Moving to my next interest: professionals beyond 50 changing projects

Learning and especially online and mobile learning was a passion of mine for years. Not only professionally, but also personally. I have spent many ours exploring, researching and disseminating best practices (as well as actions you better avoid 😀 ). This was an effortless and frequently non-paid activity. But now well into the Corona years, I can no longer enjoy looking at the current basic implementation of what was considered digital or online learning. 

My interest was waning in the last few years anyhow, as I like new things and once it becomes overly structured, I just loose interest. I like to explore, test out, gather with people that are passionate about a subject in learning or self-realisation themselves and ... join forces while trying to find optimal solutions. 

Given my personality, online learning is now overstructured, meaning it is now being built with a common denominator that is cost efficient, yet only reaches the basic implementation of what might work in what I would consider an ideal learning world. It is no longer the quest for Online Educational Resources, MOOCs, access for all, it is just another means of business. 

So I decided to close this blogging chapter of my life after more than 1000 blogposts from 2007 onward. I now know for certain I will blog about it again... I won't as the passion has faded. Writing to me is reflection, exploration while sharing... so I will use that energy for a new horizon that has caught my attention: professionals who change their lives beyond the age of 50 (no age limit). 

For those interested: I just started to build an awareness dissemination on the subject, feel free to follow my next chosen journey here:  https://secretshakers.com/ 

The Educational paradigm shift part 3: my 5 pedagogies that support change and innovation.

While I stated that no university can afford to be an island (heavily paraphrazing John Donne) in the first post on the educational paradigm, I also wrote about the challenges of providing timely courses and trainings for emerging skills in part 2. 

In this third part on the educational paradigm shift, I am gathering some pedagogies that match the challenge of providing timely learning opportunities across universities using new and tested change-friendly pedagogies. Using innovative pedagogies enable this in part. As innovative pedagogy has a responsibility to prepare citizens of the knowledge society with all its ongoing changes, emerging data streams and knowledge. 

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list, however, all of the mentioned approaches did result in benefits for projects I was involved in. I will very briefly touch on each of these approaches and than add a link to more theoretical information:

Challenge-Based Learning: an approach that uses challenges put forward by ngo's, policy makers or industry that need to be solved for societal goals (society at large). What makes this approach match the speed of innovation and emerging new content, is that it offers a way to look at a challenge, break it down into feasable or actionable steps, and gradually move towards solutions or realizations of where new challenges pop-up. The great benefit of this approach is that teachers and experts can be guides on the side, offering their expertise in solving challenges or solving part of the challenge. A great resource for this is the website from the Challenge Based Learning Institute. Multi-actor teamwork (so people working in different sectors coming together) is key for this approach, as solutions can be found in different disciplines. 

Case studies. These case studies has been at the center of Harvard business school and has been proven its usefulness over the years. They have a student guide on this as well. The benefit of using a case study approach, is that it also allows you to make informed decisions, and create real-life evaluations for the problems you are addressing. The guide also includes online cases and discussion guidelines. Teamwork is key in this approach, and again teachers are guides on the side. 

Mentoring. Any sectorial innovation, brings along the challenge of having to create new content or new processes describing these new innovations (e.g. when we moved from face-to-face to online learning, the best of us looked at other online learning experts to find best practices). Mentors can provide insights into new content, new evolutions, new skills. While innovation-rich sectors move forward rapidly (e.g. space exploration, renewable energy), it becomes difficult to know what is happening and how it feels or looks. By using experts as mentors, the old and proven approach of mentorship gets a new push forward. In each sector you have these experts and some of them are also great educators. By attracting the right experts, you can lift learners to the level of innovation rapidly (mentoring as one-on-one or small group learning). 

Data cases. With Big Data embedded in many different sectors, data saviness is becoming critical. Data saviness can have many faces: coding and manipulating data, looking and analysing data through visualisations to name but two. Once data savviness is integrated into learning, more people can integrate data analysis in their own sector and come up with new ideas (e.g. Waze happened as tracking traffic came together with map alternatives, data cases using life energy data streams are used to optimize energy consumption). Embedding or exploring data is a way to enrich learning within certain domains. 

Enlarge AI-based EdTech within approaches. The first 3 approaches listed above have a strong emphases on the human creative factor (= coming up with solutions). There is some social learning involved, learners are working collaboratively and across disciplines and sectors. But of course we are now in the AI age, which means automated results and matching based on big data analysis can now be integrated in learning in general. For instance using informal and formal EdTech tools that facilitate learning. A really nice informal bit of EdTech that I am following is https://startlearning.today/ where micro-learning is offered based on your own job profile. Another interesting project is the roll out of adaptive learning like the adaptive learning degree in biology at Arizona state. 

(Picture source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gforsythe/ have a look, she is absolutely great!)

The Educational paradigm shift part 2: teaching emerging & ever-changing skills.

More universities are joining their efforts to meet the needs and financial demands of an increased content development in these online first learning space that has dawned in 2020. 

Some universities are sharing their future plans to inspire others, have a look at Stanford 2025 (thank you Frank Gielen for the link and the insights!). But as always with learning and teaching, it is the human factor that makes learning an inspiring success or a tedious process. One can clearly feel something is changing within education and training at large... but why do we hit a wall with our old school learning that pushes us to rethink learning overall?

What are some of the barriers for providing timely teaching?

Uncertainty concerning future skills is one of course, but these will be better addressed soon (look at the SkillCharge project where AI is enabled to screen CVs or job profiles for skills that are there and match them to emerging skills, while pointing to useful training to acquire those necessary skills). 

Keeping up with innovation. It takes time to build course content that integrates new innovations happening in industry, startups, a.o. To create an up to date course, teachers who are content experts need to collaborate with industry experts to know what is emerging in the sector and is part of the new realities within a sector. This means multi-actor learning needs to take place (= networking across disciplines and sectors), this also means such a collaboration needs to be set up (B2U, business to university collaborations). 

Use innovation reality, use data for modeling. Reality in itself is a challenge, with Big Data being integrated in many segments of society, it also means we can use this data to think forward and build anticipating models that can 'predict' or at least list a couple of future scenarios. A great person to follow and to see what can be done with forward thinking and future horizon exploration, is Bryan Alexander. He does a great remodelling excercise on where Higher Education is going.

Creating course content from scratch. One of the main barriers in creating content at a pace that reflects innovation, is the old school content creation. The most common time and cost consuming development of a course, is preparing class notes or content. It comprises of: writing the learning objectives, fixing pedagogical interactions based on the given content (e.g. discussion on a subject like ethics, to complement content that might be questionable or is a reaction to questionable processes - for instance the move to sustainable energy), creating ALL the content for a course, evaluating the course content as well as the course process. Creating course content demands time from the teacher, but also from media support and others, so this is an ideal element within the course development to adress and bring down costs. 

Same content behind multiple closed walls (breaking the university silo's) is another barrier. I wrote about this in my previous post. It is clear that if many universities build the same content, it is a non-working cost model, as all of us invest in human resources as well as in material development with the same results (well, given we all work at the same level of quality, but let's face it, offering basic quality is most of the time the most cost effective way to create anything. 

Where do we go next to address these bariers?

The way forward is to create or use teaching and learning approaches that work under these conditions: innovation, collaboration, using innovation to create new content... so in a next post (which I call part 3 addressing the current paradigm shift in education), I will list a couple of useful teaching and learning approaches that allow learners to prepare for future skills, while using the content and expertise that is only just emerging.

(picture source: http://etag.report/)

How to transform F-2-F #exams into online exams #onlineAssignments #onlineExams #pedagogy

As #COVID19 seems to disrupt our teaching and learning for a longer period of time, I wrote up a document based on requests from colleagues to look into the delivery of online exams and assignments, and what the options are.
The document is entitled "Transforming face-to-face exams into online exams: considering proctoring tool security and creative pedagogical options".

The document is shared under Creative Commons Share Alike license which aligns with the EU directive on transparency and sharing as EIT InnoEnergy for which I work, has a supporting role to the EU and the EU promotes sharing to ensure mutual growth.

This document is an addition to a previous document I wrote with 10 fast tips to move from face-to-face learning to online learning (with a lot of English resources from the University of Cape Town; South Africa; Harvard business, USA; University of North-South Wales, Australia; and EU commission on education, ... as well as tools).

(Disclosure: I don’t get or have any benefits suggesting any of the tools or solutions in these documents).
The following topics are discussed:

• Comparing online proctoring tools which can be used to ensure safe online exams and assignments (the term ‘safe’ means non-cheating here). Can we use proctoring tools for team exams, how secure are they, what are some of the options and prices?...
• Limiting online exam costs by looking into the usefulness of using group or team exams and open book exams in a digital learning world (benefits, as all of us can transform some or more of our usual closed book exams (CBE) towards an open book exam (OBE).
• Using best online exam practices without proctoring tools with audio/video 1on1 only and assignments (useful for those not having the financial resources, or with limited internet access).

The full document (11 pages) can be found here.

Sharing #oralAssignments and #OnlineExam #bestPractices to limit cheating

Request for expertise sharing on #online #exams #covid19 pro-active planning until the end of this academic year and offering #BestPractices for #OnlineExams below. 

The first rumors are indicating that our international HigherEd students will not be requested to come to their guest universities to plan their exams for the end of the 2019-2020 academic year. 

I am trying to find a solid online learning tool that can be used, but in the meanwhile, I want to share best practices that are already used at our and other institutes. Feel free to add any ideas or measures I might have missed when listing our guidelines.

Best practices for organising online exams and online tests All of us working with international students scattered around the globe as they have rejoined their families in their country of origin, will probably be facing online examination needs. With this in mind, I am listing best practices and in a second stage I will be reviewing #EdTech tools that might come in handy if you have multiple students linking up remotely for their exams (we are preparing for 382 students which is a feasible number, yet demands a streamlined approach). I took my master’s in education (M.Ed.) exams remotely myself (thank you @AthabascaUniversity, so sharing those best practices with some additions below. Best practices using only camera and audio as technology: Preparing the exam Switch any written exam questions you might have to oral exam questions. These can include notes that need to be shared (ask contextualized questions, questions that show they understand the material yet can apply it to new contexts; e.g. ask short oral essay questions). Create original exam questions: i.e. questions are not available in educational textbooks (otherwise tech-savvy students will be able to find them in no time :D Choose an online meeting tool that offers recording options (think legal discussions, you need to be able to show why you gave the examination points you gave) and a tool that allows for lengthy recordings at that (no one wants their exam to suddenly stop). Choose a tool that enables sharing the screen (might come in useful for some short essays, designs, stats…). Prepare an informed consent document and send that to the student, so they know their exam will be recorded and stored at the admin server space for X time. If possible, indicate the amount of time set aside for the exam. Make a designated exam folder structured according to your admin. Additionally: you might want to send out a ‘code of conduct’ to the students, so they know what is expected of them. This is where the penalties might be discussed: what is considered cheating, what is the penalty for each stage of cheating… Once the exam starts Introduce the student to the fact that their online session will be recorded (GDPR) – check that the informed consent was signed and sent back to you. Start recording. Indicate the overall guidelines of the exam: open book, closed book, time available, number of questions (if relevant). The student must be made aware of what they can expect. Ask whether they understood what you have just said. Check identity: ask the examinee to show their passport and take a screenshot, save that screenshot as part of the examination administration. Ask them to show their desk, room, and that they need to be in view mid-torso with hands and keyboard visible. (you know why 😊 In case you choose to go with closed book examination: ask them to share their full screen (look at the tabs that are open!). Of course, there is a workaround if they are tech-savvy, which is why exam questions should preferably be open book, it allows them some freedom, yet they still need to really understand how they come to a solution. Only offer one question at the time. Feedback is important… but: depending on the number of questions you prepared, you might want to choose a different feedback strategy. If you have different questions for each student: give feedback as you see fit. If you want to reuse questions: limited feedback is preferable. As we all know, students quickly inform each other on which type of exam questions they got, what the answers or feedback was to what they gave, and what feedback they got. Feedback is given at the end Stop recording and make sure it is in the right folder. What cannot you address in case you work with audio/video tools only? Disabling the right-click button (copying and pasting options, so that students can quickly save questions). A reason to go to tailored questions per student, based on comprehension and creative thinking. Single function add-on tools Use the Respondus Lockdown browser or similar tool to ensure that students cannot look up answers, but yet again, you need to block students looking up answers https://web.respondus.com/he/lockdownbrowser/ A review of more designated tools such as ProctorU, ProctorExam, … will follow.

Working on the #LearningEngine matching #learning to #skillgaps #skills

Forget the search engine, ravel on the emergence of the Learning Engine (admittedly it is still a dream in progress, but we are getting closer)

What made search engines so innovative decades ago? 

They created connections. Connections between online users and content. The search engine developers did not produce a lot of content, but they referred to content from outside providers, and that was what made it special: the immediate connection. It connected supply with demand, connecting small and big businesses, individuals and groups. The service built upon existing new developments that each of the content producers provided. 

Content free and available. A great big benefit of the content that comes up in the search engines is of course that it is free, ... which is a lot more difficult if you are trying to build a learning engine. Professional courses are rarely free (MOOCs notwithstanding), and in a lot of cases even the courses themselves are behind closed walls: e.g. online courses only available for employees, for registered students...

Search engines are great, but Learning Engines are becoming a really urgent demand

The shift in our professional society is no longer about jobs that disappear due to automation, it is about jobs diversifying through the demands of change, driven by innovation. Learning to learn is becoming essential to being employed and moving forward (or at least it seems that way for some of the jobs in sectors driven by innovation and change). 

In order to learn how to do a variety of jobs, we need to learn, and we need to personalize each of our learning journeys based on our previous experiences and skills, both hard and soft skills. This is where the Learning Engine comes in and takes shape. At InnoEnergy I am now co-developing learning for real life jobs. At present ‘addressing the skills gap’ is all the rave. LinkedIn is investing in its Economic Graph, Burning glass and alike are gathering data on Skills, countries and regions are building skills taxonomies (e.g. Nesta ), that can be used either in manual brainstorms and in Artificial Intelligence driven projects. 

If you take into considerations these latest tech-innovations and options, it isn't difficult to imagine a true personalized Learning Engine. 

The challenge is how to build a Futureproof Workforce? Maybe a Learning Engine

With the Learning Engine in my mind it combines innovation, AI and learning skills for the sustainable energy sector (as EIT InnoEnergy works within the sustainable energy sector). Basically, the project identifies industry needs, pinpoints emerging skill gaps in the sustainable energy sector, analysis the existing workforce to know where urgent skills gaps are situated and then refers employees (or employee groups) to a personalized learning trajectory to alleviate their skills gap. 

The combination of these steps should ensure that the employees of the sustainable energy sector stay futureproof in a quickly changing working environment. 

This project helps to realize the emergence of the ‘Learning Engine’, an intelligent career-oriented engine which knows your own skills and signposts you to where you want to go with your career by suggesting a personalized learning track. 

Just imagine that you go to the Learning Engine and you simply type in “Director of Innovation’s in offshore wind energy” and the engine immediately returns a tailored, personalized learning track consisting of a variety of certified trainings from both universities, corporate academies, open educational energy resources and coaching options! Personally, I think that would be quite a catch!

Learners mix and match already

In a way, we already see this shift towards a more quilted professional learning in the MOOC’s which are taken by professional learners to enhance their career opportunities. Those career-minded employees register for MOOCs developed by universities as well as businesses, and they take a few courses here, and a few courses there. Soon employees will be able to link different course certificates to ensure a future-proof career (whether we should be using blockchain in Education to validate the learning trajectory is something else (see some mails on this here and here).

Corporate academies will need to open part of their courses: are they willing?

As the project evolves, it is clear that the AI engines are running and becoming smarter as additional data is fed into the system. But the main challenge is still: how to get access to course descriptions so we can signpost learners to those courses. If we don't have access to courses, even descriptions than we cannot send learners to them. 

I would think that corporate academies would benefit from sharing some of their courses: if they form a network, they will no longer need to develop all the courses, they could 'swap' or agree to develop specific courses and find other courses for their employees at competing companies. Because although they are competing, all of them have basic courses for their employees, and those course costs could be cut by coming to a course-development agreement. 

(picture from http://wwwdev.kpbsd.k12.ak.us/departments.aspx?id=37724 )

#CfP Call for papers on #education, open #learning, #AI and #teaching

This call for papers offers a mix for research papers and call for speakers, enabling more research-based or more experienced based proposals to be written. The calls are organized in order of deadline.

ECTEL2019 conference

Deadline for submitting the mandatory abstract: 29 April 2019 (200 words using Springer template)
Deadline for submitting a full paper: 13 May 2019 (6 - 14 pages using Springer template)
When: 16 - 19 September 2019
Where: TU Delft, Netherlands
More information: http://www.ec-tel.eu/
Description (from website)
The European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL) is a unique opportunity for researchers, practitioners, educational developers and policy makers to address current challenges and advances in the field. This year’s theme of “Transforming learning with meaningful technologies” addresses how emerging and future learning technologies can be used in a meaningful way to enhance human-machine interrelationships, to contribute to efficient and effective education, and to assess the added value of such technologies.
The conference calls for papers focusing on this theme and addressing many topics: intermediation between learning systems, learners and educators; guidelines and methodologies to enhance learning experience through technologies; bridges between technology and learning; assessment of technologies’ educational added value; promotion of coherence and unity of technology and learning; and improvement of complementarity between technology and learning. We encourage participants to extend the debate around the role of and challenges for cutting-edge 21st century technologies and advances such as artificial intelligence and robots, augmented reality and ubiquitous computing technologies and at the same time connecting them to different pedagogical approaches, types of learning settings, and application domains that can benefit from such technologies.

Online Educa Berlin  

Deadline for submission call for proposals: 30 April 2019
When: 27 - 29 November 2019
Where: Berlin, Germany
Link to 'submit your proposal': https://secretariat.oeb.global/oeb_proposals/
More information: https://oeb.global/
Description (from website)
OEB Global, incorporating Learning Technologies, brings you to the forefront of learning technology developments. Get insights on opportunities and challenges that are changing the world of learning

• Find out how to choose and use various technologies
• Discover proven practice, approaches, strategies from leading institutions and organisations
• Participate in pre-conference activities and 120+ break-out sessions with 300+ expert speakers from 70+ countries from across different disciplines, sharing their knowledge, skills and passion
• Follow case studies presenting critical success factors and discuss innovative approaches with peers
• Meet with 2,500+ learning professionals from the education, workplace learning and government sectors and forge essential international contacts and partnerships
• Explore the exhibition at the heart of the event, where leading international e-learning manufacturers, suppliers, and service providers give hands-on demonstrations of innovative products and tools
• Join us as we analyse new technologies and trends within ICT-enhanced learning and training

OEB Global has pushed boundaries, challenged preconceptions and catalysed new ideas for shaping the future of digital learning for 24 years.

International Open and Distance Learning conference

Deadline for submission: 15 July 2019
When: 14 - 16 November 2019
Where: Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey.
More information: http://iodl.anadolu.edu.tr/
Description

The Anadolu University is proud to invite you to the INTERNATIONAL OPEN & DISTANCE LEARNING CONFERENCE – IODL 2019, which will be held at Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey on 14-15-16 November, 2019. After the conferences in 2002, 2006 and 2010, IODL 2019 is the 4th IODL event hosted by Anadolu University Open Education System. The conference is organized by Open Education Faculty, Anadolu University.

Anadolu University, one of the world leaders in open and distance education, currently offers higher education to over one million students worldwide. Anadolu University Open Education System aims to reduce the barriers to education, especially for adult and self-learners. In the 21st century, the idea of openness is in the very core of education which is surrounded with technology in multi-cultural learning environments.

Scope
The main theme of the IODL 2019 is “Glocal ODL Opportunities and Dynamics”.
The aim of the IODL 2019 is to provide a platform for researchers and practitioners to present and discuss a broad range of topics related to open and distance learning, including but not limited to:
• Open and distance learning, Lifelong learning, Open education and globalization, Drop-out in open and distance education, Open and distance learning for refugees, Learning analytics, Financial issues in massive education, Digital division, Barriers to learning, Role of education in crisis, Education in a multicultural society, Micro credential and short learning programs, Mobile learning, Adaptive learning environments, Deep learning in ODL, AI in/for ODL, IoTs for ODL, Student Support Services in ODL, Public science, New challenges to the Higher Education Area, Evaluation and assessment in ODL, Accreditation and QA in ODL, MOOCs and OERs

Transdisciplinary AI (TransAI) conference (combining AI with other disciplines)

Deadline for submission: 1 July 2019
When: 25 - 27 September 2019
Where: Laguna Hills, California, USA
More information: https://www.transai.org/
Description
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is concerned with computing technologies that allow machines to see, hear, talk, think, learn, and solve problems even above the level of human beings. On the one hand it allows data to be analyzed by real-time models that enable unprecedented levels of accuracy and efficiency. On the other hand it enables domain specific problem solving and knowledge discovery that cannot be easily done by humans.
Transdisciplinary AI 2019 (TransAI 2019), technically sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society, is an international forum focusing on the interactions between artificial intelligence (AI) and other research disciplines. It consists of themes that each addresses the applications of AI to a specific research discipline as well as how domain specific applications may advance the research on AI.
The TransAI themes address two dimensions--technology and academic research domains so that technologies can be mapped to domain applications.

Asian conference on education

(focusing on dependence and independence, nice topic)
Deadline for submission abstract: 22 August 2019
When: 31 October - 3 November 2019
Where: Toshi Center hotel, Tokyo, Japan.
More information: https://ace.iafor.org/
Description
The 2019 conference theme for The 11th Asian Conference on Education is “Independence & Interdependence”, and invites reflections on the desirability, extent and limits of our individual independence and autonomy, of that of our students, and of the institutions and structures within which we work, teach and learn. We do not educate, and are not educated in vacuums, but in such contexts and constraints as families, groups, and societies; of nations and cultures; of identities and religions; and of political and financial realities.

Ever changing technologies offer new ways for us to be independent and autonomous learners, encouraging students to be self-directed and confident in making choices, and enabling and empowering students and teachers to be proactive and tailor content. However, myriad technologies and services make us more dependent on the very things allowing autonomy. How do we help students and teachers alike navigate and curate the vast information available? How do we encourage individual growth while also underlining the importance of belonging and of the reciprocal responsibilities and privileges of education? How do we help students build the skills and attitudes necessary for positive engagement in distributed, globalised communities that so often lead to polarisation and alienation instead? How do we educate with independence and interdependence in mind?

This conference is organised by IAFOR in association with the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) in Osaka University, Japan.

Liveblog @mathvermeulen #JustDoIt #vovpitstop @vovnetwerk

Liveblog Mathias Vermeulen Ode aan Angus

(Great keynote, capturing the audience first, coming to business with strong ideas)

Lang leve technologie!

Technologie is (ahem)

• ·       Ons LMS
• ·       Ons eLearningmodules
• ·       Onze course vending machine

MacGyver is biggest inspiration of @mathiasVermeulen

Fabulous learning is developed by thinking ‘What would MacGyver do?”

·       Find what is out there, and use it to your own advantage and needs!

·       L&D is a party for everyone: becoming best friends with IT. HR, L&D

·       “Ik ben een bricoleur”

Zwitsers zakmes

• ·       xAPI – LRS
• ·       VR/AR
• ·       Games (bury me my love – try it, text but serious game on Syria)
• ·       Mobile
• ·       AI and chatbots

Don’t worry be crappy (Guy Kawasaki)

Try out tools, set aside time (e.g. Friday afternoon) to test, think, come up with ideas on learning solutions.

Think ahead

• ·       New people (we are good in this)
• ·       More (what can we do to train our people)
• ·       Apply (e.g. performance support when they need it: just-in-time learning)
• ·       Solve (again, take time to learn what is out there)
• ·       Change (produce a lean learning approach)

Data driven #education session #OEB18 @oebconference #data @m_a_s_c

From the session on data driven education, with great EU links and projects.

Carlos Delgado Kloos: using analytics in education

Opportunities

Khan academy system is a proven system, with one of the best visualisations of how the students are advancing. With a lot of stats and graphs. Carlos used this approach for their 0 courses (courses on basic knowledge that students must know before moving on in higher ed).

Based on the Khan stats, they built a high level analytics system.

Predictions in MOOCs (see paper of Kloos), focusing on drop-out.

Monitoring in SPOCs (small private online courses)

Measurement of Real Workload of the students, the tool adapts the workload to the reality.

FlipApp (to gamify flipped classroom), remember and to notify the students that they need to see the videos before class, or they will not be able to follow. (Inge: sent to Barbara).

Creation of Educational Material using Google classroom. Google classroom sometimes knows what the answer of a quiz will be, which can save time for the teacher.

Learning analytics to improve teacher content delivery.

Use of IRT (Item Response Theory) to see which quizzes are more useful and effective, interesting to select quizzes.

Coursera define skills, match it to the jobs and based on that recommend courses.

Industry 4.0 (big data, AI…) for industry, can be transferred to Education 4.0 (learning analytics based on machine learning). (Education3.0 is using the cloud, where both learners and teachers go to).

Machine learning infers the rules from getting answers which are data analysed (in comparison to computer learning, which is just the opposite, based on rules, giving answers).

Dangers:

Correlations: correlations are not necessary correct conclusions. (see spurious correlations for fun links).

Bias: e.g. decisions for giving credit based on redlining and weblining.

Decisions for recruitment: eg. Amazon recruits that the automation of their recruiting system resulted in a biase leading to recruiting more men than women.

Decisions in trials: eg. Compas is used by judges to calculate repeat offenders, but color of skin was a clear bias in this program.

Decisions in academia: Cathy O’Neil: weapons of Math Destruction – how big data increases inequalityand threatens democracy”.

Chinese social credit system which gives minor points if you do something that is seen as not being ‘proper’. Also combined with facial recognition, and monitoring attention in class (Hangzhou number 11 high school).

Monitoring (gaggle, …)

Challenges

Luca challenge: responsible use of AI.

GDPR Art 22: automated individual decision-making, including profiling.

Sheilaproject.eu : identifying policies to adopt learning analytics. Bit.ly/sheilaMOOC is the course on the project.

Atoms and bits comparison. As with atoms you can use it for the better, or for the worse (like atomic bombs).

Maren Scheffel on Getting the trust into trusted learning analytics @m_a_s_c

(Welten Institute of Open University, Netherlands)

Learning analytics: Siemens (2011) definition still the norm. But nowadays it is a lot about analytics, but only little about learning.

Trust: currently we believe that something is reliable, the truth, or ability. Multiple definitions of trust, it is multidimensional and multidisciplinary construct. Luhmanndefined trust as a way to cope with risk, complexity, and a lack of system understanding. For Luhmann the concept of trust compensates for insufficient capabilities for fully understanding the complexity of the world (Luhmann, 1979, trust and …)

 For these reasons we must be transparent, reliable, and be integer to attract the trust of learners. There should not be a black box, but it should be a transparent box with algorithms (transparent indicators, open algorithms, full access to data, knowing who accesses your data).

Policies: see https://sheilaproject.eu   

User involvement and co-creation: see the competen-SEA project see http://competen-sea.eu capacity building projects for remote areas or sensitive learner groups. One of the outcomes was to co-design to create MOOCs (and trust) getting all the stakeholders together in order to come to an end product. MOOCs for people, by people.  Twitter #competenSEA

Keynote talk of Anita Schjoll Brede @twitnitnit @oebconference #AI #machineLearning #oeb18

(liveblog starts after a general paragraph on the two keynotes that preceded her talk, and really her talk was really GREAT! And with fresh, relevant structure).

First of a talk on the skill sets of future workers (the new skills needed, referring to critical thinking, but not mentioning what is understood with critical thinking) and the collective intelligence (but clearly linking it to big data not small data, as well described in an article by Stella Lee).

Self-worth idea for the philosophy session, refer tot he Google map approach where small companies who offer one particular aspect of what it took to build google maps were bought by Google, and as such producing something that was bigger than the sum of its parts). But this of course means that the identity and the self-versus-the-other becomes under pressure, as people that really make a difference at some point, do not have the satisfying moment to think they are on top of the world (you can no longer show off your quality easily… for there are so many others just like you… as you can see when you read the news, follow people online…). While feeling important was easier, or possible in a ‘smaller’ world, where the local tech person was revered for her or his knowledge. So, in some way we are loosing the feeling of being special based on what we do. Additionally, if AI enters more of the working world, how do we ensure that work will be there for everyone, as work is also a way to ‘feel’ self-worth. I think keeping self-worth will be an increasing challenge in the connected, and AI supported world. As a self-test, simply think of yourself, and wanting to be invited to be on a stage… it is a simple yet possibly mentally alarming aspect. Our society is promoting ‘being the best’ at something, or having the most ‘likes’, what can we do to install or keep self-worth?

Than a speaker on the promise of online education, referring to MOOCs versus formal education, the increase of young people going to college… which strangely contradicts what the most profiles of future jobs seems to be like (professions that are rather labour intensive). The speaker Kaplan managed to knock down people who get into good jobs based on non-traditional schooling (obviously, my eye-brows went up, and I am sure there are more of us in the audience pondering which conservative thinking label can be put on that type of scolding stereotype speech, protecting the norm, he is clearly not even a non-conformist).

Keynote by Anita Schjoll Brede 

Here a person in the line of my interest takes the stage: Anita  Schjoll Brede. Anita founded an AI company Iris.ai , and tries to simplify the AI, machine learning and data science for easier implementation. So… of interest.

Learning how to learn sets us human beings apart. We are in the era where machines will learn, based on how we learn… inevitably changing what we need to learn.

She gives what AI is seen by most people, and where that model is not really correct.

Machine learning is based on the workings of a human brain. Over time the machine will adapt based on the data, and it will learn new skills. It is a great model to see the difference. One caveat, we still not sure how the human mind really works.

If we think of AI, we think of software, hardware, data … but our brains are slightly different and our human brains are also flawed. We want to build machines that are complementary to the human brain.

Iris.ai started with the idea that there are papers and new research published every day, humans can no longer read all. Iris.ai goes through the science and the literature process is relatively automated. The process is currently possible with a time decrease of 80%. Next step is hypothesis extraction, than build a truth tree of the document based on scientific arguments. Once you have the truth trees are done, link that to a lab or specific topic, … with an option of the machine learning results leading to different types of research. Human beings will still do the deeper understanding.

Another example is one tutor per child. Imagine that there is one tutor for that child, which grows with that child, helps with lifelong learning. The system will know you so well, that it will know how to motivate you, or get you forward. It might also have filters to identify discriminatory feelings or actions (remark of myself: but I do wonder, if this is the case, then isn’t this limiting the freedom of saying what you want and being the person you want to be… it might risk becoming extreme in either way of the doctrine system).

Refers to the Watson Lawyer AI, which makes that the junior lawyers will no longer do all the groundwork. So the new employees will have to learn other stuff, and be integrated differently. But this relates to critical ideas of course, as you must choose for employing people (but make yourself less competitive) or you only higher senior lawyers (remark of myself: but than you loose diversity and workforce).

Refers to doctors built by machine learning, used in sub-Saharan settings, to analyse human blood for malaria. Which saves time for the doctors, health care workers… but evidently, this has an impact on the health care worker jobs.

Cognitive bias codex (brain picture with lots of links). Lady in the red dress experiment.

Her take on what we need to learn:

Critical thinking,  refers to source criticism she learned during her schooling.

Who builds the AI, lets say Google will transgress the first general AI… their business model will still get us to buy more soap.

Complex problem solving: we need to hold this uncertainty and have that understanding. To understand why machines were lead to specific choices.

Creativity: machines can be creative, we can learn this. Rehashing what is done, and making it to something of your own is something that is (refers to lawyer commercial that was built by AI based on hours of legal commercials).

Empathy: is at the core of human capabilities like this. Machines are currently doing things, but not yet empathic. But empathy is also important to build machines that can result in positive evolutions for humans. If we can support machines that will be able to love the world, including humans.

@oebconference workshop notes and documents #instructionalDesign #learningTools

After being physically out of the learning circuit for about a year and a half, it is really nice to get active again. And what better venue to rekindle professional interests than at Online Educa Berlin.

Yesterday I lead a workshop on using an ID instrument I call the Instructional Design Variation matrix (IDVmatrix). It is an instrument to reflect on the learning architecture (including tools and approaches) that you are currently using, to see whether these tools enable you to build a more contextualized or standardized type of learning (the list organises learning tools according to 5 parameters: informal - formal, simple - complex, free - expensive, standardized to contextualized, and more aimed at individual learning - social learning). The documents of the workshop can be seen here.

The workshop started of with an activity called 'winning a workshop survival bag', where the attendees could win a bag with cookies, nuts, and of course the template and lists of the IDVmatrix.
We then proceeded to give a bit of background on the activity, and how it related to the IDVmatrix.
Afterwards focusing on learning cases, and particularly challenges that the participants of the workshop were facing.
And we ended up trying to find solutions for these cases, sharing information, connections, ideas (have a look at this engaging crowd - movie recorded during the session).
The workshop was using elements from location-based learning, networking, mobile learning, machine learning, just-in-time learning, social learning, social media, multimedia, note taking, and a bit of gamification.

It was a wonderful crowd, so everyone went away with ideas. The networking part went very well also due to the icebreaker activity at the beginning. This was the icebreaker:

The WorkShop survival bag challenge!
Four actions, 1 bag for each team!

Action 1
Which person of your group has the longest first name?
Write down that name in the first box below.

Action 2

• Choose two person prior to this challenge: a person who will record a short (approx. 6 seconds)
• video with their phone and tweet it, and a person/s who will talk in that video.
• Record a 6 second video which includes a booth at the OEB exhibition (shown in the
• background) and during which a person gives a short reason why this particular learning solution
• (the one represented by the booth) would be of use to that persons learning environment
• (either personal or professional).
• Once you have recorded the video, share it on twitter using the following hashtags: #OEB #M5
• #teamX (with X being the number of your team, e.g. #team1) . This share is necessary to get the
• next word of your WS survival bag challenge.
• Once you upload the movie, you will get a response tweet on #OEB #M5 #teamX (again with the
• number of your team).

Write down the word you received in response to your video in the second box below.

Action 3

• Go to the room which is shown in the 360° picture in twitter (see #M5 #OEBAllTeams).
• Find the spot where 5 pages are lined up, each of them with another language sign written on
• them.
• Each team has to ‘translate’ the sign assigned to their team. You can use the Google Translateapp for this (see google play, the app is free!).

Write down the translation in the third box below.

Action 4
Say the following words into the Google Home device which is located in the WS room

“OK Google 'say word box 1', say word box 2, say word box 3“

If Google answers, you will get your WS survival bag!

And although the names were not always very English, with a bit of tweaking using the IFTTT app, all the teams were able to get Google home mini to congratulate them for getting all the challenges right. 

#MOOC free report, event MOOC for refugees (w travel fund options) and #CfP eMOOC2019

Two interesting MOOC events coming up one focused on MOOCs for refugees, and one for all you out there involved in researching or experiencing MOOCs (the eMOOC2019 conference). 

Free MOOC report

Linked to the MOONLITE event, there is a free MOOC report (130 pages) on : “Exploiting MOOCs for Access and Progression into Higher Education Institutions and Employment Market”

The report gives an overview of the goals of the project, the methodology, and finishes with the practical recommendations for using online courses to enhance access and progression into higher education and the employment market (for refugees). 

MOONLITE multiplier event (part of a EU Erasmus+ project)

The MOONLITE event supports learning without borders, practically it harnesses the potential of MOOCs for refugees and migrants to build their language competences and entrepreneurial skills for employent, higher education, and social inclusion. 

There are bursaries to help cover your travel expenses which you can apply for at the venue!

23-24 November, UNED (Madrid, Spain).

Friday November 23

15:20. Welcome (Timothy Read & Elena Barcena, UNED, Spain)

15:30-16:30. Presentation of the MOONLITE project and its outputs (Jorge Arús-Hita, UCM, Spain & Beatriz Sedano, UNED, Spain)

16:30-17:30. Open Education Passports and Micro Credentials for refugees and migrants (Ildiko Mazar, Knowledge Innovation Centre, Malta)

17:30-18:00 Coffee

18:00-19:00 Kiron Educational Model and Quality Assurance for MOOC-based curricula (María Bloecher, Kiron, Germany)

Saturday November 24

10:00-11:00:  Inclusive by design: how MOOCs have the potential to reach people in ways other online courses do not (Kate Borthwick, University of Southampton, UK)

11:00-12:00: A tool for institutions for quantifying the costs & benefits of Open Education (Anthony Camilleri, Knowledge Innovation Centre, Malta)

12:00-12:30 Coffee

12:30-13:30: Workshop on how to design a socially inclusive MOOC (Elena Martín- Monje & Timothy Read, UNED, Spain)

13:30. Farewell (Timothy Read & Elena Barcena, UNED, Spain)

See travel details, online registration and more info here. No attendance fee. Limited places. 

➢ Sign up here: https://goo.gl/forms/RXYWS8MiQgYqfLkC2 (to obtain attendance certificate, materials, coffee).

➢ Venue: C/ Juan del Rosal, 16 - 28040 Madrid. How to get there: Metro until the stop: “Ciudad Universitaria” + Bus “U” until

the stop: UNED-Juan del Rosal: http://www.ia.uned.es/llegar-etsii

Call for papers eMOOC2019

Dates: 20 - 22 May 2019 

Venue: University of Naples, Federico II in Italy

Important Dates:
16 Jan 2017: Paper submissions for Research Track.
24 Feb 2017: Notification of acceptance/rejection
20 Mar 2017: Camera-ready versions for Springer LNCS Proceedings and copyright form.

The Higher Education landscape is changing. As the information economy progresses, demand for a more highly, and differently, qualified workforce increases, and HE Institutions face the challenge of reskilling and upskilling people throughout their lives. The corporate and NGO sectors are themselves exploring the benefits of a more qualified online approach to training, and are entering the education market in collaboration with HE Institutions, but also autonomously or via new certifying agencies. Technology is the other significant player in this scenario. It allows for new, data-driven ways of measuring learning outcomes, new curriculum structures and alternative forms of recruitment strategy via people analytics.

MOOCs represent the crossroads where the three converge. Come to EMOOCs 2019 and explore the impact and future direction of open, online education on a social, political and institutional level.

The eMOOC summit has four tracks: research, business, policy and experience track.

At the MOOC crossroads: where academia and business converge

The Higher Education landscape is changing. As the information economy progresses, demand for a more highly, and differently, qualified workforce and citizens increases, and HE Institutions face the challenge of training, reskilling and upskilling people throughout their lives, rather than providing a one-time in-depth education. The corporate and NGO sectors are themselves exploring the benefits of a more qualified online approach to training, and are entering the education market in collaboration with HE Institutions, but also autonomously or via new certifying agencies. Technology is the other significant player in this fast-changing scenario. It allows for new, data-driven ways of measuring learning outcomes, new forms of curriculum definition and compilation, and alternative forms of recruitment strategy via people analytics.

At the MOOC crossroads where the three converge, we ask ourselves whether university degrees are still the major currency in the job market, or whether a broader portfolio of qualifications and micro-credentials may be emerging as an alternative. What implications does this have for educational practice? What policy decisions are required? And as online access eliminates geographical barriers to learning, but the growing MOOC market is increasingly dominated by the big American platforms, what strategic policy do European HE Institutions wish to adopt in terms of branding, language and culture?

The EMOOCs 2019 MOOC stakeholders summit comprises the consolidated four-track format of Research and Experience, Policy and Business. And will feature keynote speakers, round table and panel sessions as well as individual presentations in each track. The aim is for decision-makers and practitioners to explore innovative and emerging trends in online education delivery, and the strategic policy that supports them. Original contributions that share knowledge and carry forward the debate around MOOCs are very welcome.The number of HE institutions involved in MOOCs, and the numbers of courses and enrolled students, has increased exponentially in recent years both in Europe and beyond. One of the results of this growing MOOC movement is an increasing body of research evidence that positions itself within the established research communities in technology enhanced learning, open education and distance learning. Key trends that are accelerating HE technology adoption are blended learning design and collaborative learning as well as a growing focus on measuring learning and redesigning learning spaces, and, in the long-term, deeper learning approaches and cultures of innovation.

This track welcomes high-level papers supported by empirical evidence to provide a rigorous theoretical backdrop to the more practical approaches described in the experience track, and particularly invites contributions in the area of these key trends.

• Learning Designs – blended learning, collaborative learning, learner-generated content, open textbooks, immersive learning, relating course and content to learning outcomes
• Defining and Measuring learning – learning analytics, educational data mining, user behaviour studies, adaptive and personalisation studies, cognitive theories and deep learning
• Technology – infrastructure and interface, tools and methods to provide learning at scale; tools and methods for assessment; tools and methods for data collection and processing; blockchain technology; AI + automated feedback

Submission of Papers
This is a one-step process, via direct submission of abstract and full paper.

Full paper: up to 10 pages including references

There will be official conference proceedings for this track and submissions will be handled through EasyChair.

The use of the supplied Springer template is mandatory: https://www.springer.com/it/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines

Please remember to indicate the relevant Track when you submit your paper.

Proceedings

The Proceedings of the Research Track will be published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) Series.
Submission of Work-in-Progress Short Papers

Short papers (up to 6 pages) are also accepted in this track, reflecting work in progress, for publication in Online proceedings with ISBN.

The use of the Springer template is mandatory:
https://www.springer.com/it/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines

When submitting your paper, please indicate type of paper and track in the submission process.

Proceedings

The Work-in-Progress proceedings will be submitted to CEUR-WS.org for online publication. Outstanding short papers may be included in the Springer Proceedings.

Important dates:
25 February 2019: Short Paper submissions for Research Track.
25 March 2019: Notification of acceptance/rejection
29 April 2019: Camera-ready versions for online Proceedings with ISBN and copyright form