Hi Dear
ED403 Bloggers
This is my Blog
for Session 3: eLearning Trends in Higher Education
- WEEK 5-6.
(Please
have read and feel free to comment. Thanks.)
In session
3 we learnt about and engaged in discussions on new trends emerging in Higher
Education such as Learning Analytics, Bring Your Own device (BYOD), VR, AR, Makerspaces
and e-Assessments.
So, to
begin with, I would like to share my personal experience with you all regarding
BYOD. During staff meetings in past few years I have seen some lecturers
complain about students being on their mobile during lectures and how it has
disturbed their class and they were wondering if students were listening
actively or not? I would also think similar sometimes because I wasn’t sure if
students were doing something constructive or playing games and/or using social
media. In fact, some of us do not allow students to use their mobile phones during
lecture. However, I’m ok with students making use of their smart phones during
tutorials and small group discussions because they can use OERs and certain medical
related apps. So, I would say that m-Learning can be very useful in Higher
education.
Before this
session, I did not know much about Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. From
here, I learnt that VR and AR are perhaps the way of the future with many possible
benefits. It could break down the distance barriers; imagine your students in
other parts of the Pacific sitting there in front of you as holograms or
projections of themselves and in real time. It may also prove to be cost-effective
and economical.
Moving on
to e-Assessments, I would say that I have very little experience with e-assessments
because my course is taught in face-to-face mode only. However, during this
session, through research and readings, I have learnt that Moodle can be well
utilized for e-Assessments. I can use e-Assessment for formative assessment so
that the students can be given some feedback on how they are preforming and
what improvements they ought to make. I can make use of Moodle quiz for assessment
methods such as Multiple-Choice questions, short answer questions etc. I think this is a good way of allowing
students to learn at their own pace and be at peace. When learners sit for
short test, they often feel stressed but allowing this e-assessment to be taken
at their homes or their comfort zone does give the student that extra push of
thinking critical before answering. However, I am still not sure whether
e-Assessments will be appropriate for summative assessments in my course.
This video
Link is an example of an e-assessment via iPad with the Examplify app at
University of Leicester Medical School https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msvafm12kkA
Finally, I would
like to say that there’s a lot learnt from this session and I am sure I can
integrate most of what I have learnt into my course.
Thank you
for reading 😊
Cheers
