My thoughts of World Conference on Online Learning (3) - Remote Exams

This is the third of the series of posts I am creating on my thoughts of the World Conference on Online Learning.

Other related posts can be found here
My thoughts of World Conference on Online Learning (1) - Our presentation
My thoughts of World Conference on Online Learning (2) - Meeting the pioneers

I attended the presentation Online Proctoring: Experimentation of remote examination in E-learning programmes by Dr. Pierre Beust (Université de Caen Normandie) and Associate Professor Sabine Bottin-Rousseau (Université Pierre et Marie Curie) and I was very interested by their research.

At University College of Estate Management (UCEM), we have a large number of international students (about one third) and UCEM holds examination centres around the world. But still some of our students have to travel, find accommodation and face the stressful exam conditions in an environment (or even a country) they are not used to. UCEM is looking at ways of making online examinations possible; therefore this presentation was of great interest to me.

The presentation introduced two case studies;  ProctorU was used as the proctoring service. Some of the interesting findings were:

• Success rate same as traditional exams
• 4.9% technical problems (that blocked the exams !) - this is an issue because one student not being able to sit the exam is enough to give a bad reputation and much more work in preparing alternative papers, moderation, marking etc.
• 3% students feel a kind of intrusion in their private life - it is like someone being in your home watching over you, the webcam will show everything that happens there. If the student has to share the space where they are taking the exam with family members (due to the unavailability of a suitable other place) especially younger children, their images will also be recorded on the webcam footage. 
• 80% would take another exam or advise a friend to have home proctored exams - this means the students were happy to take anther exam in technical setting.
• 89% are satisfied and prefer to assume the technical conditions than travel to exam centre - as I said before having to travel to a different country sorting out VISA, accommodation and other logistics can be an additional stress on top of the exam stress.

The challenges of introducing remote exams also manifest in these areas:

• Legal issues (Data protection especially EU laws prohibit data being stored outside EU so need to have agreements with the service providers, Security, Privacy)
• Technology issues – public low-cost wifi access not allowing applet communication ports to work
• Language – use of chat facility (16 exams in French) - as UCEM provides education in English perhaps this may not be a big challenge for us.

There are many who oppose remote exams stating that the likelyhood of cheating is higher. But traditional exams are not cheat proof either. Cheating risk depends on feeling of cheatability of the system. If it seems easy to cheat there is more chance of students attempting it. But interestingly in the case studies it was found that

• 61% feel proctored as effectively in remote exams as in classical exams 
• Some feel more closely proctored because of the webcam 
• Proctors of ProctorU can proctor max 6 students at the same time
• Students thought they were in a one-to-one situation

I have already made connections with Pierre and Sabine and Pierre kindly shared their case study paper too. I am really looking forward to hearing more about their work and if you are also into remote exams a place to keep an eye on is OP4RE – Online Proctoring for Remote Examinations.

My thoughts of World Conference on Online Learning (2) - Meeting the pioneers

This is the second of the series of posts I am creating on my thoughts of the World Conference on Online Learning.

First blog can be found here My thoughts of World Conference on Online Learning (1)

I have cited Dr. Tony Bates in my work for years. ACTIONS and SECTIONS frameworks were very useful models in assessing technology for adoption. I used these models in my PhD thesis, Information Communication Technologies and Distance Education in Sri Lanka:
A case study of two universities, to make sense of the less than favourable (in my view failed) technology adoption in distance education back then.

It was a privilege to listen to Tony at the World Conference and I must admit I barely made it into the room for his first talk Teaching in the Digital Age: Guidelines for Designing Teaching and Learning 1. Wherever Tony spoke, the rooms were absolutely full with standing audience too. I often wondered why the conference organizers did not have these sessions in the main Ball Room where there was seating for a large number. Anyway, I hope the next conference organizers will remember to allocate a larger room for Tony's talks in Dublin.

I was also fortunate to get a complementary signed copy of Tony's latest book Teaching in the Digital Age: Guidelines for Designing Teaching and Learning, an open textbook. 

I really liked the way Tony approached the session by giving us a chance to think about what our thoughts on learning.

• Learning as coal mining - to find the hidden 'truth', dig it and stuff it to learner's head
• Learning as gardening - creating the right environment to encourage people to learn

But what was emphasized is that learning environment is necessary but not sufficient to create a great learning experience and I am sure if we look back at various courses either we offered or we took part it is evident that this is indeed the case.

In the third session of Teaching in the Digital Age series, Tony spoke about the use of videos. He talked about videos can made by tutors and what the audience thought of their quality? We have this at our institution where the media production team develop high quality videos and then there are videos produced by tutors, which in all fairness cannot achieve that quality (due to equipment and experience). However, I really value the final point Tony made "don't stop innovation". When tutors are trying to do something new, if we keep on asking for similar quality of videos to studio productions, the end result is easy to predict. 

So the 9 important steps to follow in teaching online course:

1. How do you want to teach?

2. What kind of course will it be?

3. Work in a team

4. Build on existing resources 

5. Master the technology

6. Set appropriate learning goals for eLearning

7. Design structure and activities

8. Communicate communicate communicate

9. Innovate and evaluate

My thoughts of World Conference on Online Learning (1) - Our presentation

This is the first of a series of blogs I am hoping to do on my experience of the World Conference on Online Learning.

The World Conference on Online Learning was held at Sheraton Centre, Toronto, Canada last week (16-19 October). This was the 27th biennial conference of the International Council for Distance Education.

This was 'the' conference I always wanted to attend and I was delighted when our proposal "Online, Flipped, Blended Approach to Apprenticeship Education: A case study of UCEM's Surveying Technician Diploma" was accepted to be presented at the conference. The conference theme for this time was "Teaching in a Digital Age: Re-thinking Teaching & Learning" and under this umbrella theme we went for Track 5 - Redesigned Institutional Business Models.

Our presentation was on the second day of the conference and was well attended. We had an engaging session with lots of interesting questions. I also created a sway presentation including some interview clips to give a better idea of our project. We are in the process of writing it up for publication.

Don't take my word about the success of the course. Listen to what a student has to say about our approach to apprenticeship education. Here is what students who have gone through the Surveying Technician Diploma has to say ...