{"id":5231,"date":"2015-10-20T10:00:59","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T09:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=5231"},"modified":"2015-10-22T09:57:08","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T08:57:08","slug":"how-should-we-measure-and-show-online-learning-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2015\/10\/how-should-we-measure-and-show-online-learning-activity\/","title":{"rendered":"How should we measure and show online learning activity?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tim O&#8217;Riordan from the\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">University of Southampton writes about his research and presenting it at the ALT Conference.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>The\u00a0research:\u00a0measuring and visualising learning activity online<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I work within the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wais.ecs.soton.ac.uk\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Web and Internet Science<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> research group at the University of Southampton. The object of my research is to develop real and relevant approaches to automatically measure and visualise learning activity online.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I recently <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/2015\/sessions\/how-should-we-measure-and-show-online-learning-activity-878\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">presented my research at the ALT conference<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and will be publishing a paper in <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.researchinlearningtechnology.net\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Research in Learning Technology<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span>The aim of my research is to improve the discoverability of online learning resources.<\/p>\n<p>With <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jisc.ac.uk\/news\/jisc-to-retire-jorum-and-refresh-its-open-educational-resources-offer-24-jun-2015\">news of Jorum\u2019s imminent retirement<\/a>, we\u2019re witnessing a shift in the way open educational resources are made accessible and discoverable &#8211; as early approaches make way for hopefully better and more sustainable methods. Which is where my research comes in.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We know that it\u2019s a hassle sorting the wheat from the chaff of online learning resources, and that things that might help us find usable content &#8211; OER or otherwise \u2013 just aren\u2019t working as well as they need to. So, over the past 12 months I\u2019ve been looking at:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">whether pedagogically relevant ways of measuring learning activity could be applied to online discussion forums<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">if this could help improve discoverability. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So far I\u2019ve rated about 1,000 comments from a FutureLearn MOOC and compared 4 different content analysis methods with typical approaches to learning analytics.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5232\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5232\" style=\"width: 1050px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2015\/10\/1.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5232 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2015\/10\/1.png?resize=1050%2C370&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"extract from my 9 month PhD poster https:\/\/timswww.wordpress.com\/2015\/10\/13\/my-9-month-phd-poster\/\" width=\"1050\" height=\"370\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2015\/10\/1.png?w=1050&amp;ssl=1 1050w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2015\/10\/1.png?resize=300%2C106&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2015\/10\/1.png?resize=1024%2C361&amp;ssl=1 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5232\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">extract from my <a href=\"https:\/\/timswww.wordpress.com\/2015\/10\/13\/my-9-month-phd-poster\/\" target=\"_blank\">9 month PhD poster<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have found that while the different content analysis methods measure learning from different perspectives, they are very highly correlated with each other \u2013 but less so with the interaction measures that are typically used in learning analytics. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It appears that using pedagogically based methods may provide different, potentially more accurate, measures of online learning than ubiquitous web interaction-based methods \u2013 which indicates the viability of developing new tools to aid discoverability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s been a painstaking task, but the results look promising.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Presenting at \u00a0the ALT Conference<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After many years on the side-lines, watching ALT-C grow and evolve \u2013 and benefiting from the outputs of one of the biggest, most connected, learning technologies conferences on the planet &#8211; I finally got around to attending my first Association for Learning Technology conference at the University of Manchester. As well as having an opportunity to present my research to an interested and knowledgeable audience in an extended 30 minute presentation I had the great good fortune to chat with keynote speaker and leading ed. tech guru, Steve Wheeler (primarily about how intense live blogging can be &#8211; think I might give it a try one day).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Coming to the ALT Conference \u00a0to present at this stage of my research was very useful. It&#8217;s important that I get out from the research lab, share my findings, and connect with users; that is: learners, teachers, and administrators. Firstly, presenting my work enabled me to gauge interest in the subject within the learning technology community (it\u2019s bigger than I thought). Also, it\u2019s essential that as well as being grounded in pedagogical theory, and producing reliable and reproducible results, the approaches I develop should make sense on a practical level to its users. From the feedback I received, I think I\u2019m moving in the right direction, but I\u2019m always interested to hear more from the ALT community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you would like to know more, you can see my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/profile\/Tim_Oriordan\/publications\" target=\"_blank\">presentation slides and an earlier published paper<\/a>, a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/timswww.wordpress.com\/2015\/10\/13\/my-9-month-phd-poster\/\" target=\"_blank\">recent poster<\/a>, or look out for the\u00a0paper in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.researchinlearningtechnology.net\/\">Research in Learning Technology<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><p class=\"info\">Tim O&#8217;Riordan<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">University of Southampton<br \/>\n<\/span>tor1w07@soton.ac.uk<br \/>\n@studywbv\u00a0<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><p class=\"note\">If you enjoyed reading this article we invite you to <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.alt.ac.uk\/get-involved\/membership\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">join the Association for Learning Technology (ALT)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as an individual member, and to encourage your own organisation to join ALT as an organisational or sponsoring member<\/p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tim O&#8217;Riordan from the\u00a0University of Southampton writes about his research and presenting it at the ALT Conference. The\u00a0research:\u00a0measuring and visualising learning activity online I work within the Web and Internet Science research group at the University of Southampton. The object of my research is to develop real and relevant approaches to automatically measure and visualise [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":5237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1062],"tags":[1061,897,933,944,961],"class_list":["post-5231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-learning-technology-research","tag-content-analysis","tag-learning-analytics","tag-mooc","tag-oer","tag-pedagogy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2015\/10\/Capture.png?fit=1020%2C232&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2518,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2013\/11\/chief-executives-report-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":5231,"position":0},"title":"Chief Executive\u2019s Report","author":"ALT","date":"19 November 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A new strategy for ALT We are currently consulting on a new strategy for ALT for 2014-17. In addition to the recent online consultation open to all members, we have consulted representatives from member organisations and partners at the ALT Policy Board meeting on 7 October and members of ALT\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Chief Executive's Reports&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Chief Executive's Reports","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/reports\/chief-executives-reports\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2013\/11\/ALTC13_1146.jpg?fit=1200%2C803&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2013\/11\/ALTC13_1146.jpg?fit=1200%2C803&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2013\/11\/ALTC13_1146.jpg?fit=1200%2C803&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2013\/11\/ALTC13_1146.jpg?fit=1200%2C803&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2013\/11\/ALTC13_1146.jpg?fit=1200%2C803&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9951,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2022\/02\/alt-elesig-student-online-group-experience-supported-through-slack\/","url_meta":{"origin":5231,"position":1},"title":"ALT ELESIG &#8211; Student online group experience supported through Slack: reflections on how to approach and research this area","author":"Christina Vines","date":"22 February 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Richard Walker recently published Facilitating peer-led group research through virtual collaboration spaces: an exploratory research study with colleagues at York. The research looked at a particular type of group activity -\u00a0 \u2018Peer-led group learning\u2019. This is\u00a0 based on \u2018small groups of students meeting regularly with a peer \u2013 one who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ELESIG&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ELESIG","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/elesig\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4075,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2014\/07\/altc2014-for-the-community-by-the-community\/","url_meta":{"origin":5231,"position":2},"title":"altc2014: for the community, by the community","author":"ALT","date":"23 July 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The ALT conference provides an annual opportunity for the ALT community to come together, either in person or online, to discuss and explore new approaches to learning and teaching, technological developments, implementation experiences, and recent research into technology enhanced learning.\u00a0 It is a conference that has evolved over 21 years,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ALT news&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ALT news","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/alt-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2014\/02\/RidingGiants.jpg?fit=291%2C258&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9122,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2021\/03\/the-anti-racism-learning-technology-community-of-practice-an-introduction-part-1-of-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":5231,"position":3},"title":"The Anti-Racism &amp; Learning Technology Community of Practice: An Introduction-Part 1 of 4","author":"Monica Chavez","date":"23 March 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"What would a truly diverse educational technology community look like? How can we attract and retain colleagues of diverse ethnicities to the sector AND see them thrive? Disruption of traditional conferencing and impenetrable networks matters to diversify digital education. One just needs to look at editorial boards, conference presenters and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Anti-Racism and Learning Technology SIG&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Anti-Racism and Learning Technology SIG","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/anti-racism-sig\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2021\/03\/people-5592232_960_720.jpg?fit=960%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2021\/03\/people-5592232_960_720.jpg?fit=960%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2021\/03\/people-5592232_960_720.jpg?fit=960%2C350&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2021\/03\/people-5592232_960_720.jpg?fit=960%2C350&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11367,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2023\/07\/is-alt-only-for-learning-technologists\/","url_meta":{"origin":5231,"position":4},"title":"Is ALT only for \u201cLearning Technologists\u201d?","author":"ALT","date":"28 July 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Since ALT stands for Association for Learning Technology, at first approach, it is natural to think that it is the home of learning technologists, and that, therefore, its annual gathering (ALT-C, this year branded as ALTc23) might not be for you if you do not identify as one. But what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;altc23&quot;","block_context":{"text":"altc23","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/events\/altc23\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2023\/07\/image1.jpg?fit=1200%2C960&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2023\/07\/image1.jpg?fit=1200%2C960&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2023\/07\/image1.jpg?fit=1200%2C960&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2023\/07\/image1.jpg?fit=1200%2C960&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2023\/07\/image1.jpg?fit=1200%2C960&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":509,"url":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2017\/02\/alt-conference-call-for-proposals\/","url_meta":{"origin":5231,"position":5},"title":"ALT Conference: Call for proposals","author":"ALT","date":"22 February 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Annual Conference 2017: Call for Proposals now open The 24th ALT Annual Conference takes place from 5 to 7 September 2017 in Liverpool. 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The Conference is chaired by Peter Alston and Professor Helen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ALT East Midlands MG&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ALT East Midlands MG","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/category\/altemidlands\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6CxU9-1mn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5231"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5252,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231\/revisions\/5252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}