Why College Students Turned From Being Down on Remote Learning to Mostly in Favor of It — from edsurge.com by Robert Ubell
Excerpt:
Over time, with months of practice as the pandemic proceeded, instructors and students learned how to use remote tools. Continuously online, enormous numbers gained proficiency with digital learning software. “The quality of a well-run synchronous, online class can now rival—and in some respects exceed—the quality of the in-person equivalent,” observes John Villasenor at the Brookings Institution.
The good news is that online learning is no longer reviled and resented, but after a rocky tryout in the pandemic, it’s now just another higher ed choice in which students and faculty, after years of digital stress, have largely adapted to it.
The above article linked to:
Noetel, M., Griffith, S., Delaney, O., Sanders, T., Parker, P., del Pozo Cruz, B., & Lonsdale, C. (2021). Video Improves Learning in Higher Education: A Systematic Review. Review of Educational Research, 91(2), 204–236. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654321990713
Conclusion
Online teaching allows for learning to be delivered affordably, at scale, and with fewer infrastructure constraints than face-to-face instruction—it does not require a university to have hundreds of people in the same room at the same time. As universities move content online, staff usually turn to teaching via asynchronous videos and synchronous videoconferences (Cook et al., 2010). Videoconferences may be more conducive to student–teacher interactivity (Al-Samarraie, 2019; Bernard et al., 2009), but most studies in our review had the same level of active learning in the video and comparison condition, meaning teachers can maintain active learning while shifting to video. When they do, videos lead to better student learning than many other teaching methods, even when compared with face-to-face teaching. We suggest that these results are because videos may provide students with control over their level of cognitive load, they allow authentic demonstrations of skills, and they enable teaching staff to edit according to multimedia learning principles. Pragmatically, videos allow students to fit learning around their other commitments, and are less reliant than videoconferences on stable, high-speed internet connections (Al-Samarraie, 2019), because they can be buffered to the user’s device. Many of these findings are still contingent on students having access to online learning (Warschauer & Matuchniak, 2010), so ensuring students have social and technical support is a critical challenge for universities around the world. Provided those supports are available, universities can effectively switch to video for efficient and scalable education. Video appears to have a range of benefits in higher education settings.
Online Tools and Web Applications — from schrockguide.net by Kathy Schrock
Excerpt:
Web tools and online utilities have become more full-featured and useful over the years.
Here are some links to various online tools to help both teaching and learning. The online tools all work with laptops and Chromebooks unless stated otherwise. The ones that have Chrome apps available have a link to the Chrome Web Store link.
Categories include:
Three Things to Know about AI Tools and Teaching — from derekbruff.org by Derek Bruff
Excerpt:
There’s lot more to say on this subject, of course, but I hope these three observations are useful as you make sense of this new technology landscape. Here they are again for easy reference:
President Speaks: To put students first, colleges need to rethink the OPM model — from highereddive.com by Paul Pastorek
Paul Pastorek, president of the University of Arizona Global Campus, explains why his institution cut ties with Zovio, a former online program manager.
Following our separation from Zovio, UAGC has not only undertaken efforts that shift the structure and responsibility for critical decisions around enrollment, marketing and student advising to a fully in-house team, it unlocked resources that will enable us to make investments that better align with our mission: providing adult learners with affordable college credentials that prepare them for careers in a rapidly evolving global economy.
Savings from increased efficiency and reduced costs will be reinvested in the student experience — and entirely at our discretion. No longer stifled by the contractual obligations of a company primarily motivated by profit, our faculty and staff are already expressing they have greater freedom to innovate and find new ways to enhance student success. We are all aligned under one common goal, working together to move the institution in the same direction.
Colleges’ expenses rose 5.2% in FY22, the biggest increase since 2001 — from highereddive.com by Laura Spitalniak
Dive Brief:
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to offer HR apprenticeships — from highereddive.com by Ginger Christ
“As demand for technology skills continues to grow across the region, UWM has a unique opportunity to solve two challenges at once: creating new pathways to high-wage jobs for our community, while also addressing a growing need for workers with those tech skills,” UWM Provost Scott Gronert said in a news release. “Together with Helios, we’re helping to address one of the most critical talent gaps faced by Wisconsin employers, and enabling our students and graduates to gain the skills that translate to success in today’s increasingly tech-driven labor market.”
Unusual majors help some colleges stand out from the crowd — and boost enrollment — from hechingerreport.org by Jon Marcus
A bachelor’s degree in automotive restoration has put a tiny Kansas school on the map
Excerpt:
That’s an unusual ambition for a small college — which is exactly the point. This particular small college has what it says is the country’s only four-year bachelor’s degree in automotive restoration, a major that combines engineering, history, business, communication, art and other disciplines.
It’s an example of the way a small regional higher education institution can stand out in a crowded field of competitors at a time when many other schools appear intent on trying to attract applicants by becoming more alike than different.
From DSC:
I was watching a sermon the other day, and I’m always amazed when the pastor doesn’t need to read their notes (or hardly ever refers to them). And they can still do this in a much longer sermon too. Not me man.
It got me wondering about the idea of having a teleprompter on our future Augmented Reality (AR) glasses and/or on our Virtual Reality (VR) headsets. Or perhaps such functionality will be provided on our mobile devices as well (i.e., our smartphones, tablets, laptops, other) via cloud-based applications.
One could see one’s presentation, sermon, main points for the meeting, what charges are being brought against the defendant, etc. and the system would know to scroll down as you said the words (via Natural Language Processing (NLP)). If you went off script, the system would stop scrolling and you might need to scroll down manually or just begin where you left off.
For that matter, I suppose a faculty member could turn on and off a feed for an AI-based stream of content on where a topic is in the textbook. Or a CEO or University President could get prompted to refer to a particular section of the Strategic Plan. Hmmm…I don’t know…it might be too much cognitive load/overload…I’d have to try it out.
And/or perhaps this is a feature in our future videoconferencing applications.
But I just wanted to throw these ideas out there in case someone wanted to run with one or more of them.
Along these lines, see:
Tell me you’re not going to want a pair of #AR glasses ?
? @TechAmazing #AugmentedReality #Wearables #5G #CES2023 #FutureOfWork #AI #cloud
pic.twitter.com/He5d1bSnQK— Glen Gilmore | ?? #CES2023 (@GlenGilmore) December 3, 2022
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How to Do Screen Recording with Just Your Browser — from Hongkiat.com
Excerpt:
Do you know you can perform screen recording without using any native tool provided by your operating system or any 3rd party screen recording app?
Here’s an awesome screen recording tool by Google that you need to know about if you haven’t already. And all you need is your Google Chrome browser.
To start, go to the Google Admin Toolbox website and click on Screen Recorder.
Speaking of applications and tools, also see:
Welcome To Day One Of #Appvent22 — from ictevangelist.com by Mark Anderson
What is Book Creator? Tips & Tricks — from techlearning.com by Erik Ofgang
Book Creator is a free tool that allows users to create multimedia ebooks
Excerpt:
Book Creator is a free education tool designed to enable students to engage with class material in a direct and active way by creating multimedia ebooks with a variety of functions.
Available as a web app on Chromebooks, laptops, and tablets, and also as a standalone iPad app, Book Creator is a digital resource that helps students explore their creative sides while learning.
The tool lends itself well to active learning and collaborative projects of all kinds, and is appropriate for various subjects and age groups.
Best Webcams for Teachers and Students — from techlearning.com by Luke Edwards
Get the best webcams for teachers and students to help with hybrid learning and more
Best Wireless Keyboard and Mouse for Teachers 2022 — from techlearning.com by Luke Edwards
The best wireless keyboard and mouse for teachers keep you connected to devices while staying mobile
Beyond Courses: Instructional Approaches in 2022 — from learningguild.com by Jane Bozarth
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
In researching “upskilling for L&D practitioners” earlier this year, Learning Guild members were asked what they feel has been the biggest shift in their work over time: While technology has driven much change, sometimes seemingly exponentially, nearly everyone talked about a different sort of shift. This was true even of those who landed on the younger end of the experience spectrum. According to respondents, the biggest change is the move away from the idea that the primary role of L&D is to create “courses.” Technology changed and became easier to use, enabling development of myriad digital solutions. As noted in that report, respondents viewed this change as welcome and positive.
…
When asked what other types of content respondents created to be delivered OUTSIDE of a traditional course, the most common responses were creating video and job aids/performance support materials. Microlearning and curated content were also frequently mentioned, and curated collections of existing material was popular with those engaged in traditional design.
Also relevant/see:
Games, Organizing, & Motivation: ID Links 10/25/22 — from christytuckerlearning.com by Christy Tucker
Curated links on games built in Twine, storytelling, organization, useful tools, motivation, and transitioning from teaching to ID.
From DSC:
Under the Storytelling and CYOA books section, it was interesting to see the Random Plot Generator, where Christy wrote: “A writing prompt tool to generate two characters, a setting, situation, theme, and character action. This could be a fun way to start scenarios if you’re feeling stuck. h/t Jean Marrapodi.”
I thought this might be a good tool for developing writers, improv actors, and likely others as well! 🙂
Also from Christy Tucker, see:
If the content is very stable and unlikely to change much over time, voice over might make sense in a branching scenario. Investing in creating video also makes more sense for more stable content and skills than for something that changes every 6 months.
Higher Education in Motion: The Digital and Cultural Transformations Ahead — from er.educause.edu by John O’Brien
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
In 2015 when Janet Napolitano, then president of the University of California, responded to what she saw as a steadily growing “chorus of doom” predicting the demise of higher education, she did so with a turn of phrase that captured my imagination and still does. She said that higher education is not in crisis. “Instead, it is in motion, and it always has been.”
A brief insert by DSC:
Yes. In other words, it’s a learning ecosystem — with constant morphing & changing going on.
“We insisted then, and we continue to insist now, that digital transformation amounts to deep and coordinated change that substantially reshapes the operations, strategic directions, and value propositions of colleges and universities and that this change is enabled by culture, workforce, and technology shifts.
…
The tidal movement to digital transformation is linked to a demonstrably broader recognition of the strategic role and value of technology professionals and leaders on campus, another area of long-standing EDUCAUSE advocacy. For longer than we have talked about digital transformation, we have insisted that technology must be understood as a strategic asset, not a utility, and that senior IT leaders must be part of the campus strategic decision-making. But the idea of a strategic role for technology had disappointing traction among senior campus leaders before 2020.
From DSC:
The Presidents, Provosts, CIO’s, board members, influential faculty members, and other members of institutions’ key leadership positions who didn’t move powerfully forward with online-based learning over the last two+ decades missed the biggest thing to hit societies’ ability to learn in 500+ years — the Internet. Not since the invention of the printing press has learning had such an incredible gust of wind put in its sails. The affordances have been staggering, with millions of people now being educated in much less expensive ways (MOOCs, YouTube, LinkedIn Learning, other). Those who didn’t move forward with online-based learning in the past are currently scrambling to even survive. We’ll see how many close their doors as the number of effective alternatives increases.
Instead of functioning as a one-time fix during the pandemic, technology has become ubiquitous and relied upon to an ever-increasing degree across campus and across the student experience.
Moving forward, best of luck to those organizations who don’t have their CIOs at the decision-making table and reporting directly to the Presidents — and hopefully those CIO’s are innovative and visionary to begin with. Best of luck to those institutions who refuse to look up and around to see that the world has significantly changed from the time they got their degrees.
The current mix of new realities creates an opportunity for an evolution and, ideally, a synchronized reimagination of higher education overall. This will be driven by technology innovation and technology professionals—and will be made even more enduring by a campus culture of care for students, faculty, and staff.
Time will tell if the current cultures within many traditional institutions of higher education will allow them to adapt/change…or not.
Along the lines of transformations in our learning ecosystems, also see:
OPINION: Let’s use the pandemic as a dress-rehearsal for much-needed digital transformation — from hechingerreport.org by Jean-Claude Brizard
Schools must get ready for the next disruption and make high-quality learning available to all
Excerpts:
We should use this moment to catalyze a digital transformation of education that will prepare schools for our uncertain future.
What should come next is an examination of how schools can more deeply and deliberately harness technology to make high-quality learning accessible to every learner, even in the wake of a crisis. That means a digital transformation, with three key levers for change: in the classroom, in schools and at the systems level.
…
Platforms like these help improve student outcomes by enhancing teachers’ ability to meet individual students’ needs. They also allow learners to master new skills at their own pace, in their own way.
As Digital Transformation in Schools Continues, the Need for Enterprising IT Leaders Grows — from edtechmagazine.com by Ryan Petersen
K-12 IT leaders move beyond silos to make a meaningful impact inside and outside their schools.According to Korn Ferry’s research on enterprise leadership, “Enterprise leaders envision and grow; scale and create. They go beyond by going across the enterprise, optimizing the whole organization and its entire ecosystem by leading outside what they can control. These are leaders who see their role as being a participant in diverse and dynamic communities.”
How Long Should a Branching Scenario Be?— from christytuckerlearning.com by Christy Tucker
How long should a branching scenario be? Is 45 minutes too long? Is there an ideal length for a branching scenario?
Excerpt:
Most of the time, the branching scenarios and simulations I build are around 10 minutes long. Overall, I usually end up at 5-15 minutes for branching scenarios, with interactive video scenarios being at the longer end.
From DSC:
This makes sense to me, as (up to) 6 minutes turned out to be an ideal length for videos.
Excerpt from Optimal Video Length for Student Engagement — from blog.edx.org
The optimal video length is 6 minutes or shorter — students watched most of the way through these short videos. In fact, the average engagement time of any video maxes out at 6 minutes, regardless of its length. And engagement times decrease as videos lengthen: For instance, on average students spent around 3 minutes on videos that are longer than 12 minutes, which means that they engaged with less than a quarter of the content. Finally, certificate-earning students engaged more with videos, presumably because they had greater motivation to learn the material. (These findings appeared in a recent Wall Street Journal article, An Early Report Card on Massive Open Online Courses and its accompanying infographic.)
The take-home message for instructors is that, to maximize student engagement, they should work with instructional designers and video producers to break up their lectures into small, bite-sized pieces.
