Ed/Tech must-reads 040624

Understanding how and why students use academic file-sharing and homework-help websites: implications for academic integrity from HERD

Dodgy deeds don’t all come from GenAI, and this thoughtful article from Christine Slade (UQ), Guy Curtis (UWA) and Sheona Thomson (QUT) illustrates this in a rich study of 1000 students asking about their understanding and use of the very generously named “homework-help sites” which indicates that there is still much work to be done in informing students about the risks they are taking.

Oh God “ban lecture capture” is doing the rounds again - from Charles Knight (Twitter/X)

I don’t know why The Guardian so often takes the path less well thought out in its coverage of Higher Education but they were back on it last week in their article about lecture attendance last week. They seem to delight in fanning the flames of low level academic resentment to - well everything - and evidently this one kickstarted a chorus of ‘we should just ban lecture capture then’. This twitter discussion is more a reaction to this and includes clever contributions from some UK HE people that I have a lot of time for, like Emily Nordmann and Thomas Lancaster.

Online discussion or authentic dialogue? How design affects discussions in two alternative types of online forums from BJET

LMS discussion fora are largely cursed in online education (though I know some people have their favourites) for the structural limitations that the technology applies to fostering rich, meaningful debate. Smith and Sherry (Uni of South Florida) discuss two new approaches to fostering richer discussion using more linear, sms style chats and a collaborative writing forum. While there are still some bugs to iron out with discussions being derailed, the latter option particularly seems to have promise.

The ‘Make Or Buy’ Decision for Universities: Negotiating Strategic Relationships with OPMs from Partnering with Online Program Managers for Distance Education

I know that I probably bang on about OPMs, (commercial partners who run online courses for universities) more than is necessarily healthy but it seems like an important thing happening in the sector at the moment that too few people are paying attention to. The way I see it, there is a world beyond the ways that we use technology directly with students that potentially has a greater impact on their learning and it is important to know what is happening behind the scenes. (I don’t see the use of OPMs as an evil necessarily either). This chapter of what seems to be a fairly comprehensive book outlines the thinking that went into decision-making at the University of Melbourne in their partnership with an OPM on new post-grad quals.