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Insights from a health care recruiter: The impact of AI

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Insights from a health care recruiter: The impact of AI

The health care industry’s reliance on artificial intelligence is increasing – does this mean that jobs in health care are disappearing? Hear from Dan Hobson of Hobson Health Recruitment.

Is AI erasing opportunities in health care?

Artificial intelligence is always a hot topic, and it’s certainly on the
rise in health care. We’re seeing very practical implementation of technology,
like doctor consultations via video, through to amazing innovations, like the
3D printing of human organs. It’s natural to assume that perhaps, there’s less
of a need for human intervention, when the capability of a machine is so
advanced.

But rest assured, there is always going to be a need for the human touch. “An artificial intelligence system can’t have emotion or reactions, so it’s about those soft skills – attitude, platitude and gratitude – artificial intelligence can’t actually gauge that” explains Dan. The (often dramatised) notion of emotionally-intelligent machinery isn’t our reality quite yet, so until then, there’s still an abundance of roles available for humans who are keen to make a difference.

Hear more from Dan

We chatted to Dan about a number of topics – check out what else he has to say about the health care industry:

Health courses through OUA

Open Universities Australia offers a number of health courses from leading Australian universities, at both a undergraduate and postgraduate level. With the online delivery format, there’s no need to drop everything to start heading towards your dream role.

Bachelor of Community Health – University of South Australia

Bachelor of Health Science (Nutrition and Exercise) – University of South Australia

Bachelor of Food and Nutrition – La Trobe University

Master of Public Health – Griffith University

See more

If you’d like to talk to a student advisor about how you could step into a health career, and what your study options are, fill out the form on the right of this page, and we’ll get in contact.

Insights from a health care recruiter: Landing a role

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Insights from a health care recruiter: Landing a role

There’s plenty of opportunity in health care, but what does it take to land a role? Take a tip from Dan Hobson of Hobson Health Recruitment.

Making a start in the industry

When it comes to recruiting people for health care roles, Dan looks for a combination of qualities. “We want to try and find people who we look at and think, could I let that person look after one of my family members?” explains Dan. “Ultimately they could do the job, but do they have the right level of soft skills?” Aside from qualifications, the personal traits fit for health care work include a high-level of empathy, a kind nature and excellent communication skills.

It’s one thing to be entering the health care industry as a fresh
graduate, but if you’re looking to change careers and move into health care, it
can be tough to find the time and money to re-train. Dan is a big advocate of
online study, as it allows people to hold down their current job while they
chase a career they feel more passionate about.

“We want to try and find people who we look at and think, could I let that person look after one of my family members?”

Career-changers also have the option to enter the health care industry in a role that utilises their current skillset – every organisation needs staff in such areas as accounting, HR, law and marketing. There may be internal opportunities for professional development, that could lead to a shift in role that doesn’t require formal study. Sometimes, it’s just about getting a foot in the door, and seizing opportunities that arise organically.

Hear more from Dan

We chatted to Dan about a number of topics – check out what else he has to say about the health care industry:

Health courses through OUA

Open Universities Australia offers a number of health courses from leading Australian universities, at both a undergraduate and postgraduate level. With the online delivery format, there’s no need to drop everything to start heading towards your dream role.

Bachelor of Community Health – University of South Australia

Bachelor of Food and Nutrition – La Trobe University

Master of Public Health – Griffith University

See more

If you’d like to talk to a student advisor about how you could step into a health career, and what your study options are, fill out the form on the right of this page, and we’ll get in contact.

Insights from a health care recruiter: Job opportunities

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Insights from a health care recruiter: Job opportunities

Toying with the idea of a career in health care? Whether you’re starting
fresh, or looking to change career direction, there’s plenty of opportunity in
Australia, according to Dan Hobson of Hobson
Health Recruitment.

What’s happening today in health care

Australia is seeing shortages in a number of areas, such as nursing,
aged care and disability care. Dan’s focus is to fill those gaps – not just
with anyone, but with the right people, who are properly trained and have the ideal
soft skills.

There’s plenty of opportunity within the sector, but what could help get more people into roles is greater awareness and support. “It would start with providing more education around what roles are actually available within health care, and it’s about making people feel as if they can come into health care at any age” says Dan.

“It’s about making people feel as if they can come into health care at any age.”

For those already in health care, Dan’s advice is to push for internal development opportunities, that could help you move across into related roles, or broaden the scope of your current role. In demand right now are transdisciplinary professionals – for example, a qualified physiotherapist, who can also perform work in occupational therapy or myotherapy, as the need arises. To be flexible in health care is to be valuable, which for the worker, offers a varied and stimulating work life.

Hear more from Dan

We chatted to Dan about a number of topics – check out what else he has to say about the health care industry:

Health courses through OUA

Open Universities Australia offers a number of health courses from leading Australian universities, at both a undergraduate and postgraduate level. With the online delivery format, there’s no need to drop everything to start heading towards your dream role.

Bachelor of Community Health – University of South Australia

Bachelor of Food and Nutrition – La Trobe University

Master of Public Health – Griffith University

See more

If you’d like to talk to a student advisor about how you could step into a health career, and what your study options are, fill out the form on the right of this page, and we’ll get in contact.

Summer Reading Contest, Week 8: What Interested You Most in The Times This Week?

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Summer Reading Contest, Week 8: What Interested You Most in The Times This Week?

Welcome to Week Eight of our Tenth Annual Summer Reading Contest.

To participate, just post a comment here by 9 a.m. Eastern on Aug. 9 that answers the questions “What interested you most in The Times this week? Why?”

What should you choose? Well, as you know from the rules we’ve posted, you can pick anything published on NYTimes.com in 2019, including articles, essays, Op-Eds, videos, photos, podcasts or infographics.

So what did you read, watch or listen to this week?

We hope you’ll click around NYTimes.com and find your own great articles, features and multimedia, but we know that not everyone who participates has a Times subscription. Because all links to Times content from the student features on our site are free, every week we’ll try to help by posting interesting pieces from a variety of sections.

• Feel free to participate each week, but we allow only one submission per person per week.

• New for 2019: Students in the United States and the United Kingdom must be between 13 to 19 years old to participate. However, if you are submitting from anywhere else in the world, you must be between 16 to 19 years old. Please see The New York Times’s terms of service for more details.

_________

While this is the only Student Opinion question we’ll be asking this summer, here is our section that features hundreds of writing prompts still open to comment.

Updates to the Data Science Path

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Updates to the Data Science Path

Good news! We’re making several changes to the Data Science Path.

Why?

Everything can always improve! We took a hard look at our Data Science Career Path and identified ways to make the content teach better, dive deeper, and set our learners up for greater success!

We’re adding several lessons, projects, articles and quizzes to introduce and scaffold important concepts in data science. We also know how important practice is in cementing learning, so we’ve added several new in-depth projects to the path. You’ll learn how to analyze real-world data across a variety of industries and tie together everything you’ve learned.

How does this impact you?

If you’ve already started or completed the Data Science Path, you will see some new content added to the Path.

You won’t lose progress on the coursework that you’ve already completed; however, you may notice that your overall progress percentage has decreased, as there is a greater amount of content included in the Path.

When?

The lessons will be updated beginning at 10:00 AM EDT on Friday, August 8th, 2019. We expect the updates to be finalized by 7:00 PM EDT the same day.

Take a look below to get an overview of the updates.

Changes to The Data Science Path

New content covering:

  • List Comprehensions
  • Lambda Functions
  • Sample Size Determination for Hypothesis Tests
  • How to Select the Right Data Visualization
  • Fundamentals of Statistics
  • Regular Expressions
  • Data Cleaning with Pandas
  • Web Scraping with BeautifulSoup
  • K Nearest Neighbor Regression
  • Evaluating Classification Models with Accuracy, Recall, and Precision
  • Support Vector Machines
  • K-Means++ Clustering
  • Perceptrons and Neural Nets
  • Natural Language Processing

Plus a TON of exciting projects using data from a variety of industries:

  • Cryptocurrency Exchange
  • Usage Funnels with Warby Parker
  • Calculating Churn Rates
  • Attribution Queries
  • A/B Testing at Nosh Mish Mosh
  • Analyze FarmBurg’s A/B Test
  • Constellations
  • Netflix Stock Prices
  • Life Expectancy and Gross Domestic Product
  • Central Tendency for Housing Data
  • Variance in Weather
  • Healthcare in Different States
  • Cleaning US Census Data
  • Biodiversity in National Parks
  • MuscleHub A/B Test
  • Chocolate Scraping with Beautiful Soup
  • Sports Vector Machine
  • Twitter Classification
  • Masculinity Survey
  • Perceptron Logic Gates
  • Date-A-Scientist
  • Alienbot
  • Discover Insights into Classic Texts
  • Bag of Words: Mystery Friend

TL/DR:

We’re updating our Data Science Path so that it’s an even better learning experience. It now covers additional important topics and makes sure to reinforce all of that learning with engaging cumulative projects. Dive into the data now!

Piece together the physical world: Engineering at UniSA

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Piece together the physical world: Engineering at UniSA

If you’ve got big ideas and a keen interest in how things work, you might find a great career fit in engineering.

In studying an Associate Degree in Engineering from the University of South Australia, you’ll be able to channel your energy into improving people’s everyday lives, as well as specialise in an area you’re truly passionate about.

“Engineering is a profession that looks at the problems people in a community face, and finds the solutions to help them,” says Mohammad Uddin, program director and lecturer. Mohammad is a mechanical engineer, whose research is dedicated to saving lives through innovative medical devices. He says, “Engineers solve new or existing problems by applying their wisdom, knowledge and skills – looking to the local community first, to see where that need is.”

What you’ll learn

This degree will give you an introduction, not only to engineering concepts, but to university level study in general. You’ll begin with the groundwork – mathematics, physics and chemistry, plus engineering drawing and sustainability practices. From there, you’ll move into learning areas such as design, mechanics, materials and geology.

After you’ve competed the core units, you’ll choose a major to specialise in – Mechanical Engineering or Civil Engineering. Mechanical Engineering is concerned with mechanics, manufacturing, modelling and project planning. Civil Engineering is based around built environment, like buildings, roads, bridges and dams, and how they interact with nature.

This degree will prepare you for a career in any area of engineering – mechanical, electrical or civil. For example, engineers can find opportunities within the defence industry, or in the health and medicine industry, as it continues to advance with new technology. As a graduate, you’ll have completed a wide variety of units, giving you a well-rounded base of knowledge that you can take almost anywhere.

Practical learning that gets you industry-ready

Even though you’ll be studying online, UniSA works hard to replicate the experience you’d get out in the field. What’s more, students also get the opportunity to visit campus to get hands-on experience with engineering equipment. They can take field study tours to places such as Hallett Cove beach for soil investigation, and Kangaroo Creek Dam, which is currently under re-construction to ensure it can cope with flooding. These opportunities provide vital industry learning that you can apply directly to your career.

Study online through OUA

Studying through OUA puts you within reach of your dream degree – offering access to over 300 degrees and 1500 subjects from leading Australian universities. These degrees are the same degrees as an on-campus student would study, under the guidance of the university’s tutors. The key difference is, you get to study when, where, and how you choose.

To express your interest in this course, or any that we offer – fill out the form on this page, and we’ll put you in touch with a friendly student advisor. If you’re keen to explore on your own, simply head over to our website to browse the extensive catalogue of courses from universities across Australia.

Summer Reading Contest Winner, Week 5: On ‘The President and the Census’

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Summer Reading Contest Winner, Week 5: On ‘The President and the Census’

Thank you to the 850 teenagers who participated in the fifth week of our 10-week Summer Reading Contest, and congratulations to Ella_GHS_2021, our winner, as well as to our many runners-up and honorable mentions.

Scroll down to take a look at the variety of topics — from the United States citizenship test and photos of atoms to social media influencers and dealing with perfectionism — that caught the eyes of our participants this week. You can find the work of all our winners since 2017 in this column.

And please remember to always check the top of our contest announcement to find the right place to participate, any week from now until Aug. 23.

Ella_GHS_2021 from Western Massachusetts chose an episode from “The Daily” podcast headlined “The President and the Census” and wrote:

Before listening to this podcast I assumed that the White House wanted the census’ citizenship question so ICE could better target undocumented immigrants, given Trump’s calls for mass deportation.

However, guest Adam Liptak says, it was partisan, as it would provide data for states to decrease unauthorized citizens’ voting power. Instead of saying that, the Administration said they wanted to protect minority voters. The Supreme Court denied the census addition, which I did not expect because the reason for their refusal, on the basis of inauthenticity, seems less precedented than a more substantial reason like constitutionality.

I was not shocked, however, by how, after the President’s tweet, a complete reversal of his administration’s decision to give up, the federal government was forced to pick up the pieces, and chaos ensued as the lawyers defending the census question almost left the case.

What intrigues me is Liptak’s suggestion that Trump’s fear-mongering, as well as continued fighting, are so pervasive throughout his base, and undocumented immigrant communities, that it doesn’t matter, ultimately, whether the question ends up on the census — he will get the results he wants, of fear in undocumented people and a winner’s high for his followers. To me, this is telling of his presidency overall, and how he won: Trump plays to emotion, not reason, so he wins no matter what, because America is addicted to emotion.

Product Review – Instilled LXP

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Product Review – Instilled LXP

This is a first for me.  Writing a product review on a product that I use, well, I am about to use.

Allow me to explain.

Several months back, I saw the Instilled LXP in a beta form, and immediately was entranced by the video aspect – capabilities, functionalities among other items.   I was planning on adding to my Findanlms.com (the web site part of it), a new section called vendor videos, and thus seeing the video aspect on the Instilled, I saw a perfect fit.

Fast Forward

The Vendor videos section on my site, Findanlms.com will launch in the next few weeks (an announcement will be made), where anyone can view videos by any learning system vendor in a playlist format, connect and do quite a bit, but that is for another post (right around launch time).

I will be upfront, this is an independent review – as all my reviews are.  The Instilled LXP is new, and with any system that is new, there are some nice “Wow’s” and some items that are still in need, along with items that need to be tweaked.

The system right now, is a cross between a VLP – Video Learning Platform and an LXP – Learning Experience Platform, and that is where I have to ask myself where does it best play and fit.

The answer, is perhaps another lingo word, that I can see, as the first true digital learning platform.   Which is a subset of the learning system space.  I hear digital learning being tossed around like a hackney sack (popular in the 80’s/90s), as though everything can be it.

I know what Instilled isn’t – it isn’t your grandpa’s VLP, so if you are fans of Panopto and ilk, take a look at Instilled and you will be impressed.  As for an LXP, sure it could slide under there, but for right now (as of this post), they are still in the process of signing up content partners (which you need for an LXP).

I’m fine with Instilled calling themselves as an LXP, but as noted above, digital learning platform works too.

Let’s Break it down – you know – HAMMER TIME!

Great

  • LRS on the back-end, Watershed – let the metrics flow (more on this in a few)
  • Playlist format – you can also call it channel, I like Playlist – just sounds more fluid
  • You can go Grid or list – to me, grid is the only way
  • Slice – and Dice –  When someone is viewing a video and it has chapters, the system can see what chapters the person went into, how long they were in there, and much more
  • Bookmark functionality – show up today, leave after 25 seconds, come back in 8 years and it takes you to the exact spot – and …
  • Auto transcription – plus if you need to edit the transcript you can.   What I loved was that if the person is speaking in say “English” and you want the transcript to be in Spanish, a quick click and zoom – the CC, the transcript is in Spanish.  The audio stays in English, which of course, you would expect.  This isn’t a dubbing platform.
  • Tie a PPT or a PDF to the video as it runs – matching section or clip by clip
  • Very good video editing tool
  • UI is crisp, UX is solid 
  • Ability to subscribe to your favorite videos and/or playlists – can even share them – oh, and did I note that can be tracked too?
  • Ability to have a canopy image as a banner, or the system can pull it from the video itself
  • View speed
  • Can upload your own content – many LXPs do not offer this, I know shocking.   Anyway, accepts SCORM too.

Average

  • Filters are on the main page, it’s nice, but not earth shattering
  • How many times it was viewed, some general metrics – that end users can see, number of resources (i.e. in this case the videos),  and total running time of all the resources
  • Play all – play the resources in the order they are on the page
  • Containers
  • Solid Admin UX
  • Featured, trending resources

Below Average

  • Some of the terminology is confusing, and difficult to figure out, for example, containers – which is where the resources are stored – I’d dump the term on the learner side,  resources is a term I’d also change on the learner side
  • Not all of the Watershed metrics are available –  I have been told that more metrics will be coming – i.e. incorporating more of the Watershed metric data in future versions, but it would have been nice to have some of the common ones you see in many LXPs out of the gate – who have an LRS
  • Data visualization is there, but needs more – again, this is directly tied to the LRS, more options, better visualization, with the increase in data nowadays, what is there, works, but if there was just a touch more of Watershed
  • Ability to only have video as content.   Yes, you can have the match of a PDF, PPT, etc. to the video, but in the playlist, it is video content only.   They plan to add other content in future releases
  • No content partners upon launch.  I get that it takes time, but there should have been a few partners from the get go.  The video piece is what makes this LXP stand apart from many others in the space, so I’d have partnerships with vendors who offer video content – as courses, regardless of length, then say, some of the “courses you see”

Roll The Tape

For my review, I added a series of videos from the CrossKnowledge LMS (which is on the FindAnLMS learning system search engine platform and will be on the vendor video playlist).

I didn’t add my avatar look, nor write a fancy description under the name of the title, but you can do both.

After the end user logins, the default page is the “Featured” page – here is where you will see the featured resources, which are “Trending”.   You have a couple of options, i.e. trending for the week, all-time and the month.

Right below the “Trending” is “My Subscriptions”.  As mentioned, I’m not a fan of the term “resources” – content makes more sense, as in content or if it is just videos, Trending videos.  And if you have various types of content, perhaps an option to show  “Trending PDFs”, “Trending Videos”, “Trending Playlists” and so forth. 

trending_subscriptions

One area that is not available though is your “Favorites”.  You can see your favorites on the “All Content” area (next to “Featured”), as it is part of the specific category, which then shows the playlists.

homeentrypage

I loved that you could have a canopy image as the banner if you choose, or an image or as in this example, a capture from a video clip. 

A challenge though that I did have was the “Filter bar”, it is text based, and when I typed in an “L”, initially the other clips that had “l” somewhere in it showed up, but quickly only the social learning clip stayed.  I surmise this a bug in the system, that will be fixed.

The Sort by option is quite nice.  You have a variety of options.

Sortbysort_2

One sort I did not see was “date modified” or an “update” of the video or any piece of content.  That said, though it was a good sort selection.  Again, as noted earlier, the system right now only offers video as the content (but you can have a PPT or PDF, etc. as part of it), thus the content type is limited.

That will change obviously as the system expands to offer more types of content.

The Playlist Views

There are two options that end user can see.  The default is the “Card view” which is essentially the grid view, most people usually see when they are using Netflix for example.  In this view, you can “subscribe” to the playlist or add as a “favorite”

This is the best view for the system.

The other option is the “list view”, which is a hierarchy view.  It was by far my least favorite.

listview

If you click the “….” it expands the title section to show you a brief text about the content.

And you have two ways to watch or view the content, either by selecting the piece of content or by clicking on the small clip screen.

What you cannot do or see is “subscribe” or “favorites”, neither option is available in this view.  Plus, the size of the clips are tiny. 

The Playlists themselves

Instilled refers to the “playlists” as “containers” and “resources” that exist in each “container”.

containers_resources

I personally found this difficult to understand.  If people see “playlist” then they know what that is, and then within a playlist you can have multiple pieces of content.  “Resources” in the learning system space is often associated with additional materials, not the content itself, especially if you are having “courses”.

Another odd item is that the default is “0” containers, even if I am seeing one on the screen.

I say this, because you can “subscribe to this container”, which thus implies there is “one container”.  I understand why it says “0”, but it creates confusion, especially if a container is what I am seeing.   Thus, again, the use of some other vernacular would be best served here.

The end user sees

  • Total running time of all the ‘resources” – i.e. pieces of content contained within that “container”
  • How many “resources” exist in that container
  • Number of “views” of that container

“Container”

Content View

There is a lot to like here, especially for folks viewing video. 

Items include

  • Jump to any point in the video.  You can bookmark and come back whenever, it will leave a “point”
  • Change the speed of the video, ideal for people who run into bandwidth issues.
  • Closed caption, which you can “by selecting the language on the back-end” change the text to whatever language you select, even if the video is in another language. 

But

I’m not sure the general user would know what “kps” means – it is kilobytes.  So, perhaps I’d change it to say either “Best”, “Average” etc. – or switch to Mps – megabytes.  There isn’t a clear answer here, but unless I am using a modem or did back in the day, then I’m going to under the kps angle.  

If I as the end user – could select the language for the CC that would rock.  This way, if I prefer Arabic, I could see the text in a similar fashion as subtitles.   I know this wouldn’t be an easy to develop, but perhaps something to consider down the road.

Administration

When you login as an administrator, the initial view – i.e. default view is the “Card”.

Here you will see all the containers. 

To view the administration options you click the left side area, and then see your menu options.

While the system leverages the Watershed LRS, what you do not see on the menu is the header “metrics” or “reporting” and options contained under that.  This is because Instilled shows the metrics themselves when you are looking at the content itself – more on a second with that.

The “Metrics” icon that you see with the content isn’t metrics at all, at least not on this screen (it is on another screen though).

Instead

  • Last time the content was viewed, including the time stamp
  • Completion status
  • Success status

How to view the Metrics

Right now it is a bit wonky.  

Metrics

  • Who viewed the piece of content.  The system can even drill further down if you have chapters to see what chapter was viewed as well.
  • TRT – Total running time of that piece of content
  • Viewed – Total amount of time that end user viewed that specific piece of content.  If you had chapters, the system will show you additional granular data
  • Hits – How many times that piece of content was viewed
  • User – Who viewed that piece of content.  If you have it where people do not have to register or login, then it will show by “anonymous”.  For most folks using Instilled, “anonymous” isn’t something you will tend to have, because it is only for your end users.  In this example, with Findanlms’s vendor videos you have the option to register and do more with it or view as anonymous.
  • Date – Last time the piece of content was viewed

The metrics are solid for the initial rollout, but I’d like to see more metrics, especially since Watershed is on the back-end.   Instilled has said they have this on their roadmap to do so.

You can download the metrics too. 

Other Menu Options

Before I dive into the “video editor which rocks in the system, I’m going to show how easy it is to ‘create a group, then super simple to create a “user”, add them to a “group” and assign them a “role or a series of roles”.

This really is quite simple to do in a very good way.  I wish all systems followed such an approach, since it is very fluid, plus modern and agile too.

The best way to explain how to add a “container”,  then add “content” is to show it via this quick video. 

Whatever route you choose i.e. copy from the library, record via web cam or screen recording or upload video, the next screen you will see is the “Playlist Details”.

details_admin

It is important to note, that whichever of the above routes you choose, the piece of content technically isn’t uploaded into the system.  To do that, you select “Start Upload”.

If you have completed the “Edit” screen, and then start to upload the piece of content, once it is in processing, you can leave this screen and work or view other administration components. 

Details..Details

There are numerous selections you can choose from within the “Playlist Details”

  • Edit – the main default screen
  • Captions
  • Download
  • Move
  • Custom Attribute Values – which I strongly recommend you do not use, unless you know how how to do the items that are available within this menu item

Container – Manage and More

We are getting close to seeing the video editor in action, but before that, let’s check out some of the functions you can do, once the content is uploaded and you return to the “All Content” screen in the administration view. (There is no sound – i.e. no narration)

The two areas I think you will use a lot, will be “manage” and “add resources” – of course, besides “metrics”.

Manage Options

  • Edit – You will use this
  • Permissions – Seeing permissions for the container –  This is very easy to use, and powerful – and really a home run.
  • Move Container
  • Custom Attributes Values

After you add a resource, you have a variety of choices

resource

Content Editor is by far something I think you will fall in love with as I did, because it is rich in functionality and an all-star feature set.

Here is just a few items you can do via a screen recording I did, minus narration.

Okay, I take that back, here is everything you can do.  Check out how you can create a chapter within the content, and then see in real-time how to jump to that chapter, regardless of where you in the content.   

You can have a PowerPoint next to the content – in the opening screen of this recording you can see where it says “upload”, and have it sync to the content itself – a winner in my book.

Back to the Menu

Adminoptions

Two additional menu options for administrators are platform settings and account settings.

Bottom Line

I could go on and on, with what you can do with the Instilled LXP system.  Sure, it has areas where it can be improved upon and will need a tweaks and enhancements, but for the first release, it already sets itself apart from so many of the LXPs out there.

If video content is something you want to use and do, this is the LXP for you. If you wish to add additional types of content, wait for the next release.

I’m sure it will deliver.

Final Rating 7.5/10

E-Learning 24/7

 

How to Integrate Mastery Learning into Course Design

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How to Integrate Mastery Learning into Course Design

by Adam Hodges, Ph.D., Sr. Teaching & Learning Specialist

A fundamental challenge for course design is how to improve learner performance on educational outcomes. The key to doing this in online education is to maximize the mastery learning principles built into the Coursera platform. 

The traditional model of education revolves around a fixed time frame with variable achievement. Take, for example, a semester-long university course that meets for 15 weeks. Over the course of that semester, instructors teach lessons and students strive to learn the material that is taught. Some students do better than others in mastering that material over the course of those 15 weeks. This is evidenced by exams that measure their performance and grades that are handed out at the end of the semester. Those grades are intended to indicate the level of mastery learners have achieved over that fixed time frame. In other words, in the traditional learning model, time is fixed and achievement is variable. 

In a famous 1984 paper in Educational Researcher, educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom posed what he called the “2 sigma” problem: How can group instruction methods enable students to attain the same level of achievement that can be attained under good individual or small group tutoring conditions?

Bloom termed this the “2 sigma” problem because research studies (Anania 1982, 1983; Burke 1984) showed that “the average student under tutoring was about two standard deviations [sigmas] above the average” level of achievement of students in a conventional class. Adopting mastery learning strategies in a conventional group class raised student performance by one standard deviation, or sigma. Bloom challenged educators to “find methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring.”

Bloom’s work underscores the importance of rethinking the traditional educational model where time is fixed and achievement is variable. A mastery learning approach flips those variables so that mastery is the constant while time is the variable. Some learners need more time than others to achieve mastery.

The key, though, isn’t to merely provide learners with more time to learn. The learning also needs to be structured in a way that facilitates mastery, using formative tests with feedback-corrective procedures. When done well, this approach to teaching online can approximate the type of guidance associated with tutoring. 

Coursera is built for mastery learning, allowing instructors to embed practice and feedback into the learning path. 

One way to turn the passive watching of video lectures into an active learning experience is to embed knowledge checks into those videos. As Brame & Perez (2017) suggest, in-video questions (IVQs) improve retention and help learners engage in self-assessment strategies important for mastery. 

Another way is to include formative practice quizzes or exercises within each lesson. Coursera recommends at least one practice question for each instructional item in the course. These can be embedded within video lectures as IVQs (login required), put into practice quizzes at the end of each lesson, or a combination of the two. The idea is to intersperse practice with instruction throughout each week of the course. This keeps learners actively engaged as they test and build their mental models en route to demonstrating mastery of the material. 

The effectiveness of formative practice assessments largely depends on how well they provide immediate, actionable feedback to learners. This is where online technology excels, allowing you to tailor your feedback based on how learners respond to a question–simulating the type of individualized feedback in tutoring sessions. 

Coursera lets you leave option-level feedback on quizzes. Let’s say, for example, that your quiz uses a multiple choice format with five options to choose from. You may designate one of those options as the correct response and the other four options as incorrect responses. A well-designed question would include distractors based on potential misconceptions learners might have. For each of those incorrect options, you can provide elaborative feedback to explain to the learner why the response is incorrect and reinforce key ideas relevant to the learning objective. Integrating this type of practice with feedback into the learning path heads off misconceptions and supports learners as they work toward mastery. 

Feedback is also important on the summative graded assessments at the end of each week of the course. Whereas the practice assessments are low-stakes formative opportunities that provide feedback explaining why a response is correct or incorrect, learners demonstrate mastery of learning objectives by passing each week’s graded assessment. Since mastery is the constant and time is the variable, learners are allowed multiple attempts on graded assessments. As you might expect, feedback is invaluable on graded assessments just like it is on practice assessments. However, the type of feedback differs slightly. 

On graded assessments, learners may retake the quiz or exercise more than once. So your feedback should point learners to relevant instructional items that they should review and study before returning to retake the assessment. This type of feedback supports the learner without revealing the correct answer on a graded assessment that they may need to retake. 

Mastery learning is predicated upon relevant practice with actionable feedback. A well-designed course will include both formative (practice) and summative (graded) assessments with elaborative feedback that supports learners as they work to demonstrate mastery of clearly defined learning objectives. Coursera has been built to facilitate mastery learning, allowing you to create effective online learning experiences that help answer Bloom’s “2 sigma” problem.

 

University of Illinois Launches New Specialization on Coursera to Increase Access to Online Master of Computer Science Degree

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University of Illinois Launches New Specialization on Coursera to Increase Access to Online Master of Computer Science Degree

By Dil Sidhu, Chief Content Officer at Coursera

Although computing roles are among the highest-paying jobs today, historically just under three percent of college graduates have earned a computer science (CS) degree. That has translated into a shallow talent pool for an industry that is projected to add more than half a million jobs by 2026. It also means that even experienced programmers who’ve learned on the job may not have the right CS background to pursue advanced CS degrees and enhance their careers.  

To help address this gap, we’re excited to announce Accelerated Computer Science Fundamentals, a new Specialization from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that teaches fundamental computer science algorithms and data structures. The Specialization can also help prospective students improve their application for admission to the University of Illinois’ Online Master of Computer Science (MCS) or MCS in Data Science (MCS-DS) — top-quality degree programs designed to help students pursue some of the most sought-after careers in computer science and data science.

“We’re seeing strong demand for the Online MCS and MCS-DS from prospective students who want to apply computer and data science to their discipline,” said Professor John Hart, Director of Online and Professional Programs for Illinois Computer Science. “However, these students may lack key prerequisites that are required for success in our top-five CS graduate program.” 

Developed by CS Professor Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider, the three-course Specialization helps prospective applicants of the Online MCS and MCS-DS prepare for the Online MCS Entrance Exam. Upon successful completion of the exam, they will have proven that they have the necessary abilities in object-oriented programming, algorithms, and data structures to be prepared for advanced study in graduate-level CS coursework at the University of Illinois, enhancing their application for admission. Read about Illinois Computer Science’s admissions requirements.

Launched in 2016, the Online MCS and MCS-DS degrees are not only high quality, but flexible and affordable: tuition costs $21,440 for a complete 32 credit hour degree that is available entirely online through Coursera. The University of Illinois is home to one of the top computer science programs in the world, and this new Specialization marks an innovative advancement in giving even more students around the world the opportunity to participate in such a highly ranked program. 

The new Accelerated Computer Science Fundamentals Specialization is available now. To learn more about the Online Master of Computer Science (MCS) or MCS in Data Science (MCS-DS) go to coursera.org/degrees. 

 

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