Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Constructing Discussion Questions

The following online discussion board activity, for students pursuing a position as head chef of a five-star restaurant, was constructed while keeping in mind the concepts presented by Horton (2006). The scoring tool was developed, while keeping in mind elements of a criterion-referenced assessment, and a checklist scoring tool presented by Oosterhof, Conrad, and Ely (2008).

Creating the Complete Culinary Orchestra

In the previous weeks, you have learned about the various processes, procedures, methods, and practices utilized when creating your own recipes, in addition to effectively applying well-tested concepts and theories when actually preparing a wide variety of meals, from the appetizer, through the main and dessert courses. Each phase or course in the dining experience for your client must not only stand alone, on its own merits, more importantly, it must work in conjunction with each of the other courses. As the head chef, you act as the composer and musician in presenting this culinary concert.

As you continue your quest to oversee the kitchen of a five-star restaurant, the task this week is in learning to identify and assess the qualities and traits necessary for your personal sous chefs. Four world-class chefs from this week’s resources will present considerations for identifying and matching a sous chef with your specific culinary strengths and weaknesses. Not only is it essential to identify the technical skills of both yourself and potential sous chefs, the range of knowledge, with respect to various types of cuisine from across the globe, as well as personality traits are equally important.


By the regular Tuesday deadline:
Identify three sous chefs, chosen from the 15 examples in your text, that would be best suited to work with you, as the head chef, at your five-star restaurant. Include the specific rationale for your selections, and be sure to cite the references to support your choices of sous chefs. You should describe and justify a minimum of three attributes for each of the sous chef you selected, and how they relate to your own strengths and weaknesses as a head chef. Bon Appetit!


To view the scoring tool for this assignment, click the link below.
Scoring Tool

Resources
E-Learning by Design (Horton, W., Designing for the Virtual Classroom, E-Learning by Design). Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons Inc. Used with permission from John Wiley & Sons Inc. via the Copyright Clearance Center.

Oosterhof, A., Conrad, R.-M., & Ely, D. P. (2008). Assessing learners online. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

2 comments:

  1. Unfortunately, I have no familiarity with the topic you have blogged about. However, I would like to comment on the following statement, “Not only is it essential to identify the technical skills of both yourself and potential sous chefs, the range of knowledge, with respect to various types of cuisine from across the globe, as well as personality traits are equally important.” I have connected this to other times when you are given the opportunity to create your own teams. Many times, groupings are heterogeneous in regards to academic or skill strengths. However, other areas are dismissed. For example, you mentioned work ethic and attitude (Bates, 2012) when you responded to my discussion posting this week. These are two additional characteristics that must be considered, especially when selecting sous chefs that will compliment the team. The last thing you would want to do, I imagine, is bring in a sous chef that is amazingly skillful, however, strains and weakens the team by being lazy and a negative influence. Instead, perhaps you may hire someone that is less skilled, but is energetic, motivated, and positive. They can also learn something new and improve their abilities.

    Beth Miller

    Bates. S. (April 13, 2012). Assessing Collaborative Work. Discussion Board. Walden University. Retrieved on April 15, 2012 from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com.

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    Replies
    1. Beth

      You make a very good point in that there is a difference between the opportunities to create your own team, as opposed to being assigned to a team. When choosing your own team, consideration of traits and characteristics that will complement the team are essential, as world-class chef Smith indicated from this week’s resources. You describe a good example in hiring a skillful chef that actually weakens the team.

      If you had to choose a very skillful chef that might weaken the team, what strategies would you incorporate to off-set the initial negative impact? How feasible is it to develop this sous chef into a more productive member of the team?


      (As a side note, our assignment instructions were not specific in regards to the topic or content of the discussion question, other than Dr. Van Erp indicating the topic should be something familiar, and that we could assess. With previous course content including cuisine as a topic, I thought I would try to be a little creative. My interpretation of the assignment did not include a requirement to research and provide real resources in our replies. Rather, I interpreted the primary intent to be that of posting relevant replies by students and the instructor that would encourage effective collaboration. That said, I do appreciate your reply.)

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