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Current Issues in Emerging eLearning
Number of Followers: 11

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 2373-6089
Published by U of Massachusetts

[17 journals]

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning, Volume 7, Issue 1: APLU Special
Issue on Implementing Adaptive Learning At Scale
- Abstract: The second of two Specials Issues of the CIEE journal to have been produced and guest edited by the Personalized Learning Consortium (PLC) of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), featuring important research resulting from university initiatives to launch, implement and scale up the use of adaptive courseware and the strategies of adaptive learning.
  PubDate: Tue, 22 Dec 2020 06:51:13 PST
Adaptive Courseware Implementation: Investigating Alignment, Course
Redesign, and the Student Experience
- Authors: Patricia O'Sullivan et al.
  Abstract: In this paper, four institutions share student and faculty feedback on the implementation of adaptive courseware through a common case study: biology for undergraduate non-majors. Additionally, each institution has provided a second case study of their choice. Together, researchers at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO, Portland State University in Portland, OR, University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL, and the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS consider student perception of the benefits to the implementation of adaptive courseware, and how the deliberate alignment between adaptive courseware and course organization and structure impacts student experience. This paper highlights the collaboration of four public land grant Universities and includes data from thousands of students across the United States. Our findings indicate that adaptive blended courses with student engagement at the core multiplies opportunities afforded by emerging technologies within blended course design. This paper contributes multi-year data from four institutional approaches to implementing adaptive software to center student engagement.
  PubDate: Fri, 18 Dec 2020 08:11:26 PST
Student Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Adaptive Courseware for
Learning
- Authors: Patricia O'Sullivan et al.
  Abstract: Despite the increasing research on the effectiveness of adaptive learning courseware by vendors and academic institutions, there are few published, peer-reviewed studies on adaptive courseware that address the student experience and student perception of this teaching and learning tool. Over the course of two academic years, 2017/2018 and 2018/2019, researchers at the University of Mississippi conducted 16 course-based student focus groups and gathered data from 4 end-of-semester surveys to understand how students are experiencing adaptive courseware and whether or not they find it adds value to their education. Our study found that, although students generally find courseware to be helpful in their learning, they do not agree the courseware is adaptive, and they find the benefits of the courseware to be undermined by poor implementation and frequent overpricing.
  PubDate: Fri, 18 Dec 2020 08:01:52 PST
Adaptive Analytics: It’s About Time
- Authors: Charles Dziuban et al.
  Abstract: This article describes a cooperative research partnership among a large public university, a for-profit private institution and their common adaptive learning platform provider. The focus of this work explored adaptive analytics that uses data the investigators describe as metaphorical “digital learning dust” produced by the platform as a matter of course. The information configured itself into acquired knowledge, growth, baseline status and engagement. Two complimentary models evolved. The first, in the public university, captured end-of-course data for predicting success. The second approach, in the private university, formed the basis of a dynamic real-time data analytic algorithm. In both cases the variables that best predicted students at risk (effective use of time and revision attempts) were deemed teachable skills that can improve with intervention.
  PubDate: Fri, 18 Dec 2020 08:01:37 PST
A Transformative Approach to Incorporating Adaptive Courseware: Strategic
Implementation, Backward Design and Research-based Teaching Practices
- Authors: Tonya A. Buchan et al.
  Abstract: In July 2016, Colorado State University (CSU) joined seven other land-grant institutions in the Accelerating Adoption of Adaptive Courseware grant sponsored by the Personalized Learning Consortium (PLC) of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). A primary objective of the grant was to scale the adoption of adaptive courseware in general education courses at each of the grant institutions. CSU targeted high-enrollment, general education courses and took a three-pronged, transformative approach to the integration of adaptive courseware. Specifically, CSU divided the courseware integration into three components: 1) strategic implementation of courseware, 2) backward course design, and 3) incorporation of research-based teaching practices. By May 2020, it is projected that over 40,000 students will have taken courses that were developed in this manner.Faculty participating in the grant completed the Teaching Practices Inventory (TPI) developed by the Wieman Institute. The inventory measures the extent to which instructors use research-based teaching practices (ETP). Faculty use of research-based teaching practices in strategic alignment with active learning and adaptive courseware provided the greatest measure of success. In general, instructors with ETP scores above 24 had higher course success rates than those with lower ETP scores. However, these differences were statistically significant for instructors of STEM courses with ETP scores of 30 and higher. Data indicates that simply adding adaptive courseware is not enough to impact student success. It is the combination of: 1) strategic implementation of courseware, 2) backward course design, and 3) the incorporation of research-based teaching practices that has the most potential to impact student success.
  PubDate: Fri, 18 Dec 2020 07:51:23 PST
Designing and Teaching Adaptive+Active Learning Effectively
- Authors: Peter van Leusen et al.
  Abstract: To fulfill the promise of providing all learners with access to education, institutions of higher education are exploring personalized learning for individuals with different skills, abilities, and interests. These universities have turned to an instructional model that combines adaptive courseware and learner-centered instruction. This is often referred to as active learning. Despite growth in adaptive courseware and generous support through national organizations, successful implementation of adaptive systems is mixed (SRI Education, 2016). This article highlights the need for a systems approach and illustrates this approach through design and pedagogy decisions that have contributed to the success of adaptive learning at Arizona State University (ASU).
  PubDate: Fri, 18 Dec 2020 07:51:13 PST
Foreword: Implementing Adaptive Learning at Scale
- Authors: Karen Vignare
  Abstract: What follows is the second of now two Specials Issues of the CIEE journal to have been produced and guest edited by the Personalized Learning Consortium (PLC) of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). Both special issues feature important research resulting from university initiatives to launch, implement and scale up the use of adaptive courseware and the strategies of adaptive learning. The Personalized Learning Consortium has been working with institutions for more than five years to improve student success in high enrollment undergraduate courses. Using a combination of active learning and adaptive courseware, many universities are reporting higher passing rates but also more equitable outcomes. In this issue, we share five papers that discuss how and why higher education institutions have incorporated adaptive courseware and learning into high enrollment general education courses. The papers also provide detailed examples of levels of success achieved.
  PubDate: Fri, 18 Dec 2020 07:51:06 PST
Notes on Artificial Intelligence
- Authors: Brian Meyer
  Abstract: From leveraging insights in data-driven marketing, to utilizing machine-learning algorithms for medicine, artificial intelligence has been seamlessly integrated in industry to optimize professional performance. While AI technologies attract their fair share of critics, their prevalence in the public domain attests to their profound potential, both as a tool for corporate transformation, and, more recently, as a means to enhance current, pedagogical practice. These notes explore coverage in the current literature regarding both concerns related to and the potential value of integrating AI technologies into the classroom to customize the learning experience through data-driven insights, to facilitate a more efficient allocation of resources, and assist educators in the critical appraisal of their pedagogical approach in order to assess its current efficiency.
  PubDate: Thu, 12 Nov 2020 13:06:00 PST
A Shift in Reality: Virtual and Augmented Systems in Higher and Medical
Education
- Authors: Brian Meyer
  Abstract: Virtual and augmented technologies provide a seamless solution for merging traditional, theoretical learning with practical application in context. Unlike traditional teaching pedagogies, in which lessons are restricted in terms of the use of additional apparatus, pedagogies that involve the use of virtual and augmented reality technologies enable educators to build upon taught concepts to demonstrate the application of those concepts in practice, and allow educators to generate multiple atypical scenarios in order to build competence in practical fields of endeavour. In medical education, virtual and augmented reality tools provide an especially important opportunity for preparation before treating patients in actual practice. Although the outlay of implementation can be substantial, platforms such as Google Cardboard are simple in terms of set up yet can provide a relatively inexpensive introduction to the potential of virtual and augmented technologies. Concerns regarding relying on such tools in the classroom as a substitute for traditional teaching are entirely valid; however, if utilised effectively in the classroom, such tools can enhance the learning experience to elicit inspired engagement, and should, as such, be seen as strategies to enhance and extend the capabilities of traditional, pedagogical techniques, rather than as a means to supplant traditional, pedagogical techniques.
  PubDate: Thu, 27 Feb 2020 13:46:10 PST
Meaningful Engagement via Robotic Telepresence: An Exploratory Case Study
- Authors: Tommy Lister
  Abstract: Recent advances in robotic telepresence have created new opportunities for students that are unable to engage in traditional classroom environments physically. Although these technologies are still being tested in application, early indicators support the idea that robotic telepresence enhances the learning experience by allowing greater autonomy and depth of engagement with peers. This exploratory case study examines the experiences of a fifth-grade student who was limited in her ability to attend school due to illness. It utilizes a qualitative investigation into the experiences of robotic-telepresence from the perspectives of the remote student, peer students in the classroom context, and the teacher. Four central themes emerged from the analysis indicating A) improvements for relational normalcy and autonomy, B) personal agency in learning, C) rapid acceptance and normalization of the robotic device, and D) prescription for future use.
  PubDate: Thu, 27 Feb 2020 13:40:59 PST
Comparative Reflection on Best Known Instructional Design Models: Notes
from the Field
- Authors: Bengi Birgili
  Abstract: This paper is intended to stimulate discussion on historical and evolving instructional design models in an educational era. After enriching the vision of what constitutes an instructional design, the paper explores the historical development and improvement of instructional design processes and models. The instructional design models of Dick and Carey, Morrison, Ross and Kemp, Posner and Rudnitsky, and Smith and Ragan are identified herein as being among the best known, most popular, and most widely applied instructional design models in the field of educational sciences. The philosophical underpinnings and the rationales for the arrangement of components in each instructional design model are considered with regard to similarities and differences. Also, the current discussion explores which instructional approach is appropriate for a particular model, and how much importance each model assigns to instructional objectives or other design considerations and components. The instructional design concepts embedded in these models have evolved to meet the demands of new educational and instructional contexts. Hence, this paper is aimed at comparing and contrasting these basic models so that readers can ponder the implications of applying a given model to meet specific curriculum and instructional development needs.
  PubDate: Fri, 20 Dec 2019 14:06:17 PST
Educator Professional Conversations via Twitter Chat: Speech Acts and
Intentions in #PDBookClub
- Authors: Suzanne L. Porath
  Abstract: #PDBookChat was an affinity space of educators who read a professional book together and reflected on their learning through blogs, Twitter, and Google+. The book study culminated with an hour-long synchronous Twitter chat. Using Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis (Herring, 2001) and speech act theory (Searle, 1976) this paper focused on the Twitter chat to examine the discussion among the participants, the specific ways in which they connected their responses to each other and the content of the professional book they read, and provided an analysis of the key themes of the chat. This research provides evidence of how educators use Twitter to seek advice, share practices, and gain emotional support. In understanding how Twitter chats work to support professional learning, schools and educators can better leverage this free, easily accessible medium for professional development.
  PubDate: Fri, 20 Dec 2019 14:06:14 PST
Digital Tools in the Classroom: Measuring the Effectiveness
- Authors: Jeff Carpenter
  Abstract: The purpose of the study is to determine if, compared to traditional practice, digital practice increases student measuring accuracy on an authentic task. Therefore the study explores the relative efficacy of digital versus traditional practice for increasing student measurement skills in applied situations. Research tells us that students’ poor performance with measuring skills is directly related to lack of practice. To increase the ability to accurately use a ruler, Junior High, Intermediate and Middle Schools students require more time on task than they typically spend practicing this skill. Since more time is hard to come by in the classroom, educators make the most effective use of the time students do have to practice using a ruler. This raises a key research question: Can students who participate in digital practice transfer the skill to physically completing an authentic task' This study examines digital tools and their effectiveness in comparison to traditional measurement practice methods, finding no statistical difference in student performances or in students’ attitudes toward their own competency based on engagement in digital versus traditional practice with measurement. However, deeper research is warranted since results of this study may be context bound and since digital measurement practice may provide affordances beyond improved outcomes on authentic classroom measurement tasks and/or to foster increased student confidence.
  PubDate: Fri, 20 Dec 2019 14:01:23 PST
Learning Together in Public and in Private: Exploring Learner Interactions
and Engagement in a Blended-Platform MOOC Environment
- Authors: Arianna Montero-Colbert et al.
  Abstract: With the growing popularity of connectivist MOOCs, the aim of facilitators has increasingly shifted from helping students meet completion-oriented goals to encouraging meaningful engagement among participants. In this paper, we study the relationship between platform of engagement and learner participation, controlling for relevant demographic factors of participants including gender, age, and level of education attained. Our study employs four distinct measures of participatory engagement: autonomous learning, knowledge reproduction, information networking, and scholarly engagement. We find that on the public platform of Twitter, participants were more likely to exhibit meaningful engagement patterns across all measures studied than they were on the closed EdX class discussion space.
  PubDate: Fri, 20 Dec 2019 13:56:02 PST
Troubling “Technologies”: Exploring the Global Learning XPRIZE Using
the Frameworks of Skinner and Foucault
- Authors: Tanya Elias
  Abstract: This work focuses on the question: What might be wrong with large-scale approaches to learning' In posing this question, my purpose is not to suggest that large-scale approaches have no role to play within a complex educational landscape. Rather, I seek to introduce a starting point for more critical and nuanced approaches to achieving proper scale within digital learning, whether big and small. Organized around a series of stories from a train-ride home, I introduce a series of process-based “technologies” as defined by Skinner (1971) and Foucault (1988). After contrasting key concepts of Skinner and Foucault, I apply Foucault’s framework of “the technologies of domination and of self” to explore the potential risks of the Global Learning XPRIZE, a privately funded competition to develop open source and scalable software to promote numeracy and English language literacy among students in Tanzania. The discussion considers how the technological tools that support the XPRIZE agenda, and the language that surrounds the initiative both shape and are shaped by deeply entrenched neoliberal power structures. This work further questions the capacity for autonomy among the Tanzanian children who participate in XPRIZE learning, and explores our roles and responsibilities as educators to consider more critically the risks and ramifications of XPRIZE and other large-scale learning initiatives.
  PubDate: Fri, 20 Dec 2019 13:56:00 PST