In this one hour special briefing and question and answer session, Professor Makhanya will share his observations and insights and exchange ideas with participants on:

1. The major trends in online learning
2. The major threats to online learning
3. Africa’s successes and milestones in online learning
4. What other jurisdictions, including Canada, can learn from Africa
5. Implications for students, faculty, administrators, policy makers

The session takes place in 2017 Dunton Tower.

Schedule:

• 9:30 – 10 a.m.: Light breakfast and networking
• 10 – 11 a.m.: Presentation and Q & A

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Unisa is the largest open distance learning institution in Africa and the longest standing dedicated distance education university in the world. It enrols nearly one-third of all South African students.

Professor Makhanya was appointed Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Africa on Jan. 1, 2011. A sociologist by training and profession, he served as Dean for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Executive Dean of the College of Human Sciences prior to his appointment as Principal and Vice-Chancellor.

Professor Makhanya holds a BA and a BA (Hons) in Sociology from the University of Fort Hare, a master’s degree in Industrial Sociology from the University of Natal (now the University of KwaZulu Natal), a DPhil from the University of Pretoria and a DTE from Unisa. He actively participates in UNESCO activities and many distance education councils including the African Council of Distance Education and the International Council for Distance Education.

When compared to traditional university courses on campus, online courses have the potential for increased scheduling flexibility and a more personalized student learning experience. But online courses at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ have traditionally been locked in to the academic calendar: all course activities, from registration and drop dates to deadlines for submitting work, feedback, exams and final grades, are all essential fixed dates within a term. Until now.

Matt Smorenburg and Bobbie Inniss recently became the first two students to finish Professor Bruce Tsuji’s PSYC 1001R course, ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´â€™s fully online and completely self-paced introduction to psychology course. Every lecture, test and assignment was open when they enrolled, so they were able to complete what is usually a four-month course in less than 30 days.

“I wanted to finish it as soon as possible once Professor Tsuji told us we could do the exams any time. So I figured I might as well do it before I started all my other midterms,” Smorenburg says.

Inniss, a third-year biology student, had taken two online courses before, but never one where the student could tailor their own learning.

“The online courses that I’ve taken in the past have never had all the lectures, exams and assignments available right from day one. I always ended up waiting for a new lecture to be posted every week, even if I wanted to watch more,” she says.

“However, with this course, if I wanted to complete more than one module a week, I could and I did.”

Professor Tsuji says that a course of this type has “broken some ground” for ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´.

“The students I’ve talked to expressed that they have really busy lives. Being able to provide something like this for students who are busy is just great. That’s a real step forward for the university,” he says.

PSYC 1001R is special in other ways too. The course’s development was supported by funds from the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) as part of the Ontario Online initiative. The course is also available in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)-like format, through ecarleton.ca, ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´â€™s public facing learning platform.

In this open version of PSYC 1001, anyone can register and access the learning materials and activities at no cost. At any time during their learning experience, should participants decide that they want to convert their efforts into a credit, they can apply to become a special student at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´, pay tuition and schedule proctored assessments. If they successfully complete the course, they will receive a ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University credit. This marks the first time in Canada that a pathway exists for students to move from successfully completing a MOOC to receiving a university credit.

This groundbreaking type of course won’t stop with PSYC 1001; an online and self-paced section of PSYC 1002 will be launched in Winter 2015, as well as a MOOC-like version.

These new courses highlight ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´’s commitment to increasing accessibility and providing innovative teaching and learning opportunities to learners across Ontario, Canada and the world.

Bioacoustics – a new graduate level course that aims to explain the physical basis of sound and how sounds are influenced by features of the environment. The course will be offered in both English and French and, over five years, will recruit expertise from other Ontario universities to expand the course content, specificity and reach.

Introduction to Psychology I & II – a redesign of the current intro psychology classes, each course will be one-semester long and will cover everything from memory to social psychology. The two may be taken together or as two separate units.

Introduction Ă  la SociĂŠtĂŠ et Ă  la Culture QuĂŠbĂŠcoises – an enhanced redesign and French translation of a current online course, Introduction to QuĂŠbec Society, this unique course provides students with a foundational understanding of key narratives within QuĂŠbec’s history, with a specific focus on the place of collective memory in QuĂŠbec politics, culture and identity.

Language Matters – a new online course that identifies multiple branches of Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies and summarizes key issues within the field of language teaching and learning.

Linear Algebra for Scientific Thinkers – a redesign of a current blended course, Linear Algebra I, this course that will equip students with the tools to solve systems of linear equations and identify applications that potentially can be solved using linear algebra.

For more information on ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´â€™s online courses, please visit the .

It’s no secret that the demand for online courses is on the rise, affecting the overall educational landscape. At the same time, it is also affecting the technology in the academic world. The large number of online courses is creating a learning experience that is open, accessible and participative. It’s helping fortify online students’ learning experiences.

When it comes to online assessments and exams, the technologies for invigilating distance students are relatively recent. One option that began in 2008 is called Live Online Proctoring (LOP).

While CUOL courses transpire in live classrooms, the online sections are in virtual space. Hence, every semester we find CUOL distance students having difficulty scheduling their exams because of remote locations or the absence of legitimate proctors. While we cannot gauge the exact number requiring online proctoring, every year at least 1,000 CUOL distance students may require this arrangement.

In fall 2013, CUOL cautiously piloted LOP and introduced the service to a few distance students, who have since completed 14 online exams under the proctors’ watchful eye. In short, the process was simple and the results were favourable; the exams were conducted online via cuLearn (ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´â€™s LMS) and held at a specific time (concurrent with the local exam schedules), with proctors monitoring students live via webcam. Generally speaking, there was one proctor for every four students; each proctor simultaneously monitors an array of computer screens equipped with multimedia (i.e., sound, camera, etc.). Overall, the online proctoring service is similar to traditional proctoring service, except that live proctors are monitoring the test-takers from a distance.

Findings

How does one effectively safeguard the integrity of an online examination? The validity and the quality of online proctoring is every instructor’s concern. We’ve investigated different venues and validated LOP because of its equally effective method of proctoring students; it complies with our requirements and conforms to the university’s examination policies.

This model helps students by deterring cheating as they are monitored and recorded throughout the entire examination period. While it is difficult to know how many actually get away with cheating using this model, the question really is how many are caught. According to the National College Testing Association (NCTA), cheating is widespread and academic institutions must find ways to overcome these challenges. The keynote speaker in this conference confirmed that 68 per cent of students admitted to cheating (Detection and Prevention of Test Fraud: The State of the Art, NCTA Conference, Aug 3, 2012). It is our hope that LOP discourages cheaters.

Benefits of LOP

1. Replicates conventional invigilation: Students are acquainted with traditional proctoring. This model is meant to do for online learners what proctors do in traditional exam rooms.
2. Records the entirety of the invigilation: Proctoring is recorded instead of merely glancing at the student in the exam room, and the professor can review any incidents on video (by request).
3. Flexibility: Proctoring is open 24/7; it accommodates time differences and challenging schedules, thus helping to complete exams on time.
4. Last-minute proctoring arrangements: Although this is not encouraged, the company that we dealt with had accommodated one of our students 24 hours after our initial request for proctoring. That is faster than sending the exam via the courier service. The whole process from start to finish was completed within 48 hours.
5. Reasonable service charges: A typical proctor fee is $25 for a two-hour exam and $15 for each additional hour.
6. Immediate return of exams and grading: Prof. Ron Saunders (LAWS 2301 and 2302) commented favourably on the fast turnaround time for completing exams.
   

   “Ron Saunders has also ventured into online proctoring—a tool that has allowed him to get exams back from distance students instantaneously instead of having to wait for them to be mailed in from around the world. “It makes a huge difference,” he adds. Immediate exams mean much faster results for students, no matter where they took the test—which is especially advantageous for the popular Criminal Justice Systems.” CUOL newsletter: December 2013 issue.

7. Students are receptive to LOP: Below are quotes from two distance students who were proctored online. “Going into the exam with the online proctor, I won’t lie—I was very nervous,” says Alyssa Malette, a distance student studying in Berlin, Germany. “But the overall process was amazing. It was like the online proctor wasn’t even there, and was totally relaxed and comfortable. My proctor was super friendly, so that made the process a lot smoother.” “The online proctor process was neat,” says Jackie Kingsbury, who was a bit concerned prior to the exam because of her unfamiliarity with webcams. “[The proctor] Kim ‘took over’ my computer while I sat in my kitchen and I was able to see her moving the mouse and checking to make sure that I had all the technological requirements for the exam. I was able to see Kim and chat with her via webcam—I’m old and have never done this before—which was nice because I was able to put a face to the person who was supervising my exam.” CUOL Newsletter: December 2013 issue
8. Better proctor-student ratio: The 1:4 ratio is far better than 1:50 (conventional proctoring). With 1:4, proctors can closely monitor and correct suspicious behaviours as they happen.
9. Rigorous authentication process: Remote proctoring authenticates online students to make sure that enrolled students—not fraudulent individuals—are the ones sitting for exams. I’ve seen how proctors screen test-takers during the authentication process. They ask students to bring their IDs close to the camera and record them. This is more advantageous than the conventional approach because the video recording provides additional verification (their faces and IDs are recorded).
10. Proctors deal with the technical aspects of online exams.
11. Any questions/corrections are dealt with immediately. For instance, live proctors (although virtually at a distance) observe and can speak to students if need be.
12. This method is also suitable for online learners because they are already familiar with the online environment.

Problems We Encountered

1. If two or more internet users in a household use wireless, it is recommended for the test-taker to use a hard-wired internet connection. Two students had intermittent internet connections during their exams possibly due to their network (wireless or Wi-Fi). Here are a couple of transcripts from the proctoring company.
   

   Issue: Customer lost connection to the exam was offline for approx. 5 minutes, I tried calling the contact number for the student but it was the number to customer care for the school. The student called me after I was off the phone with customer service for ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ and informed me that she lost her internet connection and had to reboot her system. If rebooting the customer connected with me again and we were able to resume the exam.

   As I mentioned in my first blog post, the question arose of how the proctor addresses a power outage. Similarly, how does the proctor address an internet interruption? What is the proper protocol for handling this situation? Here is one such example.

   Issue: Got disconnected from Bomgar once during set up and Bomgar and MegeMeeting once during the exam. Was able to reconnect automatically in about a minute both times. Switched Bomgar and MegaMeeting to low bandwidth and continued with the set up/exam. Bandwidth was about 10 Mbps download when I ran the speed test, he was on wireless.

2. Using LOP means an increased workload i.e., digitizing the exams in cuLearn (ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´â€™s LMS), setup time with the proctoring company, including registering students for the first time. We’ve taken on these extra tasks to get to know the processes, what’s involved, etc. Also, contracts, payments, forms, and other hidden tasks (calls from international students off-hours, technical aspects of cuLearn, etc.) have taken considerable time and effort in addition to dealing with the current workload.
3. Instructions have to be clear and precise. As this process is unfamiliar to a first-time user, we’ve spent considerable time with distance students and instructors, making sure that all parties involved understand the process.
4. Currently CUOL’s LOP is not scalable. It can only proctor live up to 40-50 students at the same time. For a large group of more than one hundred, the proctoring will have to be done over a period of two days.
5. One should be wary of selecting the right online proctoring institution. LOP is only as good as the quality of the proctors that drive it.

The Bottom Line

While academics continue to work hard transitioning to a digital world, more and more students are turning to online education, and they are continually seeking learning experiences that are accessible and participative. With this, the need for online proctoring will continue to intensify.

The key component for credible testing is the security – ensuring academic integrity and helping curb cheating. This was foremost in our minds when we launched LOP. Online proctoring is only as good as the quality of the proctors – effective live proctoring is still reliant on the individual proctors. With this in mind, we sought the right company with well-trained proctors, preserving the integrity of our online exams.

Based on our pilot project, LOP did deliver and preserve the integrity of our examinations. Of course, the issue of cheating will not be eradicated completely, however, it offered a viable solution for protecting this critical element of online proctoring. Therefore, I would say this service is a viable solution for proctoring our distance students, and is an essential component of online learning.

Part of Contact North | Contact Nord’s Emerging Technologies Training Program, the briefing covered a variety of topics, including the changing nature of the student body and its use of technology, myths and distractions in online learning, and opportunities for online learning to meet students’ needs.

If you missed the presentation, we’ve got you covered! Watch it all on our .

Don’t miss your chance to hear from one of the world’s foremost experts in online learning on topics such as the changing nature of the student body and its use of technology, myths and distractions in online learning, and opportunities for online learning to meet students’ needs.

The briefing, part of Contact North | Contact Nord’s Emerging Technologies Training Program, will take place on Wednesday, January 22 from 1-2 p.m. in room 2220 River Building.

To find out more about the event and Sir John Daniel, .

Please fill out the form below to register.

ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ chemistry professor Bob Burk, director of teaching and learning Patrick Lyons, research assistant Andrea Noriega, and EDC instructional designer and research facilitator Dragana Polovina-Vukovic, all contributed to the study, which looked at the attendance, performance and resource usage of 919 first-year ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ students. It found that the most significant impact on grades came from a homework management system, which allowed students to interact directly with course content by answering questions and solving problems while receiving immediate feedback, and an interactive learning management system that offered PowerPoint slides from lectures, videos of lab experiments, previous exams, and a discussion board to communicate with other students. .

Technology and higher education are popular topics for conversation, research and debate within many post-secondary education institutions. A key challenge when thinking about higher education and technology is keeping an eye on trends, issues and developments within the large higher education community as well as external trends that could significantly influence education. Perhaps one of the most significant recent examples of these types of trends has been the widespread excitement, interest and explosive growth in .

So how does higher education identify trends or developments? One source is the crowdsourcing survey that solicits responses from 530 international higher education professionals (Note: Educause is a very large community of information technology leaders and professionals in higher education). A few days ago ELI released its 2013-14 survey and six themes/issues floated to the top (view the ):

1) Assessment of Learning
2) Online and Blended Learning
3) Emerging Technology, Future Models, and Academic Transformation
4) Digital and Information Literacies
5) Mobile Learning
6) Methods for evaluating technology based instructional resources.

Looking at theses issues, I see that many align closely with some of the concerns and developments at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´. With 18 out of the 21 Ontario universities (ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ included) in their Strategic Mandate agreement to the province, I suspect these trends/issues are mirrored with my colleagues at other Ontario institutions.

I’d like to focus briefly on the number one identified issue, the “Assessment of Learning.” In some ways it’s an unusual to see this issue at the top of the list, because it appears to have come out of nowhere. It hasn’t been mentioned in any other recent annual ELI list, let alone appearing at the top of the list. As teachers, we know that the assessment of learners is perhaps the most important part of teaching and learning. How do we know that learners have learned? How do learners know that they have learned? How can we assess what learners have learned? Is the assessment methodology fair? Does it provide the information that we need as educators to decide or for the learner to demonstrate what they have learned? And how can we make our assessments relevant and rich, particularly in large enrollment classes? These are challenging and important questions.

So why are IT higher education professionals and leaders identifying “Assessment of Learning” as the number one issue? I think the likely reason has to do with the second item in the ELI list: “Online and Blended Learning.” There is extensive and intensive interest in large-scale online learning in higher education (again just take a look at the Contact North report), and assessment of online students can present significant challenges. How do you assess large numbers of online students effectively and efficiently? How do you know who is being assessed? There are all questions being asked by senior administrators and there are IT solutions that could be implemented to help solve some of these challenges.

Certainly there are online proctoring services (Kryterion, ProctorU), but tests and exams are not necessarily always the best assessment of student learning. Online tools like e–portfolios (Mahara) and learning logs (Google Drive, WordPress) can document a learner’s progress and provide rich information; their assessment thus far requires significant investment in time by an instructor or teaching assistant. Or does it? , a nonprofit consortia (in some ways a MOOC aggregator) founded by Harvard and MIT has introduced an that marks essay type questions.

Issues and trends in IT in higher education? You better believe it.