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USDLA 2024 National Conference (Day 3)

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Day 3

Florian Hummel

Florian Hummel

Pioneering an AI learning buddy

Florian Hummel (IU International University of Applied Sciences) gave a fascination presentation on the development and integration of an AI-tutor into all online programs taught at his university.

Same drill as yesterday with AI-assisted notetaking (Voice Memos, Whisper, ChatGPT 4-o to summarize):

The speaker discussed the development and implementation of an AI study assistant, named Syntea, within their university. The university began integrating online courses around 13 years ago and currently offers over 200 degrees, with about 75 delivered in English for an international audience. The institution has seen significant growth in online students, with around 155,000 to 160,000 total students, and recruits approximately 1,000 online students from outside Europe each month.

The AI study assistant started as a simple question-answering chatbot and has evolved to engage in more interactive learning using a Socratic method, asking students questions, providing feedback, and helping them prepare for exams. The system is designed to be used asynchronously, which helps reduce costs and provides flexible learning options for students in various regions, often at different price points.

The AI system was trained using data from the university’s course materials and aims to assist students in their studies by offering immediate responses and support. It has been integrated into the university’s existing systems and is promoted to students through various channels. While initially there was some resistance, student adoption has increased as the system proved useful, especially for online learners who might need assistance outside typical classroom hours.

The speaker highlighted the importance of continuous training for both faculty and students to maximize the benefits of the AI system. The AI assistant’s implementation aims to enhance student engagement, support asynchronous learning, and potentially improve student progression rates. The system remains under constant development, with feedback loops and quality control measures to ensure its effectiveness and relevance.

Rapid Prototyping Online Programs: A Cross-Functional Approach

Sara Baber (University of North Texas Dallas) did an interesting thing – she scrapped the presentation that she had created and crafted a bot on POE (OnlineProgramBot) that essentially could do the work of her presentation. Her inspiration for this was Robbie Melton’s AI workshop from the previous day. I enjoyed seeing this rapid prototype of a rapid protype presentation… Google Doc from the session is here.

Same drill with AI-assisted notetaking (Voice Memos, Whisper, ChatGPT 4-o to summarize):

The speaker, Sarah Baber, addresses an audience, explaining that while various items like swag and hand sanitizer are available, the books she has are for reference only. She encourages attendees to note down ISBNs if interested. Sarah introduces herself, mentioning her extensive experience in higher education, and expresses the importance of change management and innovation in today’s world.

She interacts with the audience, asking about their roles to tailor her talk accordingly, and shares anecdotes about faculty resistance to online teaching. Sarah emphasizes the necessity of embracing change, especially after the pandemic, and how she transitioned from an AV tech to an expert in instructional design and technology. Her career spans various institutions, and she highlights her role in developing online programs, particularly at the University of North Texas Health Science Center and Texas A&M.

Sarah discusses her current position at the University of North Texas at Dallas, where she is launching an online master’s degree in criminal justice with a focus on justice and mental health policy. She stresses the importance of market research and aligning online programs with current trends and needs, citing sources like EAB, Gartner, and the Horizon report.

She delves into AI’s impact on education, sharing her recent creation of an “Online Program Bot” using Poe, a tool she built during a workshop. This bot can provide insights and resources for developing online programs. She demonstrates how it functions, highlighting its ability to access various reputable sources.

Sarah also talks about the challenges of implementing online programs, including faculty buy-in, administrative support, and maintaining a cohesive student experience. She underscores the importance of community and student engagement, suggesting practical steps like sending welcome packages and leveraging AI tools for interactive learning.

Throughout the presentation, Sarah balances her insights with practical advice and anecdotes, emphasizing a collaborative and innovative approach to online education. She encourages the audience to use modern tools to enhance their teaching methods and improve student outcomes.

Gamification Triforce

Gamification Triforce

Gamification Triforce: Understanding Users, Metrics, and Game Mechanics for a Successful Gamification Implementation

Bret Wardle (Neumont College) gave a comprehensive overview of elements of Gamification. The Google Slides are worth downloading.

Same drill with AI-assisted notetaking (Voice Memos, Whisper, ChatGPT 4-o to summarize):

In this talk, Brett Wardle, a TEDx speaker and co-author of a book on gamification, explains the concept and its applications, particularly in education. Wardle emphasizes the importance of using game mechanics to enhance user engagement and retention. He provides an overview of key performance indicators (KPIs) such as monetary, engagement, growth, retention, and conversion, illustrating their relevance with examples from well-known games and products. Wardle also introduces the Hexad player types (Achiever, Philanthropist, Free Spirit, Player, Socializer, Disruptor) and how understanding these can help tailor gamification strategies to different user motivations.

He stresses the significance of player personas and their motivations, suggesting that educators and product designers consider these factors when implementing gamification. Wardle then categorizes various game mechanics into reward systems, progress tracking, narrative and storytelling, social engagement, and game psychology, providing numerous examples and linking them to specific KPIs and player types. He concludes by encouraging the audience to use QR codes to access slides and additional resources, underscoring the practicality and extensive research behind gamification techniques.

Leveling Up Learning: The Revolutionary Fusion of Gamification and Generative AI

Michael Hyzy and Shanti Greene (Daugherty Business Solutions) demonstrated an interesting application of Generative AI to improve workplace relations. Don’t know for certain, but assuming HeyGen was used for the demonstration.

Same drill with AI-assisted notetaking (Voice Memos, Whisper, ChatGPT 4-o to summarize):

The presentation was conducted by Mike Hyzy and Shanti Gray, who discussed the intersections of AI and gamification, detailing their journey from writing a paper for Built-In to presenting their ideas nationally. Mike introduced the session by sharing his background in product development and his work integrating gamification into fitness equipment and health insurance systems. Shanti, with a deep history in AI, talked about his experiences building AI models and teaching data science.

The presentation covered motivational design, emphasizing gamification as a subset, exploring its benefits, and future possibilities. They highlighted the influence of behavioral economics, psychology, and game mechanics in motivational design. Examples like Duolingo, LinkedIn, Nike Run Club, and Uber illustrated successful gamification implementations, showing its impact on engagement, loyalty, and productivity.

They acknowledged challenges such as complexity, ethical concerns, and resource intensity in implementing gamification. The presentation transitioned to discussing the integration of AI and gamification, suggesting that AI can make gamification more efficient and personalized. They demonstrated how AI could be used to enhance human interactions through an example of training individuals to de-escalate conflicts using AI-generated feedback and simulations.

The future of gamification, according to them, involves leveraging AI for more dynamic and personalized experiences, promoting sustainability, and improving well-being. They concluded by encouraging questions and offering to connect for further discussions on implementing such technologies in specific fields like nursing education.

USDLA 2024 National Conference (Days 1 and 2)

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St. Louis Sunset

St. Louis Sunset

I attended my first USDLA conference in St. Louis this week. The conference has yet to finish but posting my day 1 and 2 notes.

Day 1

I presented a short workshop on “Educators Guide to Artificial Intelligence (AI).” Enjoyed the questions and suggestions from the group.

Day 2

Morning

Early start at 7, but there was an even earlier option to join “Morning Stretch – Yoga in the Gym” at 6…

Robbie Melton (Acting Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs, Tennessee State University) provided a fun and dynamic featured session to kick-off the day (with some cool use of AI-enhanced tools, including Sendsteps.ai. There was an incredible vibe between Robbie Melton and John Chen (Engaging Virtual Meeting), who was running the audio and livestream. He used foley effects and music to create a cool interplay during the session. Never seen anything like this at a conference before. Made for a great start to the day. Will have to check out their SMART Innovative Technologies Division website later.

Generative AI and Students Learning Experience: An Empirical Review

I had decided to try and use AI to make myself more productive at the conference. I recorded the audio of each session with Voice Memos on my iPhone, transcribed with Whisper, and then used ChatGPT 4-o to summarize. Here is what I got from the first session:

Dr. Samia Tweneboah-Koduah, a professor in higher education at Gannon University, initiates a discussion on the impact of AI on higher education over the next 5, 10, and 15 years. He expresses concerns about the future of his job and the broader implications of AI for higher education. The presentation includes research conducted with two students and aims to explore ideas and gather feedback on this critical topic.

Dr. Tweneboah-Koduah provides a historical overview of technological innovation, highlighting AI as the latest in a series of transformative technologies. He references a Pearson Research study to illustrate how innovation evolves in waves, with AI currently being a major focus. He compares AI to earlier technologies like calculators, which faced initial resistance but eventually became accepted.

The presentation delves into the definition of generative AI, a subset of AI that generates new content from training data, such as text, images, and audio. Dr. Tweneboah-Koduah explains the technical aspects of generative AI, including the importance of input data, latent space representation, and prompting.

He discusses various use cases of AI, including synthetic data generation, large language models, and natural language processing tools like illicit, which aid in literature review and research. He also mentions applications in biomedical research, storytelling, music composition, video game design, product prototyping, and more.

The presentation addresses the ethical dilemmas and challenges associated with AI in education, such as plagiarism, data biases, and the potential for AI to replace human educators. Dr. Tweneboah-Koduah emphasizes the importance of responsible AI use and the need for clear guidelines and policies.

He highlights the benefits of AI in education, including personalized learning, simulation environments, support for independent learning, adaptive testing, predictive analytics, and intelligent tutoring systems. He shares practical examples of how AI can enhance teaching and administrative tasks, such as lesson planning, syllabus design, and student engagement.

Dr. Tweneboah-Koduah stresses the need for institutions to develop AI governance policies and address legal and ethical concerns. He concludes with a call to action for educators to rethink assessment methods, embrace problem-based learning, and stay informed about AI developments.

The presentation ends with an invitation for feedback and questions, emphasizing the collaborative nature of this ongoing research and the importance of collective engagement in addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by AI in higher education.

AI Unleashed in the Classroom: Building the Foundations for Relevant and Engaging Learning Adventures

Same setup (Voice Memos, Whisper, ChatGPT 4-o). Here is what the AI summarized:

Emmalyn Green, a PhD candidate at Florida Atlantic University and Director of Learning Design at Junior Achievement (J.A.) Worldwide, introduces herself and shares her excitement and nerves about presenting live for the first time as a PhD candidate. She humorously recounts her first day as a middle school teacher, emphasizing the importance of human connection and vulnerability.

The presentation is structured into several 25-minute segments over a 75-minute session, focusing on the integration of AI in education. Emmalyn plans to cover what AI is, its importance in the classroom, how educators can use it, and how to teach students to use AI responsibly. She also includes real-world examples and group discussions.

Emmalyn outlines the evolution of AI, from its beginnings in the 1950s and 60s as a subfield of computer science aimed at creating machines that learn and make decisions, to today’s generative AI, which can process vast amounts of data and interact in natural language. She discusses the rapid advancements in AI and its applications in education, noting the potential for AI to augment human cognitive work rather than replace it.

Key points include the importance of maintaining uniquely human skills such as creative and innovative thinking, emotional intelligence, and ethical judgment. Emmalyn highlights how AI can free up educators’ time from mundane tasks, allowing them to focus on these human-centric skills.

She encourages participants to think about aspects of their job they love and those they would delegate to an AI assistant. Emmalyn shares examples of how AI can support various educational tasks, such as using Perplexity.ai for quick research summaries and Descript for audio and video editing.

The session emphasizes the need for AI literacy, which involves understanding, evaluating, and using AI responsibly. Emmalyn advocates for integrating AI education into existing curricula and using real-world examples to make AI relevant to students’ future careers.

She also addresses ethical considerations, such as the importance of using closed systems to protect student data and intellectual property. Emmalyn suggests ways to incorporate AI into classroom activities, using frameworks like the red, yellow, green light system to guide students’ AI usage.

In conclusion, Emmalyn provides resources like AI for Education and Teach AI for further learning and policy development. She encourages participants to explore AI tools and think about how they can integrate AI into their teaching practices. The session ends with a Q&A, where Emmalyn offers to share her slides and stay connected with attendees.

Keynote

I skipped, as was preparing for my afternoon session…

Presented a session on “Flexing HyFlex- A holistic guide for successfully implementing HyFlex.” Finished on time. Great questions from the audience.

Anywhere, Anytime, Anyplace: A Brutal Underestimation

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Anywhere, anytime, anyplace

This quote was shared by Siân Bayne and Jeremy Knox in their keynote (The Manifesto for Teaching Online) at this year’s annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning. The quote particularly caught my attention:

Thrust into the world of online and distance education, it immediately became clear that the slogan of anywhere, anytime, anyplace is a brutal underestimation of the complexities and entanglement of different inequalities and structural arrangements. Overnight, gone is the relative safe haven of campus life, social life and peer groups. Students and staff were thrust into a lack of dedicated space to work undisturbed and the need to care for family members and especially children who must be home-schooled during the lockdown. Students reported more family responsibilities like running errands, household chores, taking care of elderly family members. Such role conflict emerged in stories of students being admonished for being lazy and just reading (rather than physically active); for having even more pressure to choose between prioritising their time/finances for personal gain (their studies) or their families financial or care-giving needs. For some, returning home meant returning to places of violence while residential accommodation on campus was a refuge for those coming from abusive/dysfunctional homes—physical emotional and verbal abuse/gender-based violence.

This comes from ‘A Wake-Up Call: Equity, Inequality and Covid-19 Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning‘ – worth reading in full.

Czerniewicz, L., Agherdien, N., Badenhorst, J. et al. A Wake-Up Call: Equity, Inequality and Covid-19 Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning. Postdigit Sci Educ 2, 946–967 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00187-4

DT&L Conference Registration Opens April 14

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2021 DT&L Social Media Stil

The Distance Teaching & Learning Conference (@UWMadison #UWdtl)  is 100% online, and runs 2nd – 5th August, 2021.

Registration is just $329.00 for 75+ sessions from internationally-renowned Online and DistanceEd experts.

More information can be found at https://dtlconference.wisc.edu

2021 DT&L Conference Call for Proposals

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The 2021 Call for Proposals is Open

The 2021 Call for Proposals is Open

The 2021 Distance Teaching & Learning Conference Call for Proposals are open today (and closes 4:00 p.m. Friday 8th January). The conference this year will again be 100% virtual.

There are seven formats to present (which are described here):

  1. Pre-Conference Workshops
  2. Research Session
  3. Exploratory Session
  4. Roundtable Session
  5. Panel Session
  6. DT&L Talks
  7. ePosters

Hoping to get my proposal in soon…

35th annual Distance Teaching & Learning Conference

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35th Annual DT&L Conference

I am going to be presenting this year at the 35th annual Distance Teaching & Learning Conference (August 6-8, 2019) in Madison, WI. There are some amazing presentation and workshops scheduled. Hope to see you there.

The organizers have created some sneak peeks to share:

Keynote & Invited Speakers

Robin DeRosa

Workshops

Notes from The Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning

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I was at The Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning last week. The conference seems to get better each year, and I needed the weekend to think a little deeper about what I saw and heard. This here, is both a prompt and a reminder (so that I don’t forget what I saw, and work on the projects that I want to).

As usual, several of the participants used Twitter for back-channel conversations. This became a useful tool to aggregate comments and resources  via the #UWdtl hashtag. Hopefully more participants get onboard next year.

Speed Sessions

I managed to catch a couple of Speed Sessions Tuesday afternoon, only the last four, but these were helpful. The “speed” part of the speed sessions was hurt a little when presenters had difficulty getting their laptops to work with the HDMI connection to the projector in the room, but luckily those with recalcitrant laptops were able to borrow working MacBooks. Of the four sessions that I saw, Moses Wolfenstein‘s “Finding a Place for Gamification in Learning” was the most entertaining,  but Laura Bunte of Stratagem had some very useful formulae and templates to share for projecting the cost of developing online content.

Information Sessions

The Conversation Prism

The Conversation Prism

I was lucky enough to see a series of information sessions that met my interests and needs:

  • “Using Game Design Theory To Develop A Faculty Self-Assessment”
    • Susan Manning shared four game design elements (story, mechanics, technology, and aesthetics) that could be used by instructors to help inform their instructional design.
  • “Social Media in Education: So Many Choices!”
    • Ronald Hannaford posited that Social Media in Education has many of the same amorphous aspects of online learning fifteen years ago. I particularly liked the Conversation Prism image he used. He suggests a strategic plan for campus-wide integration.
  • “Are Games And Simulations A Good “Fit” For Your Curriculum”
    • Penny Ralston-Berg demonstrated some great examples and games. The one I will be looking at in more detail is Quizlet.
  • “Voice And Screencasting Feedback”
    • John Orlando started his session with my favorite video of the conference (Hexaflexagons). More interestingly, he shared research on the amount of time some faculty spend on student feedback – more on textual feedback, and less on audio feedback. However, the audio feedback contains more “words,” so is both more efficient and more detailed. I am pondering running some research along these lines at work.
  • “MOOC Development And Delivery From The Support Staff’s Perspective”
    • Hui-Lien (Sharon) Hsiao and Norma Scagnoli shared their processes, challenges, and merits of facilitating courses at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I am very, very curious to see how these business courses pan out.

 

Distance & Learning Conference: Call for Proposals Now Open

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Call for Proposals

The Call for Proposals is now open for the Distance Teaching & Learning Conference that takes place Madison, Wisconsin from August 11-13, 2015.

The deadline to submit your Call for Proposal is: Monday, January 26, 2015 at 4pm CST

The Distance Teaching & Learning Conference welcomes hundreds of distance education and online learning professionals every year to share effective practices, research, strategies, and new tools/techniques.

  • Share your data on established practices
  • Present a hot new topic in distance learning
  • Have your results published in the proceedings publication
  • Network with experts from around the world

Some suggested topics include: New course design models, mobile & social learning, learning analytics,

competency-based learning, gamification & badges, open educational resources

More information can be found at:

https://dtlconference.wisc.edu/call-for-proposals/

28th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning

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Conference ID

A week ago I spent three extremely rewarding days at the Distance Teaching and Learning conference in Madison (full disclosure, I am on the planning committee). It has taken a few days to put my notes and thoughts in order, and here they are.

Wednesday

Madison, 2012

Madison, 2012

Early morning saw me boarding the Megabus to Madison. The cost of the trip was shockingly low – just five dollars. I spend more travelling to and from work on the El each day.

I arrived in Madison in time to meet with Dawn Drake and finalize our presentation for one of the Communities of Practice sessions that afternoon (on Management and Administration). I enjoyed discussing the topic with the folks there.

Promotion

I was slightly shocked to discover an inadvertent promotion on page 33 of the conference brochure (I am not Dean of the College of Commerce).

Thursday

Madison Conference 2012

The trending topics of the conference from my perspective were mobile learning and MOOCs. Previous conferences had been abuzz with discussion on Second Life, Google Wave, and Social Media. The focus on mobile and MOOCs seemed to me to be more pragmatic. Mobile communication was ever present during the conference – the effective use of Twitter heightened my enjoyment of the sessions (and muted any dissatisfaction with particular presenters). 

The keynote from James Zull was not the strongest part of the conference. Zull is a far better researcher than large-venue presenter. His premise did make me think, and his presentation style gave me plenty of time to tweet and retweet with others in the room. This was particularly refreshing, with a vigorous discussion and commentary taking place along the back channels.

Norma Scagnoli’s and Seung won Hong’s presentation on “iPads is graduate professional education” was enjoyable. Norma admitted that the use of iPads at the University of Illinois in the Management program was flawed, with students and faculty not knowing initially whether they owned the iPads or had to return them. I hope they are able to repeat the experiment and train students and faculty on effective use, rather than discover what happens organically. I wanted to know whether students were able to use etextbooks on the iPad effectively in a classroom situation (I have observed that students are able to make notes and refer to material more rapidly in printed textbooks).

Ray Schroeder’s “eduMOOC: Open online learning without limits” presentation was packed, and worked as an iceberg presentation – there was much more material below the surface. I will have to return to his site and explore more:

https://sites.google.com/site/edumooc/ 



Ray Schoeders talk about MOOCs was probably the most productive session for me.

Scott Schopieray’s “One Week, One Course (OWOC): A rapid prototyping concept for courses” contained a little smoke and mirrors – the courses were not completed in a week, but the idea is intriguing. The design of the rapid prototyping model was clever, and effectively implemented. I am tempted to see if this is an idea that can be implemented at work.

The “iPad apps for utility and learning” was not a presentation that I should have attended. Unfortunately I was in the front row as the presentation started, and when I realized my mistake it was too late to leave….

I did not see much at the vendor presentations that was new and exciting, but I am taken with the idea of Camtasia Relay. This may be an effective way way to scale classroom recording and adhoc lecture capture. This is something I will look later.

Thursday evening ended with a delicious meal with some of my colleagues from DePaul at Harvest, a little restaurant with a great view of the capitol.

Friday

The Capitol in Madison, and a statue of Hans Cristian Heg

The Capitol in Madison, and a statue of Hans Cristian Heg

Friday morning began with a fun follow-up discussion of Administration and management. I then attended Dean Blackstock’s and James Mudie’s presentation on “Streaming high quality mobile video: A conversation and some code!” Dean and James developed a great solution to automatically serve up the right type of video to mobile users. Not a solution that I need at the moment, but fun and interesting.

I next attended Johanna Dvorak’s and Laura Pedrick’s presentation on “Developing a comprehensive campus-wide online student services initiative.” What they presented was a work in progress, but the policies applied to assemble the stakeholders and determine what needed to be done are ones I will gladly borrow.

The last concurrent session of the day was “Using mobile technology in faculty development and training.” This was a Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt session, with George Engel providing most of the information I was interested in. Their handout is on the web, and can be found here:

http://mobilefieldworkshop.wikispaces.com/file/view/Faculty+Training+Using+Mobile+Technology.pdf

What I didn’t see answered was how mobile devices constrain focus. Anecdotally, I have noticed that those that I correspond with on mobile devices frequently cannot process multiple concepts in the same email. This topic is deserving of a conference presentation (and research).

The conference ended with a keynote from Judy Brown. Already I am looking forward to next year.