Analytics in Learning and Education

We often try to imagine and discuss what education will be like in the future. In the 21st century that "future" comes very quickly. In a blink of an eye you notice that a great shift has taken place in our beliefs about effective educational practices. 

The same can be said about the shift from experience-based beliefs and decisions about effective education to analytics and data-driven decision-making. This is especially important in terms of higher education as a producer of specialists to serve the world market. 

As Long and Siemens mention in their article "Penetrating the Fog: Analyics in Learning and Education", big data and analytics are the most crucial factors shaping the future of higher education. 

What is big data? Well, it describes the concept of abundance of information, data whose size is beyond the ability of typical software tools to store and analyze. 

Nowadays, it is widely accepted that decisions should be based on data and evidence. In this context, let's try to make out the difference between academic analytics and learning analytics. Academic analytics looks at the role of data analysis at institutional, regional and international levels. Learning analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners, the relationship between learner, content, institution and educators. It follows that the aim of learning analytics is understanding and optimizing learning. A natural question could rise now- how are we going to achieve the aforementioned goals?

Well, there are different suggestions. On the course level, we can observe how students learn by having a look at their online portfolios, logs, by analyzing their activity in social networks. It is important to mention here that we should be careful not to obstruct the privacy of the students. With the advance of technology, predictive modeling and pattern mining have also become quite popular. These help us predict future trends in learning, using data analysis to find some patterns that draw a clearer picture of how learning happens, of student behavior and the probable reasons for those. The next step would be adapting the content or pedagogical approaches based on learner behavior. In their turn, learners also adapt their learning through social interactions, mutual support. The evidence from analyitcs may help improve administrative decision-making, identify learners at risk of dropping out, and, eventually, guide reforms in higher education. 

In this respect, Daphne Koller makes some really valuable points in her talk "What We're Learning from Online Education". As in many parts of the world quality education is unavailable, the task of modern technologies is to bring best quality education to as many people as possible. Nowadays, with the great number of online courses, the goal is to provide a real course experience to students. It seems that some MOOCs have accomplished this task very well. They provide interactive lectures, video watching experience, homework watching assignments. The grading has become automatized. 

All these changes are a step towards active learning (irrespective of where on the globe you are), lifelong learning.

For more information on learning analytics go to:

• Leadership and Learning Analytics
• When Learning Analytics Meet Big Data: The PAR Framework
• Using Predictive Analytics to Improve Student Success

Learning Management Systems versus Personal Learning Environments

Today we will touch upon learning management systems and personal learning environments. 

A learning management system (LMS) is a software application that allows instructors to create, deliver and manage online course content. It provides learners online classrooms where they can interact and learn in a collaborative environment. Instructors can upload course material to be used by the students, track progress of their learners by assessing assignments. Grading is automated and, thus, reduces paper work and saves teacher time. LMSs have interactive features such as discussion forums, chat rooms, video conferencing. These give the students the opportunity to interact and build knowledge as a team. 

Two of the most famous learning management systems are Blackboard and Moodle. I am familiar with Moodle as the institution where I currently study uses this learning management system to deliver and assess course content. As a student, i am quite pleased with the features Moodle has. It is quite user-friendly if content is organized properly by the instructor. Now that I'm using Moodle as a student, I can't imagine my learning or further teaching without the help of such a system. I also explored Moodle a little from the perspective of an instructor. At first it seems a bit confusing and your "old" self confronts it, but it all goes away after tinkering a bit and watching Youtube tutorials. It is a pity that the majority of Armenian higher educational institutions, if not all, do not have such online learning management systems. 

In contrast to learning management systems, personal learning environments (PLE) are systems that help learners take control of their own learning. As Stephen Downes mentions rightfully, in PLE individuals are at the center and can access different software based on their own choice. The collaboration format in PLE is different in that individuals are connected to each other instead of LMSs. In this case, learners who do not have access to any LMS are not left out. A drawback of LMS compared to PLE is that once you leave it, your data stays there. To further understand the difference between the two systems, have a look at this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9zSd5Gs6Mw. 

In reality LMSs and PLEs cannot replace each other. Rather, they can complement each other. For instance, if I teach a course to students from the same school or university, I will probably prefer to use a learning management system. If I had a larger and to some degree unknown intended audience, I would give my preference to using a PLE. 

A very useful example of an LMS is Edmondo where you can create a virtual group, invite potential members to the group and deliver content. It is free (in contrast to Moodle) and anybody can create an account there and deliver his or her course content. 

Another tool is Twiducate which is more inclined towards being a PLE. It is a social networking program for schools. Actually it is the Twitter for education which gives students the opportunity to learn outside of school by participating in teacher-initiated discussions, exploring bookmarks shared by the teacher. 

In a nutshell, these systems are really invaluable for making education more approachable and motivating for our students who represent the digital generation. 

DISTANCE LANGUAGE TEACHING

Distance learning is becoming more and more popular nowadays. One of the main reasons is that people in the 21st century pursue several careers throughout their lives. Very often we have to choose the option of taking online courses, rather than travelling all the way to the university which offers them. 

However, as John Ebersole from Excelior College noted during the Digital Learning 2010 virtual conference, distance learning programs have the problem of establishing credibility of distance. That is, performance of distance learners has to be measured in order to change the mainstream attitudes towards online learning. This issue was also addressed in my previous blog post about open educational resources.

There are several other challenges related to the implementation of distance teaching. This is especially true about distance language teaching as it is so much more complex than the teaching of other disciplines. 

Important things to consider in the distance language teaching are the roles required of tutors, their competencies and professional development opportunities. The role of a distance language learning teacher is very different from that of a traditional classroom teacher. As Cynthia, et a"Towards an Understanding of Attributes and Expertise in Distance Language Teaching: Tutor Maxims", distance language learning teacher has to be more careful about providing proper guidance, assessment, feedback to distance language learners, as well as support and motivation. DLT teachers should also have collaboration skills, technology knowledge and, what is most important in my humble opinion, knowledge of the distance learning field. i mention this because I don't imagine myself in the role of a DLT teacher simply because I have never taken a distance language teaching course myself. Thus, it sounds strange to me. So, it is really crucial to provide training to language teachers who are new to distance education. DLT teachers also have to admit that they must take the role of the psychologist who will make the learners realize that they have the potential to succeed in their undertaking. They should make the learners feel that they can be approached any time learners have a problem. 

As for learners, their roles are also complex. In current research literature there is an implicit discussion about learner independence vs. collaborative control. The latter view argues that autonomy in language learning develops through interaction and learner interdependence (see "Independent Language Learning in Distance Education: Current Issues" by Cynthia J White). Well, it is not my intention to go deep into literature review.

To try myself in distance language learning, I tried to take some Italian language classes on Livemocha and Busuu, two distance language learning websites. I will be frank..... I didn't like them much. However, if we compare them, Busuu provides much better learning environment than Livemocha. 

Here I have to warn that I don't have experience with taking distance classes. Thus, my opinions could be extremely subjective. i would suggest you to go and have a look at online courses of your interest. Try to take them. After all, this is an epoch of trials...

OPEN SOURCE AND OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES FOR TEFL

It goes without saying that Internet has revolutionized the way we think, act and learn. It has created a global platform, access to an unbelievable quantity and variety of educational resources available to all the web users. Taking this into account, it is not surprising that Brown and Adler ("Minds on Fire", Educause) record a shift from the view of the knowledge as a substance, and pedagogy referring to the best way to transfer it. Nowadays, the social view of learning dominates. It shifts the focus of our attention from content to the learning activities and human interactions around which that content is situated. The traditional approach might have worked in the slowly changing world in which careers lasted a lifetime. But now it is different. The world is changing at a "head spinning" rate. We can have several careers throughout our life. Thus, the change of the approach was inevitable. 

The Open Educational Resources Movement was an adequate reaction to these changes. Open online free courses, materials.... and such a variety of them that you sometimes get lost during browsing. 

After making open content available online, the demand for the next step arises- how OER can provide scaffolding, interactivity, comprehension checks (see Conference session from Educause 2011). Most of the resources are pure content.

Another issue is raising the quality of open educational courses and resources. As discussed in the Educause 2011 conference session, it is really a challenge as we need metrics of quality, applicability of content. It also has to do with a large amount of financial investment. One solution that is suggested is openly licensed content, that is having a legal right to make changes in the content. Anyway, the discussions have to continue yet to reach an optimal solution.

Anyway, we are going towards Learning 2.0. It entails supporting communities of learners in integrating others' knowledge into their knowledge through collaboration between newcomers and professional practitioners. 

open resources and courses have really been revolutionary and their full potential has yet to be realized. I'm really enthusiastic about waking up tomorrow and finding something new in this increasingly changing world of technology.

Check out for the following open resources and open courses:

• http://english.merlot.org/ 
• http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
• http://www.coerll.utexas.edu/coerll/
• https://www.coursera.org/
• https://www.udacity.com/
• https://www.udemy.com/
• https://iversity.org/
• https://www.edx.org/
• https://novoed.com/
• http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/forstudents/freecourses
• http://www.ocwconsortium.org/en/courses

MALL: Mobile-Assisted Language Learning

Mobile phones and tablets are very popular nowadays especially with young people. Taking this fact into account, we as teachers should think how we can use these tools in English language teaching. Of course incidental language learning already occurs while we use the mobile phones and tablets. But there is a need to introduce them in teaching in a more structured and organized way. MALL is gaining more and more popularity, and there are scholars who suggest attractive ideas on how mobile technologies can be used in the language classroom. Hayo Reinders suggests twenty practical ideas for using mobile phones in the language classroom. Particularly useful are the ideas of using the notes feature to gather everyday language, using a voice recorder for recording language they might hear on TV or that used in the classroom. The availability of free programs that make flashcards for mobile phones is interesting. This could be very useful for teachers as making vocabulary flashcards is time-consuming and quite expensive. This way teachers can also share the flashcards with students. Mobile phones are also suitable for microblogging, of course if we decide to use the latter tool in our teaching. Reinders also offers to use mobile phones for text messaging. Frankly speaking, I don't think this is going to be a usef

ul learning experience for students as you as you can never control it and students will most likely communicate in their mother tongue. Even if they do message in English, it's questionable whether this will offer any linguistic benefits.

Apart from the ideas suggested by Reinders, mobile phones and tablets are comfortable for listening to podcasts or extensive reading purposes in that they are mobile by definition. Perhaps tablets and Kindle are more suitable for the latter. 

Another important feature of tablets is that you have the possibility to subscribe to different blogs and websites which will recommend readings for you. This has been my personal experience, and I just love turning on my tablet and seeing the recommendations for me based on my preferences. 

There are also some dangers we should be aware of. if we use mobile phones in class, there is a danger of students getting distracted during class. One solution could be trying to use them for out-of-class assignments mainly. Besides, before planning any activities with these technologies, we should make sure that all the students have one of the above-mentioned mobile technologies. Otherwise, we might leave those students outside our teaching and discourage them. 

VIRTUAL WORLDS: "SECOND LIFE"

Today I will write about virtual worlds and their implications in teaching English. 

Before writing this blog post and reading some articles and research on virtual worlds, I tried to explore "Second Life" - probably the most famous virtual world application - as a user. My task was not evaluating its usefulness as an entertainment tool but trying to find out whether we can use it in English language teaching. Second Life is the only 3D virtual world that I 'tested' and, so, my observations might not be generalizable for other applications.  

Well, after selecting my avatar and creating the account, I tried to do some basic activities to find out what is out there. At first it seemed very promising as there were a lot of instructions, destinations described in a detailed manner - a lot of language that learners can be exposed to. So, I started my tour - walking, running, flying, teleporting to different destinations. I was also happy to find the chat button which actually gives your avatar the opportunity to approach any other avatar (resident of the virtual world) and start a chat with him/her. However, I was disappointed from the first try. The other avatar asked me if I knew Spanish and we quickly switched to Spanish language. Besides, I quickly got bored after going to several destinations. To be fair, I should mention that maybe the problem was that it was the first time I entered the virtual world. Besides, I am a fan of real-life feelings and experience. 

I understood the partial reason of my frustration after reading the article "Educational Frontiers: Learning in a Virtual World" by Cynthia M. Cologne. M. Calogne mentions that before immersing our students into the virtual world, we should highlight some accomplishments by other students, the benefits of virtual world courses. Anyway, the article is very general and did not convince me that it's effective to create a virtual world class setting. Of course virtual worlds have their benefits like opportunity for communication, exploration, navigation but I feel this field is still underdeveloped and needs further research and advancement. 

I also read Donald J. Welch's interview on virtual worlds. According to Welch, and I agree with him, the virtual world where an institution would allow only student and faculty access and could control behaviors and things that go on in that world, has much more potential to be used in classrooms than Second Life which is more general purpose. 

As for language learning, the challenge in these environments is to create tasks which require learners and native speakers to interact and where a condition of success in the task is the meaningful use of language, a thing that I didn't see in Second Life. 

Given the above-mentioned circumstances, I will most likely refrain from using virtual worlds in my classroom until more research has been done on its effectiveness in language teaching. 

Anyway, I should confess that virtual worlds have potential of becoming language learning tools in the future. 

One thing to keep in mind - virtual world classes cannot replace campus-based classes. They can supplement them if designed and used properly. Let us wait and see!

Computer and Video Gaming

Should we use computer and video games for pedagogical purposes? Well, if someone had asked me this question two months ago, I would have probably given a negative answer. The main reason is that I used to be very skeptical about games and their implications for teaching. Maybe this is also because I barely ever play any games at least because of lack of time. But my views changed after I began to take the course on the use of technologies in TEFL. It opened my eyes and my mind to many wonderful technological tools like, for instance, gaming. 

As Marc Prensky mentions rightfully, (http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Ch2-Digital%20Game-Based%20Learning.pdf ), "new generation has a different mix of cognitive skills". It is no longer a secret that our brain reorganizes itself according to input it gets. It means that games somehow shape our brain. The "game generation" processes information more quickly, "gamers" use parallel processing, they have sharpened visual sensitivity, they are used to active learning. These are important factors that educators have to consider in adjusting the curriculum. If we do not do this, we will lose our learners. 

Let us see what advantages and disadvantages games have and how we can effectively integrate them in teaching. Through games learners experience things they have to learn. They become active learners. The greatest merit of games is that they develop problem-solving skills. As Professor Paul Gee states in one of his interviews, "we think critically when playing because there is always a mission we have to accomplish". As mentioned in the article "Digital Game-Based Learning by Richard Van Eck, there are three ways in which we can integrate gaming into education. The first one is having students build games, the second one is having educators or developers build educational games. In case of these two, the problem is that they are costly and time consuming. In this respect, the best solution would be taking existing games and using them in classroom. But here we have to be very careful to select games that will be in accordance with the curriculum and course content. As an English language teacher, I have to make sure learners develop language skills while playing. 

Today I played the game called "Darfur is Dying"http://www.darfurisdying.com/. From teacher's perspective, I can say that it could be used in an EFL class to teach related vocabulary, develop reading skills by means of the detailed instructions of the game. Besides, this game made me go to Wikipedia and learn more about the Darfur Crisis. It was driven by a real meaningful interest, rather than being forced to read because of an assignment. 

I would also like to address the issue of violent games. What should we do with games that contain violent content? There is a lot of research on this topic (http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Mental_Health_Letter/2010/October/violent-video-games-and-young-people).

Some researchers claim that exposure to violent media can contribute to real-life violent behavior. Others claim they haven't been able to find any direct connection between them. I think such video games won't hurt our children (irrespective of research results) if parents take appropriate action. First, they can censor what video games their children should play, they can also set time limits on playing games.