Education Research: An Investment in our Future?

I started reading a blog post by my team mate Ashley called Let's talk about replication. It was brought to her attention that only 0.13% of education research now is being replicated, and slightly more than 50% of those are actually considered quality research...

As I read through her post I chuckled immensely, as our undergraduate background is quite similar. I too had a zoology degree, and have spent countless hours replicating experiments that were written out to me, and when results from my experiment deviated from the original study, I was supposed to critically analyse that might have happened (I think my TA could only tolerate so many explanations due to human errors). Like Ashley, I also had the idea that replicating experiment was critical, as we were always told to design our experiments so that it was replicable. So the statistics of this study really caught me by surprise.

I would like to think that education design would be a hot research topic; afterall, we are only investing in laying the foundations for many generations to come, but Ashley's discovery suggested otherwise. I am deeply concerned, because there is an urgent need for education systems to evolve and be reformed. Major cities around the world are all struggling for a solution for stressed teachers and oversized classes. Student retention rates at post-secondary institutions have room for improvement. Students are more distracted now than ever with the accessibility of technology and mobile devices at and outside of school, and as I mentioned in my first post, students are quickly changing the way they study! Our education system seems soon to go obsolete, as traditional instruction methods are no longer enough to satisfy our students' appetite. While all signs point to "online learning" and "learning technology" as the next miracle product to solve the world's academic hunger issues, studies that uses action research methodologies performed just 3 years ago in the field of technology may reflect very little truth in how people behave around technology today.

Don't get me wrong, previous research is definitely critical in raising questions and finding out the direction that subsequent studies should follow, with results the studies expects to find, but I think the key here really is subsequent studies to follow - if we don't replicate studies and improve on them, we won't be able to find answers to good questions that were raised, and we cannot correctly identify opportunities to improve our education. We need to invest time and money into tweaking and evolving the commodity that gives us the most return, our next generation!

IT vs Academics in the Struggle of e-Learning Design

Recently, I stumbled across an article in Campus Technology about how IT and Acadmeics Don't Work Together Much, It's quite mind-blowing to discover the disconnect between academics and IT structure within universities - apparently, 60% of IT professionals don't the academic community on their needs, and 60% of the end users only view IT professionals as technicians who fixes their broken computers. After reading these statistics, it is not hard to picture then why the academic world still prefers more "traditional methodologies", i.e. not making a huge effort in integrating technology, or in some cases avoiding the use of technology altogether.

As a student who has had experience with online classes from public universities, government jobs and professional development in a corporate setting, I have had my fair share of frustration with online learning platforms. In some cases, the layout and hierarchy of where things are placed is not intuitive (though that could be very specific to user preference), the computer generates errors and glitches when calculating course total, or other technical difficulties that send students into panic attacks before assignment deadlines. At one point or another, I find myself cursing over the poor user interface of this platform every single course, and sometimes it leads me wondering: why can't technology be less painful when it comes to learning?

Could it simply be a lack of communication between delivering what the academic community wants and what the UX designer thinks they want? Perhaps it is that vicious cycle of the classic chicken-or-the-egg spiral - which came first,  the academic community's resistance to technology that brought on the miscommunication between IT professionals and end users, or poor UX design which leads to frustration and resentment of new technology? Or have IT requirements evolved so quickly that institutions are having difficulty keeping up? Either way, being able to design any platform with the user in mind in the long-run to future-proof the product is essential. The worse case scenario would be to develop a new interface 5 years later that's already obsolete prior to the roll out of the project.

Moving into cloud services serves as a good example and opportunity for changes. Currently, US institutions spend over $4 billion in developing cloud computing services in hopes of providing an evolutionary learning experience that is more agile, effective, and lower in cost. However, to truly achieve these objectives, concerns about security, cost, and culture of the community should be considered in the design of cloud interface. And while cloud-based computing technology has been made available for years, it is important that designers ask the right questions to academics and researchers in order to produce a quality product that would form a good foundation for future changes in technology tailored to their needs.

Monitoring Research in a Forum Community

(Not too) Long ago, before Facebook, and Twitter and MySpace, was a period of time when online communities formed in the form of a discussion forum. A group of people with a common hobby or goal congregate in cyberspace, share their knowledge with each other and in turn the community benefits as a whole as everyone's level of knowledge on that topic increases. Moderators controlled user activities by setting rules to the forums, monitoring chat rooms, and checking for unusual behavior from certain users. The community help patrol the forum by flagging posts that could be of concern for the moderators to block or to remove. If necessary, moderators have the right to ban users from using the forum altogether. Members of the forum also collectively ensure the quality of the forum by "calling out" on other people if users post information that is incorrect, and in the long run inaccurate information is filtered. Long-term users supported by the community also further act as mentors within the forum - new users often seek advice from veteran members to learn the "tricks of the trade".

One very popular forum is FlyerTalk, where global travelers collide to discuss recent flight deals around the world, mileage systems of various airlines and hotel points systems, and get travel tips for popular places and destinations off the beaten path. New users often ask senior contributors for hints for flight routings and how to get the most out of their travel budget, and people around the community are willing to help. However, as soon as a user posts inappropriate activities (like unauthorized advertising, posting rude comments or minor offense like posting on the wrong forum), it only takes 5 minutes for the community to publicly dismiss the posting and for moderators to be alerted. Overtime, this community benefits from the shared knowledge, and the community is often able to put themselves in an advantageous position over airlines and hotels.

Imagine this kind of efficiency in an online forum for academic scholars. As a community, researchers share their findings or insights on a forum in different topics. Scholars globally can comment and analyze new studies, in hopes to raise the level of knowledge of all users. Hot topics would generate discussions across a demographic much wider than traditional methods. These posts would be patrolled by the community too - anything posted is subject to scrutiny by everyone on the forum, and inaccurate information would be ultimately be rejected. Essentially, all information on the forum would've undergone some form of peer review for it to stay posted, thus, ensuring credibility and quality of these posts. Young researchers can now draw from the wealth of information from experts around the world at once to improve their methods or to get insight on results. This kind of interaction can only benefit the research community in the long run, especially when the trend in everything is to be globalized through the use of the internet.  If research and knowledge sharing is still solely bound to textbooks and peer-reviewed journals, the rate of information being delivered could be slower than the rate of how things are changing – eLearning and technology is a great example, where data from studies that took 5 years to complete is now obsolete because of the new technology that’s been made available in within that time frame. By being more flexible and opening up other channels of knowledge sharing, information would be more relevant without necessary sacrificing reliability and credibility.

And to finish off my post, here is the link to FlyerTalk (one of my favorite forums). Enjoy! 

Learning and Research - Anywhere, Any time

I can't believe that I am updating my blog on a train. Technology has made it so easy, that we can be anywhere and access information at any time. In this day in age, learning really can take place anywhere, any time.

Just today, I decided to do some reading for Assignment #4, which requires me to critically analyze scientific journals. I pulled out my phone and clicked on the PDF file that I emailed myself, and started reading. I am able to email myself notes and findings while I was reading to work on later. Then it hit me - I can literally find any open window of time to learn something new.

What really boggles my mind is that, this is definitely not the first e-learning course I have encountered. I've taken various distance education courses during my undergraduate studies, as well as completing a 100% online program in project management. However, never have pulling out my smartphone to do my homework ever crossed my mind!

I think it is safe to say that the days of studying with a textbook on your lap while taking the bus to school is well behind us. With my smartphone and a data plan, I can post on class forums, participate in discussions, chat with  distant classmates, and update and edit papers we collaborated as a group, and send SOS emails to my instructor when I am in need. This experience has been such a revelation to me, as it truly provide freedom in learning. Surely if services like dating, banking, or just making dinner reservations have become the norm, learning using mobile apps should be, at the very least, a business proposal to universities and colleges in order to promote continue education for all ages. Social media like Twitter and Facebook have been so successful at keeping people engaged across the globe, online education platforms could surely investigate similar models in connecting students and teachers together.

As students change their studying behaviour, researchers could perhaps take the same approach in conducting research, especially in qualitative and quantitative analysis. It's interesting to see that many research courses at post-secondary institutions encourage students to conduct research in the form on online surveys. One of the most obvious benefits is the ability to reach a large population. Students just set up a series of questions, and reach out to a large population of people in a very short amount of time. It's also most convenient for volunteers to participate in the survey because of easy access. Also, this defies any geographical restrictions, and research can be globalized more easily. The mobile environment to me truly opens an exciting chapter, and can revolutionize how research is conducted!

For today, as I continue my research for my assignment, all I have to worry about, is getting on the right train while I do my homework.