Wednesday 8 June 2016

#CALRG16 Lightning presentations – quick topics

Interesting start using non-text assessments in online courses. Creative non-text artefacts for assessment use. Presented by Soraya Kouadri Mostefaoui based on research that has started in 2010. Set of 6 criteria. Content criteria: meeting the brief, factual accuracy & understanding. Presentation criteria: appropriateness of components used, ordering of ideas, technical level, and narrative. Soraya is looking for people with similar interests or who have already implemented similar non-text assessments in their courses, so feel free to contact her (Her linkedIn profile here).

Chenxi Li reporting on Chinese undergraduate students' online English language learning experiences and perspectives. This is a study of synchronous English language classes through audiographic conferencing tools in China. What are Chinese students’ online language learning experiences of audio graphic conferencing classrooms and what do they think about them? What are the major problems for audio graphic conferencing ELT classes in China? This study attempts to answer these questions above through questionnaires and interviews with online English teachers and learners. An innovative data collection method proved to be very effective which combines an online survey tool (Survey Star) with a popular social networking mobile App (WeChat). The quantitative findings will be mainly reported in this presentation: big classes in one conferencing class: so almost no students get individualised feedback, tech problems, people are still happy about the overall experience. many students complain that teachers cannot deal with the tech problems (not always correct assumption), 86% students say they have interacted but it does not compute with the actual interaction stats. So maybe their interpretation of interaction is limited to very small, basic interacting: "hello". Some students feel it is hard to concentrate. lack of online teacher training in these contexts.

Ralph Mercer talks energetically about online learning: an exploration of the last 20 inches. The last 20 inches referring to the last bit where students have learned and interact with teachers/trainers... Can we built a system where learners self-assess and develop learning agency, as this will affect learning positively. What are the key attributes for starting to self-assessment: self-report good and bad learning day, to learn to build better learning days in general. Looking for common threads using self-regulated, cognitive factors. If the student is more motivated, it will result in better learning. So moving towards Learning Wellness Framework. It is a personalised tool, where the students themselves built a sort of fitbit for learning, for themselves. And which they can compare to external feedback or people afterwards: e.g. teachers, trainers expectations. Ralph's abstract: "My research will look at the physical and social spaces that surround online learners and explores how the attributes of those personal learning space influences online learning habits and effect learning goal achievement. From this research I intend to demonstrate that the adoption of a learning wellness framework could increase self-regulated learning habits and minimize the influence of personal learning spaces. Learning Wellness is described as the convergence of personal learning informatics and self-regulated learning combined with physical/emotional wellness principles to persuade (nudge) learners to develop self-agency and learning skills to succeed in the online learning environments ."