Discipline Expert

eLearning applications/trends such as Learning analytics, BYOD and mLearning, Makerspaces will be looked into and its influence on the future of higher education in PICs.

Learning analytics refers to the collection and analysis of data about learners and their environments for the purpose of understanding and improving learning outcomes. Learning analytics is where big data meets traditional quantitative methods in education. Governments, universities, testing organizations, and massive open online course providers are collecting data about learners and how they learn. All that data, however, has been mostly untapped until the fairly recent development of the methods and tools to do so.

Much of the data currently available does not come in neat, well-organized, and collected formats. It exists in varied forms across systems and locations. Analysts today need the skills to access and transform this data, so we can better understand not only what students know, but how they know it. Learning analytics and educational data mining are the tools to transform this data into knowledge and lead, in the end, to improved education. One of the driving forces behind the growth in the learning analytics field is that educational institutions are now facing the challenge of limited resources and increased accountability, which are propelling creativity and discovery.

 

The practical uses of learning analytics are to:
• Measure key indicators of student performance
• Support student development
• Understand and improve the effectiveness of teaching practices
• Inform institutional decisions and strategy


Bring your own device (BYOD) and mLearning
mLearning is any form of knowledge that is given using hand-held and portable devices.

The benefits of BYOD and mLearning are as follows:
• Lower cost technology integration: Achieving technology rich classrooms and 1:1 teaching situation at a lower cost for the institution as well as enabling students to save on textbooks. 

• Engagement: Students become much more involved and engaged since their role changes to active learners and peer tutors. They have shown higher levels of contribution and productivity in the learning process. 

• Teaching 21st century skills: By enabling students to use their own mobile devices, they learn collaboration, problem solving, creativity, production, and social networking, all of which are skills highly required in the future job market. 

• Anytime, anywhere access: Learning no longer happens in the classroom only, it takes place out of the classroom as well, and more so because of students’ continuous engagement, and interest. Having their own devices turned on and tuned to their learning builds on their comfort zone because they are using the devices they are most familiar with. 

• Responsibility: When the device is the student’s own, it encourages them to take responsibility for their own learning as well as their own device in terms of continuous updating, maintenance, and safe keeping. 

• Personalized learning: This is one of the most prominent benefits of BYOD. With the app revolution, and the wide choice of educational and productivity apps that are available for students, learning is becoming more personalized. 

• Learner Independence: When students are learning anywhere, anytime, in a more personalized and responsible manner, this will result in increased levels of independence that will create lifelong learning habits. 

• High speed of implementation: Institutions can embark on a BYOD program without much delay since the process of purchasing the devices does not need to be done by the institution itself.

In a course, EE212 (Analog Electronics I) which I teach, I encourage students to use a software (Circuit Maker Simulation) on their own device rather than depending on computer labs to be available for them to use. By having this software in their own device, the students can use it whenever they want and complete their lab activities even outside of laboratory.

Makerspace
A makerspace is a room that contains tools and components, allowing students to enter with an idea and leave with a complete project. The goal is to work together to learn, collaborate, and share. Most importantly, makerspaces allows the students to explore, create new things, or improve things that already exist.

In the engineering department of USP, certain rooms are arranged to contain equipment like PCB printing machine, 3-Phase motor setups, 3D printers etc. for students to utilize it in their projects. Hence, I personally believe that eLearning applications/trends does influence positively on the future of higher education in PICs, specifically in engineering discipline.

Looking forward for your views on this.

References
A. Steed and M. Slater, “Dataflow Representation for Defining Behaviors within Virtual Environments”, in Proc. Virtual Reality Annual International Symposium, 1996, pp. 163-167.

Benedek, A. (2007). Mobile learning and lifelong knowledge acquisition. In K. Nyiri (Ed.), Mobile studies: Paradigms and perspectives. Communications in the 21st century (pp. 35–44). Vienna: Passagen Verlag

D. Schmalstieg, A. Fuhrmann, G. Hesina, Zs. Szalavari, L. M. Encarnaçäo, M. Gervautz, and W. Purgathofer, “The Studierstube Augmented Reality Project”, Teleoperators & Virtual Environments, vol. 11, pp. 33-54, 2002.

 

Kind Regards

Arishnil Bali