Trends in Adult
Education
Adaptive Learning
Systems
Could a technology based adaptive
learning system (ALS) work in the harvesting sector of the BC forest industry? It is
unlikely that ALS will be employed in the standard form in the near future. One
impediment is that most of the training is very hands on, and outside in all kinds of weather, making
it not conducive to computers.
The
bigger impediment though, would be the cost. Learning institutions wanting to
teach math and science to thousands of learners across the country, struggle
with the cost of developing and operating online ALSs, and the algorithms they
require. It is unlikely that any one training course for the BC forestry
harvesting sector is going to have an uptake of more than 25-30 trainees per
year, making those costs, on a per student basis, totally untenable. Shelle,
Earnesty, Pilkenton, & Powel (2018) cite Freda’s, Challenges
to adaptive learning include high costs of implementation, inadequate support,
need for training, and inability to manage extensive amounts of data (Freda,
2016).
One area where adaptive learning
technology could possibly be considered in the future is the substantive online modules of the
New Faller Training (NFT) program, which is currently going through a major revision. That being said, a modified,
technology free, version of ALS has been used for years in NFT, and with the course being revised to a
more evidence based system with formative assessments, we will be using ALS more.
The old system and the new system both provide for one on one training, and there are lots of opportunities for a good instructor
to gauge how the trainee is doing, and to adapt the teaching style and focus of the
training, to suit the trainee's needs. It would be a missed opportunity not to use ALS, and
instead, plug along with a preordained course structure, wasting time teaching
trainees something they already know. Shelle, Earnesty, Pilkenton, &
Powell, (2018) cite Educase - Adaptive learning allows students to apply
prior knowledge, gain information they need to know more quickly, and create a
customized learning plan (Educause, 2017).
Multiple Choice Exams
This article discusses the role that multiple choice exams (MCEs) may,
or may not play, in pushing learners to understand the concepts and intent behind the facts and details of what they are learning, rather than just
memorising the facts and details themselves. Poorly designed MCEs can run
counter to the intent of modern teaching methods, which are more often designed
to inspire learners to use their own brain and to develop their own whole thoughts,
rather than cut and paste bits of ideas from someone else’s brain.
One example given is the common strategy with multiple-choice questions
to have one right answer, one close to right answer, and two that are further off
the mark. This allows people with only a
rough understanding of the material to guess with a 50/50 chance of getting it
right.
There are some interesting suggestions on ways that questions and answers
can be adapted to promote more thorough understanding and deeper thinking.
The information is interesting and well worth reading and reflecting upon.
The information is interesting and well worth reading and reflecting upon.
My Adaptation to the Trends in Adult Education
Computers first appeared around my life in the late 80s, early 90s; my
initial thought was that I could probably get through my working career without
having to deal with them, in fact, the thought of a logging foreman packing a
computer seemed ridiculous at best, pretentious at worst. How wrong I was.
As an older instructor adapting to a newer age, I need to improve my
interaction with technology and social media. I am working at moving ahead with
it, and although it often feels like the technology world is moving ahead
faster, I continue to chase it. While I harbour no illusions of designing algorithms
for adaptive learning programs, I will have to learn how they work and how they
can be used. While I may not the techno equal of the young people I teach, I
do want to avoid the realm of techno idiot, when I stand in front of them. Not
surprisingly, it can be the other way around with older loggers. I have for
years seen myself as a sort of interface, filling the huge gap between the
people in offices who create rules, regulations and training programs, and the
loggers in the bush that have to make their lives work with what comes out of
those offices (as you may have guessed, my true feelings of loyalty lie with
the loggers). When training older loggers, I often feel like I’m filling a similar
gap between them and computer technology.
For the betterment of myself and the trends in adult education, I will
keep pushing my boundaries outward.
On the matter of the trend towards better design and use of multiple
choice exams, I will research better ways to gear questions and answers to
promote deeper understanding and thinking, over memorizing and guessing.
The revision of BC Forest Safety Council’s New Faller Training program
will make use of multiple choice for both formative and summative evaluations.
I will try to get some of these newer ideas incorporated into that system. The
WorkSafeBC first aid and blasting exams are heavily reliant on multiple choice,
and I’m sure could be improved with this science.
My Aha Moment on the Trends in Adult Education Project
I believe that in most fields, if a person is a
capable critical thinker, and understands the concept and intent of something,
they can use that knowledge to figure out the facts and details; it doesn’t work as well
the other way around.
As an instructor in the BC forest industry, I have
always thought that while it is important to teach people the specific skills
they will require for safety and efficiency in the varying occupations, the
most important skill they will all need is the ability to think and to use their
imagination. They will be out in the wilds doing big things, where no two
situations are the same. The variables are unending. As an industry, we try to
send people out there with as big a toolbox of skills and ideas as we can, but as
each new situation develops, they will need to use their own brain to figure
out which combinations of the tools and skills to use. And perhaps even improve
on those tools and skills, as well as develop new ones. I believe that I’ve improved on what I was
taught by others, my hope is that those I teach will make it better yet.
My aha moment on this assignment came when my learning
partner, Harley, told me about the trend in adult education that he worked on,
Making Multiple Choice Exams Better. The main pretext of the article was that
most multiple choice exams are more about memorizing than thinking and as such,
don’t align well with modern teaching philosophies. I’ve taken and taught
courses that are measured with multiple choice exams and have often felt that
it was like learning, or teaching, two separate courses. One to learn the
material, and one to pass the exam. The article suggests several possible
variations on the multiple choice exam that would help ensure the students know
the course material, and are forced to think, rather than simply memorize and/or
guess. In one quote, Maryellen Weimer says, If the directions spell out that
students should select “the best answer,” “the main reason” or the “most likely”
solution, that means some of the answer options can be correct, but not as
correct as the right answer, which means that those questions require more and
deeper thinking. Another suggestion was linking a level of confidence to each
answer, with a higher level of confidence on a correct answer getting a higher
mark than if there were a lower level of confidence. Both good ideas.
Harley also gets his students to write multiple choice questions
for his course, as a study tool, on the basis that it takes research to write
them well.
A
couple of nice AHAs. Thank you Harley.
