Monday, March 10, 2014

Guest Blogger Nina Dulabaum shares her experience attending the Distance Learning Conference

Enriching Learning Environments with Technology was the theme of the Distance Learning Conference on March 7th in Elgin. Dr. Maria Andersen began her keynote speech with a quote from Arthur C. Clarke, Anyone who can be replaced by a computer should be." Gasps from faculty were audible as she continued with her predictions for the future:

“(1) Learning that involves information transfer will be replaced by technology
 (2) Any repetitive assessment or learning task that can be replicated by a computer will be.
 (3) Any computerized course that is cheaper and results in equal or better learning outcomes¹ for students will be delivered that way.
 (4) The only technology that will improve learning outcomes for the majority of students is the technology that begins to mimic a tutor-student relationship.” http://busynessgirl.com/4-predictions-about-the-age- of-technology-enhanced-learning/

Her presentation continued discussing the implications of these predictions and what this means for the future of education. In addition, I soon learned the true meaning of “Busynessgirl” – she shared many resources and tools for teaching and engaging students, including a few minutes of a Hans Rosling’s TED Talk from 2006 that certainly makes statistics come alive! Click here for interesting handouts!

Yes, she thinks computers should replace faculty in some instances (refer to above). No, in the end, she emphasized that education needs competent faculty – professors and instructors – who embrace and leverage technology and focus on “acting human” – mentoring, assisting, and supporting students in all those ways computers can not.

I took this opportunity to speak with her personally, and she shared her views on some innovative technology on the market – e.g., adaptive tools such as the SmartBook. Having used a similar adaptive study resource at another institution, I am excited about exploring this option and finding new ways to assist our students in becoming successful learners here at Sauk! Just like Raph Koster’s quote she posts on her blog, her session truly demonstrated that “Learning is the brain having fun.”
~ Dr. Duly

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Moodle Quiz - Certainty Based Marking



Moodle Quiz offers a scoring option called Certainty Based Marking. When this option is selected, students are asked how certain they are of their answer after answering every question.



The following excerpt from Moodle documentation explains how it works.

When a student answers a question they also have to state how sure they are of the answer: not very (less than 67%); fairly (more than 67%) or very (more than 80%). Their grading is then adjusted according to how certain they are, which means that for example if they answered correctly but were only guessing, their mark is adjusted from 1 to 0.33. If they answered wrongly but were very sure, their mark is adjusted from 0 to -2.”

This grading option is selected in the quiz settings, and is one of many choices under 
 the Question behavior section.