Multiple Choice

Podcasts and Virtual Worlds in Education

Last month, I wrote about the "software as service" discussion, and how it impacts education, and particularly the implications for testing and evaluation. This month, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at how educational institutions are including Web 2.0 tools like podcasts and Second Life in the curriculum.

Let's start with podcasts. A podcast is simply an audio program that can be downloaded to your computer or MP3 player and listened to at your convenience. Delivered through RSS, once a user subscribes, new shows are automatically downloaded into a "podcatcher" program like iTunes. Why is this so powerful for education? Professors can record,  and students can listen, to lectures at their convenience. Class is no longer tied to a specific place or time. UC Berkeley currently offers more than 70 podcast courses on iTunes --  everything  from Human Emotion (Psych 156) to Physics for Future Presidents (Physics 10).

While the benefits for distance learning are immediately obvious, the podcast format can be useful to deliver supplemental material for any class. For example, speeches by a guest lecturers such as Senator Hillary Clinton,  former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright,  journalist Bob Woodward and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer are now available long past the original "real" dates from Princeton and Yale on iTunes.

The podcast format does of course have its limitations. It is simply an information delivery format. Because it is pre-recorded, it is highly suitable for lectures, but generally inadequate as a sole method of delivery for classes or subjects that require in-depth discussion and interaction.

That's why some institutions are looking at virtual worlds like Second Life. What's a virtual world? In the simplest terms, it is a computer-based simulated environment in which the users interact via avatars.  

This week, the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Spring Focus Session being held in Raleigh North Carolina is focused on immersive learning environments like online games and virtual worlds. Prior to the conference, Jarret Cummings, an EDUCAUSE blogger, interviewed Sarah Robbins, a TA Instructor in English at Ball State University on her Second Life class.Well worth a listen.

Also, check out this post direct from the meeting reporting on a session about MIT's Second Life efforts by Phillip Long, MIT's Associate Director of Educational Innovation and Technology.

Some other interesting courses and places in Second Life:

• the class, Law in the Court of Public Opinion. from the Harvard Law School and the Harvard Extension School (fall semester, 2006)
• the New Media Consortium's Second Life campus. You can watch an introductory video here. They are also blogging from the ELI sessions and hosting Second Life versions of some of them.

Of course, neither podcasts nor virtual worlds were specifically developed as educational environments. In order to evaluate student performance, we still need a way to test. If the students are on-campus, we have choices, including computer-based tests secured by technologies like our Securexam. Once we go off campus, in a distance learning environment, browser-based testing using the software as service model that we discussed last month seems to be the emerging solution. But for widespread adoption to occur, we need a way to ensure that the person taking the test is the person who should be taking the test. And he or she is taking it without outside help.

We have been working on a solution which is now in beta at a large US university. You can get a sneak peek here. More next month.

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More reading/resources

• Podcasting in Higher Ed: Reflective, Disruptive, and Evolving by Ray Schroeder
• Second Life Educators List
• Computing Expert Talks in Second Life (The Chronicle's Wired Campus blog)
• Another perspective: Concerns about Virtual Reality and the Second Life Phenomenon

Tags: podcast, education, second life, virtual worlds, distance learning, EDUCAUSE, ELI, New Media Consortium, Securexam

Computer Testing for the Palmetto State?

South Carolina is the next state that hopes to jump into the fray of computer-based testing.  Educational leaders are requesting funds to put the state-mandated comprehensive exam for elementary and middle school students online.  Lawmakers want to make sure that no one is jumping into anything too fast, while education specialists are stressing how much money and time converting the paper-based assessment to an online version will save.  Check it out here.

New York Bar - Testing on Laptops

Those of you in the northeast might have heard a lot of typing on Tuesday, July 26.  It was that time of year again...bar exams.  Many readers (correctly) believe that every exam a student takes is of the high-stakes variety.  All exams are important, to be sure, especially to those who are taking them!  If you know any lawyers, though, they will tell you that you haven't really experienced an exam until you try to pass the bar.  Until just a few years ago, none of those exam-takers could use a computer to type their answers.

So...imagine 1,000 bar candidates using their own laptops to take the New York Bar Exam.  It's about as big of a room as you could imagine with all kinds of people hammering away on their keyboards.  Think about it this way...about one-fifth of that total saw the Beatles at the Cavern in Liverpool in the early 60's on any given night.

Anyway, the caveat is that the New York Bar utilizes Securexam for their computer-based testing needs.  While it is a nice feather in the cap, this reporter hopes that you focus on the idea that the highest-stakes testing organizations engage in secure, computer-based testing.  That way, if anyone ever gives you a hard time when you try to incorporate computers into your exams, point to this article and let them know that if they can do it, you can (and should) do it.

Download use_of_laptops_in_july_bar_exam_thomas_adcock_editor_new_york_law_journal.doc

Topic Recap: computerized testing and the new SAT

Now that we have publicly launched Multiple Choice, we have new readers --hurrah! Earlier, in our pre-launch period, two of our regular bloggers posted interesting comments on using computers for testing and the new SAT.

It would be great if our new readers could join these conversations, so to make it easier for them to find the posts, we're re-linking to them in this post.

Karen Douse on the new SAT

Jill Jemison on computerized testing

Let's talk!

The New SAT

The SAT has been in the news regularly since announcing its new writing component. Most surprising is the fact that at present there are no plans in the foreseeable future to allow students to use computers to complete the essay portion of the test. Most students prefer writing on computers, and they also write better. I'm wondering if and when the College Board will reconsider this position.

It will be interesting to see how high school English teachers feel about preparing their students for this test. Does it mean that they should ask students to hand-write essays? Does this make using a computer for writing assignments less advantageous? What will be the effect on SAT scores, if any, of using computers for in-class writing assignments? I am beginning to hear teachers ask these questions.

It was good news to see a message on the Independent School listserv from Karl Haessler at Convent of the Sacred Heart in Greenwich, CT. He confirmed that ADA students are being allowed to write the essay portion of the SAT on computers using SecureExam software. (Information on ISED-L can be found at http://www.milton.edu/ISED-L/)

Another interesting article on the SAT essay appeared in the NY Times on May 4 ("SAT Essay Test Rewards Length and Ignores Errors" by Michael Winerip) claiming that there is a direct correlation between the length of an essay and the grade it receives. Makes you wonder. The fallout from this should prove interesting.

Multiple Choice News Roundup

From Edu Tech News, a report about some new software that helps grade essays.

From Scott Adams @ Arkansas Tech, a post about teaching technology integration.

Two posts from Web-logged about his experiences teaching the technology part of an Ed D class at Seton Hall: Getting Blogs into Schools and Blog Education.

A spate of news about laptop programs and technology infrastructure on the Wired Campus Blog:

• Wyoming weighs laptop requirement
• Tracking a trend toward required laptop computers
• A New World of Wireless
• Strategy for 'Cyberinfrastructure'

And finally, for people planning to attend NECC 2005, the conference has launched its pre-conference forums, supported by Blackboard.

Success, at least for now

We are in the midst of rolling out our new integrated blended-learning medical curriculum to students doing their clinical rotations at two remote hospitals. This means delivering high-stakes online exams to small groups of students overseen by non-technical clerkship coordinators, some two states away. After many false starts and hours of training and handholding, we delivered six exams over two sites today.

Students accessed these Blackboard exams using Secure Exam browser, as they had for 45 previous exams during the pre-clinical years. For most of them, these determine whether they pass a clerkship. Very high stakes.

There were editing errors in one clerkship exam which prompted the clerkship director to want to restart the exam. He offered the students last year's version -- which was on paper. The students turned him down and waited for a new electronic exam. He was astounded. "They tell me they don't take paper exams."

Score one for the students.

The Mac is Back?

Could it be that the Mac is really back? Not that it ever really left, of course, but things were pretty tough for a while.

Lots of talk in tech and educational blogs about the upcoming release of Mac OS X Tiger. Here’s one report, from InternetNews.com: Mac OS X Tiger Poised to Strike

Windows certainly has its share of critics. The Assorted Stuff blog has a link to a NY Times article about Longhorn, the much anticipated new version of Windows. His post answers the Times’ question:

"The New York Times asks Will the Next Version of Windows Be Worth the Wait? 

No"

Mac shops concerned about security of computer-based tests should take a look at the new version of Securexam Student for Mac OS X: Press release (pdf);  Demo.

Client Stories: Cheating

One of the things Ted Tyson, who was recently appointed Director of Client Services for Software Secure, really likes about his new role is that it gives him an opportunity to speak with clients regularly. They often share anecdotes about cheating in their schools, and you would be amazed at the ingenuity of students…

From time to time, we will share these brief stories on Multiple Choice in the hopes that forewarned is forearmed. Knowing what tricks have been pulled elsewhere may help you avoid them in your school.

Today's story was reported by the Director of Distance Education at a community college that recently had an issue with student cheating in its health care training department.

At the school, faculty members provide students exams through WebCT to gain the benefits of online testing.  However, students in programs such as nursing and home health care would access other websites which contained simple paths to exam answers.

For example, students would be asked a series of symptoms and would be required to diagnose the illness from which the fictitious patient was suffering.  In a number of cases, instead of answering the questions on their own, students opened up a second browser window on their computers and visited a website that enabled them to input symptoms detailed in the exam and obtain quick answers.

The happy ending, of course, for this community college, was to use Securexam Browser to lock down the environment. As a result, faculty can still reap the benefits of using online testing with WebCT AND be confident that the students in its health care programs actually know, remember and can repeat the critical learning.