Taking The “R” Out Of RLO
I was in Singapore last month presenting at the ICT2010 conference. It was exciting to share best practices for online learning, teaching tips, and student engagement ideas with people from around the world. It was also a very new and odd experience for me personally. Not the conference and not the presentations – I do that almost weekly in my role at Pearson. I imagine I've spoken 150 times at conferences in one form or another - from keynotes to workshops to seminars. No, it was a portion of my duties at the conference that were strange. I was asked to represent not just Pearson, but essentially all of publishing, in a conversation (aka debate) about Open Educational Resources (OER).
So, I was up on the main stage with a Canadian University President, an industry guru who has created an open software option for creation Reusable Learning Objects (RLO’s), a representative from Creative Commons, another faculty member (nobody realized that I too was a university instructor), and a few others. Keep in mind that Pearson acquired eCollege (and me) two years ago. I know as much about publishing as I know about toddler learning behavior. (With my 3 year old daughter I have some on-the-job training, but nothing from experts…)
But there I was, engaged in a conversation about open resources and reusability with people who desperately wanted me to falter. I believe they were hoping I’d make some crazy statement about the ineffectiveness of repositories or how publishers hope all of the repositories just go away. But not only do I not believe that, nor does Pearson for that matter, I actually didn’t have to say anything negative about RLO’s at all. Why? Because the experts on the subject explained to the 400 person audience that of the hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of RLO’s in the world today, less than 1% were actually reusable!
It was a wonderful, rich discussion about how incredibly hard it is to create an engaging, effective learning object – whether it’s text based, video based, a simulation, a game, etc. However, adding in the notion that the object you create will also be reusable seems to be nearly impossible. Think about it. Why did you create the learning object in the first place? It was likely to teach YOUR students a specific idea / concept within the context of YOUR classroom. It will flow into the strategic thought you have around scaffolding for YOUR class. It will be tied to specific outcomes / objectives YOU might have. It will probably correlate to other learning ideas and other learning objects YOU’VE also designed.
As an example, I have a game that I use in my online classes. It reinforces two important, nonverbal ideas around chronemics (the study of how time communicates to others). It is a Flash-based exercise with fill in the blank trivia of sorts – the answers are cultural and fairly easy, but students see a giant clock with time slipping away as they fill out the card. My students love it and “get it” as a result of the exercise. But if I were to place that learning object in a repository, it would take quite a bit of contextual explanation and even more training around how I use it, how it could be used, and finally how to implement it (technically) on a page.
And so, at the end of the day, we are left with repositories full of good intentions, but unfortunately with little to no real value other than to possibly inspire a teacher to create a similar, but different working learning object for themselves…
So what’s the answer? Again, from the experts around me there were some answers, but they will take some real effort that isn’t likely to happen. For example:
Tagging – A common taxonomy or even folksonomy must be created and used by EVERYONE using a repository. That’s no easy task. I was once on a campus where the faculty senate had been asked to standardize the term in online classes used for presenting mostly textual / pictoral information. The word, “Lecture” had been suggested by the administration. (Online norming of nomenclature across a program is a best practice as students always know how to navigate.) However, in 2 hours, the faculty could not agree on an appropriate term. Some staunch opponents wanted “Presentation” while others wanted the term, “Reading” instead. Another department chair brought up the inclusion of YouTube videos on the pages and pandemonium ensued.
Design – These (r)LO’s must be designed with re-use in mind. But again, with the description above, that’s no easy task either. I barely have enough time to create learning objects for my own class, let alone thinking about the greater good of the world as I create them. (I realize I’m not as noble as I’d like people to think…)
Standards – After creating and tagging a learning object in ways that others can consume them, we then need to think about standardizing the platforms they are built on. What about using FLASH? It’s a nice medium that has been used for years by educators. There are more and more software options to create FLASH simulations, demonstrations, or games that are easy and cheap, if not free. So FLASH is perfect, right? Oh, wait…the iPad. That’s right, Steve Jobs seems to have made it his personal mission to kill that software. Well, what if my object is in PowerPoint? Isn’t it “universal enough” for people then? (Sorry Open Office users…) Ok, well how about I create my learning object using simple HTML code. Everyone knows that these days, right? (Sorry 90% of instructors out there who can read Latin better than HTML.)
Quality – I recently read a blog by a professor who was pleading for the world to give up textbooks and adopt only open source content. He was frustrated by his textbook publisher’s edition practices. (Luckily, it wasn’t Pearson as he called them out by name…) But I have to say, while I’m not a publisher by any stretch of the imagination, I have come to find great respect for what my new colleagues at Pearson do. Did you know that a textbook costs over a million of dollars to produce? Yes, I said million… Why? Take a marketing book. How many pictures, slogans, and commercials are represented there? A thousand? Two thousand? Do you know how much it costs to get permission to use that Tide ad or the Toyota picture? Every time the book is produced, Pearson pays intellectual property license fees. Add that to the author of the book who gets royalties. Don’t forget the editors, the auditors, the fact checkers, researchers, and the list goes on and on. And of course, don’t forget the warehouses and paper, etc. So, that one learning object (which is likely dozens if not hundreds of learning objects) costs a bunch of money to produce in a way that is educationally beneficial to our students. Have you ever seen an Open resource that is vetted to that caliber? What about the MyMathLab product? It has shown improvement in math comprehension, math retention, and math process orientation in the 20, 30, and even 50 percent quartiles. It’s based on algorhythms that require tremendous math subject matter experts talking to expert instructional designers working in collaboration with programmers
So what’s it going to take then? Well…quite frankly it’s going to take people smarter than me (I know, I know…easy enough) to create some innovative solutions that are easy to use, easy to catalogue, and easy to consume. People like the CETL in the United Kingdom who have created GLO Maker (www.glomaker.org), a planning & design tool that creates learning objects that are much easier to tag, share, and reuse. Other leaders are groups like Equella, a digital repository company that incorporates learning objects, content management, and integrated content authoring. Then there are the content repository sites like Merlot, Orange Grove, and others.
There are answers out there, but it’s going to take some work, some strategy, and some compromise to make it happen. Do I believe OER will ever replace monetized assets? No, I don’t think so. But I do believe that the two worlds can live quite harmoniously, creating a rich tapestry of content that can be pushed and pulled as required based on learning preferences, student needs, etc. But I think that’s a blog for another time…
Jeff D Borden, M.A.
Senior Director of Teaching & Learning
Learning
How many lessons have you learned in your lifetime? 1,000? 1,000,000? I guess we have to start with what our definition of “lesson” is. Let’s take a broad-sweeping approach. For example, my daughter just learned the lesson that walking on the dog will likely cause you to fall when he moves. (Dog 1, Addie 0) But, if we learn little lessons like that every day, in addition to the formal learning that takes place in schools…wow.
Now, how many lessons have we forgotten in our lifetime? Would you guess more or less than we’ve learned? Common sense suggests that more is not only likely, it’s almost impossible to deny by anyone, even the smartest genius. So how do we remember better? That’s what educators have been trying to tackle for years. We research, we study, we come up with theory upon theory…and we make predictions.
What are the theories that we hold to today? As an Education doctoral student, I hear the current theories first hand from researchers and experts. If we want students to learn and remember, we must give them context. We must give them practical application. And we should never, ever use rote memorization, right? It must be true when both education scholars and Wikipedia agree! Here is part of the definition from Wikipedia on the topic of rote learning: “Rote learning, by definition, eschews comprehension, however, and consequently, it is an ineffective tool in mastering any complex subject at an advanced level.”
However, psychological research would suggest something very different. Rote memorization as we know it today is ineffective. This is hard to dispute. However, there is a significantly better way to use it, which actually helps the process of both learning and retention. It’s called the Spacing Effect and it works. (If you don’t believe me, ask anyone who works for Rosetta Stone. They have based their multimillion dollar product sales on it.)
The Spacing Effect was identified by Hermann Ebbinghaus in the late 1800’s. He proved that it was possible to significantly improve learning by effectively “spacing” practice sessions. This is more than just telling students about the ineffective nature of cramming. From its inception, psychological researchers have pleaded with educators to use this effect to accelerate our ability to learn. In fact, in the late 1980’s, Dempster published an article in American Psychologist called: “The Spacing Effect: A Case Study In The Failure To Apply Psychological Research.” He expresses that this concept is one of the most remarkable breakthroughs in human cognition. Yet how many teachers do you know who have ever even heard of it?
Piotr Wozniak took this concept and ran with it. He is the creator of Super Memo (www.supermemo.com) and he believes he can help you remember 95% of everything you learn. It’s all based on when you try to remember it. Try too soon and it ends up in short term memory, only to dissipate and wane later. Try too late, and you will have forgotten what you had to remember in the first place. So, there is a sweet spot. And Wozniak found a way to let computers create an algorithm that tells you exactly when that time is. (Hint: it’s different for everyone.)
I go to 20 conferences a year. I would guess that 19 out of 20 have at least one speaker who talks of the evils of repetition and practice in terms of rote learning. Even though we all do it foundationally (who learned to read without first learning the alphabet?). The key is not just the concept of rote memorization for foundational concepts. The key is how we teach and how our students practice these concepts. Of course context is important. I’m as big a proponent of application as any educator alive. But I’m also a lifelong learner. And I’ve learned something about learning recently. Holistic learning is much more than any one theory. Retention is deeper than practicality in assessment. Authentic tasks are only one side of the educational dice. There is much more to learning most of us realize. And by understanding one more piece of the learning puzzle…I’m a better learner today than I was yesterday.
(Thanks to Gary Wolf and Wired magazine for this amazing article on Piotr Wozniak that inspired this blog. You have GOT to get this magazine!)
Data
I just got off the phone with a colleague who has lost 35 pounds in 2 months. How did he do it? Data. Well, data mixed with exercise and technology to be more precise. He tried the Nike / iPod experiment and he’s a believer.
This professor of communications and lover of cheese steaks bought a new pair of running shoes a few months back. Then, he bought the Nike sensor system – a small sensor you put in your shoe somehow. This sensor sends information to your iPod during a run. That data tells you (in real time) how you’re doing, but it also allows you to see any trends in your running after you upload the data to the Nike+ website. Apparently he’s run about 340 miles and his average speed has increased by 1 mile per hour. He can tell you how many calories he’s burned and he’s delighted to tell you how many pounds he has lost.
See, data is changing how we live. And data aggregation, data mining, and data analysis are making our lives better as technology gives us more and more ways to use it quickly and easily. For example, my wife was called a few months back about her credit card. Visa thought she might have lost her card. Why? Because she purchased a dress that was 2 sizes too big! Guess what? Her card had been stolen. (No, she had not gained any weight…that would have been awkward!) The credit card company looks for patterns and found something odd in the behavior of the card. So they checked.
Data is everywhere we look today. New cars will tell you how many miles you have driven on a tank of gas and how many more you are likely to get out of that same tank. There is a website where you can upload a sickness in your family. Then, you can look around your city, state, or the entire country to see where other people are sick too. Data might help you avoid the plague!!!
Data is useful and becoming easier and easier to digest. My phone tells me when my flight is late – a handy little feature when you fly 100,000 miles a year. My refrigerator tells me when the filter is no longer doing any good. Heck, even my daughter’s baby monitor tells us when the battery is low. From weather patterns to traffic patterns, data can make our lives tremendously easier.
So why is it so hard to find data for schools? This is especially true with online schools. Shouldn’t you know where your students spend their time in classes? Don’t you think knowing how often you’re B students post vs your D students post to a discussion would be a good piece of information? Does the first day a student checks into class help determine their probability of dropping? If you don’t know the answers to these questions...it’s time to.
One of my favorite tools I’ve ever gotten to work with is a business intelligence tool, created by IBM, that we overlay classes with in our system. This tool allows me and my team to try and predict success, correlate at-risk behaviors to drops, and find benchmarks to hold students accountable to. Did you know that in most online courses a larger class size (30-35) tends to have a better completion rate than classes with less than 30? It’s been proven time and time again through data. (Mind you – data can also beg lots of questions!)
Data mining is becoming easier and easier as technology evolves. Data analysis is becoming more and more automated. It’s time for your school’s programs to join the party! Trends and operational reports are crucial to making accurate predictions and drawing quality conclusions today. Accreditors are soon going to see this power and demand evidence of data-driven decisions for their schools. But before the ‘stick’ of accreditation swats at you, shouldn’t you look to the carrot of quality? Granted, this power can be abused. (My boss loves to look at my completion rates and give me grief as my public speaking class isn’t the highest completed class on campus…it’s public speaking!) But the data is there whether you mine it or not. The information to help you increase retention is sitting there whether or not it’s analyzed.
We study, analyze, and mine data for everything else today. It’s time to get education up to speed, don’t you think? Now if you’ll pardon me…I need to get to a store to buy a sensor. My pants don’t quite fit like they did last year…
Jeff D Borden, M.A.
Senior Director of Teaching & Learning
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