Always Learning

Instructor’s Tip: Gaining Diagnostic Insight

by Rachel Cubas
February 7th, 2012
Written by: Rachel Cubas on February 7, 2012.

By Rachel Cubas, Academic Trainer & Consultant

Knowing what you’ll cover in a lesson, unit or course is critical to the way you develop your course content. You put great effort into ensuring students know the topics that will be covered in each week and that their reading and assignments align with those topics, so as to aid their learning along a logical sequence. This design, albeit purposeful for the learning experience and effective for course organization, can fail to provide us with the knowledge of our student’s current understanding of the subject matter. In other words, we might set forth the outcomes at which we desire our students to arrive, but we don’t often have a great deal of insight as to their starting point, to what they already know (or don’t know). This is a critical piece of information if we intend for their learning to truly build from each course experience. After all, if we consider the essential idea espoused by Vygostsky with the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), we can entertain that knowing how much a student already knows (or does not know) about a subject is an important factor in the greater learning equation.

We’ve established that knowing what our students know about our course topics can be valuable information for us as educators. How can we collect this information on an individual student basis and then translate that into insight across all of our students? Certainly, there are many ways in which we can garner diagnostic information about our students’ knowledge. Let me share just one possibility:

In their book, Classroom Assessment Techniques, authors Angelo and Cross proffer the suggestion to design “Background Knowledge Probes” as a means to assess prior knowledge, recall and understanding. As you may have gained from its title, a background knowledge probe seeks to query each student on their current knowledge. This could include prompting students to self-assess their exposure and even current comfort level with a general topic, an event in history, a technology or tool, a mathematical theorem or virtually any other idea or concept related to the course. The idea is to gather feedback from students on what they already know (or don’t know) about the concepts that will be critical in your particular course. Would knowing what students already know (or don’t know) about your course topics be helpful to you as you facilitate your course?

If you use Pearson LearningStudio to deliver all or a portion of your course, you could build a background knowledge probe using the system’s Exam tool. To do this, you might review your course and select those ideas, concepts, theories, etcetera that are most important for the context of the course. Next, create an exam with each of those critical items and ask students to self-assess their current knowledge and comfort level with each item. Using the Pearson LearningStudio system, provide students with multiple choices/possible answers where they can select the statement that best describes their individual situation. You could offer statements such as “Know about this” “Know how to do this” or “Never heard of this” as choices in each test item. By offering pre-designed choices, you can create a consistent framework of responses that allows for student’s individual assessment on a Likert-scale. As a bonus, you can then set the Pearson LearningStudio system to auto-grade each item and tabulate results to produce Exam Statistics. Once at least two of your students have completed the exam, you can run Exam Statistics to gain comprehensive and item-level insights for all of your students.

Here are a few additional tips you might consider:

  1. Remember that a background knowledge probe needn’t be a comprehensive exam of everything the student does (or does not) know about a concept. Rather than starting with a 50 question exam, for example, select the top 5-10 most important concepts, theories, ideas or topics and begin with those. Of course, some disciplines/courses may differ on the breadth and depth of topics covered, but narrowing the items to the most important ones for your course serves to let students know which concepts will be most important in the course.
  2. Consider requiring the diagnostic exam but not penalizing the student for what they report they do not know. You might let students know they will receive credit for the assignment by simply taking the diagnostic exam, regardless of their actual answers for each item.
  3. Try naming your Exam content item something that minimizes the anxiety or feeling students can have if they see it as a high-stakes exam. After all, you want their self-assessment to be an accurate picture of what they already know, without the threat of penalization. A name such as “Getting Started with ____ (course title or main idea, i.e. Social Psychology)” or “Knowledge Survey” can let students know that you’re interested in their current knowledge on the subject, without it appearing like a high-stakes exam.
  4. Consider taking your background knowledge probes into more granular areas of your course. You might have brief diagnostic exams in each unit or major course section. Or, you might include a diagnostic exam when making major transitions from one topic/area in the course to another.
  5. Utilize the Path Builder tool to require students to complete their diagnostic exam prior to entering the course or unit content.
  6. Utilize tools at your disposal such as Exam Statistics to help you turn individual entries into insights across your students and test items. If you can use Exam Statistics to help you efficiently analyze results across students in your course, you can maximize the benefit of a diagnostic activity without feeling overwhelmed with the time required to elicit, tabulate and analyze diagnostic information in the absence of tools to support you.
  7. Consider “closing the loop” with students near the conclusion of the course by providing an opportunity for review and reflection. If you used the Exam tool to launch a background knowledge probe, ask students to review their diagnostic exam results (stored in the LearningStudio Gradebook). Next, ask them to assess their own learning on those same key course topics now that the course is complete. Finally, ask them to reflect on what they’ve learned and on their learning process/journey (thoughts, surprises along the way, most valuable takeaways, etc). This end-of-course activity can be a qualitative reflection assignment based on a quantitative evaluation (re-issue the same diagnostic exam or review original results) or it can be a quantitative re-assessment using the original diagnostic exam questions. By “closing the loop”, both you as the instructor as well as your students, would have the opportunity to review starting points, assess current conditions and observe any progress made toward the intended outcomes for the course. That’s valuable feedback!

The strategic and progressive design of our courses relies on the intention to see student growth through (and as a result of) the course experience. Knowing what a student already knows about a subject, theory, idea, and etcetera can prove invaluable in helping us evaluate our course content in light of our audience and observing progress in what they know (and don’t know) as it relates to the course. Armed with insight across all of our students, we as educators can be better prepared to make the necessary adjustments to our course delivery as we seek to create meaningful learning experiences.

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From the Desk of Dr. Jeff Borden: College Readiness

by Dr. Jeff Borden
February 7th, 2012
Written by: Dr. Jeff Borden on February 7, 2012.

For the next 10 months or so we are going to hear a LOT about education in the news.  That’s because it’s an election year and every candidate who wants your vote will have a position on something that is very important to you and I – how we educate our people.

To that end, one of the dozens of concepts that will be discussed, debated, and spun is that of college readiness.  The Obama administration really highlighted American deficiencies in college graduation rates (among many other issues) several years ago and committees were formed, panels were created, and commissions were…well, commissioned to determine how bad the problem truly was and, more importantly, what we might do about it.  One such policy group, the College Board Advocacy and Policy Center (APC) identified 10 things we must do in order to meet the new achievement goal which reads:

“Increase the proportion of 25- to 34-year-olds who hold an associate degree or higher to 55 percent by the year 2025 in order to make America the leader in educational attainment in the world.”

In other words, if we want to lead the world again, we need to move from (roughly) 40% of our population graduating with a college degree to 55%, so as to overtake Russia, Canada, Israel, Japan, and New Zealand who all have a higher percentage of college graduates than the USA.  Of course, this number is fluid and we may also have to stave off other countries like Finland, Korea, and Norway, but for now, the mark is 55%, a 15% increase from today.

And so, the College Board APC (like other groups) crafted 10 “Recommendations So Important They Cannot Be Ignored” in order to start fixing the issues and problems they believe are keeping us at unacceptable levels.   Essentially, their 10 recommendations boil down to this:

  1. Available preschool education for all.
  2. Improved academic counseling (P-20).
  3. Improved dropout prevention.
  4. Align K–12 & college standards / outcomes.
  5. Improve teacher quality, recruitment, and retention practices.
  6. Easier admission processes.
  7. More / easier grants & financial aid options.
  8. College must be more affordable.
  9. Increase college completion rates.
  10. Make postsecondary opportunities essential.

Over the past few years, I have heard a lot of educators and visionaries talk about some of these suggestions.  Some suggest that we (the USA) simply don’t have the infrastructure to handle the number of extra students required to meet these numbers.  Others suggest that the research “proving” some of these connections (like pre-school and college graduation) are flawed.

At the same time, I have been part of conversations around creating a $10,000 baccalaureate degree.  I have heard speakers talk about upping the standards for professional development and even certification for all teachers, P-20.

So, while some are talking about whether the question is the right one or if the goal is too lofty and others are focusing on potential solutions, many are left wondering what is going to happen.  Because regardless of your feelings on the desired outcome, I think it is difficult to say that the status quo is ok.  And while fixing the problems that face education are broad, wide, and deep, from politics to unions to certification to measurement and far beyond, I believe it is worth the pain and effort it will take to fix it.

As I look at what it’s going to take, I absolutely have thoughts on all 10 of the recommendations presented here.  But, with a limited amount of time and space, I want to make just a single suggestion that could help fix several of the issues.

A few years ago I was approached by a state Department of Education to lead their online education initiative.  For various reasons not important here, I (obviously) did not take the job, opting to stay with Pearson where I believe my ability to change education is much more far-reaching.  However, during the conversations I had with the Commissioner and various departments I asked a single, simple question for which the answer was the same as (I believe) every DOE in the country.  The conversation went something like this:

Question – “So, would you consider moving to a single system for learning management, a single system for student information, etc., across the state?  This of course would give you significantly more transparency into the habits, behaviors, deficits, scores, outcomes, etc., for every student, at every level of education.”

Answer – “No, that’s likely not going to happen.  There are simply too many districts in our state with too many disparate systems, some of which are home grown, that an effort like that would be impossible.  It’s too political and too expensive.”

I’ve heard this before.  I have witnessed this before!  After all, I work for a company that provides an LMS.  At any given time, especially when I was doing more solutions consulting (sales aid), trying to get a group of faculty at X University to adopt a new LMS, when it didn’t have the ONE, single most significant, deal-breaking functionality of all time, was almost impossible.  (“How can any instructor teach without the ability of a system to randomly assign group members?  It can’t be done!”)

These kinds of arguments, which I realize are extremely important to the individual, really take away from the greater good when it comes to education.  I truly do get it.  There are certain pieces of functionality that I use in my online classes every term that I have come to really appreciate.  And if they went away, it would mean revamping, rethinking, and sometimes even changing assignments, assessments, etc.  However, if the school told me that they would have more insights into student behaviors, student success, at-risk reporting, etc., then that would be different wouldn’t it?  I know that it’s never easy to change policies, process, or technologies, but ROI changes drastically when the entire institution can save time, make more money, have better transparency into data, etc, right?  Unfortunately, often times the answer to that question is simply, “No.”

And then there is the financial part.  “It’s too expensive…” just doesn’t hold water.  Anyone who understands the economies of scale knows why Walmart is able to offer such low prices.  When every school in a state uses the same system, you get the same thing.  Paying for 30-50 different systems on a smaller scale is MUCH more expensive than a single system on a larger scale.  (If it’s not, the bid is bad…)

So, this is the message I have for all 50 states and all educational organizations therein.  The same message would apply to your province, territory, district, country, or any other clustering you are responsible for.  One system.  Go to a single system.  Will it be hard?  Change always is.  Will some people resist?  Sure, there are always some who do.  But here is the better question…will it change education?  Not in and of itself, but the potential outcomes from it should.  How, you wonder?  Just think about it for a sec…

Every student record from every pre-school to every high school to every college funneling into one set of data allowing for trending, scoring, monitoring, etc. – how powerful is that?  As systems get more and more capable and evolve to include outcomes management, financial aid management, learning path creation for truly personalized learning, etc., wouldn’t it be amazing to see students go through that system with complete transparency, continuity, and measurability?  Wouldn’t that be the start of serious change?  As an instructor, I would LOVE the ability to see how my students did at various stages of their educational careers.  It would help me understand when to remediate, when to motivate, and when to hold them accountable.

Specifically, look at numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9 above.  One set of data powering teaching, learning, assessment, financial aid, transcripting, and beyond could powerfully impact advising, retention, completion rates, at-risk reporting, transparency of standards alignment, one click admissions options, etc.

Of course, as an employee of Pearson, I would love for people to include us in this conversation.  I believe that we can provide more single-system options AND far better data collection & analysis than anyone else; all in the cloud, without the need to incur infrastructure costs.  But as I simply look at the issues facing our nation with regard to college readiness and graduation, there are some legitimate tools that can provide answers.  Every day we wait just makes it that much harder to fix…

Good luck and good teaching.

Dr. Jeff D Borden
Chief Academic Officer, Pearson eCollege

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Educator’s Voice: The Testing Effect-Improving Long-Term Retention of Information by More Frequent Testing

by Gail E. Krovitz
February 7th, 2012
Written by: Gail E. Krovitz on February 7, 2012.

By Gail E. Krovitz, Ph.D. , Director of Academic Training & Consulting

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3… The idea of testing in education brings out mixed feelings in many of us. We think of excessive standardized testing in K-12 education, or instructors in higher education who assess a semester of content with only a scantron final test. But what if the act of testing is misunderstood and can actually provide an opportunity for learning instead of just assessing learning gained elsewhere? Research on the testing effect shows just that. The testing effect is the “finding that retrieval of information from memory [i.e., as during a test] produces better retention than restudying the same information for an equivalent amount of time” (Roediger and Butler, 2011: 20) and is supported by a strong series of experiments in laboratory settings as well as classroom studies. “In education today, people tend to think of tests as dipstick devices… you stick it in to measure what people know. But every time you test someone, you change what they know” (HL Roediger III, as quoted in Glenn).

Many laboratory studies that examine the testing effect are set up as follows:

“One group of students studied some set of materials and then was given an initial test (or sometimes repeated tests). Retention of the material was assessed on a final criterial test, and the tested group’s performance was compared with that of one or two control groups. In one type of control, students studied the material and took the final test just as the tested group did, but were not given an initial test. In a second type of control (a restudy control), students studied the material just as the tested group did, but then studied the material a second time when the tested group received the initial test; in this case total exposure time to the material was equated for the tested and control groups. The typical finding throughout the literature is that the tested group outperforms both kinds of control groups… on the final test” (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006b: 182).

So in summary, taking a test provides better preparation for future retention of material than does repeatedly studying or re-reading the same material (see studies reviewed in Roediger and Karpicke, 2006b, and Roediger and Butler, 2011). This is particularly true if the final test is delayed, compared to immediately taken after the studying (otherwise known as cramming in educational circles!).

This result may seem counter intuitive – how can taking a test provide better preparation for retention of information on a delayed test (i.e., long-term retention), compared to continuing to study or re-read the same material? But this is actually not surprising if you think about it terms of learning the skills needed for a task: exactly practicing the skill during learning (i.e., taking a practice test), helps you perform better when being assessed on that skill later (i.e., taking a follow up or final test) (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006a). If I want to learn to play tennis, I’m best served by actually practicing the skills needed to play tennis instead of reading about it. Also, research on how memory works shows that retrieving information during a test is not a “neutral event,” but actually impacts the ability to retrieve that information in the future. “People usually imagine memory as a storage space, as a space where we put things, as if they were books in a library. But the act of retrieval is not neutral. It affects the system” (JD Karpicke, as quoted in Glenn).

We might want to chalk these findings up to so-called “mediated” (or indirect) effects of testing. Mediated effects would include that frequent testing encourages students to study more throughout the class rather than cramming right before one or two large tests, or that tests give students feedback about what they do or don’t know so they can refine their future studying efforts (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006b: 182). With mediated effects of testing, “it is not the act of taking the test itself that influences learning, but rather the fact that testing promotes learning via some other process or processes” (Roediger and Kapicke, 2006b: 182). While these mediated effects are certainly valuable, and could lead to recommendations for more instructors to use low-stakes formative testing in their classes, this research focuses on direct or unmediated effects of the tests, something intrinsic to taking a test that helps future knowledge retrieval. “Testing not only measures knowledge, but also changes it, often greatly improving retention of the tested knowledge” (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006b: 181). Unfortunately, researchers don’t currently know why the testing effect works (see Roediger and Karpicke, 2006b for discussion of the theoretical studies investigating this), but the testing effect has been strongly shown in many studies.

Some other interesting findings from this research involve whether or not to give feedback (the correct answers) and what test format is most effective.

Feedback: It is important to give students the correct answers (or “feedback” as it’s called in these studies), as presenting students with the correct response after the test is more effective than simply telling them that a particular question is correct or not (Butler et al., 2007). It is also best to give this feedback after the test as a whole (delayed feedback) rather than right after answering each question (immediate feedback) (Butler et al., 2007). A laboratory study by Butler and Roediger (2008) illustrates the testing effect, as well as the importance of feedback, and of delayed feedback. The experiment yielded the following results for students who did not have a chance to read (study) the assigned passages they would be eventually be tested on (2008: 609):

No study, no initial test: 10% correct on final test

No study, initial test, but no feedback given: 18% correct on final test

No study, initial test, immediate feedback given: 42% correct on final test

No study, initial test, delayed feedback given: 57% correct on final test

Similar patterns were observed in each experimental set up, illustrating the importance of the initial test and the use of delayed feedback.

Interestingly, Butler et al. (2007) mention other studies showing that immediate feedback might be more effective in actual classroom settings (rather than laboratory experiments), and they suggest that this might be due to students not going back after the test to process the delayed feedback (both correct and incorrect questions) since they are not forced to do that as part of an experimental set up. Thus recommending that students make an effort to view the feedback and read correct and incorrect questions and answers after the test might be helpful.

Test format: Studies reviewed here suggest that if the initial test is short answer or essay format (a “free-recall” or “production” type test) it contributes to a larger test effect than if the initial test is multiple-choice (a “recognition” type test); the follow-up test format (whether short answer or multiple-choice) does not matter as much (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006b). However, recognition type tests do still show a strong test effect, so it’s probably still advantageous to use them in educational settings (like if the class size is too large to make manual grading of free-recall tests realistic).

Another potential issue of using multiple-choice or true/false questions on tests is that students are exposed to incorrect answers during the testing process. Therefore, “students may sometimes endorse false items as being true and thereby learn erroneous information,” or “even if they read a false item and know it is false, the mere act of reading the false statement may make it seem true at a later point of time” (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006b: 203). This is called the negative suggestion effect (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006b). To counterbalance this, providing feedback is extremely important on recognition type tests, and research shows that “if feedback is provided after a multiple-choice test, the negative effects are completely nullified” (Roediger and Butler, 2011: 23).

So far much of this discussion has focused on results of laboratory studies on the test effect, but what about studies in actual classrooms? Classroom findings might differ because students are responsible for more information in the classroom than in a laboratory setting, the material is presented in a variety of ways, and “students also differ greatly in the amount of studying they do before tests, in how soon they begin studying (relative to when tests occur), in their interest in the course material, and in their motivation to learn” (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006b: 195). However, studies in classroom settings also demonstrate a test effect. In a study looking at frequent quizzes given in a middle school science class, McDaniel and Agarwal found that frequent quizzing increased student performance on unit tests from 79% correct (for material not previously tested with a quiz) to more than 90% correct (2011: 403). The quizzing effect persisted until end of semester test (79% on what was quizzed vs. 72% on non-quizzed content) and an end of school year test (68% for quizzed vs. 62% non-quizzed content) (2011: 403). The quizzes were low stakes, less than 10% of students’ grades. In another example, one section of a statistics for psychology course included a test of four short answer questions at the end of each lecture period (totaling around 8% of the final grade), while another section of the same class taught by the same professor did not use these end of class tests. Students in the section using the end of class tests scored significantly higher on the exams (mean score of 86% versus 78%), and fewer students overall earned mean exam scores lower than 70% (5.4% of class versus 27.1% of class in comparison section), compared with students in the course section not using the tests (Lyle and Crawford, 2011).

All in all, research on the testing effect is compelling, and suggests that testing (or information retrieval practice) has a greater effect than studying on long-term retention of information, so more frequent “retrieval practice” (i.e., testing/quizzing) in the classroom should help increase long-term retention of information (Roediger and Butler, 2011). This research should hopefully allow us to see tests as opportunities for learning, instead of just instruments that assess learning acquired place by other means, and maybe it will inspire some of us to include more frequent testing in our own classes.

Sources:

Butler, A.C., J.D. Karpicke, and H.L. Roediger, III (2007). The effect of type and timing of feedback on learning from multiple-choice tests. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 13(4): 273-281.

Butler, A.C., and H.L. Roediger, III (2008). Feedback enhances the positive effects and reduces the negative effects of multiple-choice testing. Memory and Cognition 36(3): 604-616.

Glenn, D. (2007). You will be tested on this. Chronicle of Higher Education 53(40): A14. Accessed online on January 10, 2012 at http://chronicle.com/article/You-Will-be-Tested-on-This/14732

Lyle, K.B. and N.A. Crawford (2011). Retrieving essential material at the end of lectures improves performance on statistics exams. Teaching of Psychology 38(2): 94-97.

McDaniel, M.A., and P.K. Agarwal (2011). Test-enhanced learning in a middle school science classroom: the effects of quiz frequency and placement. Journal of Educational Psychology 103(2): 399-414.

Roediger, H.L., III, and A.C. Butler (2011). The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention. Trends in Cognitive Science 15(1): 20-27.

Roediger, H.L., III, and J.D. Karpicke (2006a). Test-enhanced learning: taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science 17(3): 249-255.

Roediger, H.L., III and J.D. Karpicke (2006b). The power of testing memory: basic research and implications for educational practice. Perspectives on Psychological Science 1(3): 181-210.

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The Evolution of Education: “PLA: Helping Adult Learners Get on the Path to a College Degree”

by Pearson Learning Solutions
January 12th, 2012

The Evolution of Education Series

January: The Evolution of Education

January’s PLS blog theme is “The Evolution of Education”. This month, we are exploring how the learning environment is changing and growing on many fronts, as we reflect on how much we have progressed.

Yes—this evolution is largely about technology, but it would be a mistake to ignore other, softer examples of evolution…for example, our perceptions of students. As the learning environment changes, so too does the face of the “traditional” learner, and so too do the priorities of the learner.

In our first blog post under the theme, “The Evolution of Education”, Pearson’s Workforce Education team explores an innovative measure being used to help one type of learner whose numbers are growing, and whose educational options are expanding every day: the adult learner. Read on, and then join the conversation around “The Evolution of Education” by submitting a comment, sharing this post, or contacting us with your own relevant idea for the PLS blog.

PLA: Helping Adult Learners Get on the Path to a College Degree

Before the recent economic upheavals, many community colleges were focused on helping non-credit adult students move into for-credit programs. The deep recession put much of this work on hold. Many degree programs were overwhelmed by “refugees” from the job market: they couldn’t handle additional students migrating from non-credit.

As the economy recovers, however, the issue is resurfacing. As it should. For millions of adults, only a degree program offers long-term income potential comparable to what was once available in manufacturing.

These students are central to the institution’s mission. How can community colleges best help them succeed? We think standardized Prior Learning Assessments (PLAs) are a crucial element of the solution.

With PLA, you objectively evaluate the learning a student has already done, and offer appropriate college credit for it. PLA can be used with non-credit study; on-the-job experience or training; military or volunteer service; even informal online coursework.

PLA credits may be earned through student portfolios; College Board testing; or assessments of training courses, apprenticeships and certifications performed by the American Council on Education (ACE).

Using PLAs, colleges can help students earn degrees more quickly, by eliminating requirements they’ve already met. There’s evidence that students who earn PLA credit are significantly likelier to complete degrees.

Of course, PLA must be run carefully, to protect academic quality. Fortunately, The Council for Adult & Experiential Learning (CAEL) has created extensive resources to help you do that. Many of them are available through a superb web site, www.learningcounts.org. What you learn there could help you change lives.

Join the conversation: What do you think of PLA? Is this helping to evolve the learning environment and make education more accessible for learners across the board? We’d love to hear from you.

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Educator’s Voice: Data is the Foundation for Progress

by Brian Epp
January 6th, 2012
Written by: Brian Epp on January 6, 2012.

Data is the Foundation for Progress

Nearly all institutions today are using Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Student Information Systems (SIS), which provide us with endless sources of information on student and faculty behaviors. This data can then be mined for clues on in-course retention, program persistence, quality of student learning, and admission demographics correlated to student success.

The emerging field of academic analytics is applying the same types of pattern-based strategies to education that Amazon.com has used in the retail industry to benefit consumers. Amazon.com mines data on viewed content, purchase history, and wish lists and pairs that with demographic data to recommend products that similar users have purchased when looking at a product of interest. For example, I am considering the purchase of a navigation system for my car. When I typed navigation system into the search field it gave me a list of accessories that other users have purchased when buying the product I clicked on. While there is a clear profit motive, I would indeed need to buy an accessory to mount the product to my car which is helpful information for me to consider before making a purchase decision.

In a similar fashion, data scientists can mine LMS and SIS systems for information on student performance (both grades and learning outcome scores), activity by feature or by content object to come up with actionable at-risk dashboards for academic leaders. Figure 1 illustrates an at-risk student dashboard in Pearson eCollege’s Enterprise Reporting tool. This particular university identified critical gateway courses (Student Experience Courses) and tracked them apart from all other courses. The numbers below the pie chart are hyperlinks and allow the administrator to drill down to find out which students are the least active in courses, which then provides opportunity for faculty or student advisors to follow-up with those determined to be at-risk.

Figure 1: Student Activity Dashboard

Figure 2 is a comparison of student activity in two sections of the same course for a particular term, with the most intense blue indicating the least amount of interactivity and red showing the most intense student engagement. This is helpful both for individual faculty to see where they can work to more deeply engage students, as well as for curriculum developers to look for content modifications that will help foster more student interaction.

Figure 2: Student Activity ‘Heat Chart’

Returning to the data mining metaphor between retail and its potential application in education, we can now imagine how a technology-enhanced content delivery system could use data to build adaptive learning paths by student. The system could be trained to look for patterns in how students respond to intervention strategies and to then prescribe content based on aggregated results from students with similar learning profiles, who achieved significantly improved results on subsequent outcome based assessments in previous instances of a course.

Because the assessment and accountability movement is now thirty years old, most institutions are collecting data but many still struggle to effectively analyze and act on what has been gathered. Figure 2 above illustrates the application of visualization techniques to raw data in a way that provides more actionable insights to stakeholders.

Data visualization is becoming a more critical piece of the continuous improvement process on campus. For example, Figure 3 is a raw data extract showing outcome performance by students over time.

Figure 3

If a program’s goal is to have at least 70% of students achieve mastery by outcome, it would be more effective to present the data as illustrated in Figure 4.

Figure 4

When looking specifically at data’s impact on improving the student learning experience, educators essentially have two options. We can either drill down to look at individual student performance by outcome to find opportunities for improvement in formative assessments that support students with remediation options before they complete the current module or course. Alternatively we can look for more global curriculum improvement needs by evaluating achievement of program student learning outcomes across time. This second approach means it’s usually too late for current students, because the data is being evaluated after the course has ended, but the diagnosed changes can improve the curriculum for future students.

U.S. higher education has been under considerable pressure to improve accountability for student learning. With the transition to digital content distribution, the next few years are going to increasingly offer educators the opportunity to make data informed decisions that positively impact teaching and learning.

Brian Epp, M.Ed. | Assessment & Analytics Group, Academic Training & Consulting| Pearson eCollege

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Instructor’s Tip: Using exam statistics to improve exam quality

by Gail E. Krovitz
January 6th, 2012
Written by: Gail E. Krovitz on January 6, 2012.

It’s the end of the term and I want to look over my classes to determine what to update before the next term begins. Exams are an important part of my assessment strategy and I want to be sure that my exams are the best that they can be. How do I know what questions are working well? Which questions are too hard or too easy? Which ones aren’t as clear as they could be? Exam Statistics can help answer these questions.

You can view the Exam Statistics either by locating the exam in the Gradebook or by clicking on the exam item in the left navigation menu while in author mode. It is best to view the Exam Statistics after the exam has been completed, as only submitted exams are included in the analysis. You can download and save your Exam Statistics report if you want to archive it, or to work with it in a program like Excel.

Exam Statistics provide both exam-level and question-level information. When entering the Exam Statistics area for a particular exam, you start in the exam-level area. Exam-level statistics include: highest and lowest scores, range, mean, median, mode, the average difficulty of the question, standard deviation and frequency distribution of scores. This information shows how the class as a whole performed on the exam.

If you want more information about specific exam questions you can click the Question-Level Statistics tab. By default, analysis at the question-level displays in the order each question appears in the exam, but you can also sort exam questions by their level of difficulty. Question-level statistics include:

• The number of respondents for each question and the frequency that each response choice was selected. For multiple choice questions, this can be helpful for seeing not only how many students chose the correct answer, but which incorrect answers were also selected. From this you can investigate if the question distractors are working well or if there any you want to change.

• The difficulty level of each question. This is the proportion of students who got the question right. For example, if 43 students attempted a question and 28 answered it correctly, then the difficulty is 28/43 or 0.65 (i.e., 65% answered correctly). Research shows that the difficulty range should be between 0.3 and 0.8, since if fewer than 30% of the answered the question correctly then it could be too hard, and if more than 80% answered it correctly then the question may be too easy (see further information on the Definitions & Examples link in the Exam Statistics).

• The discrimination value for each question. This shows the degree to which each question separates the better students on the exam from the weaker students. When the value is high and positive, the students who did well on the question were the students who did well on the exam. When the value is high but negative, the students who did well on the question were the students who did poorly on the exam. When the value is low (positive or negative), there appears to be little correlation between how the students did on the question and how they did on the exam.

Using the difficulty and discrimination values together can help you investigate how effective your exam questions are. For example, a question on my exam has difficulty of 0.32 (meaning it’s reasonably difficult- only 32% of students who attempted it got it correct), but it also has a discrimination of 0.65 (meaning that it does help discriminate between students who do well on the exam and those that don’t). So assuming the topic is well covered in class materials, this is a question I’ll probably keep. But another question has difficulty 1.0 and discrimination of 0, so everyone who attempted it got it right. I’ll want to look at this further to decide if it’s something I want to keep.

So take a look at your Exam Statistics and see how you can improve the exams in your own courses!

Gail E. Krovitz, Ph.D.

Director of Academic Training & Consulting

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From the Desk of Dr. Jeff Borden: 2012-The Year in Preview…

by Dr. Jeff Borden
January 6th, 2012
Written by: Dr. Jeff Borden on January 6, 2012.

I’m writing this at 35,000 feet as I head to Berlin, Germany to deliver a keynote address at Online Educa. I have to admit that I have actually found myself (lately) taking all of this for granted. I’m flying…yes, actually defying gravity. On top of that, I am writing on my computer as I use the in-flight wireless to check email, scores, and to kiss my daughter goodnight…all from thousands of miles away. So why is it that I get frustrated when the screen flickers and my email takes 30 seconds to send instead of 3? The signal is going to SPACE after all!

But what is interesting to me is that all of this technology was thought of, discovered, added to, or created at some point. Somebody had the brilliant idea to fashion two technologies together in a new way or stumbled onto a different way of using an old piece of tech, and it worked! It stuck!

Part of why this is so interesting to me is a blog I found last year (2011) called the paleofuture blog. It’s a brilliant archive of over a century of innovation pictures and cartoons, as they assumed life would be in the future. What is the most interesting to me? Two things: 1) You will find drawings of flying cars back in the 1890’s! and 2) Edison all but described the tablet reader in the language of his day! (“40,000 volumes will be placed on nickel as nobody reads from paper anymore…”)

Image from Paleofuture Blog

But the concept of predicting the future has been around as long as man could write…probably even longer. And so, here I am trying to do that very thing. As I write this article in December of 2011, I am going to do my best to talk about what Education Technology will bring in 2012. (Don’t worry, I’ll stay away from the end of the world predictions. I’ll leave that to the Mayans, although I’d make sure you tell people you love them before 12.21.12…I’m just saying…)

The LMS – People are trying desperately to find another moniker for this 15 year old concept. Europeans call it a VLE – Virtual Learning Environment. But at the end of the day, what people are trying to figure out is how to describe something else. A good friend of mine, Dr. Adrian Sannier proclaimed in 2010 that, “the LMS is dead.” He’s right. The concept is not what it used to be and the product(s) that dot the landscape are often trying to bolster a paradigm that is dying. What instructors want is SO much more. What academics want is my first prediction for 2012. Educators simply want an aggregator. They want a place to contain, connect, and codify all things education. They want the ability to pull in their OWN tools just as easily as the pre-made and pre-determined ones. They want an environment that will include rich content, free content, peer content, student content, etc. Professors are looking for a social environment that allows for creativity, collaboration, and cross-cultural connection. And of course, they want it all at the low, low price of $0.

After all, you can piece together much of what I just suggested for free. True, it doesn’t always include assessment options, gradebooks, or firewalls with safety inherent to the student. But it’s all out there…somewhere. So, while Pearson is racing furiously towards tomorrow with both OpenClass AND LearningStudio, the rest of the pack will still be in a race to $0. But ultimately, what 2012 will bring is tremendous innovation in terms of connecting the tools people want to the environments people need. 2012 will be the start of the Learning Management Aggregator (my term…if it catches on, I’d like credit).

Serious Games – It seems that we reached a tipping point in 2011. Significant numbers of educators have finally figured out that games are not only effective (with examples of empirical study showing games to be 400% more effective than passive, “traditional” learning or retention of information through games to have 4-5 times the longevity, etc), but that games are also multi-dimensional. A few years ago, if you said “educational game” or serious game to someone, often you were met with eye-rolling or sighs. Today, people have seen the power behind games with regard to curriculum integration, collaborative environments, high-stakes (from the student’s POV) tasks, real-world assessment, simulation, immersion, etc. (Not to mention solving a major question in the battle against AIDS…Foldit players, you are amazing! What did it take you? 3 WEEKS to solve that enzyme problem that plagued scientists for decades?) What is also exciting to me, is that gaming is finally starting to break out of it’s one-person, one-dimension box. Again, a few years ago when you said, “educational game” to someone, they immediately thought of ONE thing. They may have thought of Second Life, or they may have thought of World of Warcraft or they may have thought of a crossword puzzle, but rarely did they seem to think of all of the above (and more).

I think 2012 will finally see some powerful gaming attributes delivered in educational settings both within and across institutions. With the social nature of the web, it becomes easy for a classroom in New York to play an educational game with a classroom in Los Angeles. As well, creating cross-curricular objectives is as easy as ever and co-teaching through games seems to make great sense as it allows for context, facilitation, and guidance in an environment students want to learn from. So, I believe that A.R.G.’s, simulations, learning assets, and more will really start to find a footing in mainstream education this year.

eBooks – back in the 1980’s, it was written that the computer and desktop publishing would kill paper. The result? Paper usage went up 40%. Why? Because everyone had access to print off whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. It was easy and it was convenient. Flash forward to today. People are saying the eBook will kill the printed textbook. But I don’t think so. While I cannot deny the convenience factor, it seems to me that on-demand printing is what will start to show itself in 2012. The notion that any teacher can combine any materials into a book that any student can have delivered in any way they would like seems not only plausible, but desired. The past five years have seen activity by publishers, open source consortia, and more to disaggregate assets. Even at Pearson, we have multiple teams working on disaggregating every image from text, every audio from video, etc. The result? Hundreds of thousands of digital assets just waiting to be constructed by subject matter experts and used for teaching and learning. In other words, an instructor can create a “new” book filled with publisher assets, their own assets, colleagues assets, open-source assets, and even past student work. The book can charge solely for proprietary information or the instructor could charge extra for their own content. Heck, even students could get into the game. Imagine a book that had all of the same content as the instructor’s book, with the addition of an “A” student’s notes and thoughts? Would that be worth an extra $25 to a future student?

But more importantly, the way the books are delivered can be just as personalized as the instruction. Students who want an eBook can have one, complete with integrated media, highlighting, searching, and on and on. Students who wanted a hard copy would also have that ability with the multimedia options available through an ancillary portal. Instructors might start to segment out the books, associating them with various units of the course, or they might create special “annotated” segments of a book available for immediate download once a student passes a specific “gate” in the course. And any number of other combinations will be available.

Data – My last “prediction” for the upcoming year is centered around something I have written about for years. Data has finally reached its own tipping point in terms of both desire and accessibility. If you go to conferences these days, it seems that upwards of 50% of the sessions refer to data as a means to help teach, learn, facilitate, recruit,
advise, and the list goes on. Just as data has transformed countless other industries, it seems that education is finally tapping into the power of numbers.

I believe in 2012 you will start to see some real warehouses of data unfold. A number of data-sharing consortia will likely be created with the hope to determine important issues across school types and varying demographic factors. Many questions will be answered that previously would have been quite hard to figure out because of these new, open repositories. Of course, this also means that schools will start including data mining in both their marketing (“we can PROVE that you will get a job in your desired field as 87% of our graduates do!”) and also in their legal language. As more and more data is desired by various stakeholders, privacy will start to be violated, and that will be incorporated into policies for protection.

So, as we look to the near future, it seems to me that there are some real bright spots on the horizon. Digital learning is on the rise as is “entrepreneurial” learning. Both are formed and helped by all of these predicted strategies. And I think that it’s a very good thing in both the short and long term, for education.

While there are likely dozens of other educational paradigms that will shift in 2012 (I think we’re going to see a LOT more personalized learning start-ups emerge…), this list of four will have to do. Besides, we should not get too ambitious…the world is going to end in December, right? (Let’s hope the Mayans were very, very wrong…)

Have a great 2012. Good luck and good teaching.

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Educator’s Voice: We Can All Benefit From Universal Design

by Pamela Kachka
December 2nd, 2011
Written by: Pamela Kachka on December 2, 2011.

Pamela Kachka, MAEd
Academic Trainer & Consultant
Pearson eCollege

As we roll on through 2011, the speed of technology in online learning has not slowed a bit. In fact, it is safe to say that with improvements and enhancements in the LMS, the availability of ebooks and the access to third party online tools, our ability to effectively teach online grows exponentially. So, with that thought in mind, are we, the educators and the instructional designers, improving the courses we teach and design exponentially? No matter what our course building expertise might be whether it is copying and pasting from word processing documents, building content directly in the visual editor, organizing that content in a table because it looks better or doing it all with the help of some HTML editing or use of a style sheet, are we building with universal design principles that will make our content functional and useful? My guess is that the answer is no. The reason I feel so confident saying no is that when we educators create content accessed online whether it is an eCompanion to a face-to- face course, the digital portion of a hybrid course or a fully online course, we are going with what we know and most of us do not know too much about universal design. I know I did not and I have been designing content online for over a decade.

So let us start there. What is universal design? When talking about design in broad terms be it a book or a spatula, a key or a content page in an online course, most designs succeed because the majority of users find it functional and useful. What universal design considers is that is that slight modifications on the design side will lead to accessibility by more than the simple majority. It will also include some of the other groups in the minority. They only require a few changes or additions and now that item, that product, or that Webpage is accessible to their group as well.  This can affect both the Web content for consumption and the Web content for contribution (such as student assignments). By creating Web content with universal design in mind, you have designed the content or assignment with the intention that the user will finish or adjust that design as appropriate.

Recently, in a Webinar, participants were asked to sign their name with their left hand inside a grid square on a whiteboard in a synchronous session. The results were that some could not fit it in the box. Others fit it in the box but it was illegible. Yet others wrote it perfectly as directed. So the flaw with the design of the task was in locking the task down to a specific area and use of the left hand. Those left handed had few difficulties but right handed participants struggled. Others might have struggled with the use of a mouse to write on a computer screen. What if the assignment allowed participants to simply put their name on the grid? Those who struggle with using the mouse might have chosen the typing tool. Clever participants might have found an image of their name elsewhere and copied and pasted. Those with dexterity in one hand or another would use their primary hand to complete the task with their mouse. The better end result or universal solution is that the task is completed but the participants individually determined which way to accomplish the task (Hall, 2011).

That was an example of an assignment, overly simplified, but the point should be clear. When we think about designing our content pages, there are a few things we can do that will make the content more universally accessible. If we go back to our first days learning to build Webpages, we were told to put our content in tables to make it more likely to appear as it would in a word processor (a familiar comparison). We learned that there are 72 pixels in an inch so we can set the size of the table based on how many inches we want it to take up on the screen. We also learned that the alt text for an image was for those who could not see it. These tips were doled out for those who were not hard coders and built online content using a WYSIWYG editor now commonly referred to as a visual editor. While these tips have made building course content easier as time goes on, those initial tips have evolved and most online educators need to update their library of basic design rules.

In order to understand the concepts of universal design in creating online content, it helps to see examples of universal design out in the world. One solid explanation of universal design describes it as including but not limited to:

The design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.

  • The design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities.
  • Provide the same means of use for all users: identical whenever possible; equivalent when not.
  • Make the design appealing to all users.
  • The design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions.
  • Provide fail-safe features such as an “undo” feature in computer software that allows the user to correct mistakes without penalty (Connell et al., 1997).

A primary example in the world is the sloped curbs on most sidewalks. All new sidewalks are built with them and many already built sidewalks have been renovated to include them. If you ride a bike on most paths in urban and suburban areas, it is much nicer to cross intersections down a slope instead of bouncing down the curb. All Apple computers have an extensive built in screen reader. One student indicated that he used the screen reader to read or listen to the text of course content out loud while doing chores around the house (Hall, D., 2011). The kitchen tool company OXO set out to make kitchen gadgets that did not hurt the hands of the user. As development progressed, they realized the universal need for easier to hold and easier to use tools which affected the average user, the aged user with arthritis and the user with mobility issues. Their entire product line developed out of these simple goals. A couple other examples are cabinets with pull out shelves or museums that allow visitors to choose to listen to audio or read the descriptions or both.  It is apparent that universal design has worked its way into our lives in many ways and often goes unnoticed. We are not usually the designers but rather the users. As designers of our online content, we need to start thinking about ways we can universally design our content so that it works its way into the lives of the users unnoticed. When that happens, we are accommodating many population groups instead of the majority population group.

So, moving into the Web design for online teaching world, a new perspective might be necessary. It is important to realize that some online users do not use a pointing device such as a mouse. These people interact using a keyboard or some other tool that sends commands to a keyboard. Therefore, all interaction on a Website needs to be accessible whether using a mouse or a keyboard. On the Web, the optimal design is one that adapts to the user’s environment. For most of us, we do not expect to take control of a design and make it more suitable to our needs or better match our expectations (Horton, 2004). But the Web is different when it comes to design. Designers must work within the medium and deliver content in a format that can be transformed as needed by the user. Additionally, designers need to respect the boundaries of the user-controlled environment. When these boundaries are crossed, even with the best intentions, usability suffers. Conversely, users need to learn the functions and features that are under their control, and use the available tools to customize their environment (Horton, 2004).

One example of this concept in use is designing content to fill a browser screen versus designing content with fixed widths. So knowing that there are 72 pixels in an inch helps for resizing images to make them Web-ready but might not be the best design choice when used in a table. Many designers fix the width to maintain the integrity viz. design of the content. However, considering universal design, pages that adapt to fill the Web browser are more universally accessible. This allows you to open a page on a mobile phone, a 42 inch monitor, or a tablet such as an iPad and fill the screen appropriately. It allows someone with poor eyesight to enlarge the text without affecting the design.  For many it is a new paradigm in design but, nonetheless, it is worth considering and then implementing so that a greater number of groups of people have access to the Web content instead of only one group—the majority group.

So, in addition to the fixed width giving way to flexible width to achieve universal design, here are more design suggestions to make your Web content universally accessible.

Designer Mindset— Before designing the next page of content, it is worth bearing in mind at all times that every page designed might be read by someone using a screen reader. So while some design suggestions benefits different groups for different reasons, almost every suggestion will benefit someone using a screen reader.

Font Type—While the research is split on whether serif font such as Times New Roman is easier to read online or whether sans serif font such as Arial is easier to read online, the balance tips in the direction of sans serif font (thus this article is posted in a sans serif font). In my efforts to find the research backing up this statement, I found about 55% of the articles favored sans serif font and 45% of the articles favored a serif font for text online. However, considering all the content on the Web that is text, it is obvious that most others agree with using a sans serif font because that is the predominant font on the Web. Sans serif font or font without hooks is easier to read on screens.

Text—Text content is a necessary component in online learning. In the Webinar I referenced in the beginning, I heard the presenter provide the following guideline for writing for the Web. Write it out and then delete 60% of the words; delete connector words and put into bullet points (Hall, D., 2011). That may be a difficult goal to reach for many but 60% fewer words in any lecture content item is likely to be more effective.

Colored Text—Many users of the Web cannot see certain colors. Make sure when choosing color combinations that you use combinations that have high contrast. Also, bear in mind that those with visual color deficiencies will not be able to see certain colors.  Lastly, do not change text color to blue for emphasis because it looks like a link and users wonder why the link does not work.

Bold/emphasis— Our team uses the term double coding when referring to emphasis in content. Some methods are better than others for emphasizing important details. Do not underline because it looks like a link. Color for emphasis helps but some users cannot see the color change. So in additional to a color change, it is recommended that you double code such as making the text bold as well. Even better is to add the word bold into the text just before the important detail or mark important details with asterisks.

Navigation Links—Include as much detail to describe where the link leads as part of the hyperlink on the page. In the sentence–click here to navigate to the museum of science and nature Website, build the link on the words–navigate to the museum of science and nature Website–instead of just click here which removes the indications, for those using a screen reader, where the site leads.

Tables—As mentioned before, tables were the way that most of us using WYSIWYG editors instead of hard coding HTML built content online in an nicely formatted layout. Tables are a challenge for screen readers when used for content presentation. When used for data presentation (which admittedly is the primary purpose of tables) they cause fewer problems. The best rule around tables would be that if it is your only best option for design, the content presentation should make sense when reading it from left to right. Otherwise, if you can use HTML commands such as blockquote to create margins on the page around the text and content, that is preferable to a 1X1 table. This site provides more tips for universally designing a table.

Images/Graphics—include images and graphics to present content via different modalities. Only insert images and graphics that are relevant and further convey a concept. When adding alternate text, be very descriptive. Those viewing the image with a screen reader or as text only with images suppressed should be able to see in their mind what the image, table or chart looks like.

Cut & Paste—when pulling content from other resources and using cut/paste commands, paste the content as plain text and format it within the visual editor. Trying to copy formatting and links from a word processing document often creates a poorly designed replacement. It takes more effort but it will look better visually and screen readers will read the page more cleanly as well.

There are many sites available with universal design tips. See the bibliography below as a starting point.

The topic of universal design includes many aspects depending on what you are designing. In Web content specifically, because the end user has the ability to further adjust the content to make it usable for him or her, we the designers of the content need to keep those potential adjustments in mind and design under the assumption that one or many tools might be used by each different end user. While this is frustrating to some designers, it is really actually pretty powerful to consider designing something so well that almost anyone can access the content, interpret the meaning and do so in a way most effective for that one user. As one research group stated:

People who could benefit from more universal designs include many both with and without disabilities. They include:

  • People in a noisy shopping mall who cannot hear a kiosk
  • People who are driving their car who must operate their radio or phone without looking at it
  • People who left their glasses in their room
  • People who are getting older
  • People with disabilities
  • Almost anyone (Trace Research & Development Center, 2010)

So next time you post something on the Web, strive to benefit almost anyone.

Bibliography:

Colblindor. Coblis – Color Blindness Simulator. (2006). Retrieved October 19, 2011 from http://www.colblindor.com/coblis-color-blindness-simulator/

Connell, B. R., Jones, M., Mace, R., Mueller, J., Mullick, A., Ostroff, E., Sanford, J., Steinfeld, E. , Story, M. & Vanderheiden, G. (1997, April 1). The 7 principles of universal design. The Center for Universal Design NC State University, Retrieved from http://www.ncsu.edu/project/design-projects/sites/cud/content/principles/principles.html

Hall, D. (August 26, 2011). Universal Design. Retrieved October 13, 2011, from https://at.ccconline.org/training/http://www.ggu.edu/university_library

Horton, S. (2005). Access by Design: A Guide to Universal Usability [electronic version]. New Riders Press. Retrieved October 13, 2011. from http://universalusability.com/index.html

Horton, S. (2004, September 1). Forging a partnership between designer and user. Digital Web Magazine, Retrieved from http://www.digital-web.com/articles/designer_user_partnership/

Krovitz, G. (2010, November 10). Being disabled for a day [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://blog.ecollege.com/WordPress/?paged=5

Listening is Learning. How Does Description Benefit Students Without Visual Impairments? Retrieved October 18, 2011 from http://listeningislearning.org/background_description-no-bvi.html

OXO. About OXO. Retrieved October 19, 2011 from http://www.oxo.com/aboutOXO.aspx

The Trace Research & Development Center. (2010). General Concepts, Universal Design Principals and Guidelines. Retrieved October 17, 2011 from http://trace.wisc.edu/world/gen_ud.html

University of Central Florida Teaching Online. (2009). Accessibility Tips. Retrieved September 23, 2011 from http://teach.ucf.edu/resources/creating-accessible-course-content/accessibility-tips/

WebAIM. Creating Accessible Tables. (2011). Retrieved October 18, 2011 from http://webaim.org/techniques/tables/

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From the Desk of Dr. Jeff Borden: It Was A Very Good Year…

by Jeff Borden
December 2nd, 2011
Written by: Jeff Borden on December 2, 2011.

Whenever this time of year is upon us (you know, the time of year when you start thinking about the impact of the year?), I hear Frank Sinatra ringing in my ears. “When I was 35, it was a very good year…” rambles around in my brain and I start asking an important question. Was it truly a good year?

Of course, that kind of thing is all about perspective. For many, 2011 was NOT a good year at all. Japanese citizen? Devastating year. Afghani citizen? Bad year likely doesn’t cover it. American citizen? Well…it depends.

Sure, we are still floundering in an economic cesspool, our unemployment rate is still flirting with Great Depression numbers, and it looks like NBC officially cancelled “The Event”… Ok, that last one was probably more for me than most of you, judging by the numbers anyway.

But who wants to end the year on such sour notes? Some may say it’s more realistic to do so, but I think it just sets up the first quarter of 2012 as time to get over 2011. And that is just wasted energy from my perspective!

So, rather than pushing holiday depression on you, I am going to do my best to suggest three 2011 elements that were actually positive, even GOOD to help us move into 2012 with a sense of hope, ok? Are you with me? (Cricket, cricket….) Trust me – this is the good stuff!

  1. Serious games are getting serious. Gaming is really starting to find its way into main-stream education. Finally! There are so many types of experiences and so many platforms for games out there, many educators are finally realizing that a serious game doesn’t always equal “X”. In reality, serious games equal X, Y, Z, and 1, 2, 3! There are simulations, alternative reality games (ARG), immersive environments, simple gaming elements, gaming strategies, etc. And any one or combination could mean the difference between great retention rates and students who are bored out of their skulls.
    This was likely pushed forward by gaming in non-educational arenas. “The Inside Experience” game, played out on YouTube is one small example of how social networks are creating new platforms for gaming. And those platforms are translating to education through the work of groups like SIIA, the Serious Games Initiative, WCET, Gamasutra, and more. As well, interdisciplinary and massive online games are starting to take shape, giving individual instructors new in-roads to teaching and learning. Games like World Without Oil, Evoke, and SuperBetter give students a chance to learn not only about science, math, literacy, etc, but also about powerful social issues. But the ultimate ‘win’ (pun intended) for serious games had to come when people playing Foldit — “a computer game enabling players to contribute to important scientific research” seen in the picture here —helped determine the structure of an AIDS-related enzyme which, according to Time magazine’s Techland blog, had stumped the scientific community for decades! (By the way…it took the gamers 3 weeks…)
  2. Data driven decisions are definitely desired. Back in 2008, I blogged about how data was the white buffalo of education. It would be cool to find it, but what exactly would you do with it once you had it? People have been touting the benefits of data in education for years, but it just hasn’t reached a tipping point….until now. Educators and business analysts alike are showcasing all of the promise of education data wrapped up into this system and that system. Look at an education conference program which 2 years ago would have had Web 2.0 dominating the pages but now has “data” in every other session title. Educators want data that shows how students are learning, behaving, scoring, while needing data that can be mined to show at-risk reports, demographic trend analysis, and outcomes measurement. Of course, I would be remiss to not point out that Pearson has been going down this path for years, honing these exact tools and report building implementations. But it looks like the world is catching on. The thing that has changed almost every industry in the world has finally reached education in a meaningful way…data!Schools are actually embracing and even integrating with websites like www.ratemyprofessor.com, accrediting agencies are beginning to include aggregation data requirements into their guidelines (remember the “accreditation portfolio room”? Real time data makes these just another file closet…), and even the Department of Education is getting into the act. They have recently suggested that data is going to be how we finally improve the Carnegie Unit as the standard measure of time in higher education, understanding what is more appropriate for teachers and students in the 21st century, rather than using a measure from 100 years ago. Data is being visualized in new (and useful) ways, like this social graph from LMS usage shown in the picture on the left. And probably most interesting to me are the creation of multiple data “consortia” – groups who will share all kinds of institutional data – from academic to demographic to behavioral to cognitive – in order to get a much bigger, better picture of what is happening at our schools. (It’s about time….)
  3. Ed Tech is just about ready to lead. For years, online learning has been a bigger cousin of distance learning, both of which were viewed as the ugly step-sisters of education. Blogs galore still talk about the woes of online teaching and learning with instructors ranging from suspect to downright loathsome of the medium. As well, news editorials and presentations to political leaders have suggested that there is really no need for new hardware / software in education, but instead more teachers with bigger budgets is all we really need. (And yet our students are failing in higher percentages at every level…) Enter technology-based learning. The evidence is finally mounting a sizable defense, showcasing the power of the technology enabled classroom. Whether its eBooks, eLearning, or eTeaching, the results are proving what many converts have known all along: technology enabled teaching is better for results, for teachers, and most importantly for students.And so, as schools are bleeding money, students are demanding better than the 400 person lecture, business is screaming that the workforce is dreadfully underprepared, accreditors are scrambling to hold schools accountable for quality and relevance, and even parents are demanding better results, most schools are realizing that technology actually is the best answer. In a recent GAO report specific to online learning, it was reported through 2008 IPEDS data that well over 20% of students took an online class that year. Estimates for 2011 data suggest well over 30% and the numbers keep climbing. Schools cannot afford to build right now, but online programs allow for growth. Students and educators alike are touting the value and importance of individualized learning, which becomes much easier and more scalable through technology. The number of non-traditional students continues to climb as online education grows too, forcing professors and designers to consider the efficacy of mobile, web-based, and hardware based learning like never before.Technology makes it possible to do things in the classroom that were never imaginable before. Software can measure a person’s forget curve and help them study concepts that they will (literally) never forget. Students can collaborate with students in other parts of the world via the Internet thereby solving not just math, science, and history problems but also solving social, real-world problems. Social tools can provide bigger, deeper, more meaningful communities of learning. Creativity, entrepreneurship, and problem finding are just a few of the hundreds of positive outcomes from technology-enabled classrooms. And don’t forget #1 and #2…technology creates wonderful gaming platforms and provides much more, and much better data.

So, as we look back on a tumultuous year full of financial crisis, natural disasters, civil wars, and on and on, we do have some things to remain hopeful for. Education is changing before our eyes, and in this case that change holds the promise of great things. While there is still much to do around all of the cornerstones (assessment, delivery, engagement, retention, etc., etc.) of education, there are some really powerful tools being both used and created that can and will help.

So bring on 2012. Let’s go into the new year with a rejuvenated sense of empowerment. After all, that is what this (very) short list of 3 things do for education…they empower educators and the curriculum to teach better, assess better, and ultimately to create better students. At the end of the day, isn’t that what it’s all about?

Happy New Year – Good luck and good teaching.

Dr. Jeff D Borden

Sr Director of Teaching & Learning

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Pearson LearningStudio’s Instructor’s Tip: Trying Iframes in Your Pearson LearningStudio Course

by Rob Kadel
November 29th, 2011
Written by: Rob Kadel on November 29, 2011.

By Rob Kadel, Ph.D.
Academic Training & Consulting Manager
Pearson eCollege

One of the great flexibilities in Pearson LearningStudio is the HTML editor. If you haven’t used it before, don’t worry! You can create content pages that look amazingly complex, but really require only a line or two of simple HTML code.

One of these great tricks is to present external Web sites right in your LearningStudio Text/Multimedia page by showing them through the use of the iframe tag. Iframes are a fairly simply concept. You’ve probably used the Insert Image button in the Visual Editor to put a photo or graphic on a page. The iframe concept is quite the same, but instead of inserting a static image, you’re inserting a whole Web page. It’s kind of a through-the-looking-glass effect, which some programmers have lovingly dubbed “wormholes.” Because, basically, you are looking “through” a LearningStudio page right into another Web site. Here’s a screen capture of what I mean:

This image shows one of my favorite Web 2.0 tools, a language learning site called LiveMocha. If I want my students to practice their foreign language skills in LiveMocha, I can do so from within LearningStudio without them ever having to leave the system. Again, in essence, they will be looking through LearningStudio at the LiveMocha site.

And the beauty is, they can each create their own accounts and sign in right through LearningStudio. LiveMocha will still set a cookie in each student’s browser to remember who they are (if they choose to allow it). When they leave LearningStudio and then return to that same content page later, they will still each be logged in to their own accounts.

To work with iframes, you need just a couple of pieces of information, specifically, the URL (Web site address) of the site you want to show students, and a general idea of how wide and how high you want this “wormhole” to be. Many Web sites are optimized to be somewhere between 800 pixels and about 1,050 pixels wide. (A pixel is just a single dot that takes on a certain color; put lots of these dots together in different combinations, like puzzle pieces, and voilà, you have an image, a menu bar, or even a letter in a paragraph just like this one.) To give you an idea of how wide a Web site is in pixels, the image above shows LiveMocha in an iframe that is 1,024 pixels wide. The height is kind of subjective — it all depends on how far down the page you want students to have to scroll to see the page. A good practice is to start by using the same height as width, creating a square, then increasing or decreasing the value of the height through trial-and-error.

So, let’s see what we’re talking about. Here is the iframe code I used to embed LiveMocha in my LearningStudio course:

<iframe src=”http://www.livemocha.com” height=600 width=1024></iframe>

Note that this shows the Web address as well as the height (600) and width (1024) of my iframe.

To use something similar, feel free to copy the following line of code, go to the Visual Editor on a page, switch to HTML mode, and paste the code there. Then adjust as necessary:

<iframe src=”http://yourwebsite.com” height=1050 width=1050></iframe>

Of course, replace “yourwebsite.com” with the actual location you want to show to students. The site will be fully interactive, as if the student were on the site outside of LearningStudio. Again, they can log in to their accounts, create new information, post a status update, or whatever it is you have in mind from the site. Or, they can simply read the site, watch any videos it shows, and so on.

One note about iframes, though, is that they can be tricky if the Web site you want to include starts with https:// (note the “s” at the end of http). This denotes a secure site, and if that site requires a log in, students are stuck unless they have login credentials. For example, if you happened to try to embed your Amazon.com account info page into an iframe, students wouldn’t be able to see it because they would not be logged in as you. This is good for security, but to use a less obvious example, suppose you wanted to use an iframe to share a Google document with students; they would not be permitted to see the document unless you had also already given them permission to see it and they can log in to their own Google accounts. In short, you’ll need to test how the secure site will react before using it in an iframe.

But, with that one caveat, the iframe is a useful and powerful tool. Try it out sometime in one of your courses!

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