drills, the Language Primer does not provide feedback on the assessments just a final score. (To see sample questions from the Final Exam, see Appendix B.)
How do I set up a Language Primer section for my class or school? Contact us at info@newsu.org with the name of the school, class or section, instructor name and email address, a contact name and email address (if that is different from the instructor name) and the number of students. Please submit your request at least two weeks before the start of the semester to ensure that we can fully test it before the students need to begin work. When the Language Primer is ready, we will send you information about how to enroll and access the Instructor Dashboard and will also send instructions and a link you can provide your students. How do the assessments work? To ensure academic integrity, each student sees a unique set of assessment questions presented in a unique order. The assessments are designed to measure proficiency with the content, not to extend the learning. Students get three chances to score an 80 percent (or higher) to pass the assessment for each section. Each final exam has 50 multiple-choice questions, which are drawn from a pool that encompasses all of the drill questions for that section plus additional questions that appear only on the assessments. Students have 75 minutes to complete the assessment. Unlike the drills, the Language Primer does not provide feedback on the assessments just a final score. If you have different requirements for your class, please indicate that at the time your order your Language Primer Digital Course Pack at info@newsu.org. Why can t my students see which questions were correct and which were missed on an assessment? Our goals are to test students mastery of the concepts taught in the Language Primer and protect the academic rigor of the testing process. Given the environment of online learning, if students see which questions they missed (or see the ones that were correct) it would be like putting an answer key on the Internet. We could not guarantee that the exam questions and answers would not be shared. Creating a unique exam for each student and each attempt also prevents students from memorizing the answers or copying from other students in a classroom or computer lab setting. We want to maintain the integrity of the process and assess actual learning, and we have determined that this method accomplishes those goals. The goal of the Language Primer is to provide individualized instruction. The students have unlimited access to the drills, which provide feedback on which answers were incorrect and why. Students are expected to work individually to improve their weak areas, and they should take the assessments only when they are confident that they have mastered the material.
Can I see which questions my students got right and wrong? Each assessment randomly draws questions from a pool that encompasses all of the drill questions for that section plus additional questions that appear only on the assessments. For you to get a report for all of your students, with 50 questions per student in each assessment, would probably not be helpful (and would take you a lot of time to analyze). Instead, we can provide a report that breaks down the assessment questions by topic area and generates, for the class as a whole, a list stating what percentage of questions in each category were answered correctly. This report, available for a fee, will provide you with a breakdown by topic and subtopic, letting you know, for example, that 40 percent of answers to questions on dangling modifiers were incorrect, while only 7 percent of answers to questions on comma splices were incorrect. From this report, you can identify which topic and subtopic areas to focus on in class. To obtain this report for your class, contact NewsU at info@newsu.org once all of the students have completed their assessments. Can all my students get the same test? To protect the academic rigor of the online testing environment, each student sees a unique set of assessment questions presented in a unique order. Given the environment of online learning, if students all saw the same test, we could not guarantee that the exam questions (and answers) would not be shared. Creating a unique exam for each student and each attempt also prevents students from memorizing the answers or copying from other students in a classroom or computer lab setting. If, however, you want a classroom-only exam version of the assessments with an answer key, please contact us at info@newsu.org. This service, available for an extra fee, must be requested from the NewsU team at the time you order your Digital Course Pack at info@newsu.org. We strongly recommend that exams of this type be administered in class and proctored. How do I know that my students are not cheating on the assessments? To ensure academic integrity, each student sees a unique set of questions presented in a unique order each time he or she takes an assessment. The assessments also have a time limit, so students can't scroll through the course to search for every answer. Creating a unique exam for each attempt also prevents students from memorizing the answers or copying from other students in a classroom or computer lab. The assessments pull some questions from the pool of questions used in drills, but they also use a large pool of questions that only appear on assessments. This further enhances the academic integrity of the exams and ensures that we are truly measuring the learning, as it is unlikely that a student will see the same question twice. How are the students tested? The students take a separate assessment for each section: Grammar, Punctuation and Word Use. The assessment questions are a mixture of questions drawn from the pool of questions used in drills and, in the Grammar and Punctuation sections, a large pool of questions that
appear only on the assessments. These questions provide a sentence and ask students to identify the problem in the sentence. The problem is an example of one of the common problems or errors taught in the drill sections of the section. For example, in the Grammar assessment, students might be given a sentence with a dangling modifier, and their choices would include other grammar errors covered in the Language Primer. Some sentences are correct as written, and this is always one of their options. These questions test students understanding of the concepts taught on a deeper level than the topic-specific questions in the drills, where they always know what grammatical or punctuation error they are looking for. The assessment questions cover the same material as the drills, but providing a larger pool of assessment questions improves the rigor of the course and makes it extremely unlikely that students will encounter the same question twice. I want to know which questions my students missed so that I know which areas they need to work on. Can you give me access to their tests with the incorrect answers marked? Within a class, each student will see different questions, and the questions will appear in a different order. So knowing that half the students missed question #5 would be meaningless, since each student had a different question #5. Additionally, for you to get a report for all of your students, with 50 questions per student in each assessment, would probably not be helpful (and would take you a lot of time to analyze). Instead, we can provide a report that breaks down the assessment questions by topic area and generates a list stating what percentage of questions in each category were answered correctly for the class as a whole. This report, available for a fee, will provide you with a breakdown by topic and subtopic, letting you know, for example, that 40 percent of answers to questions on dangling modifiers were incorrect, while only 7 percent of answers to questions on comma splices were incorrect. From this report, you can identify which topic and subtopic areas to focus on in class. To obtain this report for your class, contact NewsU at info@newsu.org once all of the students have completed their assessments.
Once my students have completed the Language Primer, I would like to be able to focus my teaching on the areas where the greatest number of students are weak. How can I identify those subject areas? Through your Instructor Dashboard, you can look at each student s scores. If you would like a report that identifies broad topic areas of weakness for an entire class, NewsU can generate that report for you once all of the students in the class have completed their assessments. This report, available for a fee, will provide you with a breakdown by topic and subtopic, letting you know, for example, that 40 percent of answers to questions on dangling modifiers were incorrect, while only 7 percent of answers to questions on comma splices were incorrect. From this report, you can identify which topic and subtopic areas to focus on in class. To obtain this report for your class, contact NewsU at info@newsu.org. I need to review students tests and go over with them which questions they missed. Is there a way to set that up? We firmly believe that providing each student with a unique test each time he or she attempts an assessment is the best way to both measure their learning and ensure academic integrity. However, for instructors who would like to administer a single exam to the entire class, we can create a classroom-only exam version of the assessments with an answer key. We strongly recommend that a test of this type be administered and proctored in your class. This service, available for an extra fee, must be requested from the NewsU team at the time you order your Digital Course Pack at info@newsu.org. I want to be able to measure my students progress. Is there a pretest that I can compare with their final assessments to see how much they ve learned? Every version of the Language Primer includes a pretest. Like the final assessments, the pretest for each section (Grammar, Punctuation, Word Use) will include 50 questions drawn from the pool of all drill and exam questions. Students will receive only a score; they will not receive feedback. Students may take each pretest one time. The pretest is intended to provide a snapshot of students' skills before they start any of the drills. Thus, they receive a static score on the pretest rather than a "pass/fail." You can use the Instructor Dashboard to see when the students took the pretest and their scores. Do students take a final exam when they have finished the Language Primer? The assessment for each section Grammar, Punctuation, Word Use is completed separately. This offers students, and you, maximum flexibility. Students can concentrate on a single area, master the material and take the assessment before moving on to a different section. Students who are strong in one area can take that assessment right away and move on to other assignments. Your Instructor Dashboard will show separate scores for each attempt of each assessment, along with the date and time each attempt was completed. If you prefer that your students take a single assessment for the entire Language Primer course, we can create a custom comprehensive final. Any customized exams must be discussed with the NewsU team at the time you order your Digital Course Pack.
I need to know when my students took their assessments. How can I get this information? The Instructor Dashboard tracks this information. You will receive information on how to access the Dashboard when your Digital Course Pack is completed. In the Instructor Dashboard, you will see a record, by week of the course, for each student. Here. You will see the score for each pretest and assessment attempt completed that week. (Be patient. Because the Dashboard pulls a lot of tracking data from several reports, it will take a few minutes to load.) You will also see the time spent in the course per week. At the bottom of the Dashboard, you will see a list of reports you can generate by clicking on the link. Here, you will find an option to create a report that lists the date and time each student took each assessment. Why can t I see my students scores on the Instructor Dashboard? If you cannot see a student s assessment scores on your Dashboard, that student either has not enrolled or has enrolled in the wrong edition of the Language Primer. Please instruct students to use the link that you will provide to them to register for the correct Digital Course Pack and to verify that the Course Pack they have registered for carries the correct course/section name and number. How many times can students take each assessment? Students are allowed to take each assessment three times. Your Instructor Dashboard will show the scores from all attempts. They may take each pretest only once. If you have different requirements for your class, please indicate that at the time your order your Language Primer Digital Course Pack at info@newsu.org. Is it possible to give an individual student an additional attempt at an assessment? If you have a student who needs special accommodations or you determine that a student needs an additional attempt at an assessment, please contact the NewsU team at info@newsu.org. I want my students to complete each course and assessment by a particular date. Can access to the assessments be timed to allow access only between specified dates? When you request your editions of Language Primer, the assessment availability dates are established. There can be only one end date for the entire course, but your Instructor Dashboard can help you enforce deadline you set for your students. You can see, in your Instructor Dashboard, the date and time each student took each assessment. You can choose which of each student s exam scores to record, based on the date the assessment was completed or based on deadlines you set for your students.
If you wish to tailor your Course Pack to offer specific assessments only at specific times during the semester, you will need the Premium Dashboard, which is available for an additional fee. Please discuss this directly with the NewsU team at the time you order your Digital Course Pack. What topics does the Language Primer cover? The Language Primer covers the essentials of punctuation and grammar, and it features a rich section on commonly confused homophones and commonly misspelled words. A detailed list of the topics is in the document called Language Primer Topics List. How much does the Language Primer cost, and how do students pay for it? The cost of the Language Primer is $12.95 per student when the Language Primer is the only course in your Digital Course Pack. Per-student pricing for Digital Course Packs with multiple courses varies, depending on the courses selected. Instructors have free access to the Digital Course Pack and the Instructor Dashboard. NewsU can invoice the university or department for the entire section or sections, in which case an invoice will be sent toward the end of the semester, and it will reflect the number of students who registered for each section. When billing this way, NewsU can limit the number of registrations and provide a Course Code that students need to use to enroll. This enables your university or department to ensure that only the number of students enrolled in the course can actually register. Alternatively, each student can pay individually for his or her Course Pack at the time of registration. In either case, each student will need to have a (free) account at Poynter's News University, then register for the appropriate Digital Course Pack, using the Course Code and/or the link you supply to students registered for your course.