Jekyll2020-10-04T20:34:26+00:00/feed.xmlBlogLong-form blog (similar to Medium) with posts about various topics. You can follow the updates with the RSS feed, email your private message, or post a public comment by opening an issue in the github repository.Konstantinos Chorianopoulosblog@epidro.meA healthy diet of blended learning activities2020-10-04T00:00:00+00:002020-10-04T00:00:00+00:00/healthy-blended-learning<p>Hybrid or blended learning has been well-known for many decades now and it is defined as a <strong>healthy mix of online and place-based activities.</strong> There are several benefits in online learning activities, assuming that digital media and the respective pedagogy is well understood. There are also unique advantages to place-based learning, which should be blended into the mix, depending on the course and the instructor approach.</p>
<p>For example, it is expected that courses with unique lab equipment (e.g., biology, chemistry, electrical and mechanical engineering, etc), or courses with an emphasis on the human body (e.g., medicine, theater, dance, music, etc) are only feasible in place. On the other hand, courses that depend on generic computer software (e.g., informatics, media, etc) are actually better online, because it is just more natural.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the whole learning experience is so much more than the cognitive domain (e.g., community, reliable assessment, etc). Actually, hybrid learning should be the only format of learning, so it is a mistake of ignorance or incopetence to adopt just one of the two formats, regardless of the situation (e.g., pandemic). Suprisingly, the majority of contemporary organizations are either defined as online schools, or campus. The former prosper during a pandemic, while the latter perish, in a binary logic, as if there was no middle road.</p>
<p>In blended learning, since most activities take place online asynchronously, there is ample time and space to organize place-based learning activities, in order to provide high quality community, or in order to adhere to health concerns. Choosing to <strong>digitaly transform</strong> all learning activities is the same as choosing a well-known inferior type of learning and there is no excuse, unless it has been a government mandate to do so.</p>
<p>A healthy mix of the two, adopts the place-based approach, in order to support weaker students and mostly, in order to provide reliable assessments of progress and certification. Even during a pandemic, a school should support weaker students with place-based seminars, and evaluate all students on campus. A school that is choosing to perform only online is actually choosing to disregard weaker students and most crucially it is choosing to lessen the value of its certification.</p>Konstantinos Chorianopoulosblog@epidro.meHybrid or blended learning has been well-known for many decades now and it is defined as a healthy mix of online and place-based activities. There are several benefits in online learning activities, assuming that digital media and the respective pedagogy is well understood. There are also unique advantages to place-based learning, which should be blended into the mix, depending on the course and the instructor approach.Digital transformation for learning activities2020-06-15T00:00:00+00:002020-06-15T00:00:00+00:00/learning-digital-tranformation<p>There are two approaches for the digital transformation of learning activities. The most straightforward approach is to create digital metaphors for each real-world learning activity. For example, a classroom lecture is transformed into a synchronous video lecture, or a final hand-written exam is proctored with synchronous video monitoring and is scanned for uploading.</p>
<p>Thinking with metaphors and making analogies is the most natural way to approach new issues and challenges. Nevertheless, the new digital environment is not natural at all, so it might be worth approaching it with a different mindset.</p>
<p>An alternative approach is to consider the basic qualities of digital media and of learning activities. Learning is considered as high frequency communication among teacher and students with continuous assessment. Digital media are considered as enablers of augmented communication and assessement. In practice, the experience is a mix of the flipped classroom with x- and c-MOOC elements.</p>
<p>Assuming that learning modules keep the same number of student credits and with the requirement of obligatory, but minimal, physical presence, then, the design space of digital transformation for learning is well-defined. Teaching hours are transformed into extented online office hours, which are focused on discussion and on assessment of performance on asynchronous learning material that is available on courseware systems.</p>
<p>Courseware systems are enhanced with asynchronous video lectures and reading materials, which are augmented with high-frequency and interleaved multiple-choice questions. In this way, large (30+ students) midterm assessments should take place with computers on premises, at least twice per semester and well before the end of the course. Moreover, they are augmented with learning analytics that visualize student progress and might be further enhanced with gamification elements.</p>
<p>Overall, the main challenge is not digital technology itself, but its proper understaning and employment by teachers and students. The above approaches are not mutually exclusive, but can be combined depending on the degree of willingness to change.</p>Konstantinos Chorianopoulosblog@epidro.meThere are two approaches for the digital transformation of learning activities. The most straightforward approach is to create digital metaphors for each real-world learning activity. For example, a classroom lecture is transformed into a synchronous video lecture, or a final hand-written exam is proctored with synchronous video monitoring and is scanned for uploading.Reliability of online assessment methods2020-05-25T00:00:00+00:002020-05-25T00:00:00+00:00/online-assessment-reliability<p>Physical exam taking in the classroom has been established as a reliable method of learning assessment. Nevertheless, organizations have been looking into alternative online assessment methods, which might become necessary in case of an emergency, such as a pandemic or a natural disaster.</p>
<p>A brief review of recent national responses to a pandemic reveals that online assessment might not be the best choice in high stakes exams. For example, France decided to replace the baccalaureate exams with semester averages, which Greece decided to hold the physical panhellenic exams that control the access to higher education.</p>
<p>At the same time, respectable universities (e.g., Berkeley, Cambridge, Harvard) when forced to adopt online exams for a variety of their courses, they have adopted a variety of assessment methods. Moreover, those universities have chosen to grade online exams with a pass-fail, instead of a detailed grade, in order to reflect a lack of confidence in those methods.</p>
<p>In the following table, alternative assessment methods are organized according to reliability. In additon to the traditional final exam, we consider contemporary assessment methods, such as midterm deliverables, oral assessments, and plagiarism detection methods.</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Assessment method</th>
<th>Reliability</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Physical exam + midterm deliverables</td>
<td>Very high</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Physical oral exam</td>
<td>High</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Physical written exam</td>
<td>High</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Take home exam + midterm deliverables</td>
<td>Medium</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Take home exam + distance oral exam</td>
<td>Medium</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Take home exam + plagiarism detection</td>
<td>Low</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Multiple choice + camera proctoring</td>
<td>Low</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>In conclusion, it is very difficult to achieve anything more than medium reliability in distance assessments, because there is no way to control the presence of third parties. The employment of a single distant exam is discouraged, while the employment of elaborate distance assessment methods can only achieve medium reliability. Therefore, distance exams are only suitable when the trade-off against reliability is acceptable.</p>Konstantinos Chorianopoulosblog@epidro.mePhysical exam taking in the classroom has been established as a reliable method of learning assessment. Nevertheless, organizations have been looking into alternative online assessment methods, which might become necessary in case of an emergency, such as a pandemic or a natural disaster.