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PCF10 Inauguration Welcome
Get PDFPCF10 Inauguration Welcome by Professor Asha Kanwar, President & CEO, Commonwealth of Learning, at the Tenth Pan-Commonwealth Forum
on Open Learning (PCF10) in Calgary, Canada on 15 September 2022
Automated Essay Scoring (AES) Systems: Opportunities and Challenges for Open and Distance Education
No full textPCF10 Sub-theme: Inspiring Innovations // This paper reports on a systematic review of artificial intelligence applications in education (AIEd) with a special focus on automated essay scoring (AES) systems. AES systems may provide enormous time-savings, especially for large-scale distance teaching institutions with massive numbers of students, by reducing marking and freeing up teachers’ resources for individual feedback and personal support of distance learners. After an introduction on how AES systems function, a review corpus of published articles between 2007 and 2021 is synthetised to evaluate critical discussions and research trends in AES. Articles in the corpus generally evaluated either the accuracy of AES systems or the experience of users, and include implementation of AES systems in various settings (i.e., higher education, K-12, and large-scale assessments). Despite the opportunities that AES might afford for educational institutions, many questions related to the feasibility and validity of AES systems, their implementation, and the associated ethical issues are still unanswered. The findings of this research provide a solid foundation for this discussion. // Paper ID 833
iNOUN Chatbot: Providing Support and Microlearning with a Web Based Conversational Smart Assistant
Get PDFPCF10 Sub-theme: Promoting Equity and Inclusion // Innovative solutions based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) are transforming modern society. The goal of AI is to create computers or machines that imitate human abilities as closely as possible. Conversational interfaces, or chatbots, are considered a revolutionary step towards the next generation of digital experiences. Few studies, however, have examined how these tools can be used to increase access to education and content-driven support. This study describes and demonstrates an intelligent support personal bot that responds to simple questions on information on the university website. Furthermore, the chatbot can provide learners with small chunks of learning material via voice and text input. The iNOUN chatbot uses Drupal's content management system to serve content, Google's Dialog flow NLU tools to process text and voice input, and a chatbot interface to interact with users. The web-based system powered by Artificial Intelligence will offer personalized support to learners as well as serve as a teaching assistant capable of presenting small chunks of content to learners. As a result, equity, inclusion, and lifelong learning are likely to be promoted. // Paper ID 821
Future Directions for Digital Literacy Fluency using Cognitive Flexibility Research: A Review of Selected Digital Literacy Paradigms and Theoretical Frameworks
Get PDFAs learners engage, test, and apply new subject knowledge, they often expend their cognitive capacity on the technological tools designed to capture their learning progress and outcomes. The energy and attention spent on these tools reduces their capacity to engage deeply with new learning concepts. Digital literacy skills require both cognitive and technical skills to develop a learner’s ability to locate, use, and communicate information. Increasingly complex information environments create various barriers for student learning, and as our learning and working industries continue to evolve and integrate technologies, students must overcome these barriers by bridging learning needs and technology expectations. This research explores the value of developing digital literacy to improve learners’ cognitive flexibility by decreasing technological cognitive load and increasing learning fluency. The findings highlight the need for establishing scaffolded digital literacy skills and digital tool selection, and expand college readiness requirements to include digital literacy as a prerequisite skill for learners
E-Learning amidst Covid-19 for the Visually Impaired Students at Kwame Nkrumah University – Kabwe, Zambia: Absolute or a Discriminatory Outlook
Get PDFPCF10 Sub-theme: Promoting Equity and Inclusion // The main purpose of this study was to assess e-learning amidst Covid-19 for the visually impaired students at Kwame Nkrumah University. The population for the study involved a total number of thirty-five students from Kwame Nkrumah University who provided complete information regarding the survey. A physical and an online survey were conducted on different social platforms like student WhatsApp groups and Zoom from 10th May to 8 July 2021 to collect data. This research took a qualitative approach. Data was analysed using thematic analysis. Interview guide and unstructured questionnaires were used to collect data. The main findings were that during the quarantine period, around 5% of visually impaired learners were involved in e-learning. Most of the learners used android mobile for attending e-learning lessons. Further, the study revealed that students were facing various problems relating to failure to pay 50% of the fees as a condition to access online e-learning lectures, not having smart phones which have voice prompts or better still smart phones specifically for the visually impaired persons, poor internet connectivity and unfavorable study environment at home. Students from remote areas of Zambia and those with completely no gadgets were the most affected in terms of accessibility to the e-learning platform. As a result of the many challenges the visually impaired students are still facing during this period of e-learning amid covid19, this study recommends to Kwame Nkrumah University management to devise a flexible education system that will be inclusive in terms of accessibility and will enforce the skill for employability and productivity. // Paper ID 125
Micro-Credentials and the Future of Skills-Based Learning: Looking at Canada
No full textPCF10 Sub-theme: Fostering Lifelong Learning // In response to a worsening global skills shortage that is already disrupting economies, governments and institutions have embraced micro-credentials. Intended as short (hour and weeks rather than months and years), competency-based driven by the skills needed by employers, the market is now awash with short courses claiming to be micro-credentials. The result is a market swamped with courses and market confusion. This paper outlines the opportunity, the challenges and the missteps in this fast-emerging market and suggests a probable future. // Paper ID 666
Mandatory Continuing Professional Development Model: A Pathway of Promoting Lifelong Job Interest among Academic Faculty Members in Higher Education in Nigeria
No full textPCF 10 Sub-theme: Fostering Lifelong Learning // Higher institutions are compelled to remain competitive in the rapidly changing world of the current century. This entails promotion of lifelong learning. Using universities in Nigeria for example, we take a crucial look at how mandatory continuing professional development model could promote lifelong job interest among academic faculty members. To effectuate the main objective of the study, three research questions were raised and the correspondence hypotheses were formulated to direct the study. Survey research design was employed. The study population comprised all university academic faculty members purposively selected from faculties in university of Calabar, Nigeria. These faculties were stratified along departments and study levels. A total of 110 respondents were selected via simple random sampling technique. Participants were 42 female university teachers and 68 male. Mandatory Continuing Professional Development Questionnaire (r=0.76) and Lifelong Job Interest Rating (r=0.76) scale were used as instruments for data collection. Data collected were analysed utilizing descriptive statistics and multiple regressions at 0.05 level of significance. Results of the study showed a significant relationship between mandatory continuing professional development model and academic faculty members’ lifelong job interest. In this regard, the study concluded that mandatory continuing professional development model is a key factor in promoting lifelong job interest in higher education and regular updating, re-skilling and re-tooling of teachers is desirable. // Paper ID 319
Building Resilience during the Forced Isolation: Experiences of Tenacious Academics of the Open University of Sri Lanka
Get PDFPCF10 Sub-theme: Building Resilience // The purpose of this paper is to report on the resilience of the faculty academics of the Open University of Sri Lanka who embarked on the online journey to support the isolated learners during the Covid-19 lockdown. A total of 225 academics responded to the questionnaire administered immediately after the lockdown, resulting in a 66% response rate. Findings revealed that 10% of academics had already completed their activities, 53% had engaged in online teaching before and during the pandemic while 17% had commenced only during the pandemic. In contrast, 20% had not gone online. This study focuses on the 17% who responded promptly to support learners during this unexpected situation. The challenges were categorized as learner-centric; teacher-centric and institutional-centric. Learner-centric challenges were focused on learner issues such as access issues related to devices, internet connections, data, etc., and how to design alternative strategies to increase learner engagement. Teacher-centric challenges were upskilling knowledge and skills associated with online learning, balancing official workload with personal commitments, etc. Institutional-centric challenges were related to obtaining essential support services remotely. These tenacious academics demonstrated how they build their resilience to face unexpected situations through self-regulatory mechanisms. This study provides some insights into building resilience for future educational endeavours. // Paper ID 902
Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) Achievement Report: July - November 2022
No full textCommonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) Achievement Report for July - November 2022
Effective External Stakeholder Engagement: an Imperative for Effective Open and Distance Learning Delivery
No full textPCF10 Sub-theme: Inspiring Innovations // The use of external stakeholders in an Open and Distance Learning environment is an operational necessity and a strong component of the ODL system, but it could also be the weakest link if not properly managed. The use of external stakeholders by organisations ensures quality assurance through content reviews and readily available resources at a minimum cost. Because most of the external stakeholders are individually unknown to the institutional administrators, this creates a gap in the ODL process within an institution. Institutions must evolve a robust, sustainable engagement process, a more formal means to understand the stakeholders - individual doubts and capabilities, their limitations, motivations as well as their conceptions and views of the learning method that they are engaged with. To bridge this gap and achieve inclusive engagement with the numerous external stakeholders this study will utilise survey method to seek to understand their unique expectations. The outcome of this study will hopefully enable institution’s managers and the internal experts/content creators to constantly manage their relationship with the external experts and hence construct more and effective engagement strategies and plans, and positive work environment for their diverse external stakeholders with attendant benefit for their students. // Paper ID 080