ASL Diagnostic and Evaluation Services

Classroom Discourse Observation (CDO)

What is CDO?

Classroom Discourse Observation (CDO) captures not only aspects of ASL, but also discourse techniques/pragmatics, heuristic functions, and whether the environment is visually optimized. A classroom-based assessment would also note students' comprehension of the faculty, and the faculty's comprehension of the students. ASL Diagnostic and Evaluation Services (ASL-DES) video record the faculty in the classroom and then analyzes the video recording to identify strengths and areas needing improvement in the areas of visually optimized environments, discourse, and pragmatics. The faculty is then provided a personalized feedback session which includes the opportunity to review and discuss the video recording.

Website Resources for CDO

ASL-DES is pleased to announce the development of a NEW area of its website which is dedicated to Classroom Discourse Observation (CDO) support for faculty. The CDO Glossary is beneficial in better understanding aspects of the CDO Checklist. For faculty who granted consent, ASL-DES has uploaded and is making accessible CDO video clips on its website.The clips are actual video footage from Classroom Discourse Observations (CDOs) with identifiers to actual items on the checklist. Video clips will continue to be added which demonstrate model performances of particular aspects of effective classroom discourse.

CDO Glossary

CDO Checklist Items & Video Samples