First published in Campus Morning Mail on Tuesday 13th September
Scientists Asked Students to Try to Fool Anti-Cheating Software. They Did. From Vice
Proctoring software for online exams has undoubtably been the most controversial part of education technology in the COVID era. These tools use a mixture of AI and human agents to monitor student activity in their homes during high stakes summative assessment. This article nicely sums up a 2021 conference paper from Bergmans et al. about a study where the researchers had 30 computer science students take an online exam, with 6 cheating and 5 behaving nervously but honestly. The technology caught nobody and its effectiveness is felt to mostly come from the perception that it works.
Perceived Anonymity and Cheating in an Online Experiment from Eastern European Economics
This study complements the last one in some ways, demonstrating that questions of academic integrity are still thorny. 1500 Ukrainian students were asked to toss a coin 10 times, with those getting 8 or more heads being entered in a cash prize draw. Students were either able to toss the coin manual, in a computer simulation or through a choice of the two. When they perceived that their tosses were private, notably more hit the statistically less likely 8+ heads target, indicating that a perception of observation is likely to affect behaviour.
ACODE Learning Modalities 2022 from ACODE
ACODE may not come up with the sexiest titles but their whitepaper from Ratna Selvaratnam about current thinking on learning and teaching in Australasian Higher Ed is vital reading. It summarises a recent survey of 20 ACODE member institutions and shows that the times they are a changin’. Virtually all respondents said there is significant rethinking of what learning and teaching needs to look like and there is some interesting data about what it looks like currently.
Sociomaterial Practices of Design for Learning Teams in Higher Education (Thesis) from Jenny Pesina
The people that will ultimately be tasked with supporting these changes, in whatever form they take, often live in the various learning and teaching teams around the university. This Masters thesis from a USyd student offers some valuable insights into the ways these teams work and the complex collaborative environments and practices that they use to support success in this endeavour.
Webinar – Curriculum Futures: Situational Factors in Learning Design Framework Thursday 4pm AEST from ASCILITE Learning Designers SIG
I’ve shared some useful learning and teaching resources from Danielle Hinton here previously so I was quite happy to see that the Learning Design SIG has booked her in to present their webinar this month. She will discuss the situational thinking that needs to occur before learning design occurs, covering Students, Staffing, Subject, Sequencing, Space, Scene, Standards and Scholarship.