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Wednesday, September 09, 2015

Better Learning Analytics for Online Courses



We need new quality guidelines for career-focused, competency, technology-forward online programs. 

Existing online program quality evaluation tools serve an important role in online program evaluation, and they have been extremely important in the growth and development of online programs in the last 20 years.  They have assisted organizations in the development of consistent programs that conform to general ideas of quality / standards. They provide a very helpful tool in the updating content, tracking curriculum, training instructors, and assuring effectiveness.  The most highly regarded rubrics and instruments include Quality Matters, the Online Learning Consortium’s Scorecard, and Chico State’s Exemplary Online Instruction.

For example, the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric includes eight General Standards and 43 Specific Review Standards in order to evaluate the design of online and blended courses, and specifically addresses objectives, assessment, instructional materials, course activities, learner interaction, course technologies (Quality Matters, 2015). 

However, in a world of quickly evolving jobs, where industries have made entire professions obsolete, and have created demand for new knowledge, skills, and abilities, additional tools and evaluations are needed. Disruptive technologies and practices are also having a profound effect, which necessitates the development of a flexible workforce that can quickly be retrained.

Further, with online learning, which correlates with team-based collaborations and distributed workplaces, delivery options are also critical.  Learning analytics, which include quality assessments must now address a fairly wide range of programmatic attributes that are not addressed in the more traditional instruments such as the OLC Scorecard or QM’s rubric.  

Interestingly, there has been a renewed emphasis on education provided by professional societies in addition to colleges and universities. Part of the impetus has been due to the fact that there have been major shifts in the student population and their reasons for pursuing education. Further, there have been major changes in higher education, as for-profit providers and those with high student loan default rates coming under fire.

Finally, while online programs have been in place for 20 years, the constant development of new mobile technologies along with the expansion of high-speed internet and wifi networks has profoundly altered the way that learners pull information, interact with others, and participate in knowledge sharing. Further, it has changed how learners can approach content that requires problem-solving, creative solutions, collaboration, and hands-on projects. A renewed focus on outcomes as well as a collaborative, mobile, “information pull” (rather than “data push”) approaches have profoundly affected the learning process.

Learning Analytics

Learning analytics, which incorporate educational data mining, process analytics, and data visualization can be used to address some of the new concerns and focal areas in educational programs. An effective approach was employed by Scheffel, etal (2014) to analyze learning analytics for hybrid and online programs. In developing quality indicators for learning analytics, Scheffel etal made specific assumptions about the main elements to include in an instructional program, and they also assumed that both student and instructor perceptions were uniformly valid.  

In the Scheffel etal’s meta-analysis and ultimate determination of quality indicators for learning analytics, a matrix emerged with five criteria and four quality indicators (2014):

Five Criteria and Four Quality Indicators for Each (Scheffel, 2014):

Objectives
(Awareness, Reflection, Motivation, Behavioral Change)

Learning Support
(Perceived Usefulness, Recommendation, Activity Classification, Detection of Students at Risk)

Learning Measures and Output
(Comparability, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Helpfulness)

Data Aspects
(Transparency, Data Standards, Data Ownership, Privacy)

Organizational Aspects
(Availability, Implementation, Training of Educational Stakeholders, Organizational Change)

Scheffel’s work is in an early stage, and the next step will be to apply the criteria and quality indicators to application-focused educational programs

Student-Driven Metrics:  Return on Investment (ROI)

With the increasing cost of education, combined with the profound economic changes that occurred in the years after 2007-2008, learners have focused on a positive return on investment (ROI) for their investment in education.

However, there is no clear consensus on how to measure an education ROI, particularly across disciplines.

    • Job-Focused Competency-Based (ROI for investment in education)

    • Technology for Applied Knowledge (mobile / collaborative)

New Instructional Strategy Focal Points and Areas for Quality Assessment:

The technological advances in mobile devices as well as an enhanced infrastructure have resulted in the need for ubiquitous access to cloud-based assets.

While it may not yet be possible to achieve universal and continuous access to the cloud, an increasing number of cloud-hosted applications facilitate constant updating of information, as well as collaboration and information sharing.  These often form the cornerstone of the enhanced learning opportunities for professional development and competency-building for new jobs.

Additional focal points for quality assessment.

*e-texts with Collaborative Capability.  Cloud-based access of e-texts, with focus on collaborative annotations and guidance by instructor. The relevance of the texts, as well as the robustness of the collaborative capability should be assessed.

*Applications. Mobile devices that utilize applications that facilitate information sharing. How effective are the applications being used? Do they facilitate the achievement of outcomes? Some applications foster engagement and deeper learning through immediate feedback (Kovach etal 2015).

*Learning Management System transition, with more organizations using a “light” version of an LMS, and focusing more on content management in the cloud

*Collaboration:  Competency-based education often required teamwork, and thus educational / training programs should have a capstone as well as collaborative activities that reflect the types of activity that they’ll need to perform in professional and career settings (Huss, etal 2015).

*Engagement:  Students who desire enhanced access to employment opportunities as well as the chance to diversify / expand their abilities quickly lose interest if their coursework seems irrelevant, outdated, or disconnected from the marketplace. 

*Persistence: Persistence is tied to engagement, as well as motivation. Persistence (course completion) is critical, particularly in a context where education is expensive and industries are transitioning, requiring workforces to retool themselves.

*Career Competencies: One clear measure of quality (and relevance / utility for students) has to do with competencies. Competency rubrics differ, based on the overall goals and outcomes.  The development and validation of competency models has been particularly impressive in the healthcare field (Garman & Scribner, 2011).

Single-course competencies: often developed in response to compliance needs and require an assessment at the end of the course.

Competency clusters: often tie to career paths, especially those that are being disrupted by new technologies or contexts, and thus involve multiple courses, each of which includes an assessment. There is often a summative assessment at the end (Boahin etal, 2014).

*Integrated / multi-disciplinary capstones and/or supervised practice and internships: Education programs that claim to be able to place their graduates in a viable career path generally require a problem-based capstone that is often multi-disciplinary and integrative.  Further, internships and supervised practice are also often required (McKnight, 2013).

*Project-Based / Task-Based Outcomes: Seamless incorporation of prior learning / experiential learning is very desirable in career-focused professions and higher education. Thus, a project-based activity, which requires a literature review, analysis of a problem, creative problem-solving, an evaluation of different methods.  Collaboration and teamwork are often highly desirable, particularly if the career itself involves significant teamwork (King & Spicer, 2009).

A View to the Future

It is important to continue to implement the quality assessment processes that have been implemented with success for online and blended courses and programs. The standards continue to be relevant and they allow a degree of standardization in terms of expectations and practice.

However, there are gaps in assessment thanks to the changes that have emerged due to the factors discussed earlier, which include a focus on careers and a need to incorporate new technologies.

Learning analytics can be utilized in order to assess new and emerging areas of instruction, and to assure the validity of the quality assurance process. Assessment can be performed by means of quality assurance instruments. It can also be performed by means of onsite trainers and evaluators, as in the case of ADCO’s approach to oil and gas professional training (Dawoud, 2014).

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References

Boahin, Peter , Eggink, Jose & Adriaan Hofman (2014) Competency-based training in international perspective: comparing the implementation processes towards the achievement of employability, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 46:6, 839-858, DOI: 10.1080/00220272.2013.812680

Chico State University (2015) Exemplary Online Instruction. http://www.csuchico.edu/eoi/

Chico State University (2015) Rubric for Online Teaching. http://www.csuchico.edu/eoi/facultyrecognition/index.shtml#/csuchico/www/roi/the_rubric

Chico State University (2015) Online Teaching and Learning Tool http://www.csuchico.edu/eoi/

Garman A; Scribner L. Leading for Quality in Healthcare: Development and Validation of a Competency Model. Journal Of Healthcare Management [serial online]. November 2011;56(6):373-382. Available from: Academic Search Elite, Ipswich, MA. Accessed September 5, 2015.

Huss, John A.; Sela, Orly; Eastep, Shannon. A Case Study of Online Instructors and Their Quest for Greater Interactivity in Their Courses: Overcoming the Distance in Distance Education.  Australian Journal of Teacher Education, v40 n4 Article 5 Apr 2015

King K. N., Spicer C. M.  (2009) Badgers & Hoosiers: An Interstate Collaborative Learning Experience Connecting MPA Students in Wisconsin and Indiana Journal of Public Affairs Education, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Summer, 2009), pp. 349-360

Kovach J, Miley M, Ramos M. Using Online Studio Groups to Improve Writing Competency: A Pilot Study in a Quality Improvement Methods Course. Decision Sciences Journal Of Innovative Education [serial online]. July 2012;10(3):363-387. Available from: Business Source Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed September 5, 2015.

McKnight S. (2013) Mental Health Learning Needs Assessment: Competency-Based Instrument for Best Practice. Issues In Mental Health Nursing [serial online]. June 2013; 34(6):459-471. Available from: Academic Search Elite, Ipswich, MA. Accessed September 5, 2015.

Online Learning Consortium (2015). Online Quality Scorecard. http://onlinelearningconsortium.org/consult/quality-scorecard/

Quality Matters (2015) Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric. https://www.qualitymatters.org/rubric

Scheffel, Maren; Drachsler, Hendrik; Stoyanov, Slavi; Specht, Marcus. (2014) Quality Indicators for Learning Analytics. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, Vol. 17, No. 4, Review Articles in Educational Technology (October 2014), pp. 117-132




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