The following is a summary of an interesting paper I read:
Most Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) offer a reporting tool that provides information such as number of accesses, time spent in the course, number of messages read, etc. However, these reports do not show a clear vision of each student’s academic progression leading to difficulties for on-line tutors to gauge who their students are, what are their learning styles, how their students behave in the virtual course, what difficulties they find and what probability they have of passing the subject.
Currently, LCMSs provide data mining reporting tools, such as the Moodle Data Mining Tool, but they are designed more for power and flexibility than for simplicity since they are too complex for educators to use and their features go well beyond the scope of what an educator may want to do. Consequently, these reporting tools must provide intuitive and easy to use interface which answers the following questions:
• Knowing students’ profiles according to demographic and navigation information
• Knowing drop-out students’ profile and successful students’ profile
• Knowing session patterns
• Grouping students according to their use of course resources
• Finding out the questions which students fail more frequently
• Discovering the resources which are commonly used together
Zorrilla, Garcia and Alvarez (2010) present the proposal of a decision making system which helps distance instructors to answer some of the above questions. Their solution addresses two main challenges: firstly, to determine the input variables and what techniques must be used to answer the teachers’ questions appropriately; and secondly, to define a graphical interface which allows tutors to interpret the results easily.
References:
Zorrilla, M., García, D., & Álvarez, E. (2010). A decision support system to improve e-learning environments. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series; Vol. 426; Proceedings of the 2010 EDBT/ICDT Workshops.
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I found this post interesting because it highlights that there is a mismatch between the technological edvances in the field of e-learning and the needs of educators and students. A lot needs to be done to match the two. Technological advancements are very well welcomed but we have to remember the needs of educators and learners when designing such systems. The techies developing such systems need to keep in mind that educators - the users of these systems are not necessary technical persons themselves so the systems have to be very user friendly. Sometimes I get frightened when reading such articles- does it mean that the more time passes the more people, even though they are professional, will be left behind if they do not possesses technical skills? Now even education is becoming dependent on computer technology?
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting concept. I think it has a lot of value. Lecturers can easily pace lessons to suit students, students can take lessons at their own pace.
ReplyDeleteAnother added advantage is that teachers can follow on the students, collect data and analyse it.
There is a down side to this though, it seems that the human aspect between student / teacher could be lost or at best reduced.
I think that this typr of software has its merits in student assessment. I think that assessment will be more balanced and seamless. There will be a reduced chance of copying and questions can be varied even at student level, or to the extent that even to ability level
In my opinion information systems can be a very valid tool and aid teaching. Moreover, they can help the lecturer to create relevant assignments especially with mixed ability classes. They can help the lecturer create activities with different level of skill and approach to a given solution such that the student can feel stimulated and challenged thus helping him keep up his level of attention.
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