Doing More With Auto-Graded Assessments

Note: Hey, this article got published on the Instructure Keep Learning blog!


All of the major Learning Management Systems have some sort of online assessment tool. It’s a staple of traditional education too: at some point during a class, present students with a list of roughly 25 multiple choice questions to evaluate their mastery of the material. In the bad old days these had to be marked by hand, then later educators were blessed (and students were cursed) by Scantrons that could be graded by machine, and for the last decade and a half computer-based assessments have become very popular.

Continue reading

Development From The Sidelines

At a certain conference last week (which I was fortunate enough to speak at I sat in a meeting of the Sakai technical committee. These are the people who drive Sakai. Not just the deciders but the doers. Being new to developing, it was particularly fascinating to see such a large group, all with different backgrounds, incentives, priorities, and views, come together to have these discussions. Sakai is an open source project, so while anyone can contribute there still has to be some kind of governing body.

Continue reading

My Most Successful Tweet

Note: I actually don’t post at this account anymore since my name changed; I’m available @thedavidlyons now.


As of the time of this writing my most successful tweet is one where I admitted a stupid mistake I made that was apparently quite relatedable. It’s been retweeted over 20 times earned a handful of favorites, and even started a few nice conversations. I think I may have even gained a follower or two.

Continue reading