Tag Archive for 'quiz'

Less Contact, Less Effort, Less Learning

Published by Erica Nielsen on September 10, 2007 in Online Learning. 0 Comments

Architecture student Kim was a senior who needed to take three upper-level courses in her major and one elective to complete her degree. She consulted with some of her friends to find out what they thought was the least challenging elective. The word in the dorm was that the school’s “Beatles” online course promised an easy A.

“The instructor sends you his lecture notes, and you just have to look at them when you’re doing the quiz. You’re not supposed to use any materials, but everyone does it.”

“You never have to go to class, and the only days you need to worry about are the three quiz days. You take the quiz from home.”

“My roommate helped me do the quizzes last semester. I would print out an extra set of lecture notes, and she’d take the odd number questions.”

The “Beatles” course was exactly what Kim was looking for. She enrolled. That semester, she spent no more than six hours of her life memorizing her instructor’s notes and regurgitating that information for the online 30-question multiple choice quizzes. She printed out lecture notes for herself and her roommate, who had agreed to help due to the 45-minute time limit.

Professor Rogers who taught the popular online “Beatles” course had decided to impose the rigid time limit after entire classes were passing with A’s. He had originally allocated a full regular class time of an hour and fifteen minutes for each quiz. Although Rogers made his students sign an honor code of conduct (via email) that they would not use notes during the quizzes, he quickly learned this was happening through course evaluation comments from more honorable students.

By the time Rogers realized there was a problem, his open-enrollment course had gained such popularity that over 300 students were enrolling in it each semester. He felt overwhelmed. How could he possibly monitor the ethical behavior of each student? He consulted with Chair Rodriguez of the Music Department. Rodriguez knew little about online education, and proposed that lessening the time to 45 minutes might be the solution, as it would encourage students to study more before each quiz. The result was an increased percentage of roommates and friends in the game of tag-team quizzing.

The fact of the matter is that when Professor Rogers tried to force learning upon students, those who did not wish to learn the materials found a solution, albeit unethical, to pass the class with flying colors. Students who followed the rules and spent time learning the materials, and took the quizzes without any notes or help from friends, routinely received lower quiz scores than those who cheated.

The main problem was that Professor Rogers did not cultivate an engaging learning environment. He believed that everyone who enrolled in his course genuinely wanted to learn about The Beatles. He assumed all students were self-driven learners. He did not take time to explore opportunities for online teacher-student and student-student interactions.

Online discussions and group activities are a critical component of e-learning, just as attendance, participation, and group projects are commonplace in the traditional classroom setting. It is important to remember that students’ interest and involvement in a given subject can be greatly influenced by positive interpersonal communication, even if they’ve come to the course in pursuit of an easy A. Many professors are still new to online education, and it is important for them to understand the variety and flexibility of resources at their fingertips in order to maximize teaching and learning.

Upgrades and New Uses for Online Personality Tests: The MBTI Online

Published by Susan Smith Nash on May 28, 2007 in Tech Trends. 0 Comments

For the first time ever, users can take the complete Myers-Briggs personality type assessment, verify their types, and receive a high-quality interpretation at one place, completely online through CPP, Inc, at http://www.mbticomplete.com. While personality tests have been widely available on the Internet for years, some of the more complicated, more statistically valid ones, have been costly, or have required one to hire an expensive service for evaluation of the results.

For decades, individuals, corporations, the military, and other organizations have used personality tests, usually in the form of questionnaires, or “inventories,” to determine an individual’s personality profile. Matching a personality profile with a job can result in a better “fit” between the tasks and an individual’s interests. Creating teams with individuals who have complimentary personality traits can lead to enhanced productivity. Finally, supervisors and fellow team members can begin to understand, and have more tolerance for, trait differences.

Perhaps the most widely known and commonly used personality type indicator is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which was developed years ago by a mother and daughter team of psychologists. It has been used to help individuals better understand themselves and others, communicate more effectively, and lead more fulfilling personal and professional lives.

While there is no doubt that the MBTI has had enormous positive impact on the workplace, and has improved efficiently, morale, team-building, and even conflict resolution, it is useful to take a step back and ask a few questions:

1. Can an instrument based on self-reporting ever lead to real self-awareness? Will the individual ever be able to advance past the level of self-awareness they had at the moment they took the inventory?

2. Is there built-in bias due to assumptions about personality that are culturally biased? For example, does a test-taker from one culture understand introverted to be something different than a person from a different culture?

3. Can using inventory results lead to labeling and stereotyping, which could result in individuals getting “stuck” in a role or a label?

4. Are we restricting ourselves unnecessarily with the MBTI? Are there yet undiscovered “off-label” uses that could help organizations and individuals with conflict resolution, career programming, training, education, marketing, and distributed project management? With the availability of the inventory, and the ability to take it online and receive a high-quality interpretation quickly, the possibilities have been expanded.

Perhaps on of the most valuable aspects of personality type indicators is that they can lead to enhanced self-awareness. Self-awareness is always desirable, because without it, it is difficult to develop cognitive strategies for change. Further, without self-awareness, it is difficult to understand differences in responses, and it is difficult to establish empathic relations.
First appeared at e-learning queen: http://elearnqueen.blogspot.com

Fast-Track Development of High-Quality Online Courses

Published by Susan Smith Nash on April 15, 2007 in Online Learning. 0 Comments

The following approach represents a way to fast-track the development of online courses by using an integrative approach to develop unique, high-quality courses that reflect the core values and vision of the institution while bringing together media assets, supplemental subject matter experts, and a highly effective online instructional strategy. This article was first written in 2003, but in reviewing it, it seems to be remarkably helpful, particularly as institutions are faced with creating courses and course content for new learning management systems and technologies (m-learning, etc.).

Elements:

* Point Person in the Academic Unit: Coordinates unit-developed curriculum, courses, course descriptions, learning objectives with primary subject matter expert(s) in the academic unit.

* Instructional designer and information technology liaisons: develop templates and manage the course management system / informational infrastructure

* Template or approved course structure: This provides a consistent look and feel, as well as encouraging coordination and competence with students, instructors, and support staff

* Core textbook with extensive media asset support, including online learning elements: Although other texts and resources will be used, a well-respected, high-quality core textbook that contains high-quality media assets provides a content credibility assurance. By utilizing the streaming media, presentation graphics, audio, interactive quizzes and other features that have been developed by the textbook company, huge time and cost savings are possible. See http://www.mlearners.com for examples of content suitable for mobile devices.

* Subject Matter Expert Collaborator #1: The SME is asked to review the course from his/her unique perspective and add content, instructional guides, and directed activities. For example, SME #1 may be asked to provide historical perspectives.

* Subject Matter Expert Collaborator #2: This SME does not duplicate the work of SME #1. Instead, he/she brings a new set of assumptions and approaches to the task, and generates content that goes in a slightly different direction. For example, this SME may focus on adding connections to contemporary concerns (ethics, case studies, etc.).

* Academic Review Committee

Stages of Quality Review and Development:

Review 1: Develop a curriculum and courses that make sense in terms of institutional vision and mission. This is done by members of the academic unit, a key subject matter expert with coordination from the point person.

Review 2: Develop course descriptions. The point person works with the primary subject matter expert, with a review by the instructional designer to make sure that key points are included. It is acceptable to develop a template or form to standardize the course descriptions.

Review 3: Select texts, leverage textbook media assets and support to build a foundation.

Core text: Depending on the course, select a best-selling, widely-adopted textbook from a major textbook publisher which has significant media assets with it. This would include online content, interactive material, presentations, streaming audio and/or video, as well as a CD-ROM.

Additional required texts: Particularly in the case of graduate courses or surveys of literature, trade books which address specific topics will provide depth and breadth to the course.

Articles and online resources: Identify articles, obtain permissions, and place in the online library reserve.

Review 4: Build-out based on course objectives and textbook.

Build-out 4a: Syllabus. Develop a form or template approach in order to provide standard information. Widely-used text and logos should be made into objects and used in a SCORM-compliant manner. A standard course structure can be implemented for a unit’s online offerings, with slight variations depending on the course objectives and approach.

Build-out 4b: Meshing core textbook assets with units.

Build-out 4c: Meshing activities, supporting content, etc. with media assets from core text.

Build-out 4d: Incorporate the additional readings to add depth and breadth to the course content. This may take place in Review 5 or 6 if the SME Collaborators are charged with recommending readings and texts.

Review 5: SME Collaborator #1 — this person complements the primary unit’s online course developer and subject matter expert. SME #1 may be a part of the unit, or an outside contractor / adjunct.

Build-out 5a: Add new SME perspective — develop lecture notes, online reserve articles, additional resources. Provide the SME with a checklist of tasks in order to assure consistency of performance and that he/she does not simply repeat work already done. Carefully define SME’s focus - for example, SME #1 may be asked to provide historical perspectives, a history of key ideas and developments, and an annotated bibliography of seminal works in the field, in addition to guiding questions, sidebar items, readings, etc.

Build-out 5b: SME provides guiding questions, sidebar items, focus / talking points, recommendations on readings / texts / online reserve articles.

Review 6: SME Collaborator #2 - as in the case of SME #1, this person supports the work of the point person in the department and unit-generated content / structure. This person builds on the core course foundation that includes the primary text. SME #2’s focus can be on making connections to current contemporary situations, settings, developments.

Build-out 6a: SME follows a checklist / guidelines sheet in order to accomplish specific tasks. The focus should be carefully defined and delineated so that the work provided creates depth and breadth, always building on the work of the unit point person, unit curriculum / content experts, and SME #1.

Build-out 6b: SME provides guiding questions, sidebar items, focus / talking points, recommendations on readings / texts / online reserve articles. These follow the focus set out in the checklist and guidelines.

Review 7: Instructional Designer / Information Technology Review: The course is reviewed to make sure that objectives are being met, and to suggest places for editing, revision, or expansion.

Review 8: Alignment with Institutional and Academic Vision and Mission. Stakeholders take a look to make sure that the course objectives, instructional strategies, and course content are in line with the institution’s vision and mission, both in terms of academics and in terms of access, etc.

Review 9: Academic Review Committee - The purpose of the academic review committee is not to second-guess or “correct” the work, but simply to take a look at it to make sure it conforms with the institution’s policies and procedures with respect to Best Practices.

Review 10: Final revision before putting into course template and the course management software.

Useful Video on Certificate Courses

Building Knowledge Communities Through Shared Online Quizzes

Published by Susan Smith Nash on March 28, 2007 in Online Learning. 0 Comments

Using social networking to develop, deploy, and share online quizzes could be a powerful way to build a knowledge community of students and educators, and to overcome the content limitations and passive learning problems often associated with quizzes.

According to educational psychologists, the problem with most quizzes is that they do not encourage active learning. Further, some test-makers focus on trick questions and they fail to cover all the instructional content. Thus, badly constructed quizzes do not really assess the knowledge they claim to be measuring.

If we reconceptualize that way that we use quizzes, there is a new, powerful paradigm just waiting to be applied to quizzes and quiz banks. If you’re thinking that this might be referring to the collaborative approach that would be found in a wiki, you would be close. What we’re really talking about is the paradigm of social networking which would employ the techniques found in MySpace, LiveJournal, webrings, blogs, iTunes, etc. Basically, we’re talking about anything syndicated with an RSS or Atom feed.

While there are repositories of learning objects that include test banks and quizzes, they do not employ the power of social networking, which includes syndication and the use of user-driven taxonomies (tag clouds or social bookmarks as used in del.icio.us).

This will change, however, as XplanaQuiz (http://www.xplanaquiz.com) takes the lead by creating a place where people can create, collaborate, and share. It is a new site, and will be constantly changing. Here’s how it is described:
XplanaQuiz is a public internet site available for publishing and viewing of assessment-based content. XplanaQuiz allows an educator to easily create and provide access to quizzes/activities. Each quiz has its own permanent URL, and each list is RSS-ready. One of the most important aspects of the site is not the quizzes but how users can access and find the content. Content is categorized by subject (predefined taxonomy), tagged by folksonomy, available via search and creator. For every conceivable topic, XplanaQuiz will possess an abundance of quizzes available for use as supplemental or primary instruction.
There are many benefits for those who choose to participate in the construction of a knowledge community and a social network for quizzes (and other learning objects and instructional material).

Learn to write better tests.
Incorporate Bloom’s Taxonomy (recall, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation).
Recalling memorized information.
Construction of schemata.

Encourage students to take the quizzes as practice exams.

Link the question to the concept that is illustrated by a graphic, video, or diagram.

Edit, revise, and share questions.

Link to downloadable e-book chapters.

Link to downloadable audio review.

Contextualize within a story, narrative, or case study.

Situate the quiz with a person’s experience or background.

Encourage critical thinking by using effective techniques.
Premise - Consequence.
Analogy.
Case study.
Incomplete scenario.
Problem / solution evaluation.

The idea of using social networks to share quizzes is exciting. It reflects a commitment to developing programs that acknowledge the behaviors that people really have, rather than trying to impose an alien or awkward one on them. In the end, having dynamic knowledge communities is extremely motivating and affirming to everyone who is involved.

Useful References

Dewey, R. A. (2006) Writing Multiple Choice Items which Require Comprehension. Retrieved from http://www.psywww.com/selfquiz/aboutq.htm on March 6, 2007.

Writing Multiple Choice Questions that Require Critical Thinking. (2006) Retrieved from http://cit.necc.mass.edu/atlt/TestCritThink.htm on March 6, 2007.