Kemi Jona

Getting real: the authenticity of remote labs and simulations for science learning

Teachers use remote labs and simulations to augment or even replace hands-on science learning. We compared undergraduate students’ experiences with a remote lab and a simulation to investigate beliefs about and learning from the interactions. Although learning occurred in both groups, students were more deeply engaged while performing the remote lab. Remote lab users felt and behaved as though they completed a real scientific experiment. We also examined whether realistic visualizations improved the psychological and learning experiences for each lab. Students who watched live video of the device collecting their data in the remote lab felt most engaged with the task, suggesting that it is the combination of the realistic lab and realistic video that was of the greatest benefit.

MOOCs: emerging research

Few phenomena in recent memory have rocked the boat of higher education generally, and the field of distance education in particular, more than the advent of massive open online courses (MOOCs). Supporters of these online courses, which are aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the Web, hail it as a true, disruptive innovation (Christensen, 2013), as well as a means of democratizing access to education and as promising new insights on teaching and learning from analytics on tens of thousands to millions of students (e.g. Picciano, 2012; Siemens & Long, 2011). Critics of MOOCs cite concerns about homogenization and depersonalization of education, about corporate influences on the academy, and about the lack of attention to the findings from decades of research on distance education and online learning. Some MOOCs are designed to enable anyone anywhere to study free university courses or pursue their interests by taking taster courses. Some are intended primarily as “digital storefronts,” designed to market institutional brands globally. Some are aimed at openness and access; others at economizing or profiteering. Some providers are elite institutions, while others are for-profit start-ups. The so-called cMOOCs use constructivist principles, but the majority, referred to as xMOOCs, employ a knowledge transmission model using video recordings of classroom lectures or custom-produced mini-lectures. Regardless of type, Bates (2012) sees MOOCs as a retrograde step, observing that it is as if distance learning had just been invented and nothing was known about the need for quality in instructional design and learner support. With high non-completion rates also being reported, Yuan and Powell (2013) suggest that the issues of quality, sustainability, pedagogy, completion rates, and awarding of credit in MOOCs are of major concern for higher education, and that if their use is to take hold, some form(s) of quality assurance will be needed to ensure that they conform to best practice. Regardless of our views on MOOCs, it is clear that we find ourselves in a place where practice is leading theory (or at least the application of theory), and meaningful research findings are sparse. Moreover, as the articles in this special themed issue make abundantly clear, we are also seeing MOOCs being adapted in a diversity of ways. Firmin et al. (2014) describe MOOCs that are not massive and are targeting on-campus students. Li et al. (2014) describe co-located viewing of MOOC videos that is squarely an in-person rather than an online learning experience. Clearly, treating MOOCs as a monolithic, homogenous practice is unhelpful in advancing our understanding or in even agreeing on a shared vocabulary with which to discuss and debate. Our goal in compiling this special issue of the journal has been to provide a forum to help close the gaps between theory, research, and practice on this topic. The response by the research community to the call for papers for this issue of the journal was overwhelmingly strong, and it is likely that a growing number of

Interactive and scalable biology cloud experimentation for scientific inquiry and education.

A real-time interactive, fully automated, low-cost and scalable biology cloud experimentation platform could provide access to scientific experimentation for learners and researchers alike.

A Remote Radioactivity Experiment

Imagine a high school with very few experimental resources and limited budgets that prevent the purchase of even basic laboratory equipment. For example, many high schools do not have the means of experimentally studying radioactivity because they lack Geiger counters and/or good radioactive sources. This was the case at the first high school one of us (MV) worked at, and after talking with numerous colleagues we know this is still the case at many schools. What options are there then for physics teachers to allow their students to experimentally investigate certain characteristics of radioactivity, such as how distance affects the intensity of radiation coming from a radioactive source? There are computer simulations that can be run, or perhaps the teacher has a light sensor and tries to make an analogy between the intensity of light from a light bulb and the intensity of radiation from a radioactive source based on geometric arguments to get an inverse-square law. But for many there is no direct experimental option if one does not possess a Geiger counter and good radioactive sample. It is for that teacher and class of students that an online, remote radioactivity experiment was created.

MyOncofertility.org: A Web-Based Patient Education Resource Supporting Decision Making Under Severe Emotional and Cognitive Overload

Kristin, a 38-year-old female with breast cancer, was scheduled to begin treatment a week after receiving her diagnosis. Although she was in a four-year-long relationship, she had never thought about having kids. Kristin was told that embryo banking (IVF) was the best option for fertility preservation, and she had to decide immediately if she wanted biological children in order to start an egg-retrieval cycle. Because no other options were provided and she was uncertain about freezing embryos with her partner, she ended up foregoing fertility preservation prior to the treatments that ultimately left her infertile. Ethan, a 19-year-old male, was in the hospital for four days awaiting surgery to remove a pelvic sarcoma. The surgery required removal of his testes rendering him infertile. During those four days, no one talked to him or his family about sperm banking, even though it could hve been accomplished in a matter of minutes.

Remote laboratories: Uncovering the true costs

Remote laboratories have been the subject of both technical development and pedagogic analysis. Much of the associated literature uses arguments regarding the relative value of these laboratories to justify the work in this area. Whilst many of these arguments are focused on pedagogic opportunity or logistical flexibility, they often also argue for the financial benefits that accrue from the ability to share laboratory resources. In this paper we consider the prevalence of these arguments and the extent to which they are (or are not) underpinned by research-based evidence. We do attempt to draw any conclusions on the cost benefit of RLs but rather argue for the need for better and more rigorous remote laboratory cost models on which future cost benefit analysis could rest. We provide preliminary work on a framework for collecting significant robust data on the costs associated with developing and maintaining remote laboratories, and provide initial suggestions regarding elements that need to be included in this framework.

Interactive Assessment Tools for Computational Thinking in High School STEM Classrooms

This paper presents a pair of online, interactive assessments designed to measures students’ computational thinking skills. The assessments are part of a larger project to bring computational thinking into high school STEM classrooms. Each assessment includes interactive tools that highlight the power of computation in the practice of scientific and mathematical inquiry. The computational tools used in our assessments enable students to analyze data with dynamic visualizations and explore concepts with computational models.

Every curriculum tells a story

The fallacy that many post-secondary curricula are optimized to facilitate student learning is exposed by a parable of creating a curriculum to teach dragon slaying. As an alternative model, the story-centered curriculum is introduced and an example of using this approach to redesign an e-commerce masters program is presented. Examples of the story-centered curriculum being used in both masters-level and high school are described.

Designing remote labs for broader adoption

If learning technologies such as remote online labs are to achieve broad adoption, it is imperative that we take seriously the needs of the instructor and the real world context in which he or she will use these resources. Here we describe efforts to address the many barriers to successful adoption of remote lab technologies in secondary school settings. An iterative, design-based research process that includes close collaboration with classroom teachers has produced a more robust and user-friendly platform with several unique new capabilities.