Open Learning Initiative - Carnegie Mellon
Different from Open Content Warehouses (eg MIT etc) which tend to be content that is packaged to be used by other instructors in face to face or blended opportunities. OLI more about individual learners getting support and feedback at an introductory level without tutor support, however there is an increased use by tutors www.cmu.edu/oli
Develop exemplars of scientifically based online courses and course materials that enact instruction and support students. - not about replacing staff, this is about different opportunities
Quote - "Any staff member that can be replaced by a fully automated online process, should be!" Theory-based and driven by design and evaluation throughout - designer mantra "the user is not like me" - recognising the difference between expert users and students
"transforming rather than transposing instruction"
What is a cognitive tutor? - type of software that "acts like a tutor", in order to develop fluency on a procedural skill ie practice - supported practice, immediate feedback, targetted and directed support. mini tests, offfer of help with steps or not depending on student progress.
Most of OLI seems to be about using formative assessment activities with built in, optional step by step help. Nothing that new as a concept but the dialogue about their response to the "expert blindspot" is interesting. Transcriptions of experts solving statistics problems were coded, then the same problems were give to undergraduate, transcribed and coded, then the problems are developed based upon the gaps between how the experts solve a problem and how a student does. The idea is to support students in solving the problem the way an expert/professional statistician would ie "becoming authentic in the discourse of the domain" [My guess, this won't be the last time over the next couple of days I hear the "A" word]
Before I lose the thread, I like the evidence-informed approach to designing the problems rather than perpetuating the "expert blindspot" ie staff guessing what students find different. Lots of emphasis on students learning about the big picture the conceptual framework of the topic they are learning.
Embedded assessment and feedback - student learning data is gathered and this is used in a range of domains - monitoring and improving student performance but also loops to inform course design, faculty support and development, and develop our understanding of science of learning.
Premise of the programme is to bring the opportunities of the classroom to learners that can't get to the classroom, but it is being increasingly used by tutors to support their learning (both fully integrated in courses and offered for students requiring additional support in science/stats based courses - anyone else thinking killer modules, maths for engineers and stats for nurses???)
Growth of use by tutors due to challenges such as increased class times, variability in student background knowledge, aptitude and future goals, greater demands on instructor time. Inevitable questions about why attend face to face if you are learning all the materials online, of course, this is as expected if nothing face to face has changed. Need to change that impact from a threat to a window of opportunity for staff to re-examine how they use their face to face, tensions at Carnegie-Mellon with traditional faculty development unit who weren't on board with this initially, so it was hard to retro-fit. Would have been better to have them in from the start.
Tests:
Does taking the OLI course result in at least equivalent attainment as those taking the traditional learning course? The data showed they did as well as those doing the traditional course (as expected - nsd). But provost response was - if, as you say, the underpinning philosophy of OLI is really better (ie structured, tailored support adding value), shouldn't that programme show better performance (question what do you mean by better performance - higher scores? or faster?) - they chose faster and ran the OLI Accelerated Learning course in which students took course in 8 weeks rather than 15 weeks and performed as well or better in the end of course testing than those students taking the traditional course.
There is a published paper on these tests - found a link to it on the OU site - definitely worth a look especially if assessment, online assessment or blended learning is your thing: http://kn.open.ac.uk/public/getfile.cfm?documentfileid=12186
"converting teaching and online course design from a solo sport to a community based research activity" (Herbert Simon)
ASSISTment (http://www.assistment.org/) - "blending instructional assistance with assessment" [they are still everywhere, you know, these manteaus!]
This is based largely on maths diagnostics and formative assessments for school age students (if they get the MCQ wrong, they get hints getting progressively easier until they get to the fifth hint which is at the hint level of "the answer is 5"). I was hoping to get some insights into structured diagnostics and support that might work pre-enrolment, but not seen anything too new yet.
OK, time for mid-morning break, so gonna publish this before getting refreshments, after the break hands on activities around undergrad molecular biology, masters level statistics or 8th grade algebra - guess which one I'm gonna pick :-)
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3 comments:
you know how sometimes you hear something and you start to question the fundamentals....
C-M were asked about how the OLI integrates with their VLE - it doesn't, they say, staff can link to it from within Bb but there is no direct integration for authentication of sharing gradebooks. OK, that's reasonable, of course, different systems can work in a complementary way without having to be welded together technically and, surely, the OLI is build on an open concept that is different from the rationale of vles. So that's all OK. Then the presenter goes on to say why they didn't build OLI within (and using the native functionality) of Bb. The answer was definitely not what I was expecting.
They didn't use Bb cos, at the time Bb was not sufficiently linear in the structure of its learning pathways and most importantly, didn't give them enough behind the scenes monitoring, tracking and reporting of student activity...not big brother enough??
I tried to take a look at Assistments when I read that you were going to attend this pre-conference sesh, wondering myself whether there is any scope for pre-enrolment activities (thinking engineers here). But trying to create an account has puzzled me somewhat. I created a new School called Sheffield Hallam in the UK(as it didn't already exist on their system) and I told the system I was a teacher at Sheffield Hallam, but then I couldn't find the next step to follow. Is the system available for use outside the US?
Yes, it should be available outside US, I've got the guidance material. To be honest, I think the ASSISTment stuff is too basic in content (and too sophisticated in technology design). You might find the OLI stuff more appropriate for the maths for engineers needs - there are some maths, stats and physics, I think.
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