On 18/4/20 12:27 pm, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
... the real question is "is it effective and/or optimal with
respective to other mechanisms, given the circumstances and
constraints?"
If students are required to be physically isolated, the choices would
seem to be limited to either distance education, or no education. Apart
from some extreme change to classroom design, I can't think of how to
teach students while keeping them apart.
Some Saudi-Arabian universities use partition-rooms to separate female
students from male teachers. The teacher is behind a glass wall,
and has a separate doorway to the outside of the building, so they are
never in physical contact with students.
https://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/2018/12/digital-technology-for-partition-rooms.html
It would be possible to take this further, and place partitions between
the students, much the way now done with supermarket checkouts, and is
used for examinations. However, it would be difficult to keep students,
particularly younger ones, physically separated outside the classroom.
https://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/2018/06/temporary-compter-based-examination.html
Distance education online is generally as effective as face to face
instruction. There is a body of literature on this "No Significant
Difference" phenomenon:
https://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?as_ylo=2016&q=+%22No+Significant+Difference+Phenomenon%22+Russell&hl=en&as_sdt=1,5&as_vis=1
School systems and universities already had online distance students, so
had content, tools and techniques. The problem was to familiarize the
teachers and students with these, and provide access. That is relatively
simple, compared to rebuilding classrooms.
This is not to say online study is the same as face-to-face, and
benefits everyone equally. Dr Cathy Stone from University of Newcastle
has produced National Guidelines for Improving Student Outcomes in
Online Learning:
https://www.ncsehe.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CathyStone_NATIONAL-GUIDELINES-1.pdf
My online students do as well online as as in their face to face
courses. However, these are students who chose to study this way, using
techniques developed to keep the students studying, with courses
designed for this, and an instructor trained to teach this way.
The world is, in effect, conducting a large scale experiment, to see if
students forced online, with teachers having only a small amount of
training in this mode can produce comparable results. So far it is going
well where I teach, but that is a very well resourced university, with a
cadre of experienced online educators, and some of whom spent years
preparing for this emergency.
Perhaps the most useful thing which could be done right now is simplify
the assessment system to try to counter the obsession which students,
parents, and universities have with grades. Outside the education
system, in the workplace, how well you did at school, or university,
doesn't matter, as long as you passed. The vocational education system
has long used an approach were students are assessed as "competent", or
"not yet competent".
--
Tom Worthington, MEd FHEA FACS CP IP3P http://www.tomw.net.au
+61(0)419496150
TomW Communications Pty Ltd. PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Prof. Standards Legislation
Honorary Lecturer, Computer Science, Australian National University
https://cecs.anu.edu.au/research/profile/tom-worthington
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