Overview of Excellence NEXT project for quality assurance in e-learning, presented as part of masterclass at EADTU conference, Paris, 2013. [http://conference.eadtu.eu/]
Connect More with peers in practice - Wrexham - Sian Edwardson-WilliamsJisc
These PechaKucha style presentations (20 slides at 20 seconds each) from attendees at the event will focus on how they have implemented digital capabilities to enhance learning and teaching at their institutions.
Developed for an Instructional Forum at Mountain View College, this presentation covers trends in eLearning, district initiatives, and campus efforts to support teaching and learning as a whole.
Connect More with peers in practice - Wrexham - Sian Edwardson-WilliamsJisc
These PechaKucha style presentations (20 slides at 20 seconds each) from attendees at the event will focus on how they have implemented digital capabilities to enhance learning and teaching at their institutions.
Developed for an Instructional Forum at Mountain View College, this presentation covers trends in eLearning, district initiatives, and campus efforts to support teaching and learning as a whole.
Overcoming Barriers in Implementing a Quality Assurance Process
WCET 21st Annual Conference
Deb Adair, Quality Matters
Evelyn Everett Knowles, Park University
Li Wang, University of Northern Colorado
Heidi Ashbaugh, Texas Woman’s University
From E-Learning to Active Learning: Transforming the Learning EnvironmentClive Young
Experts from University College London share findings and best practices.
Slides from a webinar event 25 April 2013
Always on the forefront of education and research, University College London boasts one of the world’s most sophisticated e-learning strategies and learning environments. With a mission to deliver the “voices and ideas of UCL experts” to a global audience, the team bringing that goal to fruition is uncovering the benefits of e-learning. By utilising blended learning technologies, the UCL E-Learning Environments team realises the potential to deliver an active learning experience to instructors and students alike.
Developing and rolling out a digital educators’ qualification to staff based ...Jisc
Speaker: Ciara Duffy, centre for excellence manager digital learning, South West College.
Improving staff and student digital skills has been at the core of South West College’s (SWC) digital strategy for the past two years. This session will take you through SWC’s building digital capacity journey and how it supported a seamless transition for staff and students to a fully online learning, teaching and assessment model beginning on the 23 March.
Joint building digital capability and digital experience insights community of practice event, 21 May 2020.
Post secondary institutions are highly autonomous. Attempts to create services that connect and network educators together across institutions run up against established beliefs that the needs of educators can be met within the institution and do not require collaboration. Collaboration is often viewed as a loss of autonomy and as sharing institutional or faculty proprietary knowledge with a competitor. This presentation is part of a panel discussion exploring how to mitigate the tensions between autonomy and collaboration when building collaborative system services for educators.
Designing Exemplary Online Courses in BlackboardJason Rhode
During this presentation by Jason Rhode at the 12th annual SLATE Conference on 10/23/14, we explored suggested best practices included in the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Rubric for designing engaging online courses. Jason shared practical tips from his experience building a course in Blackboard that meets the established ECP quality benchmarks. We also covered the steps and associated deadlines for faculty interested in submitting their course for consideration as a Blackboard Exemplary Course. This session was geared toward an audience already familiar with the basic online teaching tools available in Blackboard Learn. While the examples shared were specifically of courses in Blackboard, the principles can be applied to developing quality online courses in any learning management system. Links to resources shared are available at http://www.jasonrhode.com/exemplarycourse
How are students actually using technology? EMEA Online Symposium 2020Studiosity.com
At the EMEA Symposium 2020, Sarah Knight, Head of data and digital capability at Jisc, delivered a data-focused insight into how students are actually using technology in further and higher education. Here are some key findings:
- Office for Students predicts that over a million digitally skilled people will be needed by 2022 whilst 24% of HE students said they never worked online with others
- 70% of HE students agreed that digital skills were important for their chosen career but only 42% agreed that their course prepared them for the digital workplace
Here are the key recommendations that, now more than ever, can practically help your students:
- Raise awareness of the importance of digital skills
- Ensure they know what digital skills they need to have before they start and provide opportunities to develop these only online
- Encourage collaboration to emulate business practices
- Embed digital skills through curriculum design
This year's EMEA Studiosity Symposium was hosted online on 1st and 2nd April 2020.
The session explored two of the recurring themes in the MOOC research literature (a) the potential of MOOCs for universities and teaching practice and (b) the quality of MOOCs and their relationship to higher education curricula and learning design. In our research we were particularly interested in the impact of MOOCs on teaching practice, and the reuse of MOOC content by teaching practitioners. We reported on our investigation of interviewing MOOC programme leaders and tutors on the broad issue of transfer of innovation from MOOCs into teaching practice. Our claim is that MOOCs can play a potentially significant role in innovating practice and curriculum design. Our findings reveal that this impact can be direct when MOOCs are embedded in the distance learning curriculum. Interestingly, when the impact is indirect and unintended, learning design features of MOOCs challenge and enrich ‘traditional’ and more established teaching practices in distance learning environments. In blended learning, the influence is on campus practices, e.g. introducing MOOC attributes into campus classes and reviewing assessment.
EMMA Summer School - O. Firssova, M. Laanpere - Workshop – Elaborating your M...EUmoocs
The principles and techniques of the task-centered instructional design will be introduced and practiced in the hands-on group work that involves creating, sequencing and validating authentic instructional tasks. A special focus will be on mapping the instructional tasks in MOOC to facts, concepts, procedures and rules identified in the course objectves, as well as scaffolding the learning through well-designed course assignments and learning resources.
This presentation was given during the EMMA Summer School, that took place in Ischia (Italy) on 4-11 July 2015.
More info on the website: http://project.europeanmoocs.eu/project/get-involved/summer-school/
Follow our MOOCs: http://platform.europeanmoocs.eu/MOOCs
Design and deliver your MOOC with EMMA: http://project.europeanmoocs.eu/project/get-involved/become-an-emma-mooc-provider/
A speculation on the possible use of badges for learning at the UK Open Unive...Jon Rosewell
There has recently been a flurry of interest in supporting the idea of using ‘badges’ to recognise learning, particularly due to the Mozilla Open Badges project (http://openbadges.org/) and the funding channelled through the 2012 Digital Medial and Learning Competition (http://www.dmlcompetition.net/). Badges offer the potential of rewarding informal learning and reaching non-traditional learners.
This paper speculates on ways in which badges for learning could fit into the offering of the UK Open University, and exposes some of the tensions that badges raise.
[Paper presented at European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) conference, Cyprus, 27-28 Sept 2012]
Opening up multiple choice - assessing with confidenceJon Rosewell
This presentation presents a new online question style, Open CBM (Certainty/Confidence Based Marking).
This achieves an open style of question (similar to a free-text or numeric question) where the student doesn't pick from possible answers, but retains the robust and easy implementation of a multiple choice (MCQ) question.
It achieves this by appropriating the technique of certainty/confidence-based marking (CBM). In CBM, a student both selects an answer and also their level of confidence: they score full marks for knowing that they know the correct answer, some credit for a tentative correct answer but are penalised if they believe they know the answer but get it wrong.
An Open CBM question is presented in two stages. Initially, the question is presented with no answer options visible; instead the student must set their confidence level that they know the answer. Only then are the possible answers are revealed and the student answers as a normal MCQ. The marking scheme follows standard CBM practice. Mechanically the question remains a simple MCQ: answer matching is trivial and robust, questions are easy to implement, and existing question banks can be reused. However, to the student, the question is effectively transformed from closed MCQ to an open question. They need to formulate an answer first before they can decide their confidence in their answer, so they must decide their answer in the absence of any positive or negative clues, reducing the chance of misconceptions, or working backwards.
Overcoming Barriers in Implementing a Quality Assurance Process
WCET 21st Annual Conference
Deb Adair, Quality Matters
Evelyn Everett Knowles, Park University
Li Wang, University of Northern Colorado
Heidi Ashbaugh, Texas Woman’s University
From E-Learning to Active Learning: Transforming the Learning EnvironmentClive Young
Experts from University College London share findings and best practices.
Slides from a webinar event 25 April 2013
Always on the forefront of education and research, University College London boasts one of the world’s most sophisticated e-learning strategies and learning environments. With a mission to deliver the “voices and ideas of UCL experts” to a global audience, the team bringing that goal to fruition is uncovering the benefits of e-learning. By utilising blended learning technologies, the UCL E-Learning Environments team realises the potential to deliver an active learning experience to instructors and students alike.
Developing and rolling out a digital educators’ qualification to staff based ...Jisc
Speaker: Ciara Duffy, centre for excellence manager digital learning, South West College.
Improving staff and student digital skills has been at the core of South West College’s (SWC) digital strategy for the past two years. This session will take you through SWC’s building digital capacity journey and how it supported a seamless transition for staff and students to a fully online learning, teaching and assessment model beginning on the 23 March.
Joint building digital capability and digital experience insights community of practice event, 21 May 2020.
Post secondary institutions are highly autonomous. Attempts to create services that connect and network educators together across institutions run up against established beliefs that the needs of educators can be met within the institution and do not require collaboration. Collaboration is often viewed as a loss of autonomy and as sharing institutional or faculty proprietary knowledge with a competitor. This presentation is part of a panel discussion exploring how to mitigate the tensions between autonomy and collaboration when building collaborative system services for educators.
Designing Exemplary Online Courses in BlackboardJason Rhode
During this presentation by Jason Rhode at the 12th annual SLATE Conference on 10/23/14, we explored suggested best practices included in the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Rubric for designing engaging online courses. Jason shared practical tips from his experience building a course in Blackboard that meets the established ECP quality benchmarks. We also covered the steps and associated deadlines for faculty interested in submitting their course for consideration as a Blackboard Exemplary Course. This session was geared toward an audience already familiar with the basic online teaching tools available in Blackboard Learn. While the examples shared were specifically of courses in Blackboard, the principles can be applied to developing quality online courses in any learning management system. Links to resources shared are available at http://www.jasonrhode.com/exemplarycourse
How are students actually using technology? EMEA Online Symposium 2020Studiosity.com
At the EMEA Symposium 2020, Sarah Knight, Head of data and digital capability at Jisc, delivered a data-focused insight into how students are actually using technology in further and higher education. Here are some key findings:
- Office for Students predicts that over a million digitally skilled people will be needed by 2022 whilst 24% of HE students said they never worked online with others
- 70% of HE students agreed that digital skills were important for their chosen career but only 42% agreed that their course prepared them for the digital workplace
Here are the key recommendations that, now more than ever, can practically help your students:
- Raise awareness of the importance of digital skills
- Ensure they know what digital skills they need to have before they start and provide opportunities to develop these only online
- Encourage collaboration to emulate business practices
- Embed digital skills through curriculum design
This year's EMEA Studiosity Symposium was hosted online on 1st and 2nd April 2020.
The session explored two of the recurring themes in the MOOC research literature (a) the potential of MOOCs for universities and teaching practice and (b) the quality of MOOCs and their relationship to higher education curricula and learning design. In our research we were particularly interested in the impact of MOOCs on teaching practice, and the reuse of MOOC content by teaching practitioners. We reported on our investigation of interviewing MOOC programme leaders and tutors on the broad issue of transfer of innovation from MOOCs into teaching practice. Our claim is that MOOCs can play a potentially significant role in innovating practice and curriculum design. Our findings reveal that this impact can be direct when MOOCs are embedded in the distance learning curriculum. Interestingly, when the impact is indirect and unintended, learning design features of MOOCs challenge and enrich ‘traditional’ and more established teaching practices in distance learning environments. In blended learning, the influence is on campus practices, e.g. introducing MOOC attributes into campus classes and reviewing assessment.
EMMA Summer School - O. Firssova, M. Laanpere - Workshop – Elaborating your M...EUmoocs
The principles and techniques of the task-centered instructional design will be introduced and practiced in the hands-on group work that involves creating, sequencing and validating authentic instructional tasks. A special focus will be on mapping the instructional tasks in MOOC to facts, concepts, procedures and rules identified in the course objectves, as well as scaffolding the learning through well-designed course assignments and learning resources.
This presentation was given during the EMMA Summer School, that took place in Ischia (Italy) on 4-11 July 2015.
More info on the website: http://project.europeanmoocs.eu/project/get-involved/summer-school/
Follow our MOOCs: http://platform.europeanmoocs.eu/MOOCs
Design and deliver your MOOC with EMMA: http://project.europeanmoocs.eu/project/get-involved/become-an-emma-mooc-provider/
A speculation on the possible use of badges for learning at the UK Open Unive...Jon Rosewell
There has recently been a flurry of interest in supporting the idea of using ‘badges’ to recognise learning, particularly due to the Mozilla Open Badges project (http://openbadges.org/) and the funding channelled through the 2012 Digital Medial and Learning Competition (http://www.dmlcompetition.net/). Badges offer the potential of rewarding informal learning and reaching non-traditional learners.
This paper speculates on ways in which badges for learning could fit into the offering of the UK Open University, and exposes some of the tensions that badges raise.
[Paper presented at European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) conference, Cyprus, 27-28 Sept 2012]
Opening up multiple choice - assessing with confidenceJon Rosewell
This presentation presents a new online question style, Open CBM (Certainty/Confidence Based Marking).
This achieves an open style of question (similar to a free-text or numeric question) where the student doesn't pick from possible answers, but retains the robust and easy implementation of a multiple choice (MCQ) question.
It achieves this by appropriating the technique of certainty/confidence-based marking (CBM). In CBM, a student both selects an answer and also their level of confidence: they score full marks for knowing that they know the correct answer, some credit for a tentative correct answer but are penalised if they believe they know the answer but get it wrong.
An Open CBM question is presented in two stages. Initially, the question is presented with no answer options visible; instead the student must set their confidence level that they know the answer. Only then are the possible answers are revealed and the student answers as a normal MCQ. The marking scheme follows standard CBM practice. Mechanically the question remains a simple MCQ: answer matching is trivial and robust, questions are easy to implement, and existing question banks can be reused. However, to the student, the question is effectively transformed from closed MCQ to an open question. They need to formulate an answer first before they can decide their confidence in their answer, so they must decide their answer in the absence of any positive or negative clues, reducing the chance of misconceptions, or working backwards.
QA in e-Learning and Open Educational Resources (OER)Jon Rosewell
Introductory slides for a workshop on updating the e-learning quality assurance benchmarks of the E-xcellence NEXT project http://www.eadtu.nl/e-xcellencelabel
Next Steps for Excellence in the Quality of e-LearningJon Rosewell
The development of e-learning has progressed to a stage where it is becoming part of mainstream provision in higher education. Therefore the issue of assessing and sustaining the quality of e-learning must now come to the fore. Quality assessment in higher education is well-established in relation to learning and teaching generally, but what methods can be used to establish quality in the domain of e-learning?
The E-xcellence methodology for assessing quality in e-learning (EADTU 2009) is securing recognition by European and international learning organisations. It was designed to be applied to the design and delivery of e-learning in both distance learning and blended learning contexts. It supports a range of uses, from accreditation by external agencies to process improvement through internal review.
The methodology presents principles of good practice in six domains of e-learning: strategic management; curriculum design; course design; course delivery; student support; and staff support. A total of 33 benchmark statements cover these domains, and are supported by a handbook for practitioners and guidance for assessors. The handbook includes principles for quality e-learning and exemplars of good practice. Amongst the tools is an online ‘QuickScan’ self-evaluation questionnaire based on the E-xcellence benchmarks which is highly valued as a focus for collaborative review of e-learning programmes.
The e-learning landscape has changed since the E-xcellence methodology was first developed. In particular, the use of Open Education Resources (OECD 2007) and the application of social networking tools (Mason & Rennie 2008) were not explicitly considered in the original benchmarks. Accordingly, the E-xcellence NEXT project was instigated to produce and evaluate a revision of the benchmark criteria, associated handbook and exemplars. This paper describes the project process and initial recommendations.
A consultation exercise was carried out among E-xcellence participants. Feedback from this was brought to participatory workshops at a European Seminar on QA in e-learning in June 2011. Following this exercise, the benchmark statements were revised and are now available in beta version.
The project resources (Quickscan and manual) are being used for a series of self-evaluation and assessment seminars held at European higher education institutions. Feedback from these assessment seminars will be used to finalise materials for publication late in 2012. At that point the E-xcellence Next project will offer to the higher education community a set of self-evaluation and quality assessment tools which are fully updated to encompass social networking, Open Educational Resources and other recent developments in e-learning.
Quality frameworks for e-learning (SIEAD 2018, Brazil)Jon Rosewell
A contribution to INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION (SIEAD-BR 2018) 22nd October 2018.
"Contributions from Open and Distance Education to Higher Education Quality: present and future"
"Contribuições da Educação Aberta e à Distância para uma Educação Superior de Qualidade: presente e futuro"
In this presentation I will suggest using a quality framework to help you think about and improve quality of e-learning. I start with some general observations about quality and the need for quality frameworks. I then discuss two specific frameworks: the well-established E-xcellence benchmarks for e-learning, and the OpenupEd framework which as been specifically aligned at MOOCs. Finally I return to some more practical advise, particularly about thinking about the learning design of a course at an early stage.
Presentation of Grainne Conole, Dublin City University, Ireland, for the Open Education Week's third day webinar on "Ongoing initiatives for Open Education in Europe" - 6 March 2019
Recordings of the discussion are available: https://eden-online.adobeconnect.com/pcpo9gbaq1t1/
On urgent needs for a revised quality agenda. Improving the quality of teaching in educational institutions through the introduction of new educational programs, modern pedagogy, and smart-technologies in the educational process. Technical Assistance mission, MHSSE, NEO; HERE and YTIT, Uzbekistan 18-19 November 2019.
The general aim of this work has been to define some guidelines and recommendations for implementation of OCW by institution in a context of student mobility. The approach taken is to determine a set of controls as part of a quality model for the implementation of OCW in virtual mobility. Therefore, this quality model would take into account some acknowledged quality aspects in eLearning, production and reuse of OERs, and at the end, the implementation of mobility programs.
The present work is an output of the project ´´Open Course Ware in the European HE context´ European project founded by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union. The focus of the project is the creation of preconditions for a strong European OCW framework and as consequence a decline of obstacles to collaboration between European institutes, and therefore an increase in real student mobility.
Quality assurance of MOOCs: The OpenupEd quality labelJon Rosewell
The OpenupEd quality label is a quality enhancement approach to e-learning, tailored specifically to MOOCs. I will briefly introduce the OpenupEd quality label, show how it relates to other e-learning quality frameworks, and outline the ways in which it can be used, ranging from informal self-assessment to a full external review. Which of the benchmarks could contribute to enhanced design of MOOCs? Are the benchmarks sufficiently detailed? Do they capture all important aspects?
MOOCs and the Future of Indian Higher Education - FICCI Higher Education Summ...Viplav Baxi
This is a presentation that acted as a base for the conversation in the master class on Nov 14, 2013 at the FICCI Higher Education Summit at New Delhi.
Something Old. Something New: Supporting Lecture Delivery with Digital Tools. Expanding Communities of Practice with Social Media.
How can we use new technologies of distribution and social support to create effective and pedagogically useful online teaching environments?
This paper offers an in depth analysis of the experience of online learning offered by Harvard University, Penn State University and MIT. It asks what lessons we should consider when adapting new technologies to old teaching methodologies, and more importantly, how these environments may change the way we teach.
Slideset to accompany the 2013 CAS/CADE conference presentationby Daniel Buzzo at the Computer Arts Society, Computers in Art and Design Education conference Bristol 2013.
As befits its title, Technologies in practice (TM129) takes a practical focus to learning, with up to 50% of study time having a practical aspect. The tutorial program should support this and in the past some tutors have found innovative ways of bringing practical demonstrations or exercises into their face-to-face sessions, for example demonstrating a robot vacuum cleaner or setting up an ad-hoc network of students’ laptops.
Producing online tutorials with an equivalent practical focus is a challenge. For TM129 we have developed a set of labcasts which deliver practical-focused synchronous tutorial events to all students, with one demonstration for each of the three blocks of the course: Robotics, networking and Linux. These labcasts are practical demonstrations which explore equipment and techniques which extend the coverage of the module. They move beyond video by the use of ‘widgets’ and a chat window which provide opportunities for students to engage actively with the demonstration. We will briefly outline these activities and present some student evaluation results.
We discuss how we plan to extend these activities into remote practical activities using OpenSTEM lab facilities. These will allow students to undertake further practical work where the student directly controls the practical activity.
We will present a framework of possible use-cases for remote practical activities, considering group size, synchronicity and locus of control; discuss some of the technological and pedagogical implications; and review progress towards delivering engaging practical activities at a distance.
A talk delivered at The Open University STEM Teaching Conference 6 Feb 2020
OpenStudio and Digital Photography: creating and sharing better imagesJon Rosewell
OpenStudio was created for the Open University course 'T189 Digital Photography: creating and sharing better images', and continues to be used in the current version TG089 run in partnership with the Royal Photographic Society. I will discuss the pedagogy of the course, the role of OpenStudio within it, and how OpenStudio is perceived by students.
The Open University, eSTEeM Conference, 25 April 2017
Summary
Find out how the OpenSTEM lab can be used to support remote access to tutor-led practical work in robotics and other technologies.
Abstract
As befits its title, Technologies in practice (TM129) takes a practical focus to learning, with up to 50% of study time having a practical aspect. The tutorial program should support this and in the past some tutors have found innovative ways of bringing practical demonstrations or exercises into their face-to-face sessions, for example demonstrating a robot vacuum cleaner or setting up an ad-hoc network of students’ laptops.
Producing online tutorials with an equivalent practical focus is a challenge. The creation of the OpenSTEM lab provides an opportunity to meet this challenge. Part of the HEFCE and OU funding for the OpenSTEM lab has provided five large ‘Baxter’ robots which will be accessible remotely as well as two which will be used at residential school. The lab also provides racked equipment bays for smaller remote access experiments, such as those being developed for the electronics curriculum. For a large population module such as TM129, this infrastructure provides an opportunity to roll-out practical-focused synchronous tutorial events to all students, provided the activities are well designed and scripted so that they can be delivered by a number of tutors.
In this presentation I will review the possible use-cases for remote practical activities, discuss some of the technological and pedagogical challenges, and review progress towards delivering engaging practical activities at a distance.
Assessing with confidence
Jon Rosewell, The Open University
Confidence-based marking (CBM) is an assessment method which asks the student not only to provide the answer to a question, but also to report their level of confidence (or certainty) in the correctness of their answer. They need to consider this carefully because it affects the marks they are awarded: a student scores full marks for knowing that they know the correct answer, some credit for a tentative correct answer but are penalised if they believe they know the answer but get it wrong. There are several motivations for using CBM: it rewards care and effort so engendering greater engagement, it encourages reflective learning, and it promises accuracy and reliability.
CBM has had niche success in the past in the context of medical training and recently may have a found a new niche in the context of regulatory compliance; these are both areas where assessment of competency and mastery is expected. However, CBM has not been widely adopted in other areas of education.
In this talk I will review the CBM landscape and ask why CBM is not used more widely. What are the benefits claimed and how robust is the evidence? How should CBM be presented to the students? Do they need training to understand how the system works? Is it a fair method of assessment? Does it disadvantage any category of student? How does it fit with ideas around ‘assessment for learning’ and ‘reflective learning’?
Confidence-based marking could offer both the student and teacher greater insight into a student’s understanding than the standard fare of e-assessment, the multiple-choice quiz. It is a technique that we should therefore keep under consideration.
Robot explorers: Gender and group attitudes to STEM: a pilot evaluation of an...Jon Rosewell
Gender and group attitudes to STEM: a pilot evaluation of an outreach robotics activity.
Alice Peasgood, Jon Rosewell, Tony Hirst
Abstract
Women are underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in higher education (HE), although attitudes and participation in STEM are less polarised at younger ages. Outreach activities that aim to inspire and enthuse school-age students may help girls to consider study and careers in STEM subjects.
The Royal Institution run extra-curricular ‘masterclasses’ that aim to inspire school students in mathematics. Our session in a series of secondary maths masterclasses uses a hands-on robotics activity based on the theme of ‘robot explorers’. Students work in small groups to solve the challenge of programming a small mobile robot to navigate by applying their maths and programming skills. This pilot study looked at the possible influence of gender and friendship groups on attitudes to STEM in the context of that activity.
Those attending the masterclass series were Year 9 students nominated by East London schools. Students completed a short evaluation sheet for the session and reported whether they knew others in their group. An observer noted whether boys or girls used the computer, held the robot, and similar measures. All data was collected anonymously and the study was approved by the OU Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC/2016/2238/Rosewell/1).
Preliminary results suggest that girls enjoyed the class more than boys. Girls also showed a greater increase in level of interest in robotics, although from a lower level than boys. There is a suggestion that individuals who found themselves in a group in which they had no friends reported a lower score for enjoyment.
The importance of friendship to the enjoyment and learning experienced in small group activity should be considered in the design of extra-curricular activities if they are to meet their stated aim of enthusing young students.
A presentation on 'MOOCs and Quality Issues' given at a workshop organised by the QA-QE special interest group of the UK Higher Education Academy (HEA) [http://qaqe-sig.net/?page_id=8]
Badges for Nature (HASTAC/DML proposal)Jon Rosewell
‘Badges for Natural History’ will recognize and reward the knowledge and skills of the new generation of naturalists that are making a great contribution to our understanding of the world’s biodiversity. These badges will be issued first by a group of eight projects from across the globe. Badge earners will be able to move their badges between sites as they share their knowledge and experience of natural history across the world.
Can computer-marked final assessment improve retention?Jon Rosewell
Distance learning modules (particularly low-cost introductory and enrichment modules) may show poor retention compared to traditional campus courses. The perceived difficulty of exams and end-of-module assessments (EMA) appears to deter some students from submitting. In contrast, interactive computer-marked assignments (iCMA) are typically attempted by most students.
Can retention therefore be improved by changing the format of part of the final assessment to an iCMA?
Robotics and the meaning of life is a 10-point, 10-week general-interest Open University module. The assessment comprised a mid-module iCMA and a final written EMA. The iCMA (a Moodle quiz) provided detailed feedback only after the submission deadline. The EMA included short-answer questions, a programming question and an essay. The EMA was script-marked and feedback limited to overall score and performance profile provided well after the end of the course.
The intervention simply replaced the script-marked short-answer questions by a second iCMA covering the same content with similar questions. The programming and essay questions were retained unchanged as a written, script-marked EMA.
The hypothesis to be tested was that retention would increase: students would be more likely to submit the final iCMA, their confidence would increase, and they would be motivated to submit the written EMA.
Quantitative data were gathered for patterns of submission, course completion and pass rates for two presentations (124 and 220 students); data were also available for thirteen previous presentations (1814 students). Structured interviews were carried out to probe student preferences, confidence and engagement.
More students submitted the iCMA (86%) than the EMA (81%). Although they had the same deadline, 91% of students submitted the iCMA before the EMA. They submitted the iCMA well in advance of the deadline (median 4 days 15 hrs) but kept the EMA open as long as possible (median 18 hrs before deadline; 11% submitted in the final hour). These patterns strongly suggest that students were more confident with the iCMA than the EMA. Completion rates were the highest recorded: 88% and 89% compared to 79% for pre-intervention presentations. Overall pass rates were also improved (83% and 85% c.f. 76%). This can be ascribed to improved submission rates alone: the pass rate and mean scores among those who submit were unchanged giving confidence that the assessment difficulty was unaltered.
Student interviews suggested that students did attempt the final iCMA before the EMA and had greater confidence in obtaining a good mark for the iCMA than the EMA. Students valued the mix of assessment methods and felt it produced a robust result; although some expressed concern over the correctness of computer marking, they appreciated the detailed feedback it provided.
This intervention suggests that a change of assessment format can improve student engagement and pass rates without compromising rigour.
Exploring Web 2.0 to support online learning communities: where technology me...Jon Rosewell
A presentation to kick off a workshop at ICL2009 conference, given by Giselle Ferreira, Wendy Fisher, Jon Rosewell & Karen Kear, The Open University. http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/terg/
Equitability and Dominance in Online Forums: An Ecological ApproachJon Rosewell
Participation in online forums varies greatly: a few students post many messages, some post a few, and many only read. A rough ‘rule of thirds’ has been suggested (eg Mason 1989), but it is possible that this rule of thumb hides interesting structure.
However, similar patterns can be seen when analysing the abundance of species in ecological communities, so maybe indices of ecological diversity could also provide a useful characterisation of an online community. Such indices can unpick both ‘species richness’ (here number of participants) and equitability / dominance.
To explore this, 36 forums containing 27,000 messages were analysed to see if an ecological approach to online communities could offer useful insights.
Members of the OU Robotics Outreach Group have been running hands on school and community workshops using the Lego Mindstorms robot invention system. Typically, these activities have been based around remote control activities using prebuilt robots, programming workshops using prebuilt robots or hybrid workshops involving simple robot construction and programming tasks.
In this presentation, we describe a new activity format - a robot construction activity using a preprogrammed robot controller capable of solving a situated task based on the popular RoboCupJunior robot rescue challenge.
Model Attribute Check Company Auto PropertyCeline George
In Odoo, the multi-company feature allows you to manage multiple companies within a single Odoo database instance. Each company can have its own configurations while still sharing common resources such as products, customers, and suppliers.
Biological screening of herbal drugs: Introduction and Need for
Phyto-Pharmacological Screening, New Strategies for evaluating
Natural Products, In vitro evaluation techniques for Antioxidants, Antimicrobial and Anticancer drugs. In vivo evaluation techniques
for Anti-inflammatory, Antiulcer, Anticancer, Wound healing, Antidiabetic, Hepatoprotective, Cardio protective, Diuretics and
Antifertility, Toxicity studies as per OECD guidelines
Normal Labour/ Stages of Labour/ Mechanism of LabourWasim Ak
Normal labor is also termed spontaneous labor, defined as the natural physiological process through which the fetus, placenta, and membranes are expelled from the uterus through the birth canal at term (37 to 42 weeks
Acetabularia Information For Class 9 .docxvaibhavrinwa19
Acetabularia acetabulum is a single-celled green alga that in its vegetative state is morphologically differentiated into a basal rhizoid and an axially elongated stalk, which bears whorls of branching hairs. The single diploid nucleus resides in the rhizoid.
The French Revolution, which began in 1789, was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France. It marked the decline of absolute monarchies, the rise of secular and democratic republics, and the eventual rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. This revolutionary period is crucial in understanding the transition from feudalism to modernity in Europe.
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Next steps for excellence in the quality of e-learning (EADTU Paris masterclass)
1. Next Steps for Excellence in the
Quality of e-Learning
Jon Rosewell, Karen Kear, Keith Williams
Dept of Communications and Systems,
Faculty of Maths Computing and Technology,
The Open University, UK
EADTU Masterclass, 23rd Oct 2013, Paris
2. E-xcellence project 2005–present
Funded by EU Lifelong Learning programme
Managed by EADTU
• E-xcellence 2005-06
– Development and trialling of criteria, handbooks and
methodology
• E-xcellence plus 2008-09
– Dissemination to institutions and to QA agencies in 9 European
countries
• E-xcellence NEXT 2011-12
– Continuing dissemination and updating of criteria and
resources
7. E-xcellence: modes of use
• Informal self-evaluation
– Use Quickscan
• Local seminar
– Local use of Quickscan with justification for rating
– Meeting: institution, project team, national QA agency
– Improvement roadmap
• Full assessment
– As above but part of formal accreditation
– Evidence provided for benchmarks
8. E-xcellence NEXT: updating
• General updating of manual
– Clarifying language / terminology
• Deal with emerging trends
– Convergence between distance and F2F blended modes
– Social networking in HE
– Use of Open Educational Resources
• Process:
– Quickscan comments from partners
– Participatory workshops
– Feedback from local seminars
9. What do we mean by ‘social
networking’?
• ‘Social networking’ can be interpreted broadly to cover a
range of online communication processes
– e.g. via forums, blogs, wikis
• It can also be interpreted more narrowly to focus on
social network sites that provide accessible tools
– e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
10. Why use social networking?
• Social networking has two primary purposes in
education:
– facilitating learning
• social learning theories
• focused pedagogic function such as group work,
peer assessment
– building communities
• motivation and progress
• informal and social
11. Social networking tools
•
•
•
•
Forums
Wikis
Blogs
Social network sites
discussion and debate
co-creation of resources
reflection, sharing and feedback
sense of community
• Public (Facebook etc) or walled-garden (VLE)?
– Boundaries and invasion of student space?
12. Social network sites
Benefits
• many students already
use them regularly
• seen as more social,
informal and flexible
Challenges
• privacy issues
• lack of control
• blurring of boundaries
between social and
academic life.
13. E-xcellence NEXT: social networking
• How might social networking contribute to high quality in
e-learning?
• What risks to quality might arise?
• Which of the existing E-xcellence quality benchmarks
might apply in this context?
• Are any new benchmarks needed to cover this
scenario?
14. Social networking
• Where:
– Online communication: forums, blogs, wikis, …
– Sites: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, …
• Why:
– Learning: social learning, collaborative work
– Building communities: motivation, progress, social
• Issues:
– Public (Facebook etc) or walled-garden (VLE)?
– Boundaries and invasion of student space?
15. Revised benchmarks
– social networking
Curriculum design
10. Curricula are designed to enable participation in
academic communities via online social networking
tools. These online communities provide opportunities
for collaborative learning, contact with external
professionals and involvement in research and
professional activities.
16. Indicators – social networking
• There are institutional policies relating to the provision of online community
spaces for student-student and student-teacher interactions.
• Curriculum designers specify clearly the educational role that student-student
interaction plays in their programmes.
• Criteria for the assessment of student online collaboration exist and are applied
consistently across programmes and courses.
At excellence level:
• Teaching staff are supported by formal and informal staff development activity
in the use of online tools for community building.
• The institution works closely with professional bodies in the development of
online professional communities.
• Innovative assessment approaches, such as online collaborative work, peer
assessment and self-assessment, form a part of the institution’s practice in this
area.
17. OER use-cases
•
•
•
•
•
•
Life-long learner finds material for independent study
Individual teacher uses assets in own material
Course uses podcasts from iTunes U
Course uses a 10-hour unit
Entire 100-hour module reused, with new assessment
Course and assignments in OER; tutorial / marking /
accreditation offered for fee
• Consortium develops material for own use and ‘frees’ it
• MOOC
19. Quality Dimensions
Content
Accuracy
Currency
Relevance
Ease of use
Clarity
Visual attractiveness,
engaging
Clear navigation
Functional!
Pedagogic Effectiveness
Learning objectives
Prerequisites
Learning design
Learning styles
Assessment
Reusability & openness
Format & interoperability
Localisation
Discoverability: metadata
Digital preservation
Accessibility
20. Trends toward Open Educational Practice?
use
teacher centred
transmission
(sage on stage)
focus on outcome
standardised
individual
create
learner centred
constructivism
(guide on side)
focus on process
personalised learning
social/ peer learning
Capability maturity model:
Use OERs Adapt OER material Create OER material
See, for example, OPAL OEP Guide
21. E-xcellence NEXT: OERs
• How might OERs contribute to high quality in e-learning?
• What risks to quality might arise?
• Which of the existing E-xcellence quality benchmarks
might apply in this context?
• Are any new benchmarks needed to cover this
scenario?
22. Revised benchmarks – OERs
Course design
14. OER material is selected with regard to learning
outcome, tailored if necessary for fit to the learning
context, and integrated with other learning materials.
OER materials are subject to the same review
processes as other course materials.
23. Indicators – OERs
•
The institution has a policy for use of independent learning
materials from a number of quality assured sources, including
OER.
• Course materials obtained from OER are judged fit for purpose
by students and external assessors.
• There is a principled approach to judging the quality of material
obtained from an OER repository.
• There is a process for tracking intellectual property rights
associated with e-learning components.
At excellence level
• E-learning components are contributed to repositories as OER.
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