OLDaily

Academic Toolbox: New Tools
University of Toronto, 2021/07/21

This page helps academics at the University of Toronto recommend new tools for support on its e-learning platform Quercus (which I believe is a branded Canvas installation). It's a good example of an LMS being used as a platform. You can view the ideas that have been submitted for new tools to add as well as those listed as projects and the list of currently supported tools.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

The ‘not normal’ return to normal in September
Tony Bates, Online learning and distance education resources, 2021/07/21

Tony Bates says he is "freaked out" by what's happening as schools ramp up for a "return to normal" in September. For one thing, he writes, we may be seeing an end to the non-interactive in-person lecture. It's hard to imagine; the impersonal lecture was almost all I experienced in the first few years of university. "Perhaps more significant," he writes, "is the demand from at least undergraduate students, and particularly first year or freshman students, for ‘the campus experience.’" A lot of this is non-academic and raises the question why we should have to pay for it. "Perhaps it’s time to deconstruct tuition fees, and charge separately for instruction, overheads, and other services on campus," says Bates.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Grades Have Huge Impact, But Are They Effective?
Ki Sung, KQED, Mind/Shift, 2021/07/21

I like the thinking here that suggests that traditional practices ought to be studied as rigorously for effectiveness as new practices. And grading is a well-established older practice that bears scrutiny. Unfortunately, this article is more of a marketing campaign for a book than it is a consideration of the evidence about grading; we have to take the word of author Joe Feldman for it, and of course the book is nothing like open access so we can't check for ourselves. Now there's a lot of literature on grading - different grading schemes, different interpretations of 'effectiveness', different research methods - and I would be utterly surprised if the consensus were as simple as represented in this article.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Scaffolding Social Presence in MOOCs
Dilrukshi Gamage, EdArXiv, 2021/07/21

This paper (11 page PDF) describes a framework to encourage interactivity and participation in a MOOC and is based on a study at a university in Sri Lanka. The mechanisms proposed - clustering, orienting, focusing and networking - will sound familiar to long-time MOOC watchers, echoing as they do Dave Cormier's stages for success in a MOOC. But there are important differences. Dilrukshi Gamage changes the order, beginning with clustering instead of orienting. More significantly, there's much more of an emphasis on commonality and coordination (see especially the definition of 'focus', which is essentially community moderation) than in Cormier's work. If I had to characterize the Gamage model, I'd say it's "create a group, then take a MOOC together". See also: Gamage and Whiting, Together we learn better: leveraging communities of practice for MOOC learners.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

The Absurd Proposal to Put Bodycams on Teachers Is ... Feasible?
Sidney Fussell, Wired, 2021/07/21

"When a conservative think tank in Nevada last month suggested mandating that teachers wear body cameras to ensure they don’t teach critical race theory," writes Sidney Fussell, "I thought it was ridiculous, offensive, and entirely feasible." After all, schools in the U.S. are already massively surveilled because of school shootings. One company even "floated the idea of pinging administrators whenever teachers searched words like 'strike' or 'union.'" But that's no guarantee that they'll prevent teachers from teaching about critical race theory (CRT). No doubt teachers could find ways to get around the proscription on free speech and reasoned debate. Body cameras been used by police to misrepresent their encounters with the public.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]