<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER  No. 2099 -- 4/11/2010 >>>>>

When I first saw an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education I thought
it was some kind of April Fool’s joke. Upon further investigation it
became clear that the article is not a prank -- our colleges are
outsourcing the grading of writing assignments to India.

The following quotes from the article seem like a prank but they are for
real: "Some Papers Are Uploaded to Bangalore to Be Graded", by Audrey
Williams June, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 4, 2010.

    Lori Whisenant knows that one way to improve the writing skills of
    undergraduates is to make them write more.... Her seven teaching
    assistants, some of whom did not have much experience, couldn’t
    deliver. Their workload was staggering: About 1,000 juniors and
    seniors enroll in the course each year. "Our graders were great,"
    she says, "but they were not experts in providing feedback."

    That shortcoming led Ms. Whisenant, director of business law and
    ethics studies at Houston, to a novel solution last fall.
    She outsourced assignment grading to a company whose employees
    are mostly in Asia.

So, Lori Whisenant, who teaches business law and ethics at the University
of Houston, is offshoring the job of grading the assignments from her
students to India. Outsourcing teaching assistant (TA) jobs to Asia might
seem like a lack of the ethics she is supposedly teaching -- until her
corporate background is reviewed. She worked at international corporations
and Wall Street investment firms such as Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young,
and PricewaterhouseCoopers, which might help to explain where she honed her
globalist ideologies.

Seven TAs seems like an adequate number of graders for one professor. Since
she teaches management, is it not reasonable to expect her to manage the
work load of her TAs? These types of jobs are very valuable for students
who need a steady paycheck and work experience. Outsourcing these jobs will
only serve to hurt students and to further the deterioration of our
university system. It makes far more sense to hire a few more TAs than to
send the money offshore.

<>

    Virtual-TA, a service of a company called EduMetry Inc., took over.
    The goal of the service is to relieve professors and teaching
    assistants of a traditional and sometimes tiresome task--and even,
    the company says, to do it better than TA’s can.

Professor Whisenant has been relieved of the tedious task of teaching by
hiring virtual teacher assistants (TA) from an Indian based company called
Virtual-TA. Their website [links below] is amusing because so many of the
pictures they post depict Anglo/Caucasian, Asian, and Hispanic students --
the prototypical Americans. The truth about Virtual-TA is exposed with a
quick browse of their management team page where you will see names like
Chandru Rajam, Tara Sherman, Ravindra Singh Bangari, Jeanne Grunert, and
Ravi Shankar. I don’t know if Ravi Shankar is the famed sitar player.
Quite conspicuously the only address they list is for an office in Virginia
-- and there is no clue that all the work is done offshore. Their Virginia
company is listed as EduMetry, which is part of the Forbes conglomerate and
is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

<>

    The graders working for EduMetry, based in a Virginia suburb of
    Washington, are concentrated in India, Singapore, and Malaysia,
    along with some in the United States and elsewhere. They do their
    work online and communicate with professors via e-mail.

OK, now for the reality check: Outsourcing the grading of student papers is
a preposterous idea. Even if the work was outsourced to a different
location within the U.S. it would be a disaster -- but these tasks are
being done in foreign countries by people who have unknown qualifications
and who have no understanding of our culture and linguistic idioms. They
probably don’t even speak English!

Everyone reading this is educated to one degree or another so it’s
probably not necessary to spend much time explaining why offshoring TA jobs
is an absurd idea. The most obvious problem with the entire concept is that
the graders won’t even know what was taught in the classroom or what
context the students were writing in. The Virtual-TA website claims that
they use "Learning Outcomes Management", whatever that means.

<>

    The company argues that professors freed from grading papers can
    spend more time teaching and doing research.

Weren’t college professors hired to be educators? Apparently nowadays
they are just too busy doing "research" to bother with the tedium of the
classroom.

<>

    Whether Virtual-TA is that better way remains to be seen. Company
    officials would not say how many colleges use the service, but
    Mr. Rajam acknowledges that the concept of anonymous and offshore
    grading is often difficult for colleges to swallow.

While they might hesitate to tell reporters which U.S. schools are
outsourcing their TA jobs overseas, a Virtual-TA "success story" web page
makes no bones about some of their clients; like for instance: West Hills
College Online and U21Global: The Online Graduate Business School. They
seem to be in the same league as the University of Houston!

<>

    Virtual-TA’s tag line is "Your expert teaching assistants." These
    graders, also called assessors, have at least master’s degrees, the
    company says, and must pass a writing test, since conveying their
    thoughts on assignments is an integral part of the job. The company
    declined to provide The Chronicle with names or degrees of assessors.
    Mr. Rajam says that the company’s focus is on "the process, not the
    individual," and that professors and institutions have ample
    opportunity to test the assessors’ performance during a trial period,
    "because the proof is in the pudding."

    Mr. Bangari, who is based in Bangalore, India, oversees a group of
    assessors who work from their homes. He says his job is to see that
    the graders, many of them women with children who are eager to do
    part-time work, provide results that meet each client’s standards
    and help students improve.

In a previous quote Mr. Rajam said that the concept of anonymous graders
might bother skeptics. Could that be because some people might question the
qualifications of part-time women and children in third world countries,
who operate out of shanty towns and sweat shops, to decide what grades
American college students earn for their academic papers?

<>

I was curious to see what Whisenant’s students think about the
outsourcing of TAs so I went to ratemyprofessors.com to read the gossip on
her. Of course these online ratings might not be representative of all of
her students but some of their opinions seem to make sense considering the
poor quality of the TAs. Not surprisingly none of the students have a clue
who is actually grading their papers, but they know shoddy and substandard
when they see it!

Here is a sampling of some of the recent comments from students.

    All student "help" is thru a TA & graders that arent much help.
    Grading of papers is subjective and contradictory;one time they say
    not developed enough & then say its too wordy after adding 30 words.

Virtual-TA argued that offshoring the grading allows professors to spend
more time teaching. If that was true it would seem that complaints like
this would be less prevalent.

<>

    Devastatingly bad prof. In class she reads her own slides and that’s
    it. Asking for help = cheating, totally laughable. Since she
doesn’t
    teach you, and no one else can help you, it ends up being an utter
    and obscene waste of $1k. Writing intensive means professional
    critique? Course not. An undergrad TA (non-English major) grades you.
    Awful awful

    Graders are extremely subjective. Difficulty in getting help

<>

Not all of the ratings are negative however -- the last one is by a student
who likes the classes because they are so easy.

    I still haven’t figured out why so many people complain about this
    class -- one of my easier courses this semester.

<>

It’s fair to assume that this one was written by a male student:

    Wow this is an awesome class. THe teacher was really hot too. I am
    glad i took this class, it was interesting and it was easy.


LINKS:

web version
http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2010/04/11/teacher-assistant-graders-outsourc
ed-to-bangalore/


Virtual-TA Home Page
http://www.virtual-ta.com/


Ravi Shankar bio at Virtual-TA
http://www.virtual-ta.com/management-team.php#shankar


Ravi Shankar sitar player home page
http://www.ravishankar.org/


Stories about Forbes and Vdare that you probably haven't read
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Avdare.com+Steve+Forbes&btnG
=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=


Forbes India Financial Statement with EduMetry
http://www.forbes.co.in/Files/20090305110419Results31122008.pdf


http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=226729&page=1
Rate My Professors: Lori Whisenant


ARTICLES COPIED:


http://chronicle.com/article/Outsourced-Grading-With/64954/
Some Papers Are Uploaded to Bangalore to Be Graded


http://www.bauer.uh.edu/Directory/profile.asp?firstname=Lori&lastname=Wh
isenant
Lori Whisenant bio


http://www.virtual-ta.com/about-us.php
About Us


http://www.virtual-ta.com/success-stories.php
Success Stories

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://chronicle.com/article/Outsourced-Grading-With/64954/

April 4, 2010
Some Papers Are Uploaded to Bangalore to Be Graded
Outsourced Grading, With Supporters and Critics, Comes to College 1

John Everett for The Chronicle

Lori Whisenant, who teaches business law and ethics at the U. of Houston,
has outsourced the grading of students' papers to a private company.

By Audrey Williams June

Lori Whisenant knows that one way to improve the writing skills of
undergraduates is to make them write more. But as each student in her
course in business law and ethics at the University of Houston began to
crank out -- often awkwardly -- nearly 5,000 words a semester, it became
clear to her that what would really help them was consistent, detailed
feedback.

Her seven teaching assistants, some of whom did not have much experience,
couldn't deliver. Their workload was staggering: About 1,000 juniors and
seniors enroll in the course each year. "Our graders were great," she says,
"but they were not experts in providing feedback."

That shortcoming led Ms. Whisenant, director of business law and ethics
studies at Houston, to a novel solution last fall. She outsourced
assignment grading to a company whose employees are mostly in Asia.

Virtual-TA, a service of a company called EduMetry Inc., took over. The
goal of the service is to relieve professors and teaching assistants of a
traditional and sometimes tiresome task -- and even, the company says, to
do it better than TA's can.

The graders working for EduMetry, based in a Virginia suburb of Washington,
are concentrated in India, Singapore, and Malaysia, along with some in the
United States and elsewhere. They do their work online and communicate with
professors via e-mail. The company advertises that its graders hold
advanced degrees and can quickly turn around assignments with sophisticated
commentary, because they are not juggling their own course work, too.

The company argues that professors freed from grading papers can spend more
time teaching and doing research.

"We tend to drop the ball when it comes to giving rich feedback, and in the
end this hurts the student," says Chandru Rajam, who has been a business
professor at several universities. "I just thought, "'There's got to be a
better way.'" He helped found the privately held EduMetry five years ago
and remains on its management staff.

Whether Virtual-TA is that better way remains to be seen. Company officials
would not say how many colleges use the service, but Mr. Rajam acknowledges
that the concept of anonymous and offshore grading is often difficult for
colleges to swallow.

Those that have signed up are a mix of for-profit and nonprofit
institutions, many of them business schools, both in the United States and
overseas. Professors and administrators say they have been won over by
on-the-job performance. "This is what they do for a living," says Ms.
Whisenant. "We're working with professionals."
Anonymous Expertise

Virtual-TA's tag line is "Your expert teaching assistants." These graders,
also called assessors, have at least master's degrees, the company says,
and must pass a writing test, since conveying their thoughts on assignments
is an integral part of the job. The company declined to provide The
Chronicle with names or degrees of assessors. Mr. Rajam says that the
company's focus is on "the process, not the individual," and that
professors and institutions have ample opportunity to test the assessors'
performance during a trial period, "because the proof is in the pudding."

Assessors are trained in the use of rubrics, or systematic guidelines for
evaluating student work, and before they are hired are given sample student
assignments to see "how they perform on those," says Ravindra Singh
Bangari, EduMetry's vice president of assessment services.

Mr. Bangari, who is based in Bangalore, India, oversees a group of
assessors who work from their homes. He says his job is to see that the
graders, many of them women with children who are eager to do part-time
work, provide results that meet each client's standards and help students
improve.

"Training goes on all the time," says Mr. Bangari, whose employees work
mostly on assignments from business schools. "We are in constant
communication with U.S. faculty."

Such communication, part of a multi-step process, begins early on. Before
the work comes rolling in, the assessors receive the rubrics that
professors provide, along with syllabi and textbooks. In some instances,
the graders will assess a few initial assignments and return them for the
professor's approval.

Sometimes professors want changes in the nature of the comments. Ms.
Whisenant found those on her students' papers initially "way too formal,"
she says. "We wanted our feedback to be conversational and more direct. So
we sent them examples of how we wanted it done, and they did it."

Professors give final grades to assignments, but the assessors score the
papers based on the elements in the rubric and "help students understand
where their strengths and weaknesses are," says Tara Sherman, vice
president of client services at EduMetry. "Then the professors can give the
students the help they need based on the feedback."

Mr. Bangari says that colleges use Virtual-TA's feedback differently, but
that he has seen students' work improve the most when professors have
returned assignments to students and asked them to redo the work to
incorporate the feedback.

The assessors use technology that allows them to embed comments in each
document; professors can review the results (and edit them if they choose)
before passing assignments back to students. In addition, professors
receive a summary of comments from each assignment, designed to show common
"trouble spots" among students' answers, among other things. The assessors
have no contact with students, and the assignments they grade are stripped
of identifying information. Ms. Sherman says most papers are returned in
three or four days, which can be key when it comes to how students learn.
"You can reinforce certain ideas based on timely feedback," Mr. Rajam says.
"Two or three weeks after an assignment is too long."
No Classroom Insight

Critics of outsourced grading, however, say the lack of a personal
relationship is a problem.

"An outside grader has no insight into how classroom discussion may have
played into what a student wrote in their paper," says Marilyn Valentino,
chair of the board of the Conference on College Composition and
Communication and a veteran professor of English at Lorain County Community
College. "Are they able to say, 'Oh, I understand where that came from' or
'I understand why they thought that, because Mary said that in class'?"

Ms. Valentino also questions whether the money spent on outsourced graders
could be better used to help pay for more classroom instructors.

Professors and on-site teaching assistants, she says, are better positioned
to learn enough about individual students to adjust their tone to help each
one get his or her ideas across on paper. "Sometimes kidding them works,
sometimes being strict and straightforward works," Ms. Valentino says. "You
have to figure out how to get in that student's mind and motivate them."

Some professors "could be tempted to not even read" the reports about how
students responded to various parts of an assignment, she says, because
when "someone else is taking care of the grading," that kind of information
can become easier to ignore.

Terri Friel, dean of the business school at Roosevelt University, says such
worries are common but overstated. In her former post as associate dean of
administration at Butler University's business school, she hired EduMetry
to help the business school gather assessment data it needed for
accreditation  --  another service the company offers. But Ms. Friel
believed that Virtual-TA would not appeal to professors there.

"Faculty have this opinion that grading is their job, ... but then they'll
turn right around and give papers to graduate teaching assistants," Ms.
Friel says. "What's the difference in grading work online and grading it
online from India? India has become known as a very good place to get a
good business education, and why not make use of that capability?"

Acceptance has been a little easier at West Hills Community College, in
Coalinga, Calif., which turned to Virtual-TA to help some students in its
online classes get more feedback than instructors for such classes have
typically offered. The service is used for one section each of three online
courses -- criminal justice, sociology, and basic math. Instructors can use
it for three to five assignments of their choice per student. Using
Virtual-TA for every assignment would be too costly, says Susan Whitener,
associate vice chancellor for educational planning. (The price varies by
length and complexity, but Virtual-TA suggests to potential clients that
each graded assignment will cost $12 per student. That means outsourcing
the grading of six assignments for 20 students in a course would cost
$1,440.)

But West Hills' investment, which it wouldn't disclose, has paid off in an
unexpected way. The feedback from Virtual-TA seems to make the difference
between a student's remaining in an online course and dropping out.

"We definitely have a cost-benefit ratio that's completely in our favor for
us to do this," Ms. Whitener says.

Holly Suarez, an online instructor of sociology at West Hills, says
retention in her class has improved since she first used Virtual-TA, two
years ago, on weekly writing assignments. Before then, "I would probably
lose half of my students," says Ms. Suarez, who typically teaches 50
students per class.

Because Virtual-TA provides detailed comments about grammar, organization,
and other writing errors in the papers, students have a framework for
improvement that some instructors may not be able to provide, she says.

And although Ms. Suarez initially was wary of Virtual-TA -- "I thought I
was being replaced" -- she can now see its advantages, she says. "Students
are getting expert advice on how to write better, and I get the chance to
really focus on instruction."

At Houston, business majors are now exposed to Virtual-TA both as freshmen
and as upperclassmen.

Steven P. Liparulo, associate director at the university's Writing Center,
helped give Virtual-TA its entree when the center decided to stop grading
writing samples from the nearly 2,000 students each year planning to major
in business. The writing evaluation is used to determine if students need
extra help. He saw Virtual-TA as a way for the center's tutors to
concentrate on working one-on-one with students. "That's just a much better
use of their time," he says.

EduMetry's Mr. Rajam hopes that more colleges will see these benefits.

"People need to get past thinking that grading must be done by the people
who are teaching," says Mr. Rajam, who is director of assurance of learning
at George Washington University's School of Business. "Sometimes people get
so caught up in the mousetrap that they forget about the mouse."

Shailaja Neelakantan contributed to this article.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.bauer.uh.edu/Directory/profile.asp?firstname=Lori&lastname=Wh
isenant

Lori Whisenant

Director of Business Law and Ethics Studies -- Clinical Faculty

Lori Whisenant
Bio

Lori Whisenant is the Director of Business Law and Ethics Studies. Prior to
teaching at UH, Lori worked as an attorney and certified public accountant
with several national accounting firms, including Deloitte & Touche, LLP
and Ernst & Young LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP (in the firm's
Washington National Tax Services). Her practice primary areas included
corporate and international tax.
Lori assists in the guidance and development of the undergraduate programs
in business law, business ethics, and writing. Other work includes
assisting in the development of scoring rubrics and assessments/reports for
assurance of learning purposes related to critical thinking, legal
competence, and ethical reasoning. Lori has also served as faculty sponsor
for both the Bauer Pre Law Society and the Bauer Women's Society.
Awards:

    * 2008 FDIP grant -- developing innovative teaching methods using
technology
    * 2007 Melcher Award for Excellence in Service.
    * 2005 FDIP grant -- developing an online repository for teaching
ethics resources

Presentations:

Lori also presents at conferences and workshops on ethical decision making
and teaching business ethics. Recent presentations include:

    * Texas Society of CPAs Accounting Education Conference (October 2008)
-- presentation on "Teaching Business Ethics in Hybrid Format to Large
Sections."
    * Sloan-C Wiki -- contribution to online resources of presentation
"Bauer College of Business: Ethics learning objectives save faculty time."
    * UH Faculty Showcase -- presented at the "Teaching for the New
Millennium Conference" on “Hybrid-izing a Large Section: 10 Insights to
Consider” (2006)
    * Several presentations for SAFE-T (a small non-profit organization) on
workplace ethics and employee training.

Certifications:

    * Bar license (District of Columbia)
    * C.P.A. license (Oklahoma)

Publications

    * Auditor Independence (BNA Portfolio)(forthcoming 2009).
    * Legal Analysis and Writing for Business Majors, McGraw-Hill Irwin
(2005).
    * IRS Summons Power over Third-Party Information - Overview of the
Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, The Tax
Advisor, July 1999 (with Michael Urban and Jana DeSirgh)
    * Small Business Taxpayer Advance Pricing Agreements, The Tax Advisor,
July 1998 (with Jana DeSirgh)
    * Section 1441 Final Withholding Regulations - Presumptions in Absence
of Documentation, The Tax Advisor, July 1998 (with Jim Hemelt)
    * Structuring Home Sales to Save Clients Tax $$$, National Tax
Practitioners Journal, 1994


Contact Info

Phone:
    713-743-4840
Email:
    lwhisenant@uh.edu
Room:
    325D
Website:
    No Web Site Currently
Education

LL.M. (Georgetown University, 2000)
J.D. (University of Oklahoma, 1995)
M.Acc. (University of Oklahoma, 1995)
B.A. (The University of Texas at Tyler, 1991)


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.virtual-ta.com/about-us.php

About Us
EduMetry . . . Where the Science of Learning Informs the Art of Teaching.

Established in 2005, EduMetry is a pioneer in offering end-to-end
assessment services for universities and colleges.  EduMetry is dedicated
to Learning Outcomes Management, the emerging area of practice that helps
institutions measure, monitor, and manage student learning outcomes. We
work with faculty throughout the process to help align program and course
objectives, assess learning outcomes, and support continuous,
mission-driven improvement.

Two experienced university professors and a technology consultant founded
EduMetry to bring to fruition their unique vision of how emerging
technologies can help higher education. They saw the convergence of
education and technology as an area full of innovation and potential for
transforming the way academic institutions approach their mission and
activities. New and imaginative ways could be developed to enhance the
effectiveness and efficiency of teaching and learning.

The results of this vision is EduMetry -- where the science of learning
informs the art of teaching.

Our premise: teaching is an art shaped by the passion that faculty bring to
the classroom, but its methods stand to gain much from the science of
learning assessment.
An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Everywhere, one hears about assessments -- in professional journals, in the
newspapers, on the radio and television. Governments, employers, taxpayers,
donors and others clamor for greater transparency and accountability in
higher education. Many institutions struggle with how to achieve these
goals effectively, efficiently, and transparently.

The professionals at EduMetry tackle the most effort-intensive aspects of
assessment. This frees up administrators and faculty to focus on
mission-critical activities. EduMetry can design and implement large-scale
assessment projects on a university, campus, college, or program basis.
Because our staff includes former university professors and administrators
with decades of experience in diverse academic settings, we understand and
respect the challenges you face and can help you tackle assessment-based
learning.
Leave the Mechanics of Assessment to Us

In an ideal world, faculty would have the time to design, manage, and
sustain the assessment process. With ever-increasing demands on faculty
time, it makes sense to bring in the specialist. Lawyers rely on
paralegals; doctors lean on physicians’ assistants. Academics can
likewise delegate time-demanding assessment services to the experts at
EduMetry. By turning to EduMetry, you will achieve greater results than
going it alone. Leave the mechanics of assessment to us and let your
faculty be the learning architects.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.virtual-ta.com/success-stories.php

Success Stories
University of Houston: Success Using Virtual-TA

Student Success at West Hills College Online

U21Global: The Online Graduate Business School Spawned by 18 Research
Universities from Four Continents

University of Houston: Success Using Virtual-TA
The Assignment

    * Asked to help the University's Writing Center assess writing samples
of students majoring in Business before they begin taking courses in the
major.
    * Scored student writing samples using the Writing Center's written
communication rubric to help ensure that students demonstrate sufficient
writing skills.
    * Additionally, assessed five case-based assignments for the C. T.
Bauer College of Business against UH-approved rubrics that addresses
critical thinking, written communication and knowledge application.
    * Provided feedback to students to ensure that learning points that
need focus are highlighted.
    * Submitted summary of student work to professors.

The Outcome

    * EduMetry provided students with detailed and personalized feedback on
every assignment in a timely manner. This project is ongoing.
    * University of Houston was able to redeploy University resources from
assessment work to advising and mentoring students in face-to-face
settings.
    * Students received a detailed, unbiased, and objective evaluation of
their work with detailed directions on ways to improve their critical and
analytical thinking and writing skills.
    * Faculty stayed engaged throughout the process, but were relieved of
the routine and somewhat repetitive assessment tasks, so as to focus on
more critical tasks.
    * Success with the initial program led to a broader partnership to
include additional Learning Outcome assessment and student assessment work.

The Contribution

EduMetry helped the University of Houston by handling the more
labor-intensive aspects of providing rich feedback and rubric-based
scoring. We helped students know their weaknesses through specific feedback
and suggested ways to improve their work.

The summative feedback to faculty helped them identify and understand the
major problems their students are facing in completing their assignments.
Such diagnostic feedback helped faculty craft their instruction better,
adjust pedagogy or reframe future assignments in order to make them more
pointedly assess learning outcomes.

The offer is a simple one. Turn to the specialists; leave it to them to do
the drudgery. Focus on the strategic and leave the tactics to others. Spend
more of your time figuring out what to do with the recommendations based on
our findings.
Student Success at West Hills College Online
The Assignment

    * EduMetry’s Virtual-TAs assist online faculty in providing rich
feedback and helpful references on their student assignments

The Outcome

    * Comments are constructive, with feedback to students on what they got
right and what they got wrong highlighted.
    * Students experience enhanced learning through greater interaction
with EduMetry on discussion board.
    * EduMetry’s rich feedback is process and approach oriented,
stimulating students and improving their Math skills.
    * Greater student interest towards learning Math. The feedback inspires
students to learn.
    * EduMetry feedback ensured students received partial credit for
responses that remained unrecognized by their LMS.
    * Assured learning through repeat practice problems assigned to
students, particularly in a Mathematics/Pre-Calculus course.
    * Higher student retention (gain in tuition paid for the service).
    * EduMetry TAs help faculty identify typographic/technical errors, if
any, in test assignments.
    * EduMetry’s summative feedback of student performance helps faculty
identify and address major areas of student concerns.
    * Faculty gain more time to improve courses, teach more, grade less.
    * Administrators were able to address shortage of online faculty.

U21Global: The Online Graduate Business School Spawned by 18 Research
Universities from Four Continents

U21Global is a premier online Graduate School that offers globally
recognized graduate programs. The graduate school is backed by an
international network of leading research-intensive universities in 11
countries.

Certificate of Global Business Leadership is offered by the Satyam School
of Leadership, U21Global and Harvard Business School Publishing. This is a
unique program designed for emerging Satyam leaders. The Certificate
program entails eight modules, each of two weeks duration, lasting 27 weeks
in total. The online leadership and management program is focused on
developing universal competencies that "will heighten global business
strategy skills of Satyam Full Life Cycle Leaders (FLCLs)."
The Assignment

In one of the business programs offered by U21Global, students work on a
team project, which is a business case analysis, and complete an individual
Reflective & Integrative project. Our Virtual-TAs enhance the learning by
providing detailed feedback to them on both these assignments.
The Outcome

    * Provides rich feedback along pre-identified learning outcomes.
    * Communicates feedback on program assignments at multiple levels,
i.e., posting the philosophy of assessment and general trends noticed on
the Discussion Board; overall Learning Outcomes-level feedback on
team/individual papers; and detailed (specific) feedback on each paper/ppt.
    * Generates greater interaction with the participants by being
provocative, where needed, in the feedback provided by asking questions;
spelling out other feasible alternatives; and asking "what if" type of
questions.

EduMetry’s services overcome some of the observed limitations of online
education pedagogy by encouraging greater interaction and communication
with participants, even welcoming participants to respond to the feedback
and make their case if they feel something has not been correctly
interpreted during the assessment process.

U21Global can release their faculty for more productive student-facing
interaction, while ensuring that students get feedback that is aligned with
the faculty’s on-/off-line interactions and program learning goals.
Student learning data generated can also be used to monitor the efficacy of
the learning pedagogy, thus making valuable contributions to tracking
program effectiveness.


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