After going through several article on online learning you get a clear idea about how this new form of learning has changed in a productive way and how it is serving the purpose of student’s requirements to fulfill their need to evolve. But little is known about the fact that it also has changed the mind-set of teaches and instructors who, too, felt the need to develop in the course of time.
Along with imparting relevant education that is required for a career growth an educator acts as a vigilant whose purpose is to keep an eye on the student’s involvement in learning. Apart from delivering a flexible study schedule, online learning manages to keep the learners engaged in study whenever he gets a free time. By participating in an online course students are offered to watch live lectures, join online discussion forum or share an online ‘classroom’ with students from all over the world. Instead of working alone the students are provided with a system where they an study the courses, state or solve the problem with others. All these innovative features, introduced by the initiation of online learning, will gradually built the confidence of a student to direct his own education if his progress is monitored properly.
Do The Educators Need To Upgrade Themselves Too?
Yes! They do. Teachers need to upgrade themselves, as the new technology comes into play, to construct a robust communication with the new system and to leverage the benefit of it. To monitor the the progress and engagement of the students instructors are required to use student analytics. Many instructors have the wrong idea about using the analytics, they feel that one needs to be a pro to use it. However the use of this scaling technique is quite simple and can be learned easily. John Vivolo, director of online and virtual learning for New York University explains the use of “pocket data analytics” to his faculties, which according to him are “small, easy-to-use pieces of data that are readily available to instructors through their LMS.” Vivolo explains the concept this way:
“Rather than looking at large scale data, the purpose of this method is to get instructors to focus on smaller patterns within a single course, during a specific time period, such as a week. The intent is to have a method in which to introduce the concept of academic course analytics as a practical tool….”
Using Pocket Data Analytics To Follow Up Individual Assignments.
By using pocket data analytics an instructor can make use of the data that is collected automatically, and shows a student’s involvement with his course on any given time period. A video that is saved in cloud-database for a student to watch can bring out the engagement of that particular user by calculating the number of times he viewed it for a specific period of time. A video, for instance, of a lecture on quantum physics or a tutorial of Adobe After Effects that is viewed over thirty times by a student, which is more than the usual, within in a week may imply that the information is difficult to understand. This is when a through and through explanation of the matter can be offered to the learners. In this case Pocket data analytics is delivering the real-time view-count of a video.
For Time-Based Measurement
Students from different regions, time-zones and professions are assembled in a virtual classroom to participate in online courses. It is obvious that they all have their preferable time to learn. By using pocket data analytics an instructor can actually track the student’s average login time in a week, on which he can customise his own schedule to deliver assignments or to initiate a live conversation regarding the course. In a paper on the subject, Vivolo says,
“When looking at these numbers, an instructor should consider the demographics of their students. One cannot ignore the variety of student populations when comparing online to on-campus learning. Are they working students who have less time to access the course during the week and must access it during the weekends? Are they more traditional students who can access material during the day (assuming they do not have a full-time job)?”
For Initiating Discussion Boards
The initiation of a real-time discussion board can excite the students while they are in a virtual classroom. Data such as log-in times and frequencies of an individual learner obtained from pocket data analytics can be used to maintain the discussion board. Conversation that continues for a long period of time among the students on a certain discussion board can be treated with utmost importance.
The communication behavior of the teachers with the students is increased significantly by the practice of using pocket data analytics. As a result students will be more eager to join the classroom, engage in online courses and participate in a problem-solution thread, in short they will gain an overall improvement.
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Online Learning Information 