OLDaily

Learning analytics and the three-body problem
Colin Beer, Col's Weblog, 2020/03/25

Colin Beer argues - correctly - that "techno-centric approaches to learning analytics, where the focus of attention is on historical data, are fundamentally flawed. I’m not sure we truly understand this yet as a sector." The reason for this is neatly illustrated by the three-body problem. "If we have a class with only three students, we cannot begin to perceive or quantify the variables that will contribute to their success or otherwise." Students and learning are complex, which means that our predictive capacities are limited, which is why it is (in my opinion) better to base learning design on affordances rather than prescriptions.

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Joe Wicks keeps children fit with online PE classes
BBC News, 2020/03/25

There used to be a trend where fitness shows like Everyday Workout ran in the early morning on TV to help people start the day with regular exercises (notice the second view for beginners). Now we're seeing the phenomenon repeat itself for schoolchildren stuck at home. "Fitness coach Joe Wicks has offered to become the UK's PE teacher by running free classes every weekday for children and their parents to keep fit while self-isolating." I don't know whether people outside the UK can actually access these, but as Wick says in the video, there are millions of workout videos on YouTube. You might think, this isn't online elarning. But this is exactly online learning.

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What We Learned in the “MOOC Moment” Matters Right Now
Steven D. Krause, 2020/03/25

One of the key lessons is this: "suddenly converting face to face classes to online ones without making changes to account for the differences in format is a bad idea." This actually applies across the board - to online meetings, conferences, games, and the rest. Online is different - you can do some things (like collaboratively author a document) a lot more easily, while other things (like hang out at a conference social) just don't work.

I would point out that if you're trying to make online learning the same as an in-person course, some of the lessons are particularly relevant. Like this: "online teaching takes A LOT more planning and more support staff than f2f teaching." And this: "video is a lot harder than you think." And this: "the shape of the hierarchy pyramid of higher ed in the U.S. might change for the worse." All of these are true if you're just trying to recreate online classes. But online learning - which is what we really tried to demonstrate with MOOCs - can be done quickly and efficiently if you get away from the idea that 'the institution provides everything'. I don't think Steven Krause captures that lesson. But you should.

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The UX design process in 6 stages
Tony Ho Tran, Inside Design, 2020/03/25

Many things are being discovered anew these days by people who are now working online in a serious way for the first time. User experience (UX) design is one of this. This clear article lays our the process in six steps (in practice you'll find that you're doing these things concurrently). Some of the examples aren't great (particularly the SouthWest Airlines example) and the use of the term 'brand' instead of 'purpose' or 'goal' is objectionable, but the core concept - understand your purpose, understand your users - is sound. And though this article isn't everything it could be, it's clear enough, detailed enough and accurate enough to be a good starting point.

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Will COVID-19 Lead to Another MOOC Moment?
Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge, 2020/03/25

The answer to the question is "yes", because if you actually want to educate people, then you remove the price tag. And it's "yes" because we're actually seeing this renewed interest. "Dhawal Shah, founder of Class Central, a site that serves as a directory of MOOCs, says he’s seen a sudden spike in traffic to his site... One day last week, for instance, he received more traffic to the Class Central site than he did over the entire month of February. 'I know what viral means, but this is on a different scale,' he said." Charles Severance agrees. “We haven’t even begun to hit our stride on how amazing these MOOCs can be,” Severance argues. “We’re a quarter of the way in on the MOOC marathon, and we can’t run anymore.” In another article, we see reports of record numbers at OU's FutureLearn.

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I ate a meal in virtual reality. Here’s what it tasted like
Rene Brinkley, CNBC, 2020/03/25

This article is aimed at the business community, so it portrays spending $2000 on a VR meal as a good thing. But let's set aside crass greed and consumerism and look at the concept. The idea is that you view one thing in a VR helmet while eating something quite different. The result is that it messes with your experience, but in a good way. "For example, one dish appeared as a red sphere on a plate, and this cued the narrator to say, 'I think it tastes like the whistle that the wind makes through a door lock on a cold autumn afternoon.'" The main thing here is that VR allows us to expand our range of possible experiences, opening the way for new ways of perceiving, and comprehending, the world.

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