WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
If you haven’t already, you’ll need to read my original post, Coursework 2.0, in which I outlined how I was going to do coursework with my Year 10 History classes a little differently this year. What follows is a brief evaluation of the successes and failures of the system… 
As regular readers know, I’m not afraid to call a spade a spade, rather than a implement for leveraging earth. So the ’skinny’ (as Americans say) is that it didn’t work that well. There’s a few reasons for that, which I intend to outline below (not necessarily in order of importance):
1. Presentation
Documents printed out from Google Docs just don’t look that good. Like anything printed out through a browser, they have a header and footer that give the website URL and the date and time of printing. In addition, the lack of a print preview function meant that images appeared at the top of the next page when they should have been at the bottom of the previous, etc. Overall, the responses of those who used Google Docs (as some just gave up and used Microsoft Word) just didn’t look as good.
2. Access problems
My fault, this one. Well, not the running of the school network, but I knew the network was flaky so shouldn’t have proposed a system where documents are stored remotely. There were problems in just creating the documents, never mind accessing them again later on. A couple of students actually had to start again after they seemed to be locked out of Google Docs both at home and school for some reason.
3. Feedback system
Theoretically, this should have been a strength of the system. However, it proved problematic. I told students that I’d be able to see when they updated their work and could therefore comment on it as and when. However, I was bombarded with every little update - whether one word or one hundred words. This led to the situation where they had to email me or ask me in person to have a look at their work. And if they’re doing that, they may as well be emailing me Word documents or printing out hard copies for me to go over.
4. Formatting problems
As distinct from the final presentational issues outlined above, students had some problems whilst they were writing in formatting their work. I had to intervene on their behalf on a number of occasions and edit the HTML behind the Google document as sections of text seemed to be locked in italics or with an unsuitably sized font. There was no way to change this using the WYSIWYG editor: it appeared to be ’stuck’.
5. Focus on the technology rather than the coursework
Much as I enjoy using educational technology, there are a number of my students who just see it as another barrier. None of my students turned in coursework that was hand-written, even though I know it perhaps may have suited some better. Other classes in the same year doing the same coursework had a number who physically wrote their coursework. I’m not too sure I met the needs of my students on this particular occasion… 
Having said all that, there is one feature of Google Docs that has two useful outcomes. Like a wiki, each revision of a document is saved, meaning that accidentally-deleting-and-then-saving does not happen. One student in particular was mightly relieved when they realised their work could be salvaged. Meanwhile, one student’s USB flash drive became corrupted meaning they lost their Word file and had to start again.
Another useful aspect of this is that I can print off the work of those who do not submit it prior to the final deadline. Unlike elsewhere in the world, in the UK coursework cannot be marked down for being handed in after a school-based deadline. To counter this, I can simply print off the final revision before the cut-off point of those who did not hand in their coursework. I want my students to do well, but they’re too used to playing the system. Even if it is incomplete, they will still receive some kind of recognition for their work. And in the scheme of things, each coursework mark is only worth 0.7% of their final GCSE grade anyway…
And, finally, have I affected negatively the coursework outcomes of my students? Well, after marking the first half of their coursework, I would have to say the answer is no. The ‘coursework 2.0′ system didn’t bring the expected benefits, but on the other hand I don’t think it resulted in underachievement on the part of the students either. What shall I be doing next year? Erm… we’ll wait and see! 
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A very interesting evaluation Doug - thanks. As with many things like this, the first attempt is always liable to be trouble.
However, if you look at each issue, the problem wasn't your expected outcomes it was actually the limitation of the access or technology. It wasn't as if you had come up with unrealistic outcomes or expectations.
Instead you were let down by issues with access and functionality.
What may work better is for students to use a blogging tool to produce their work in progress, or indeed Google Docs. Then they focus on content rather than presentation. The final task could then be to copy and paste into Word / Writer for final submission.
Very interesting Doug.
) would be to host the google apps locally as is possible now with google apps for your domain - education version.
Access to online resources is always a worry. Our school enjoys nearly 100% uptime, and a relatively quick connection to the web, but that odd 1% downtime is always catastrophic, and therefore unforgiveable.
We have looked into local cacheing servers but for live services of course they are useless. Perhaps the answer for you (why am I selling google!?
Interesting that you found the revision system unworkable, but then I don't suppose it was created for the use to which you put it, to be fair.
I am encouraged with the positives that you came up with.
Doug, I'd be interested to know if any of your readers have done this with Yacapaca ? I think we have planned around most of the problems you found, but network downtime would still be a problem if that's an issue in your school.
We're using Yacapaca quite successfully - teachers and kids like it, although it looks like it won't remain free which is a shame.
We had major connection problems at the start of the year which meant 3 weeks of mostly no connection due to bad weather (affecting our WAN microwave backbone) - that was hell and shok confidence badly, tho' every one is happily using it again now.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. It is of great value for those of us who haven't yet come so far, and it's nice to learn from others' mistakes not just your own!
I'm sure next time will be better!
Thanks for the comments everyone. Andrew, your idea of collaborating via Google Docs and then copy-and-paste into Word is probably a good workaround. Hopefully, though, Google will tidy up their offering to produce more professional results soon! I could try one of their competitors, I suppose, such as Zoho, but I like the way a Google Account ties everything together…
Yacapaca is an option I suppose which I shall look into!
Interestingly, I’ve just noticed that Google Docs has been given a visual and organizational overhaul, which bodes well!
> We're using Yacapaca quite successfully…..although it looks like it won't
> remain free which is a shame.
Eh? Who says?
I have just completed an experiment that was exactly the same as yours, Doug. I did it with my GCSE Business Studies group and I used yacapaca.com. Before I go into a bit more depth I can say that I thought it was an overwhelming success and I will be using it again next year!
Yacapaca's portfolio tool enabled me to break their coursework into the different sections that I wanted them to complete (of course you wouldn't have to do this). This had the effect of reducing, what appear to be, a huge piece of work into a number of small chuncks. Students could then work on these and view them as no more than a weekly homework assignment.
Yacapaca also has a very cool questionning tool (make quizzes comprising of multiple choice, location, match etc) so I was able to set mini-quizzes before each section to check knowledge and get the students thinking along the right lines.
Having put coursework to bed for this year I look back on what was a fairly stressless experience. No more I haven't got my work/forgotten memory stick/virus attack the night before deadline! Every member of my class had their coursework in on time (unlike the other 5 sets!) and I had the best set of marks to date. I put this down, certainly in part, to how asy it was for the students to work.
I am also going to be setting normal homework taks using yacapaca.com next year as the feedback is so easy to do
Excellent Steve - really glad to hear that. I shall certainly be investigating Yacapaca over the summer…