Solution Spotlight: Tracking Hours for Internships, Practicum or Projects

The following solutions were created for a TCU graduate program to track required hours documenting their student experience in practicum and clinical experiences, conferences, project development, etc.  These solutions could easily be applied to other programs or projects within a course where multiple submissions are required to earn points towards a course or program requirement.

Use the Discussion Tool to Track Hours

Discussion is set up using single-user groups with each topic assessed separately, so only the instructor sees each student’s responses and all responses are grouped together (when instructor has filtered by user). Student workflow requires the student to start a thread, attach their form, and then post a general comment indicating the quantity of hours being submitted. Scores are automatically aggregated in the gradebook as the instructor scores each thread (student submission).

Pros

  • Hours/score can be tracked separately for each submission but a total score will display in the gradebook.
  • Student view in gradebook will display all linked approved files and total score/hours earned.
  • Students can see individual post score/hours earned in Class Progress tool>Discussions>topic details.
  • Instructor does not need to reply to each discussion.
  • Instructor does not need to manually calculate hours.
  • All submissions and grade fields are in one screen.

Cons

  • Students will need to remember to go to Class Progress to see scores on individual threads. Threads are automatically aggregated in the gradebook, providing the running total / progress toward completion.

Get Started with the Discussion Tool for Hours Tracking

Use the Assignment Tool to Track Hours

This option uses individual assignment folders where all students submit to the same folder. This means that the course would have one assignment submission folder called “Hours Tracking”, for example, and all students would submit all work to this folder. TCU Online will group submissions by user and display the date/time submitted.

Student workflow requires the student to select the assignment submission folder, attach the form, and add a general comment indicating the quantity of hours being submitted.

Scores will be displayed in the gradebook in one column. The column will be worth 1,000 points. Students and the instructor can see progress by consulting the gradebook. Students can see feedback files by going to the assignment submission folder and clicking feedback. The running total score and any text feedback are listed on the Grades page visible to each student and in Class progress.

Pros:

  • Within the assignment submission folder feedback area, feedback files are in a list; this is easy because students can opt to download all feedback files with a single click.
  • Options for giving feedback:  You can use TII (rec setting threshold at nothing below 76% and do not submit to repository); faculty can download and open in Word / Acrobat, add comments, digitally sign, and then re-upload.

Cons:

  • Potential for loss of incremental data due to manual input by instructor in one field tabulating the running “score/hours” for each student.
  • Overall, this is a very manual process with high potential for error.

Get Started with the Assignments Tool for Hours Tracking