edX partnering with two Massachusetts community colleges to “Take the learning to the learners" from Harvard and MIT to community colleges.
Via Ed Stenson
Share ideas that matter on the social web and experience
the benefits of curating the world's best content.
I don't have a Facebook, a Twitter or a LinkedIn account
|
|
Rescooped by Dennis T OConnor from #MOOC: Massively Open Online Courses onto E-Learning and Online Teaching |
edX partnering with two Massachusetts community colleges to “Take the learning to the learners" from Harvard and MIT to community colleges.
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Your new post is loading...
By interspersing online lectures with short tests, student mind-wandering decreased by half, note-taking tripled, and overall retention of the material improved, said Daniel Schacter, the William R. Kenan Jr. “What we hope this research does is show that we can use very strong, experimentally sound techniques to describe what works in online education and what doesn’t,” said Szpunar. “The question, basically, is how do we optimize students’ time when they’re at home, trying to learn from online lectures? How do we help them most efficiently extract the information they need? “At the very least, what this says is that it’s not enough to break up lectures into smaller segments, or to fill that break with some activity,” he said. “What we really need to do is instill in students the expectation that they will need to express what they’ve learned at some later point. I think it’s going to be a very sobering thought for a lot of people to think that students aren’t paying attention almost half the time, but this is one way we can help them get more out of these online lectures.”
Dennis T OConnor's insight:
The techniques described in this article deal directly with how to miinimize distractions when learning online. Clearly the testing effect can minimize mind wandering. However, this insight delt with one of my major concerns, "Another surprising effect of the testing, Szpunar said, was to reduce testing anxiety among students, and to ease their fears that the lecture material would be very challenging." If short, low stakes, multiple trial testing can lower test anxiety, everyone wins. do I need to emphasize that short aumtomatic graded tests are something the LMS does very well? When we get the rare combination of a design that improves student retention, with easy and time savings for the instructor it's time to PAY ATTENTION!
Lynn Dixon's curator insight,
April 16, 10:32 AM
Well put- and the comments by Dennis T OConnor are also well received. A strategy for getting students focused on the content and checking for understanding while ALSO minimizing test anxiety, is a great strategy!
Kate Bowles's comment,
April 18, 8:08 PM
For hospitable pedagogy: how do we anticipate that students react differently to the same content delivered in different ways: what adaptive measures are already in our minds?
Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
No
Using Blubbr you can create interactive quizzes that are based on YouTube clips. Your quizzes can be about anything of your choosing. The structure of the quizzes has a viewer watch a short clip then answer a multiple choice question about the clip. Viewers know right away if they chose the correct answer or not. Via Anne Whaits
Dennis T OConnor's insight:
Quizzes embedded in YouTube video... what a great idea! I've found that most students don't really get the point when viewing a video. A brief quiz style check for undestanding could be a great way to improve comprehension.
Dee KC's curator insight,
February 9, 5:49 PM
That solves the problem of 20 minutes tomorrow between put the yourk shire in and the veg on. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
No
Most of the specific questions were on quizzes. This is because in my AP and gen. physics classes I give all quizzes on Canvas. I have quiz banks set up, from which Canvas pulls random problems, and the students do their best to answer them. Most of these questions came after I said that I gave the students multiple attempts on the quizzes (up to 5, at their own pace in AP, and as many as needed by conference in gen. physics).
One question went something like this, “Well, how do they take the quizzes? In class or at home?” I could tell right away that the concept of multiple attempts was throwing the teacher.
Dennis T OConnor's insight:
I'm no fan of high stakes quizzes/tests. Instead I prefer the method advocated in this blog piece: unlimited attempts. For me a quiz is a highly motivating opportunity for some guided review. In an online environment where test security is always an issue, unlimited attempts removes the pressure. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
No
The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web.
Hot Potatoes is freeware, and you may use it for any purpose or project you like. It is not open-source. Via Gust MEES Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
No
|
Michelle Miller (Northern Arizona University, USA) Research findings from cognitive and brain sciences are particularly relevant to improving our teaching, given that these disciplines focus on how we acquire new information and learn to use it in new contexts. The presenter of this interactive will be drawing on her 20 years of experience as a researcher and teacher in the field of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, as well as on themes from her book in progress tentatively titled Minds Online: What Cognitive and Brain Sciences Tell Us About Teaching with Technology.
Dennis T OConnor's insight:
Dr. Millers presentation materials are available at this link. I was very impressed with her findings regarding the testing and time effects established by cognitive psychology and their applicaiton to online learning. Recent research from Harvard http://sco.lt/6WzedN supports the design idea of including short quizzes as a way to increase learning of fundamental concepts. This is something that the LMS can do very well! ~ I'm revising my course designs to take advantage of this insight. Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
No
Dennis T OConnor's insight:
Anything you can do to automate assessment will help you save time for your real job (teaching).
Jeff Domansky's curator insight,
December 30, 2012 3:37 PM
This is a very easy to use tool, well explained with good potential for marketing, training, PR and community relations.
asnal abbas's comment,
December 31, 2012 7:33 AM
survived in lowland lowland semogah year there is a change in 2013
Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
No
E-Learning Heroes: Step-by-step tutorials for building better courses, fast answers to your e-learning questions, free downloads for your e-learning projects. Via Mayra Aixa Villar, michel verstrepen Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
No
The ClassMarker online testing website, is a professional, easy to use, online quiz maker that marks your tests and quizzes for you. Via Gust MEES Delete the scoop?
Are you sure you want to delete this scoop?
Yes
No
|


