Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning

A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified more than a thousand empirical studies of online learning. Analysts screened these studies to find those that (a) contrasted an online to a face-to-face condition, (b) measured student learning outcomes, (c) used a rigorous research design, and (d) provided adequate information to calculate an effect size. As a result of this screening, 51 independent effects were identified that could be subjected to meta-analysis. The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. The difference between student outcomes for online and face-to-face classes—measured as the difference between treatment and control means, divided by the pooled standard deviation—was larger in those studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face. Analysts noted that these blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions. This finding suggests that the positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media, per se. An unexpected finding was the small number of rigorous published studies contrasting online and face-to-face learning conditions for K–12 students. In light of this small corpus, caution is required in generalizing to the K–12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings (e.g., medical training, higher education).

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies, Washington, D.C., 2009.

Artes e ciências: acabar o divórcio

Exames por video-conferência: o caso da Dinamarca

Examination in Denmark is regulated by Ministerial Order. Up to 2001 video examination was not allowed. (...) A change of the Ministerial Order in 2004 allowed institutions to arrange exams as videoconferences on or off campus within Denmark. The students should be watched during the exam by a person appointed or accepted by the institution and no further preconditions were given. In 2006 it was added that the institution should assure that the security arrangements was the same as if the exam was ordinary - on campus. Besides that it was possible to get exemption from the order (BEK nr 867; BEK nr 231).
As a consequence Aalborg University applied on behalf of the master program in Problem Based Learning in Engineering and Science for exemption so that it was possible to arrange video examinations.
(...) exams have been mediated with the help of Skype and have for all the students, examiners and external examiners been a challenge and opportunity and has brought new knowledge and experience.
(...)
The more experience the respondents have with video exams, the more satisfied they are with the exams and the more positive in their evaluation. Almost all of them think that video exams give the facilitator the possibility to test the outcomes and the external examiner the possibility to watch that the demands are in accordance with the outcomes defined and see to that the exams are completed in accordance with the rules. While all experienced responders found that dialogue between the examinee and the facilitator was possible to a high degree or a satisfaction degree there were responders which found that it was only to some degree.

Qvist, 2008. Online video examination. Video exams from the student’s point of view. Results from a questionnaire. Paper presented at Diverse Conference 2008 Haarlem, INHOLLAND University, The Netherlands, July 1 - July 3 2008

The book everyone wishes they'd written

O THE começa hoje a publicar uma série semanal em que pedem a autoridades em diferentes áreas que escolham e apresentem aquele que consideram ser o livro mais importante do seu campo de estudo.

Dos primeiros resultados, publicados esta semana, conheço dois e já li um. Podia ser pior...

Ensino por video-conferência

Uma nota breve:

Now that videoconferencing is being widely used for the delivery of mass lectures between sites, there is concern that the quality of teaching and learning experienced, using this method of delivery, is not as good as that experienced in a traditional classroom situation. The study aimed to investigate this concern by using a research diary to collect information on classroom activities and cognitive outcomes which students at local and remote sites experienced over a ten-week period. The results indicated that remote site students did not experience the same quality of teaching and learning as local site students.

Knipe & Lee (2002), The quality of teaching and learning via videoconferencing. British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 33 (3): 301–311.

Para que serve a universidade?

Das cruciais reflexões de Ivan Leban, "Today's academic values", passei pelo artigo de Ulrich Littmann, "Bologna: fake or promise?", para chegar ao texto de James Frey sobre "Questions and concerns about tertiary education in the 21st century".

Este último autor reflecte sobre as diferentes missões atribuídas historicamente às universidades,

When the ancient universities were established (Alexandria in Egypt, Bologna in what is now Italy,Mustansiriyah in what is now Iraq, Taxila in what is now India), the purpose of university education was clear. It was to pass on to future generations the accumulated wisdom of society.
In the 1860s, the Morrill Land Grant Act transferred valuable tracts of land owned by the federal government of the United States to state governments in exchange for university instruction in agriculture, home science, and the mechanical arts. This marks the addition of applied professional (some called it vocational) training to university curricula. Most other countries have followed this example, with perhaps the last being England, which made engineering a university-based subject 100 years later. Universities now had a dual purpose: to pass on the accumulated wisdom of society, and to train students for technical occupations.
In the 19th century, German educators developed a different philosophy of tertiary education. For them, the purpose of a university was to advance the frontiers of human knowledge through research and publication.
In the United States and in many other countries, including Germany, the purpose of a university is now a blend of these three missions: pass on knowledge, train professional workers, and advance the frontiers of human knowledge. Some educational systems have added a fourth mission: community or public service.

para partilhar depois as suas preocupações com o ensino superior actual

1. There is no clear philosophical mission for tertiary educational institutions.
2. There is almost universal agreement on the need for quality control, but no clear definition of what constitutes quality tertiary education.
3. There is no clear identification of the public to be served.
4. Because of these deficiencies, tertiary education is now in a state of competitive marketing.
   
5. Because of these deficiencies, tertiary education is now in a state of caveat emptor (buyer beware).

e concluir:

Tertiary education throughout the world is in greater turmoil now than at any time since the Protestant Reformation in Europe. Those who are providers of tertiary education are being subjected to philosophical, administrative, and financial pressures from an increasing number of directions. Those who clearly define their mission, their goals, their degree programmes, and their quality standards will have a better chance to have their degrees officially recognised internationally.

Do lado de lá do Atlântico...

... e mais além! Três links norte americanos (é de estranhar?) com uma preocupação com a globalização do ensino superior:

• Welcome to World Education Services, your portal to trusted, accurate research and intelligence about foreign academic credentials, institutions and trends. Whether your interest is for academic or professional purposes, we’ve got the tools and information to help. A World Education News & Reviews (WENR) deste mês (necessário registo para aceder) tem um artigo descrevendo o Processo de Bolonha e um outro bem mais interessante com uma reflexão sobre o papel das universidades: "The role of universities is to educate people, to provide students with general, universal knowledge, to create an autonomous human being – a free thinker. They are not meant to simply educate people for the labor market." (Leban, 2009) Só o contexto histórico do nascimento e evolução das universidades vale o tempo do registo no site, mas quem tiver pressa pode ler a versão original do artigo aqui.
  

• Changing Higher Education. Um site pessoal de Lloyd Armstrong. This website is dedicated to discussion and analysis of the forces coming to bear on higher education, and of ways in which higher education might proactively and effectively use these forces to increase its impact.

• GlobalHigherEd. Um blogue que se auto-descreve assim: "We are interested in how and why new knowledge and new spaces (including socio-technical networks) are being developed in association with the emergence of the ‘knowledge economy’, and what the implications of this complex development process are, especially for global public affairs."
  

Liberdade

Ai que prazer
Não cumprir um dever,
Ter um livro para ler
E não fazer!
Ler é maçada,
Estudar é nada.
O Sol doira
Sem literatura.

O rio corre, bem ou mal,
Sem edição original.
A brisa, essa,
De tão naturalmente matinal,
Como tem tempo não tem pressa...

Livros são papéis pintados com tinta.
Estudar é uma coisa em que está indistinta
A distinção entre nada e coisa nenhuma.

Quanto é melhor, quando há bruma,
Esperar por D.Sebastião,
Quer venha ou não!

Grande é a poesia, a bondade e as danças...
Mas o melhor do mundo são as crianças,
Flores, música, o luar, e o sol, que peca
Só quando, em vez de criar, seca.

O mais do que isto
É Jesus Cristo,
Que não sabia nada de finanças
Nem consta que tivesse biblioteca...

Fernando Pessoa

Journal of Learning Design

A Teresa Marques (Obrigado!) twitou o endereço desta revista. E eu já li os dois artigos que me atraíram mais:

• Erica McWilliam, Unlearning pedagogy
• "Is it possible that learning itself - learning as we have come to enact it habitually - may no longer be particularly useful? Could it be that the very habits that have served us so well in stable times might actually become impediments to social success, even to social survival? "
  
• Stephen Brown, A Critique of Generic Learning Outcomes
• "This paper presents a logical critique of their strengths and limitations and proposes an alternative approach to assessing learning impact in lifelong learning contexts based on the five key learning activity types defined by Laurillard."
  

Sobre o erro, as cabeças andantes, a inflação dos diplomas e a morte da criatividade

Daqui fui visitar o site de Sir Ken Robinson e ler a sua página
na Wikipédia.