Reflection on undergraduate students’ and teachers’ experiences of using English and digital technology in Asian higher education through a gender lens (Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, Philip Sergeant & Saraswati Dawadi, OU UK)

Education opportunities are increasingly dependent on access to digital technology along with competence in the English language. Our British Council funded research aims to explore undergraduate students’ and teachers’ access to digital technology for learning and teaching languages, and their opportunities to learn the English language, in the four most populous countries in East and South Asia – Bangladesh, China, India, and Indonesia. With a focus on higher education and equality of opportunity, the two-phase longitudinal study will track and assess predictions and trends relating to teaching, assessment and learning of English (TALE) practices and the role of digital technology. 

In this presentation, we will share our findings from the first phase of our study. In this phase, data was collected by local partners and their teams in each country through multiple sources, namely an online survey with 5695 undergraduate students and 328 teachers, focus group discussions with students (n=57), interviews with teachers (n=15), and Padlet discussions with students (n=49). Participants were first year students and their teachers from four broad discipline areas in a number of public and private universities in each country. Findings point to current trends of the use of technology for TALE, as well as students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards the role of English and technology in promoting or reducing equality, diversity and inclusion in students’ access to quality learning in higher education. We have taken a particular interest in exploring any gender differences in attitudes and experiences, as well as perceptions of whether gender plays a role in educational opportunities in higher education. In addition, the presentation will elucidate the students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards the role and value of English in the next ten years in their communities in general and higher education in particular, and it will suggest implications for policy and pedagogy. 

Enhancing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Open Education: Insights from Africa and Latin America (Carina Bossu & Francisco Iniesto, OU UK & UNED) 

Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) have become significant topics within the Open Education (OE) community. However, the provision of free and online resources, like Open Educational Resources (OER), does not automatically guarantee equitable, diverse, and inclusive access. A major barrier is the majority of OER being available only in English, making it challenging for learners worldwide to access them. 

The Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN) is a community supporting PhD candidates conducting research on open education. With around 200 participants, including researchers, experts, supervisors, mentors, and other stakeholders, GO-GN has prioritized EDI since its establishment in 2013. However, it wasn’twas not until 2018 that the first EDI projects in Open Education were initiated. The initial project focused on EDI in Open Education in Africa, followed by a subsequent project in Latin America. These projects aimed to increase representation from these regions within GO-GN, as the majority of participants were from developed countries. They also aimed to reach those who would benefit most from joining the network.  

This presentation will provide an overview of these EDI projects. It will also introduce and discuss the GO-GN EDI Guidelines, which is a combined outcome of these projects, highlighting their importance in creating inclusive open education environments. The GO-GN EDI Guidelines are evidence-based principles designed to promote equitable, diverse, and inclusive open education environments. The document can be used by higher education institutions, individuals, and open communities to foster EDI practices. While the guidelines were initially contextualized for the Global South regions, they can be adapted to various EDI and open education initiatives and contexts. 

How to design inclusive museums? Insights from an online course for professionals in art and humanistic studies Francisco Iniesto & Covadonga Rodrigo, UNED)

The Inclusive Memory (IM) project, 2021-2024 funded by the European Commission, promotes social inclusion by promoting a shared social memory through a museum-based inclusive approach linking Art-Health-Wellbeing. This initiative leverages cooperation between Higher Education Institutions, Health and Social Care Institutions, and Museums, forming a strategic partnership to enhance museum education and experiences. Universities can play a key role in encouraging collaboration among the health, social care, and arts sectors. The project employs a reversed community approach to rebuild troubled communities through partnerships among academics, health and social care professionals, artists, and cultural organisations.  

Given the evolution and impact of digital technologies in society and cultural organizations, the roles and profiles of museum professionals are changing, necessitating new competencies. The IM project cocreated among partners an open online course which is based on the social model of disability and the design4all approach. In online learning, learners should be continually influenced by information, social interaction, and learning experiences, providing them with the knowledge to come up with new ideas to develop. The course was piloted at the beginning of 2024 with more than 400 active learners including professionals or learners from art and humanistic studies, museum and cultural managers, science communicators, journalists, nurses, archaeologists, designers, and psychologists, among others. The course, once has been successfully piloted, will be available for open access and all participants in the format of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). 

Barriers and facilitators to physical activity for transplant recipients; developing a Patient and Public Involvement and engagement framework (PA-PPI). (Leigh Martin & Bart Rienties, OU UK) 

Solid organ transplant surgery (e.g., heart, kidney, lung, liver) and hematopoietic cell transplants (e.g., bone marrow) are life-saving medical procedures. Annually around 130,000 transplant surgeries take place globally (Leddington Wright et al., 2019). Several studies have, however, reported that most transplant recipients do not meet the recommended amount and type of Physical Activity, thereby limiting their wellbeing and long-term health.  

Using Patient and Public Involvement and engagement (PPI), we aim to explore the lived experiences of transplant patients and their support environment in relation to their relationship with and experience of physical activity throughout their transplant journey. The second aim is to design, implement, and evaluate the project together with transplant patients, to build a PPI framework for appropriate Physical Activity (PA). As argued by Holmes et al. (2019) PPI is an important and expected component of health-related research activity, but there seems to be a paucity of PPI in most transplant research. Therefore, our main research question is: Using Patient and Public Involvement and engagement what are the barriers and facilitators to physical activity of transplant patients, and what social and medical support structures can encourage PA?  

Transplant recipients are surrounded by a network of relationships (e.g., family, friends, medical professional) that will influence their PA and health-related behaviours (Fernández-Peña et al., 2018). Informed by Jindal-Snape et al. (2019) and Thanawala et al. (2020), a combination of PPI, social network analysis (Fernández-Peña et al., 2018; Merminod et al., 2022), and semi-structured interviews will be used to triangulate the lived experiences of transplant recipients by also including key stakeholders identified by transplant recipients. The long-term aim is to build on the PPI findings, translating this knowledge to inform policy and practice. We are currently testing this approach at Oxford University Hospitals and The Prince Charles Hospital in Australia. 

Beyond Boundaries: The Role of Learning Types in Shaping MOOC Learner Engagement and Progression (Hannah John, John Kerr & Guillaume Andrieux, Glasgow)  

Utilising the ABC Learning Design based on the ABC curriculum design method (Young & Perović 2016) and the Conversational Framework (Laurillard 2012), specifically the six learning types that underpin that model, eight Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) from Coursera or FutureLearn were examined. These MOOCs were selected because they represented a wide range of disciplines, assessment options, and course structures. This paper will demonstrate how the application of various learning types impacts how learners engage with the material, progress through the course, and how it influences their commitment to continue learning (Martin and Bolliger 2018). Additionally, results from this research provide evidence of how the frequency and sequencing of learning types create opportunities for learners to engage with content in a meaningful way. 

By synthesising the secondary data from pre-course surveys, exit surveys, end-of-course surveys, comment sections, and several other course metrics, including but not limited to the watch-through rates and technical feedback of over 400 videos, course completion, assessment completion, and learner satisfaction, seven key areas of impactful course design were identified and will be explored throughout this paper. These key areas will focus on the following elements of course design (1) quality and duration of videos, (2) balance and distribution of acquisition learning types (3) structure of discussions, (4) effective guidance for exploration activities, (5) balance of assessment and feedback opportunities, (6) Utilisation of e-learning tools and plug-ins, and (7) Successfully leveraging the synergies between the learning types in online course design. This empirical research will present evidence on how learning types can be successfully deployed in course design and course design sequencing.  

Understanding engagement patterns of game-based learning for children in CatnClever using learning analytics (Josmario Albuquerque, Kristina Corbero, Sebastian Hahnel & Bart Rienties, OU UK)

 It is widely acknowledged that games and game-based learning (GBL) opportunities can spark engaged learning opportunities (Sun et al., 2023). Well-designed games can lead to enjoyable and engaging experiences, in particular for young people and children (Maureen et al., 2022; Plass et al., 2015). Furthermore, games can be fun, interesting, motivating, and playful. However, there is mixed evidence whether GBL has positive (e.g., knowledge, skills, attitudes) or negative impacts of playing games for young children (Guan et al., 2024). In particular, there is paucity of research in how young learners engage in GBL. In this explorative study we aimed to investigate how learners engaged in one specific game-based mobile app called CatnClever that is designed specifically for children aged between 3-6. Using principles of learning analytics and artificial intelligence (Banihashem et al., 2023), we were specifically interested in exploring whether we can use engagement data from 8,365 German preschoolers across 60,279 activities how children progressed over time in CatnClever to predict learning performance without formal assessment data. As extensive testing of young children might not be appropriate in terms of gameplay, motivation, and data collection (Kucirkova et al., 2024), in this study we wanted to explore whether we could estimate learning performance and activity difficulty of 170 Tool X activities in four subjects (i.e., mathematics, language, social and emotional learning, and sport) purely from children engagement data. Findings suggest that difficulty aligns well with effort, suggesting optimal challenge levels. Key engagement moments were also identified, potentially informing further interventions. Overall, we stress the potential of learning analytics to deepen our understanding of young learners’ interactions in GBL, paving the way for tailored educational strategies. However, ethical considerations regarding data collection and analysis in GBL environments warrant careful attention. 

References 

• Banihashem, S. K., Dehghanzadeh, H., Clark, D., Noroozi, O., & Biemans, H. J. A. (2023). Learning analytics for online game-Based learning: a systematic literature review. Behaviour & Information Technology, 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2023.2255301  
• Guan, X., Sun, C., Hwang, G.-j., Xue, K., & Wang, Z. (2024). Applying game-based learning in primary education: a systematic review of journal publications from 2010 to 2020. Interactive Learning Environments, 32(2), 534-556. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2022.2091611  
• Kucirkova, N., Livingstone, S., & Radesky, J. (2024). Advancing the understanding of children’s digital engagement: responsive methodologies and ethical considerations in psychological research [Conceptual Analysis]. Frontiers in Psychology, 15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1285302  
• Maureen, I. Y., van der Meij, H., & de Jong, T. (2022). Evaluating storytelling activities for early literacy development. International Journal of Early Years Education, 30(4), 679-696.  
• Plass, J. L., Homer, B. D., & Kinzer, C. K. (2015). Foundations of Game-Based Learning. Educational Psychologist, 50(4), 258-283. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2015.1122533  
• Sun, L., Kangas, M., Ruokamo, H., & Siklander, S. (2023). A systematic literature review of teacher scaffolding in game-based learning in primary education. Educational Research Review, 40(August ), 100546. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2023.100546  

AI in Democratising Educational Decision Making (Anne Adams, Peter Devine, Richard Greenwood, Christothea Herodotou & Kevin Mcleod, OU UK) 

For centuries future research and horizon scanning (HS) has been used for strategic decision making (Inayatullah, 1998). Educational HS has initiated national policies like SATs and Apprenticeships.  Local horizon scanning can change an institutions educational research and scholarship objectives.  However, horizon scanning can exclude voices and is rarely evidence-based. Society requires a systematic, evidence-based horizon scanning approach that overcomes social and technical barriers to democratising decision making.   

This presentation will review the application of a new HS method applied across several different contexts, from research and scholarship strategic planning to innovation dissemination.  An analysis of what works and does not work across contexts will be given.  Part of this evidence will involve the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST) National 23/24 HS, specifically focused on education and digital innovation results.   Following parliamentary Evidence Cafes, academic experts from 61 Higher Education Institutions (HEI) across England, Scotland and Wales used nQuirePOLICY tools, building on the award-winning nQuire platform (nquire.org.uk) to identify 2,903 topics across 12 policy-led thematic areas.  Evidence underpinning expert opinions were classified by participants using the evidence typology (Clough and Adams, 2020) to capture an evidence-base from research to policy documentation, lived experiences, expert reports and media.  Clustering of the topics into 10 themed areas was completed using a set of tailored OpenAI prompts developed by aligning prior human horizon scanning decision making with AI outputs creating a 75% – 80% accuracy.  The  AI clustering missed human assumptions based upon a deeper understanding of zeitgeist, context and human perspective issues. However, it also avoided negative unconscious bias assumptions.    

Further parliamentary evidence cafes verifying AI clustering have now identified more issues around political sensitivity in policy language and challenges to policy assumptions.  Future applications will be presented, including increased citizen engagement in devolved parliaments horizon scanning.  

References 

• Clough, Gill and Adams, Anne (2020). Evidence Cafes: Overcoming conflicting motivations and timings. Research for All, 4(2) pp. 145–149.
• Inayatullah, S. (1998). Macrohistory and futures studies. Futures, 30(5), 381-394.

Generative AI as your course materials writing assistant: Is it useful? (Thomas Daniel Ullmann, Duygu Bektik, Chris Edwards, Christothea Herodotou & Denise Whitelock, OU UK) 

Generative AI, now widely available, is expected to make a significant impact across various sectors, including education. Its core feature, the ability to rapidly produce plausible text on a wide range of topics, and its chat-like interface for content refinement suggest that it may have a role to play in the course content production process. In this presentation, we share insights from our recent investigation. We experimented with the use of generative AI for tasks such as outlining the big questions, creating learning activities, and enhancing inclusivity in materials. We will showcase prompts and discuss the analysis of the responses. Across all tasks, the generative AI produced content that could effectively aid in brainstorming, creating outlines, and adhering to specific writing guidelines. However, it’s important to emphasise that the generated content always required adjustments and expert review. 

Leveraging Generative AI for Enhanced Writing Instruction: A Case Study (Aysegul Liman-Kaban, Bahcesehir) 

Providing formative feedback on student writing is a crucial component of writing instruction, but it poses a significant time burden on educators. This study investigates the potential of generative AI, specifically ChatGPT, to serve as an automated writing evaluation tool that can alleviate this burden. We compared the quality of feedback provided by ChatGPT to that of human evaluators on 350 undergraduate student essays. The feedback was assessed based on five criteria: criteria-based guidance, clarity of improvement directions, accuracy, prioritization of essential features, and supportive tone. Our findings indicate that human evaluators generally provided higher quality feedback across most categories, except for criteria-based guidance where ChatGPT performed comparably. Differences in feedback quality were also observed based on the initial quality of the essays, but not on the language status of the students. While well-trained human feedback remains superior, the ease and timeliness of AI-generated feedback suggest that tools like ChatGPT could be valuable in specific educational contexts, particularly for early drafts or in situations lacking sufficient human resources. Given the infrequency of substantial student revisions before submitting draft texts, we anticipate that formative feedback from AI could inspire greater revision compared to the current dearth of such feedback. Additionally, it might reduce the lengthy interval between initial drafting and subsequent revisions, as time-constrained secondary teachers often wait until extended breaks to address stacks of student papers. Moreover, ChatGPT’s capacity to provide feedback without requiring a training set, unlike other Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) applications, and its ability to offer feedback on specific genres (such as argument writing in history) suggest its potential applicability across various genres and contexts. However, further research or educator testing is necessary to validate these potential applications. We argue that realizing the value of AI entails recognizing both its strengths and limitations and utilizing it in a manner that maximizes its strengths while mitigating its weaknesses. This involves educating teachers and students about AI’s functionalities and promoting critical and reflective usage, alongside integrating more social aspects into writing and assessment practices (Tate, Doroudi, Ritchie, & Xu, 2023). Similar positive outcomes for student learning have been observed in studies on other AI interventions for language development, such as visual-syntactic text formatting (Tate et al., 2019) and conversational agents (Xu et al., 2022). Thus, we draw insights on how to approach large language models from this existing research, aiming, as Grimes & Warschauer (2010) articulated, for “utility in a fallible tool. 

Keywords: Formative feedback, Writing instruction, Generative AI, ChatGPT, Higher education, Writing development 

Towards an EDIA-based and AI-enabled pedagogy across the curriculum (Mirjam Hauck, Rachele deFelice, Clare Horackova, Deirdre Dunlevy, Tracie Farell & Venetia Brown, OU UK) 

This contribution is inspired by Tracie Farell’s “Shifting Powers” project that proposes that rather than asking whether AI is good or fair, we have to look at how it “shifts power”. Power relationships, we are reminded, preserve inequality within our society in real and material terms. How will AI contribute to those inequalities? Is there any chance AI can help to foster new balances of power and if so, what will this look like in practice?  

Our work is a first attempt at mapping out an agenda for learning and teaching with GenAI guided by EDIA principles. It is underpinned by a critical approach to the use of gen AI and wants to equip learners – including teachers as learners – with the skills that enable them to work with gen AI in equitable and inclusive ways and thus contribute to shifting powers in education contexts.  

We will be using the learning and teaching of languages and cultures as a case in point and present and discuss the tenets of educator training informed by Sharples’ (2023) framework for an AI-enabled pedagogy across the curriculum with an added focus on social justice and inclusion.  

Our insights stem from our collaboration with two AL colleagues who are – like many others – new to GenAI and have been trialling the so-called “protégé effect” whereby we learn best when we have to teach it to others. We will present the outline of the educator training which will be available as a short course later this year in the OU’s Open Centre for Languages and Cultures. In doing so we will pay particular attention to the tension educators are experiencing who find themselves balancing anxieties regarding the shortcomings and challenges of GenAI and a perceived lack of technological expertise on the one hand, and expectations to harness and promote the innovative potential of GenAI on the other.  

Credit: : @BlossomStefaniw on Twitter, 12 May 2020

Earlier this year, this meme of the Muppets travelled far and wide. The caption reads, “Finally understood what zoom meetings remind me of.” This one image encapsulates some of the possible  affects, sensations and emotions felt, whilst being online during Zoom experiences. Sensations that can include a heightened self-consciousness (see the work of Turkle, for more on this), which are often related to a highly sensitised corporeal visibility, and at times can be rather intimidating. I noticed I have a slightly sleepy right eye for example. Other contradictory connotations are quite literal, for example the embodied sensation of ‘being a muppet’: of not recognising your own self-image and/or experiencing a lack of recognition and visibility; of seeing yourself (like a puzzle piece) alongside other virtual pixelated bodies. There is often an overarching sense of performance (Coonfield and Rose, 2012). Ultimately video conferencing experiences, confront us with aspects of our humanness that we so often side-line: our humility; fragility; and the inherent absurdity of our existence.

I am researching ‘fun’ in nonformal learning experiences with a sport for social change charity called Coaches Across Continents. They have developed a ‘Purposeful Play’ methodology primarily using physical play-based games, often inspired through non-competitive football-based skills. Due to the ongoing pandemic my sensory ethnographic research transmuted into researching their embodied learning experiences, online, rather than ‘on field’ (or on pitch). My theoretical underbelly draws from the work of Sarah Pink (2011), a  theorist of embodied and emplaced approaches, and I am interested in the staff and coaches’ “phenomenological participation with others… engaging all participants on emotional, intellectual, and bodily levels” (Ucok-Sayrak & Brazelton, 2021).

As I looked at the Muppet meme, and considered my own research, I couldn’t help but wonder about the nature of online, mediated lived experiences, and in particular, what the concept of presence can offer to this. For the purposes of this blog, I will define ‘presence’ as the embodied sensation of “Being-here-now”; an openness/attentiveness to the spontaneous, unexpected aspects of experience and a “movement toward becoming” (Coonfield and Rose, 2012: 195); an unself-conscious alignment of self, text, image and audience. The International Society for Presence Research provides further detailed definitions (see: https://ispr.info/about-presence-2/about-presence/ ). It is for me a sensitivity, a sensory attunement to being alive, in the specificity of any given moment. In that moment, a person’s subjective body-mind is highly attentive to ‘the spatial arrangement of social and material entities through which certain ways of participating are made available’ (Gumbrecht, 2004: 138). The body encounters its surroundings and the material elements in that space. The body-mind is not a Cartesian duality (as many non-Western cultures already attest to[1]), because we are physical beings who experience the world through our bodies. For theorists such as Merleu-Ponty, the blind woman’s stick ceases to be an external object for her and becomes an “area of sensitivity” (Merleau-Ponty, 1962: 143), an extension of her attentiveness of perception to the world/materials/spaces around. “In a sense, all reality is virtual. It is constructed through our sense organs and cognitive apparatus. Reality is not ‘out there’, it is what we take to be ‘out there’” (Ijsselsteijn, 2003: 245). What we take to be ‘out there’, is a choice of where and how we intentionally focus (tune in) our sensorial capabilities.

Ucok-Sayrak & Brazelton’s (2021) work, suggests there is evidence towards an understanding that online classrooms are capable of producing a sense of presence and connection. Arguing that (if intentionally constructed and made so) “the online learning environment is a safer, more open, and respectful place to engage in vulnerability and form relationships. Face to face interaction does not magically guarantee presence” (p.4). They remind us, as do Sheehy et al. (2014) that you can certainly be in a physical space amongst bodies, but your mind is absent.

I by no means want to suggest that intentionally crafted face to face formal/ informal lessons are inferior to online learning spaces, nor do I want to suggest that all online learning spaces/experiences are superior. There can be an assumption that it is necessary to premise one above the other. I think it depends on context and intentions. However, I am keen to share early findings from my own research observing four informal online multi-cultural training sessions of three staff/coaches with twelve youth coaches. These were held December 2020- January 2021 using Zoom.

My early findings align with Ucok-Sayrak & Brazelton’s (2021) suggestion that the ‘performance of self can be associated with presencing— which includes non-judgmental noticing of the ways in which one interacts with, incorporates, and becomes part of, her environment, rather than a calculative, manipulative strategizing of how one appears in front of others’ (p.7).  In relation to my research, the designed ‘ice breaker’ activities (a short play-based game, often involving some physical movement e.g., online charades at the start of a session) aimed to generate this inter-relational awareness of (body-mind) self, amongst others – co-presence.

For the coaches, as expressed in post interviews, these moments were often space-times of heightened ‘being – here – now’, and all the more so, because they were experienced and embodied as ‘fun’. Yet these moments of heightened presence,  an aliveness (a type of ‘fun’) were always transitory, and moments of  controlled presentation of the self, such as the readjusting of hair/item of clothing, or a turning off of the camera video would create a flow and ebb into a space-time of disconnection/ absence/uncertainty whilst online. These could be experienced as shared (“should we all turn our cameras on?”[2]), or individual (prolonged inert bodies and facial expressions).

This recognition of dis-engagement online, a “hyperconscious staging of self in relation to others that attempts to freeze a reality” (Coonfield and Rose: 195), in relation to my research, goes further. The staging of self, at times seemed to offer a necessary pause, a breath, a movement away (absence) from always ‘being’ visible/ present/ performing/ engaged online – to allowing a moment of witnessing/audiencing. For example, one coach occasionally turned her camera off to smoke, listen and observe during a group sharing activity. It was a necessary opposite (part of a continuum of presence and absence) that would enable her rhythm of the learning experience to continue. Furthermore, my research has resonance with Ucok-Sayrak & Brazelton’s (2021) suggestion “that disengaging the subject from purely self-centered reflection and moving her into proximity, or presence, with another to whom she has a relational and communicative responsibility” (p.11) is an important facet of creating (co)presence; an invitation to open oneself to another in a ‘safe’ (constructed) space. Presence is always relational, between self and collective, but also between presence and absence.

I have many more unfiltered thoughts about presence, but here I pause, and take a breath. Perhaps just to say that I hope that those of us researching embodied learning online can support Ucok-Sayrak & Brazelton’s (2021) call to caution against the common assumption/ expectation regarding the sameness or transference of educational experience in physical, embodied classrooms/spaces with virtual experiences. However, both require intentional crafting, and enable different affordances depending on how individuals and the collective use/ sense the affordances of the materials and environments they are in.

Each learner (I forgo continuing the metaphor I started with), has a different experience of presence: of the more than out there, virtual space-times, during video conferencing learning experiences. Furthermore, they are continually morphing and changing through moments of connection and disconnection. I believe that the more we attune into our sensory online embodied experiences, the more we can re-figure (re-configure and embody), and understand the subtleties of relational presence, within learning experiences.

A note: please do reach out and share your reflections and experiences. You can find me at: sarah.huxley@open.ac.uk or @AidHoover

If you are curious to see the film clip that this muppets image comes from, you can access it here: https://youtu.be/EJ9yAV8uQ7g

Watch Sarah’s talk on the 25th November at CALRG @ 11am-12pm

Events

Click here to join the meeting

References

Coonfield, G., & Rose, H. (2012). What is called presence.  In Text and Performance Quarterly, 32(3), 192–208. https://doi. org/10.1080/10462937.2012.691309

Gumbrecht, H. U. (2004). Production of presence: What meaning cannot convey. Stanford University Press.

ISPR (2000). The Concept of Presence: Explication Statement. Retrieved 27 July 2021 from https://smcsites.com/ispr/  International Society for Presence Research.

IJsselsteijn, W., & Riva, G. (2003). Being there: The experience of presence in mediated environments. In G. Riva, F. Davide, & W. A. IJsselsteijn (Eds.), Being there: Concepts, effects and measurements of user presence in synthetic environments (pp. 3–16). IOS Press.

Sheehy, K, Ferguson, R and Clough, G (2014) Augmented Education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9781137335814.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of Perception Trans Smith. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Pink, S. (2011). From embodiment to emplacement: re-thinking competing bodies, senses and spatialities. In Sport, Education and Society, 16:3, 343-355, DOI: 10.1080/13573322.2011.565965

Turkle, S. (2015). Reclaiming conversation: The power of talk in a digital age. Penguin Press

Ucok-Sayrak & Brazelton (2021): Regarding the question of presence in online education: A performative pedagogical perspective, in Educational Philosophy and Theory, DOI: 10.1080/00131857.2021.1880389

[1] See the philosophies of Zen Buddhism, Australian aboriginal peoples or Taoism in China, as examples.

[2] Although having cameras all on does not equate directly with the ‘being – here – now’ of (co)presence, but this participant felt that it was more likely to occur with cameras on.

The sunny summer is calling! The long-awaited summer holiday season marks the end of our series of seminars and it is time to get moving rather than sitting in front of the screen. I can’t wait to go out and about, though I would be careful since Covid-19 is pretty much still around us.

In this series, we have had colleagues from IET, including Rob, Simon, Jane, Maria, sharing their research on open education, digital and supporting learning during Covid-19. Agnes, Bart and Corina also held a session on the Innovating Pedagogy 2021 introducing some of the topics covered, i.e., chatbots, telecollaborations and gratitude. Our alumni Katy talked about her work on Ed-tech hub in low-income context and the challenges facing her team during the pandemic. Mike also hosted an interactive session that brought us on a journey of mobile learning through 10 objects. IET PhD students Wendy and Xinyu also presented their work-in-progress, both of which about using human intelligent agents for learning.

Beside colleagues in IET, we were also pleased to have Mathijs from WELS sharing with us about designing serious games for adolescent mental health and Zsuzsanna discussing about language MOOCs. A big thanks for all of you who have offered to present in our sessions and those of you who have participated and initiated conversations with us!

Last but not least, we have had a fruitful two-day online conference. A total of 85 participants have attended our conference. We have had the pleasure to have IET alumni Prof Simeon Yates talking about digital inequalities and Assoc Prof Tamara Clegg from United States discussing about communitizing sciences and data analytics. A total of 25 papers were presented by our colleagues and alumni across OU, local and international collaborators.

If you would like to revisit some of the topics mentioned above, or simply just missing us, how about watching some of the recording of the seminars? The conference recordings are also available.

Our next series of weekly seminars starts on 14 October 2021. If you are interested in presenting or coming up with some creative 1-hour sessions, please feel free to write to us at calrg@open.ac.uk to express your interest to present.

Till then!

Best wishes

Shi Min

Day 2: Wednesday 16 June 2021, 11.10 – 12.15

1. Testing and Learning Digital Assistants at the OU
2. Open University Models: Towards Enhancing Inclusive, Equitable and Quality Higher Education in Kenya
3. Are virtual visits an effective way of engaging learners?

Scroll down for abstract

Testing and Learning Digital Assistants at the OU

Selina Griffin, Massimiliano Zattera and Serge Plata

Building on a proof of concept case involving the use of Alexa (and demonstrated at the 2020 CALRG) the Test and Learn team have a staged vision of what the future for digital assistants at the OU could look like. Beginning with a “planning and baselining” phase, this has been an enormous data exercise; analysing the above 8 million of call transcripts, texts, emails and webchats that the OU receives. By performing a deep analysis of this dataset we can as a first step along this roadmap, determine the kinds of questions that students and enquirers ask that are large enough in volume but are user-blind in that they don’t require the assistant to know who they are speaking to in order to provide the requested information. With this stage now completed there are huge possibilities for the OU to make the most of this technology to support enquirers, students and staff as part of a modern, digital university offering.
This session showcases some of the findings from the analysis work carried out and shows a road map of what we could explore in the future and our next steps for summer 2021.

Open University Models: Towards Enhancing Inclusive, Equitable and Quality Higher Education in Kenya

Denise Whitelock, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Cross, Andrew Law, Fereshte Goshtasbpour, Olivier Biard 

The Kenya Vision 2030 provides the blueprint of Kenya’s journey to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It aims to transform Kenya into an industrialising, middle-income country providing a high quality of life to all citizens by 2030. A major support to the Kenyan government to deliver its commitment under SDG4 is establishing the National Open University of Kenya (NOUK) to ensure inclusive, equitable and quality higher education for all.
This presentation reports on the Open University’s work in progress (under the Skills for Prosperity Project) to co-develop a NOUK model Options Paper and a relevant roadmap for Kenya. It specifically discusses the type of challenges and problems a NOUK can address and outlines a range of Open University models that have successfully addressed the discussed challenges. The models include Open Entry Distance, Open Distance, Hybrid, Micro-credentials and Catalyst models. Additionally, the strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to each model will be briefly reviewed.

Are virtual visits an effective way of engaging learners?

David Conway, Christine Gardner and Janet Hughes

Off campus visits have wide ranging benefits to students including reinforcing and expanding upon taught learning (Streule and Craig, 2016), improved ability to relate theory to practice (Claiborne et al., 2020) and enhancement of motivation (Hutson et al., 2011).

Mature students often choose distance learning (DL) due to its potential to fit around life priorities such as caring responsibilities (Rasheed, 2020). However, the reasons mature students often choose DL also act as motivational constraints which could prevent them from participating in extra-curricular activities (Roosmaa and Saar, 2006).

Advances in technology mean it is now possible to design and implement virtual insight visits for students which produce many of the same benefits as traditional insight visits.

The aim of this project was to investigate if a live virtual visit to Bletchley Park Museum using interactive onscreen technology effectively engages students and enhance their experience.

Over 100 students participated in the virtual visit, many of whom were identified as being in the lowest 50% of the index of multiple deprivation. A small number of participants completed a survey asking their perceptions of the virtual visit. Over half stated that they would normally find it difficult to visit Bletchley Park. All said they would participate in future virtual visits and that they would like to visit Bletchley Park Museum in person.

Initial results indicate that students are engaged by the concept of virtual visits and that they can widen participation in extra-curricular activities. Furthermore, virtual visits may be an alternative promotional strategy for museums to increase visitor numbers.

Day 2: Wednesday 16 June 2021, 9.40 – 10.45

1. Language Learners’ Characteristics and Behavioral Patterns in LMOOCs: The Case of Learn Turkish LMOOC
2. Supporting teachers’ adoption of learning analytics dashboards through design-based research: Insights from two institutions
3. Predicting drop-out in Toastmasters; scoping out the application of learning analytics to support professional education.

Scroll down for abstract

Language Learners’ Characteristics and Behavioral Patterns in LMOOCs: The Case of Learn Turkish LMOOC

Hilal Seda Yildiz, Bart Rienties and Tevfik Volkan Yuzer

In this two-stage exploratory research, we determined the characteristics of nearly 11,000 learners in a Turkish Language MOOC (LMOOC) and whether their engagement differs according to these characteristics, and also we unveiled which variables are caused these differences. The findings of this study can help researchers and designers to re-think learning design, learner support, and overall learner experience in LMOOCS.

Within the scope of the first study, we discovered learners’ demographics (age, gender, employment status, education level), language-related skills (online course experience and Turkish language level), and online learning environment engagement (watching videos, participating in short exams and module activities). We conducted Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) procedures for the exploration purpose then visualised the findings. One of the interesting results we achieved as a result of EDA is that more than half of the learners are Syrian citizens, and half of them are men living in Turkey. More than half of the learners are at the undergraduate and above educational level as well as their online learning experience and their prior level in the Turkish language are low. When we explored learners’ engagement on grammar tutorials and drama videos investigated, we saw that the tutorials were preferred more, and also video and visual activities were preferred more than the activities with text and keyboard input.

In the second study, we investigated learner subgroups in terms of their demographics, language-related skills (and online learning environment engagement. At this stage, the TwoStep clustering algorithm was used to include all categorical and continuous variables in the analysis. As a result of the analysis, five different subgroups emerged. These groups are named as (I) the highest engagement and diversity, (II) low engagement and non-online learning, (III) online learner and high engagement, (IV) adult and professional, (V) young and student. A two-stage approach has been adopted to validate the cluster analysis results. After the validation phase, we saw that online course experience and education level are the variables with the highest discrimination rate. These two variables are followed by age, quiz attendance, additional activity attendance and the video watching frequency, respectively.

Supporting teachers’ adoption of learning analytics dashboards through design-based research: Insights from two institutions

Anna Gillespie and Rogers Kaliisa

While teachers are considered as the key users of learning analytics (LA), best practice examples that involve teachers in the development of relevant LA interventions, (e.g. dashboards) remain limited. In this paper, we present insights from two on-going doctoral projects that seek to develop and implement teacher-facing LA dashboards using design-based approaches that involve teachers as co-designers. The first project is based at the Open University (OU) in the United Kingdom and is focused on the use of the Early Alert Indicators dashboard (EAI) that provides predictions about students’ learning activities. The second project is at the University of Oslo in Norway, developing a teacher-facing dashboard (CADA) aimed at providing teachers with real-time insights about students’ participation and discourse in online discussions. Based on experiences gained through qualitative analysis of user-experiences, observation reports, and eye-tracking, preliminary findings from both cases suggest promises and challenges. Teachers reported the usefulness of LA dashboards as valuable tools to support individualised-interventions, enhanced their existing teaching skills, and timely learning-design changes. The involvement of teachers in the design and co-design process was highlighted as useful in connecting dashboards and teachers’ pedagogical intentions. However, it was evident across the two case studies that systematic use of LA dashboards by teachers remains problematic, with teachers using dashboards erroneously and having challenges to understand the visualisations. Moreover, ethical issues, and limited support from management were cited as key concerns. The two cases provide guidelines and implications for teachers, researchers and technology developers concerning advancing the use and development of LA dashboards.

Predicting drop-out in Toastmasters; scoping out the application of learning analytics to support professional education.

Selina Griffin

After my first year of my EdD at the OU, I am keen to share some of the findings of my preliminary literature review on learning analytics and how such practices could be applied to alternative contexts.

The use of learning analytics to build predictive models identifying students who might be at risk of failing or dropping out of their studies is becoming more common (to different degrees) in higher education. In the realm of professional education, focussed on skills rather than knowledge-based education, the practice is still relatively unheard of. My research is based in the realm of Toastmasters International (TMI); a global public speaking organisation of over 300,000 Members. Members attend local Club meetings where they give speeches and take on roles in order to progress through the educational programme in public speaking and leadership skills. TMI have recently developed Pathways; a complete overhaul of their educational programme (largely unaltered in over 50 years) which also for the first time moves materials from paper-based to a Learning Management System (LMS). My research seeks to examine these developments and then look to the field of learning analytics to see whether such techniques could be adapted to the field of professional skills training, examining behaviour in the trace data to flag individuals at risk of dropping out of Toastmasters. For the first time in Toastmasters close to one-hundred-year history, Pathways creates a dataset whereby we can examine the behaviour and engagement of Members with the materials and look for early warning signs of disengagement.