CLIPP Board

MOOCs just keep getting bigger!

Hype or hope? You decide.

I thought it was time to catch up on the current headline grabbing subject of MOOCs ; following my own recent MOOC experiences and a few inspirational talks here at Aston. On Monday 28 January 2013 Professor Curtis Bonk visited Aston University and delivered a brain melting talk on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). His presentation was recorded and is available in 4 chunks on the Global Dimensions in HE website 

Professor Bonk galloped through the recent history of MOOCs, models, and (learning) theories – which was both fascinating and overwhelming! The MOOC is definitely here to stay in a multiplicity of variants and pedagogic models, and all look somewhat disruptive (if you believe the hype), and some are even innovative! I still think the primary reason for most is still a “shop front” or large data collection for learning research. Some are offering innovative modes of delivery and learner engagement; i.e. the recent E-learning and Digital Cultures  course offered some interesting and engaging activities – including a final peer assessment on created digital artefacts. Whereas the Coursera course: Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application was forced to close after only a few days. I was enrolled and attended (in parts) both the above, so it was interesting to see two completely different models of MOOC courses, and experience (chaotic) social learning using two vastly different (interactive) models. It was somewhat ironic to witness the Fundamentals course fold/fail , but I’m sure they are redesigning the course for version 2 – as we speak. Let’s not forget how Daphne Koller promotes the Coursera model of altruism / openness, but then talks about the usefulness of the (learning) data they’ve gathered! This keynote by Gardner Campbell at the Open Education Conference 2012, should bring us all back down to earth, as should this recording of a debate on the subject at the ASCILITE 2012 conference?

Professor Bonk also mentioned the new Google learning platform called coursebuilder but advised that it required some coding skills to use it. On that note, I was talking to David Kernohan from JISC, at the JISC CETIS conference this week about the other types of MOOC platforms being developed; his research had uncovered most were bespoke coded products, and some were using WordPress or the Pearsons platform.
In other recent news; two of the big players in the field announce significant increases in partnerships, whilst 5 US MOOCs have been recommended for credits. In the UK, Sir Michael Barber, chief education adviser for Pearson, says online learning (not necessarily MOOCs) offers “both a threat and opportunity” for UK universities. At the Online and Open-access Learning in Higher Education event , Professor’s Josie Taylor (OU) and Diana Laurillard (London Knowledge Lab ) criticized the ethics, motives, and pedagogic models of most MOOCs (i.e. does completion = success? What are the values for those who drop out?), which are all founded concerns. Although; we don’t hear much complaining from the “students” of these courses about multi-choice assessments wrapped around (good quality) talking heads type video production! Do we?

At this week’s CETIS conference I attended presentations by Simon Buckingham Shum  (OU analytics guru), and Professor Patrick McAndrew  (OU Professor of Open Education) both talked about the creation of the FutureLearn MOOC project. Simon talked at length about [research & marketing] data, and what types of data will/could be harvested from FuutreLearn, whilst Professor McAndrew talked about the Open learning movement and the design ethos behind the new venture. Their MOOCy “good intentions” are thus:
• Build on what we know
• Innovate
• Be accessible
• Be interactive
• Make use of data
• Use the right licence
• Be prepared to re-use
• Not be in it [just] for the money
• Be happy
If you want to know more on how to design a MOOC, dip into the (OU driven) OLDS MOOC archives for the received wisdom from those that have just completed this course. I’ll finish off this update posting with a link to the new CETIS white paper on the subject : MOOCs and Open Education: Implications for Higher Education which helps clarifies the current state of play. Just try not to mention the word disruption too much, will you.

New year – new tools

MB512

Welcome to the new academic year at Aston. We’ve been busy upgrading some of the core learning tools during the summer. Before I talk about new tools, I thought it’s worth shouting about a new collaborative learning space (MB512) – see image above. This space has been designed and installed to showcase the ideas and feedback from recent consultations coordinated by Steve Ellis. It looks and feels great, and has been designed to ensure the space is flexible and can cater for collaborative (small group) working.  The design, colours, and embedded technology all make for an innovative space.

For those just getting back into the swing of things here’s a few pointers to keep you updated;

Blackboard VLE has been migrated to a managed hosted service, and is now updated to service pack 8. The transition has been slick and painless, and thus ensures a robust service for all our users. Two new tools of note in this release are:
• New grading rubrics
• New reports (tracking) types

As you may be aware, Blackboard purchased Elluminate and Horizon Wimba last year. The resultant development was Collaborate, which we upgraded to this summer. Apart from the improved interface , upgrades include:
• Echo cancellation, which eliminate feedback noise, meaning you no longer need to use headphones with PC speakers.
• Improved scheduling via the Blackboard integration.
• (vastly) Improved application sharing. Meaning you can share your desktop/live applications with session attendees, to illustrate an idea, walk through a solution, or collaborate in real time.

Collaborate is fully integrated into your Blackboard Courses.  Access it via the Tools menu.

We have also upgraded Turnitin’s integration with Blackboard. This new integration should eliminate some operational issues reported last year. The new (direct) integration fundamentally alters the way BB VLE links to Turnitin. This has resulted in a change to the submissions inbox, removing the ability to sort by student name, and no paper ID column! Students still get a full time and date stamped receipt. The main difference in the assignment set up, is the new multi part assignment. This can now cater up to  5 parts to a new assignment,  each with their own due dates – which could be useful for large/iterative or group projects.

Skype has been installed on all the Pool rooms PC’s, and uses the handheld/tie microphones. So if you are planning to invite a guest speaker from afar, they could be “present” in your lecture via Skype.

We see data

Approximately a year ago we contributed a suite of learning resources into Jorum for HE consumption. They were tagged with AUOER .  The video below depicts the contributions tagged UKOER into Jorum by everyone involved in that funded project. Stunning data visuals by Martin (Mashe) Hawksey.

The Reusing Medical Recordings Project

Just a quick note to introduce the Reusing Medical Recordings Project, which is a JISC-funded project “to encourage shared understanding between managers and practitioners across clinical and educational settings on the rationale and good practice for the creation and use of medical recordings for educational purposes”. This consultation aims to produce a set of guidance materials around ‘making and using clinical and healthcare recordings for learning and teaching’, aimed “primarily at students, teachers or doctors who wish to use a patient recording or patient data for learning and teaching.  It will also be of interest and use to other clinical and healthcare workers as well as to university staff where patient recordings are being made available for learning and teaching.

The project should standardise guidance around issues of ethics, copyright, patient permission, storage and re-use in order to demonstrate good and responsible practice, and to generate trust and reassurance for the patient.

This may well have an effect on the work which we do in Media & Learning Technologies, but also across the campus. Findings and recommendations are expected in Autumn 2011.

electronic feedback

In this short video CLIPP, Dr Stuart Wallis explains how he and his students have benefitted from the GradeMark tool, when using it to assess work and give timely feedback.

See also my notes on the  presentation  by Dr Cath Ellis we posted earlier in the year.

Supporting learning

Dr Matthew Olczack explains how he used, and  subsequently researched web based resources to enhance traditional teaching and learning methods.  The research is of particular interest as Dr Olczack investigates aspects of self selection bias.  The overall results were very favourable, both in terms of the postive impact upon students learning, and their overall achievements.

e-portfolio reflections

PebblePad Mobile

Our final e-portfolio interest group (ae-pig) meeting of the year was held this week, where we reflected upon the year with e-portfolios here at Aston. Dr Matthew Hall (Business) and Dr Fiona Lacy (Pharmacy) spoke at length about designing and refining programmes to ensure frequent and reflective work could be elicited form their students. Dr Hall has been using PebblePad on a new programme this year, and explained how he intends to refine the assessment process to make use of PebblePad features such as the Gateway archive to encourage (frequent) personal reflective statements. Dr Lacy explained how she uses the Profile tool to map evidence against a professional standards framework. We all agreed the crux of effective teaching and engaging learning with a tool such as PebblePad, was leaner scaffolding (webfolio templates), frequent feedback (including peer), and teaching reflection using recognised frameworks, i.e. Driscoll. Dr Hall and Dr Lacy are also embarking upon designing new resources to include soft/employment skills into their programmes – assisted by Steve Thompson from the Careers & Employability Centre.

We finished the meeting discussing PebblePad+ out next year and it’s imminent integration with Blackboard and Turnitin.

We should also finish this post by congratulating PebblePad for winning Shropshire “company of the Year”.

How to double your student exam scores (yes, really!)

On 13 May, Deslauriers et al (2011) published a paper in Science (impact factor 29.7) where they demonstrated the hugely beneficial effect of a teaching method called ‘deliberate practice’ (see chart below).

They employed this method for 3 × 50 mins in week 12 of a module – each of the previous 11 weeks had contained 3 × 50 mins of traditional lectures. When contrasted against a cohort that had received traditional lectures in week 12, the subsequent scores in a 15-20 minute MCQ class test were amazing… particularly as deliberate practice was taught by relatively inexperienced teaching assistants, whereas the traditional lectures were given by a highly experienced lecturer who often attained high student feedback.

What is deliberate practice?

It is an active learning approach, which uses the whole of the lecture time for problem-centred learning, and where the students frequently receive feedback.

How did Deslauriers et al implement deliberate practice in their teaching sessions?

One instructor and one assistant ran the class of 271 students. Before each session, the students were instructed to read a 3-4 page reading and answer a related on-line true-false quiz. At the start of the first teaching session, the students were told the rationale for the use of deliberate practice (and supporting research was cited).

A typical session schedule was:

An MCQ question was posed, and students discussed the answer with other students (2-3 mins).

The students gave their answers using ‘clicker’ handsets (like Optivote), and the instructor gave feedback to the whole cohort (4-6 mins).

This process was repeated with another 5 different MCQs.

Sometimes, an MCQ was presented twice in succession, presumably so that the effect of the instructor feedback and 2^nd student discussion could be measured. Note that this seems to suggest that the instructor feedback did not always give the correct answer.

Twice in each teaching session, there was a small-group active learning task (6 mins), followed by instructor feedback (4-6 mins).

How long did it take to prepare each 50-minute teaching session?

Including the pre-session reading quiz, 20 hours at first, dropping to 10 hours for the 3^rd session. But the authors estimate that this would fall to 5 hours with practice. Note that these times include piloting the materials with one or two students, and subsequent editing.

How was deliberate practice received by the students?

Deslauriers et al surveyed the students and found that they enjoyed it more and thought that they learnt more than in traditional lectures. Interestingly, students thought that they learnt much more in class than from the pre-reading with quiz, even though the majority (all?) of the new information came from the pre-reading.

What conclusions can be drawn?

An active learning approach with frequent feedback…

• is better than a traditional lecture.
• can be applied with large cohorts.
• does not need many teaching assistants.
• does not take a lot longer to prepare (when practiced).

Where can I find out more?

A hard copy of the Deslauriers et al paper is in Aton’s library (but is not available electronically yet). The supplementary material is available at http://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6031/862/suppl/DC1.

Reference

Deslauriers, L., E., Schelew, E. & Wieman, C. (2011) Improved Learning in a Large-Enrollment Physics Class. Science 332(6031): 862-864.

Online marking tips

During testing of the range of tools available within the Turnitin suite of tools, I set up the new rubric manager tool.  This allows you to create a set of rubrics for a given assignment and easily apply them to student scripts.  Together with the GradeMark comment banks, this new rubric tool can really save time , and ensure a consistent marking schema is applied.  It was simple to set up and link to to the existing assignment.  Ideal for teams of markers and second marking to ensure that all involved are utilising the same rubrics – all contained within the Turnitin library.  The PeerMark tool also has allows a quite complex set of peer marking scenarios, thus complementing the GradeMark and Orginality checker.  Turnitin continue to expand the product base into a very useful set of online marking/feedback tools, helping to save academic staff valuable time.  This approach also ensures a consistent quality of service can be delivered across programmes, creating a level plaing field for online marking and feedback.

When you link Turnitin with Blackboard (our VLE) as we have, you now have the potential for paperless marking – as the results get fed into the GradeCentre. These can be subsequently be uploaded into the registry system.

I thought I’d finish this post by linking to a short video by Professor Curtis Bonk, which highlights the need for academia to adopt a holistic and pragmatic approach to detering plagiarism and collsuion.

JISC 2011 conference

A short report on the JISC 2011 conference,  of which you can revisit some of the live streamed sessions and grab the virtual goody bag.  The keynote speech by Professor Eric Thomas, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol, contextualised our current shift in HE provision to an unavoidable consumer lead market model. The twitter back channel displayed next to the recorded videos makes for a useful resource, and a glimpse into personal reflections on the day. Maybe they should have used the tool created by Martin Hawksey (JISC) which enables Twitter feeds to by overlaid onto video?

Ironically, one of the most interesting sessions I attended – “amplifying events” run by Brian Kelly of UKOLN was not officially recorded – but Brian and colleague did record it on their iphones (see above). This session was a good overview of some of the techniques and tools available to event organisers to enhance F2F and blend them with online events – as JISC demonstrated his year. The green meeting guide, was also mentioned – which looks a useful resource. As does this article by  Marike Guy (co-presenter) entitled “10 ways to amplify your event.” This topic also resonates with my previous post on using Elluminate here at Aston to help with our sustainability agenda.

The session entitled “Using digital media to improve teaching and learning”, illustrated some interesting exemplars of effective practice at University of Bristol focussing on the role of students as producers of media rich learning content. This session was fronted by JISC Digital Media service, reminding me of their wealth of excellent resources.

I also attended a short workshop explaining the Co-generative (Co-genT) toolkit project, which guides you through the process of writing learning outcomes. These can then be exported from the Moodle toolkit into PebblePad. Very handy for course designers, and could also be used to assess activities. n.b a great deal of work has been done on this tool  to map outcomes/descriptive verbs against national standards.

The final session I want to comment on was entitled “Pushing the frontiers of ‘open education and research“.  This session outlined two new tools created by Plymouth University and The Academy. They will be extremely useful for people wanting to easily understand copyright and create OER resources. Both will be live in a week or so. I’ll wait until they go live to report back, as I will be using them myself.