1. Web Pedagogies Week 12: Transactional Distance and Polling

2. Schedule Last Weeks recap Project Reviews Polling
Using the Polling tool
Break
Lab

3. Project Feedback (3) Please pick one project and read it over
Prepare feedback points
Give presentation

4. Polling: Assessing Opinion
How do we know?: Ask everyone or sample the population
Why sample:
Efficient way to get information
Sample size determines margin of error (smaller samples have higher errors)

5. Polling: Samples Recent Gallup Poll Likely voters Registered voters
Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,014 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted April 5-8, For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.
Likely voters
Registered voters
Source:

6. Polling: Predicting
Often a way of using aggregate statistics to find information to predict or explain.
Common Prediction: Forecasting presidential race
Likely voters
Registered voters
Source:

7. Polling: Explaining things
Exit polling common in politics to help explain outcomes:
For example: NH exit polls after primary
Kerry carried voters who wanted a viable candidate
Kerry ahead w/voters who cared about health care and economy
Dean ahead with wanting a candidate close to their own position
Dean carried anti-Iraq war voters.
Edwards ahead with those who cared about the ‘tone’ of race

8. Polling: Tracking Responses over Time
“In general, how would you say things are going for the U.S. in Iraq?”
Source:

9. Polling: Disaggregating the Data
Demographic or other background variables often key:
Gender
Gender gap in politics: Men favor Bush over Kerry (46 to 38%) Women favor Kerry over Bush (50 to 37%)*
Age
Race
What else would be important?
Other background variable depending on the study
DCE report:
CS vs non-CS students
Students who had prior distance learning experiences vs. not
* Investor’s Business Daily, March 15, 2004

10. Polling in classrooms: affordances of the web
How can polling transform the classroom?
Instant feedback
Take the ‘temperature’ of the class
Do quizzes
Collect data
Other uses in education: Ed School admissions tool

11. Sites of Interest Electronic assessment resources Polling sites
Useful article: Butler (2003) “The Impact of Computer Based Testing on Student Attitudes and Behavior.”
Polling sites