Distributed and Open Learning

Modern-day education sector is growing at a rapid rate. Students can today enjoy the ultimate benefits of choosing certain types of learning and delivery of course content, among them, including artificial intelligence. Unlike previous eras, learners are ripping the benefits that come with the use of artificial intelligence to access course lessons remotely. They get to experience a full-time campus program from wherever they are. Distributed and open learning programs have been primarily, promoted by the widespread adoption of mobile and computer technologies, which makes the online degree to be competitive among aspiring students. Today, students can enroll in competitive programs in universities of their choices. In that regard, the phenomena of the increasing application of artificial intelligence in learning and teaching in institutions of higher learning deserve a critical review. Investigating the implications of the emerging technologies on individual’s learning needs excellent attention. Exploring the advancements in the evolving learning technology in higher education is an ideal way of predicting the future of higher learning in a world where artificial intelligence is utilized in most universities. Pinpointing the merits of artificial intelligence in distributed and open learning should include factors such as automated assignment grading, text translation technology, personalized learning solutions, and the potentials of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), among others.

The AI Advantage

Automated Assignment grading, including remote monitoring services, is an ideal way of managing learning systems. Improvements in the current teaching model, where the teacher is the primary source of knowledge, and the recipient is the student requires imaging the fundamental role of educators in the learning systems. While educators have been applying standard assignment delivery and grading systems, the advantage of automated systems cannot go unnoticed. The automated systems are considered ideal for identifying and forgoing repetitive and time-intensive tasks (King et al., 2017). They allow for dedicating time to higher-value work. That means that any student who rarely thrives in a traditional classroom setting can be categorized in a distinct learning bracket and be assisted accordingly. Thus, the content provided will be directly targeted to them and would be personalized to meet individual preferred learning styles. Further, the platform extends beyond merely identifying individual learning preferences. It also allows for breaking down long lectures and assignments into smaller, manageable sections that are easy to digest.

Artificial intelligence in distributed and open learning also comes in to salvage the problem of language barrier. Mostly, foreign education comes at a cost, which may include language difficulties. As a result, students tend to find various alternatives to learning and gaining a full comprehension of the foreign language. However, the task may turn out to be tedious, which means that adopting machine learning and text translation apps may prove an easier way out. Text translation and machine learning are forms of artificial intelligence that aim at creating deep-learning systems that lecture into an individual’s native language (Aggarwal, 2018).  These technologies may also include voice recognition and text summarization techniques, which are uniquely designed to transcribe an entire lecture with maximum accuracy while reducing the text into only relevant points. These technologies make it much easier for any foreign learner to move at a similar pace with native learners. Even more, techniques, the kind of machine learning algorithms can be employed in a course curriculum to identify areas of language bias, learning ambiguity, and complexity for closer review by instructors. That way, the specific areas that limit students from gaining optimally from the instructions can be kept to minimal levels.

Personalized learning solutions have also been brought closer than before. The use of artificial intelligence in the classroom environment seems to be a significant milestone as far as changing complexities of education is concerned. Artificial intelligence is not only an integral part of the modern-day classroom but an ideal way of delivering personalized learning. Different solutions come to help learners with individual cases fit into the broader class. For instance, technology advanced exoskeletons and prosthetics are being produced by the Biomechatronic group to help people living with disabilities as well as individuals without special needs (Popenici & Kerr, 2017). The above team created an interface that utilizes biology to bridge the gap between humans and machines – where physical abilities do not decrease with age (De Lange, 2015). Currently, students with special abilities are benefiting from complex computing systems that utilize machine algorithms to engage in complex processing tasks and human-like processes in learning. Technologies such as the one mentioned above are being employed to salvage the situation of different learners. Educators are inspired to apply different techniques to create a more engaging classroom. Consequently, the human-machine interface offers an immediate potential to change the process of accessing, learning, memorizing, and creating information by students. The particular type of interface is ideal for enhancing human memory, including cognition abilities. Such technologies produce a notable cultural shift that impacts the everyday life of learners.

Higher educators are also makings steps to improving open teaching and learning through brain-computer interfaces. Artificial intelligence, combined with brain-computer interfaces are creating new possibilities of replacing teachers with virtual teacher-bots (Popenici & Kerr, 2017). Teacherbots prove to be an ideal way of cutting down educational costs indirectly, thereby providing affordable learning solutions to the massive group of learners. Brain-computer interface devices can identify when a learner is fully concentrating on the lesson materials and classroom activities (Popenici & Kerr, 2017). For example, computers the kind of  IBM’s Watson are designed to ensure automated teachers’ presence throughout the course duration. They allow teacher-robots to instruct and command learners through robust applications. In teaching and learning, this presents an ideal technological revolution that has the potential to change a higher education structure dramatically.

Moreover, massive online course is also gaining enormous recognition. The online courses allow for remote learning and have proven capable of increasing the number of students as well as class sizes while reducing the cost of education and broader financial pressure on universities. Notably, some universities have designed teacher-robots that are used in the place of actual teachers (Popenici & Kerr, 2017). The fact that open online courses come with minimal to no entry fee requirement imply that a good number of online students can enroll for various classes and participate, regardless of where they are provided they have internet access. These factors enable universities to reach out to students globally, which promoted massive enrollment numbers. Online learning proves an excellent opportunity for institutions of higher education to reach their educational goals. Learning through teacher-robots is an ideal strategy that would reinforce the delivery of online courses, offering feedback, and learning supervision. AI solutions are rapidly being utilized to monitor educational choices, learning preferences and individual movements, including gauging learners; strengths and weaknesses while appropriate providing feedback, encouragement, and predictive text in managing learning (Popenici & Kerr, 2017). Teacher-robots are being perceived as complex algorithmic interface with the capacity to incorporate AI in personalized learning. These are machine-based innovations that assume roles performed previously by teachers in identifying, organizing, and presenting information as well as providing answers to a range of questions.

Overall, the increasing use of AI in higher learning makes it nearly impossible to forego the paradox about the future of teaching and learning. Higher education is increasingly taking up technological innovations to improve the teaching role and related learning pedagogies. Currently, the use of technical solutions, the learning management systems to detect individual learner’s areas of weakness, raises the question of the overall learning agenda. These issues call for urgent attention regarding evaluating the unforeseen risks when planning for a sustainable education. Moreover, several processes that currently form the focal point higher education teaching have been replaced by AI technology, some based on comprehensive algorithms. The above innovations suggest that it is time for institutions of higher learning to re-evaluate their function and teaching models, including the future of AI solutions. These strategies should present additional educational openings for all while at the same time promoting long-term learning using strengthened models. Additionally, it would be crucial for future research to focus on the emerging roles that teachers have on modern learning systems for higher learning students. While the climb is slow, teachers, students, and administrators will no doubt enjoy the benefits of AI is it evolves over the next century. Regardless, the question of whether innovations will disrupt the technology is still a controversial issue.

 

References

Aggarwal, C. C. (2018). Machine learning for text (pp. 3121-3124). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

De Lange, C. (2015). Welcome to the bionic dawn. New Scientist,227(3032), 24–25.

Popenici, S. A., & Kerr, S. (2017). Exploring the impact of artificial intelligence on teaching and learning in higher education. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 12(1), 22.

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Reflection 2

a. Discuss the difference between online education content and openly licensed educational content.

Openly licensed educational content in my opinion is a sub strand of online education since open education are materials in public domain under open licenses that offer free access with limited restrictions. All of this are accessed online though the internet meaning open licensed educational content is a form of online education. According to me online education has been made useful in many ways, for instance, most tertiary institution utilizes portals that contain vast learning materials accessible by students of a particular institution. Education involves variety of activities like resource sharing, submitting assignments, administering assignments, discussions and feedback. There is interaction between instructors and tutors together with learners in online education.  Online education content is accessible by every individual as long as an access code or registration is available.

Openly licensed educational content are teaching and learning materials that are available to learners in public domains or released under a license that allows for free access of educational content, modification, and sharing. Most of Open Educational Resources do not fall under this category of open licensed educational content since some content is only modified under subscription. This makes open educational resources non-profit, but not totally. OERs according to my research are educational materials that have been made available to the public or introduced online under a permit. Nature of this resources mean that they are free and legal to copy, use, and share those resources. Online education content incorporates all learning resources that are accessed through the internet either free or by subscription.

b. Find an open educational resource (OER) and present it on your portfolio, either by linking, embedding, or by including a screenshot.

An example of an open educational resource is the Khan Academy organization offering open educational resources, and offers supplementary content to normal education. This is a platform that offers students with opportunities to replace some school lectures with Khan’s videos. This is important to learners since students have opportunities to focus on working on certain problem sets. Normal education rhythms of schools have been inverted. Lectures can be viewed on student’s own time as well as receiving feedback from instructors when a student gets stuck. I think this is an important aspect of education since it fulfills basic principles of teaching and learning where interactions are built between instructors and learners.  Specific information pinpointed to learner needs and specifications are provided in this open education resource.

Kahn Academy according to me is the best open educational resource since there are a variety of subjects and topic covered and students can move in their own pace, depending on their speed. This Open Educational Resource has been made to be user friendly inclusive of how it can help students by automatically suggesting new topics. It is evident form my findings that students are improving on subjects like algebra etc. as well as in their tests. This open educational resources caters for students needs especially fast learners who easily get bored and tuned out in learning environments reducing concentration levels. Khan’s learning materials have some level of sophistication and people have come to believe it is solving problems in some education levels.

c. Review the OER using the evaluation guide found in the tutorial, provide a brief comment on this process on your post.

After some time using Khan Academy, there are certain aspects that I have come up concerning this Open Education Resource. Some of this aspects are accuracy, relevance, quality, accessibility, and interactivity. All these are important aspects to education as they improve on quality of intellect a learner has. It provides quality more than what I ever received in a classroom setting, with interactions improving content acquisition. All information is relevant since they are applicable to specified fields.

According to the evaluation guide, the calculas teaching videos have a high relevance. The content of the videos highly fit my calculus course, they directly address many learning objectives in the course. And the video content were all accurate, the instructors in the videos are experienced teachers, students can watch the videos without worries about typos or major errors. Also, I think the quality of the resources is high, instructors usually show a very clear problem-solving procedure. Most of the teaching videos include subtitles, and some of them even offer different language options for non-native English speakers, which also show a high accessibility. Furthermore, the Khan academy videos have some interactivity. Viewers can leave comments under the videos, and the instructors encourage viewers to discuss any problems about the topics. After every chapter, there was a little quiz to check viewers’ understanding about the topics. In addition, about the licensing, most of materials in this website are allowed for educational reuse.

d. Discuss how you might use OER in your own life or professional work.

Economic is a field of study that requires much of explanation and this OER will benefit me since I have all resources to explain to me what I need to have any time I need it. This is important since some content might be missed during normal lectures, but I can get the same information with additional content. It will also help me in my professional work since I get all resources at my exposure to tackle all fields necessary.

Reflection 4

Open Education Resources (OER) can be used as teaching, learning and research materials and other purposes that are educational in nature. Open Education Resources is a way of disseminating knowledge through all platforms and providing learners and other individuals with opportunities to use, share, and reuse knowledge. It is a method of showing that knowledge is a resource anyone could access and acquire at the same time showcasing importance of technology to education. Floe inclusive learning design handbook is an example of an Open Education Resource since it is designed to provide assistance to teachers, web developers and web creators etc. in creation of resources that are personalized and adaptable and allows for diverse learning in terms of catering for individual differences and needs and content preference.

A. Identify three concepts, ideas, or issues you think are the most important and explain why.

Three concepts that I find most important in this inclusive learning design handbook are meeting learner needs and preferences, inclusive learning using visual content (Video) and lastly simulations and web games used in inclusive learning. Learner needs and preferences are important aspects of teaching and learning. It is clear from the handbook that principles behind creation of an inclusive learning is to enhance transformation and malleability of learning resources as by learner preferences and needs. A learner using inclusive learning design has access to many customizations and transformations i.e. text, video and audio content. I think this is an important aspect since learning is an activity that can be enhanced through more interaction with content making it easier to understand and comprehend learning activities.

The second important aspect is video content, which satisfy learner needs since over the past there has been preference of using video content in learning. Video content is proving an important medium of learning provided certain aspects of the video content are catered for. This is an important aspect of inclusive learning design since it is a way of enhancing ability of learners to recreate learning activities as learning is active. It is also important in allowing learners apply different learning strategies. It is also an important aspect is satisfying learner application of different knowledge acquisition styles. Incorporation of video, speech, transcripts and subtitles serving preferences of those who like to read as well as those who prefer viewing.

Web games and simulations is another aspect of inclusive learning I consider important in inclusive learning design.it is a way of enhancing learning experiences since they are interactive. It enhances learning as it increases its attractiveness, interaction and interest. It is a way of ensuring learners are focused on learning rather than interactions through logical and predictable structure of such games.

B. Identify two concepts, issues, or ideas you are having difficulty understanding

Two concepts I have difficulty understanding are aspects of accessibility and scalable vector graphics and definition of perspective in the handbook. Scalable vector graphics are described as vector graphics in markup on a web page. Scales can be adjusted without loss of quality, however, common problems of SVG include unable to use editors, missing fonts and distortion of content. This is difficult for me to understand since I don’t get how it allows accessibility in this kind of learning. Second is concerning the part that talks about perspectives in the inclusive learning. There is value of greatness rather than equality in learning meaning smaller numbers in a group are not valued. I do not agree with this since rank should be an aspect of information source that should allow people acquire valuable information and feedback.

C. Pose one questioning relation to universal design that was not addressed in this module

One question I would like to pose in relation to universal design that was not addressed in the module is; is there evidence of effectiveness of using web games and simulations in inclusive learning? What are the negative and positive effects of web games and simulations on inclusive learning?

Reflection 3

One of my most memorable online learning experiences was when I watched khan academy‘s calculus teaching videos when I was a freshman. Mathematics is not my strength, plus I was new to Canada at that time so that my English was not very good; therefore, I may not be able to fully understand the content of lectures. In order to keep up, I found related teaching videos on Khan academy.

Like most traditional education, the educational communication of this online educational resource is strategic communicative action:  it teaches specific reified knowledge to students. I like watching these videos because each video is not long and each video doesn’t cover much. Basically every video introduces just one point of knowledge. These instructional videos really helped me a lot, although I only got a B finally.

Beside EDCI 339, I am also taking some other online courses like EDCI 335 and 337. In the book Creating Online Learning Experiences, the author Crosslin said that “a larger concept to keep in mind is the isolation that can occur to learners in online learning, away from the immediate contact created by being in the same physical location as other learners. Some learners may prefer this distance, while others may feel the effects of the isolation.” I believe I am the latter. I have a low learning efficiency at home, so I usually choose to study in a library, but I am now in Shanghai, China, and because of COVID-19, public places like libraries are currently closed. I miss the time when I can sit in the library with my classmates to discuss topics.

Speaking of online education, there is now a software in China that I have to mention: DingTalk.

As far as I know, DingTalk was originally a software for corporate offices, but now it is used as an online education platform. Affected by the COVID-19, all schools in China, from elementary school to university, are now using DingTalk for online teaching: teachers teach classes by making live broadcast on DingTalk. And with the outbreak of COVID-19 in Japan, Japan is also likely to use this application for online teaching.

About DingTalk, recently here is a fun story about it: (4:40-5:40)

Like Crosslin said, “technologies are merely tools that can be used in a variety of ways. What matters more is how technologies are applied.” DingTalk is a good media combining some good technologies, how these technologies are used is important, now DingTalk is definetly a qualified online educational platform.

 

References

The picture is from the official site of DingTalk: https://www.dingtalk.com/

Crosslin, M. (2018). Creating Online Learning Experiences. Retrieved from https://uta.pressbooks.pub/onlinelearning/

 

Reflection 2

A. Discuss the difference between online educational content and openly licensed educational content

In my opinion, openly licensed educational content is a subset of online educational content.

Oline educational content can be any sources people can access, it can be online course videos, can be research paper, or online textbooks; people can find them online and use them, but some online educational might need permission to access, like this course, EDCI 339 at UVic, UVic students need to register the course, pay the tuition, then they can access this excellent online educational content. However, openly licensed educational content allow public to access the educational resources and to modify appropriately without permission.

B. Find an open educational resources (OER) and present it on your portfolio, either by linking, embedding, or by including a screenshot

First, the video below well explains what open educational resources are.

One OER I use the most is an educational website called Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/). On the website there are many free courses, including Math, Science, Economics, etc.

C. Review the OER using the evaluation guide found in the tutorial, provide a brief comment on this process in your post

I found it useful when I was a freshman. To be honest, as a Chinese I was bad at Calculus. I was conflicting with derivitives problems and I found an educational video on Khan Academy.

According to the evaluation guide, the calculas teaching videos have a high relevance. The content of the videos highly fit my calculus course, they directly address many learning objectives in the course. And the video content were all accurate, the instructors in the videos are experienced teachers, students can watch the videos without worries about typos or major errors. Also, I think the quality of the resources is high, instructors usually show a very clear problem-solving procedure. Most of the teaching videos include subtitles, and some of them even offer different language options for non-native English speakers, which also show a high accessibility. Furthermore, the Khan academy videos have some interactivity. Viewers can leave comments under the videos, and the instructors encourage viewers to discuss any problems about the topics. After every chapter, there was a little quiz to check viewers’ understanding about the topics. In addition, about the licensing, most of materials in this website are allowed for educational reuse.

 

D. Discuss how you might use OER in your own life or professional work.

I am major in ECON, sometimes when I do not understand any economic concept, I will search for some teaching videos on Khan Academy because I prefer that someone could use interesting examples to explain to me.

Reflection 1

I was born and grew up in China, and had taken Chinese traditional education for 10 years. In my opinion, the education mode in China is typical instructor-centered: every class has a director, which oversees inspecting learning situation of each student, and the director also teach a main course, like mathematics, English, or Mandarin Chinese. When I was in junior high school, there were about 60 students in a class. The courses were highly synchronous. Every student in the same class take the same courses and write the same assignments. The assignments are assigned by the instructors and mostly are recitation and transcription. The method of management in Chinese education might be the most efficient according to Chinese national conditions: China has a large population, and in 2015, there were 43.12 million junior high school students according to the statistics. Such a large population does not allow Chinese education system to create much customized content.

I personally prefer student-centered courses. I have been studying in University of Victoria for last three years. I found that university courses are relative student-centered (same in China). Instructors are not the core of courses. However, I think that student-centered courses require students to have a strong capacity of self-control. Some students lack willpower and time management skills, and finally they cannot get a satisfactory result on the courses. If a student is not self-determined, then instructor-centered courses might be more suitable for him. And that could be one of the reasons why instructor-centered courses are suitable for kids and student-centered courses are suitable for adults.

As an economics student, I believe that time has been more and more expensive nowadays, and thanks to the development of 5G and cloud computing, using fragmented time to study could be a trend in the near future. People need courses to be more flexible so that they can arrange their time efficiently; in other words, people will need student-centered courses more.

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