OLDaily

Welcome to Online Learning Daily, your best source for news and commentary about learning technology, new media, and related topics.

An early warning system to identify and intervene online dropout learners
David Bañeres, M. Elena Rodríguez-González, Ana-Elena Guerrero-Roldán, Pau Cortadas, International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 2023/01/16

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I have no doubt there is a tidal wave coming of GPT-based academic articles coming, but until then, journals are still publishing old-school articles like this. I'm not saying it's a bad article; it's actually quite good. But it's old school in the following senses: first, the problem of 'drop-outs' presumes a specific and arguably outdated model of online learning; second, the mechanism of a decision tree and risk-level classification system harkens back toi the days of rule-based AI, an approach now completely overtaken by deep learning; and third, the idea that there can be an 'explanation' and therefore 'intervention' reflects a similarly dated model of causal reasoning. There's a lot of good thinking here, but it all feels to me like a gears-and-pistons model of learning and cognition.

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Pecha Kucha is the Answer
Diane Shew, Faculty Focus, 2023/01/16

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There's no such thing as 'the' answer to anything, but Pecha Kucha does emerge as a good way to stimulate active learning in classroom settings. As Diane Shew writes, "In its original form, a presenter offered 20 slides, and had 20 seconds to present each slide. Each slide is to be comprised of a photo only, no words. This storytelling presentation utilizes imagery and efficient use of spoken word to create a memorable, meaningful, and concise presentation." You'll probably want to vary the format (I like the format of 'lightning talks' and find it works well online) not only because PK is constraining, but also because it's copyrighted to the hilt (another example of why we can't have nice things).

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Twenty-Fifth Year Reflections on PKP - Public Knowledge Project
John Willinsky, Public Knowledge Project, 2023/01/16

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I haven't written nearly enough about the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) and Open Journal Systems (OJS) over the years. That's because, for the last 25 years it has very quietly been doing the work of advancing open academic publication without fuss or fanfare by producing high-quality publishing tools that even academics can use. So I want to take note of this milestone in the history of PKP and acknowledge its contribution to the field, which has been invaluable.

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My Blog Formula
Miguel Guhlin, Anound the Corner, 2023/01/16

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This post started as a discussion on Mastodon where a new blogger asked for feedback. The discussion turned to one of Miguel Guhlin's recent posts, which was a great example of a quality blog post. Guhlin mentioned that he had a formula, someone asked for it, and here it is. "If you start out with a blank page, writing can be hard," he writes. "But if you're following a formula, you're filling in the empty spots with words. When you're done, you edit and revise until you have something." This post mentions only a few of the many formulae that are available to authors: the list, the inverted pyramid, visual storytelling. There are so many more: the chronology, past present future, thesis antithesis synthesis, strength weakness opportunity threat (SWOT), four-corners analysis, etc., etc. etc. Here's a whole list of them.

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Digital Learning Dispatches
Digital Learning Dispatches, 2023/01/16

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The selection of articles in this top-10 list is less interesting than the discussion about the shifting methodology in selecting the top 10. In particular, the authors note, there was an effort made to search the open access literature beyond "the better-known journals published in the English language." It especially notes that AJET, IJET and IRRODL don't show up in this year's list. The result is a geographically and linguistically diverse list of authors, something that reflects my own experience is trying to find what's new and interesting in the field. Today, more than ever, it's necessary to read widely in our field.

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The humanities should teach about how to make a better world, not just criticize the existing one
Robert Danisch, Academic Matters, 2023/01/16

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"Where is the humanities toolbox for creating or making a better world?" asks Robert Danisch. "My pitch to reverse this trend," he writes. "Let's teach students to be makers, builders and creators, the architects of the future, and not just demolition crews." I completely agree; this was my thinking behind "the joy of ethics". We are given an opportunity not only to identify what's wrong, but to build something that's good and right. "The humanities aren't just instruments of criticism," says Danisch. "They also hold the keys to how we might imagine a better world, particularly through their emphasis on the public good and the skills necessary for constructively managing difference."

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Defining Authentic Assessment | Educatus
Educatus, 2023/01/16

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This is just a short post but I liked the example of authentic assessment. "Authentic assessments are evaluations of student learning that use real-world tasks or performance-based assessments in authentic contexts, often presented to public audiences." Some thoughts: first, the outcomes of these real-world tasks can and should be used to produce a public portfolio that can be assessed directly by prospective employers (they will use AI to evaluate large numbers of portfolios to select ideal candidates). Second, an issue that emerges is how much time the public interviewees and audiences have, so the projects need (in my view) to address actual community needs, not merely exercises, and be actually implemented.

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We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

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