Eamon Costello
Dublin City University, Open Education, Faculty Member
The aim of this evaluation report is to evaluate the pilot run of the #Openteach course in order to explore, understand and evaluate its impact on the professional learning experiences of the participants and to inform the iterative... more
The aim of this evaluation report is to evaluate the pilot run of the #Openteach course in order to explore, understand and evaluate its impact on the professional learning experiences of the participants and to inform the iterative design process.
Research Interests:
This publication is the second report in a series of reports part of the Assessment of Transversal<br> Skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (ATS STEM) project. The report is<br> the result of an analysis... more
This publication is the second report in a series of reports part of the Assessment of Transversal<br> Skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (ATS STEM) project. The report is<br> the result of an analysis of country responses to a survey launched in 2019, recording government<br> responses to STEM policies and initiatives aimed at STEM education. The report is written within<br> the framework of the ATS STEM project. The project is funded by Erasmus+ (Call reference:<br> EACEA/28/2017 - European policy experimentations in the fields of Education and Training, and<br> Youth led by high-level public authorities) and is an innovative policy experimentation project being conducted across 8 EU<br> countries and involving a partner network of 12 educational institutions.
Research Interests:
This report (Report #5) was written as part of a research project titled, Assessment of Transversal Skills in STEM (ATS STEM). The project is funded by Erasmus+ (Call reference: EACEA/28/2017 - European policy experimentations in the... more
This report (Report #5) was written as part of a research project titled, Assessment of Transversal Skills in STEM (ATS STEM). The project is funded by Erasmus+ (Call reference: EACEA/28/2017 - European policy experimentations in the fields of Education and Training, and Youth led by high-level public authorities). The development of the ideas, concepts and understandings presented in this final report is visually synthesised in Towards the ATS STEM Conceptual Framework. Towards the ATS STEM Conceptual Framework aims to inform the classroom practices of integrated STEM education topics and their assessment. Educators can benefit from such a conceptual framework encapsulating the key ideas from the literature and that helps to inform their understanding and subsequent classroom practice.
Research Interests:
This report (Report #1) is as part of an Erasmus+ project entitled Assessment of Transversal Skills in STEM (ATS STEM), an innovative policy experimentation project being conducted across eight European Union countries through a... more
This report (Report #1) is as part of an Erasmus+ project entitled Assessment of Transversal Skills in STEM (ATS STEM), an innovative policy experimentation project being conducted across eight European Union countries through a partnership of 12 educational institutions. STEM education is a priority for all of the ATS STEM partners and each country/region is already engaged in implementing specific policy actions to promote the development of STEM knowledge and competences across their school sectors. The purpose of this first report is to provide a strong theoretical and research foundation regarding STEM Education, with particular respect to schools. The report aims to present examples of how STEM education has been defined and implemented in school curricula and how digital assessment of transversal skills and competences has been carried out.
Research Interests:
Virtual classrooms create the possibility of delivering off campus education in innovative and dynamic ways (Cakir 2004). They also address another problem for distance education providers – that of low attendance at face to face... more
Virtual classrooms create the possibility of delivering off campus education in innovative and dynamic ways (Cakir 2004). They also address another problem for distance education providers – that of low attendance at face to face tutorials (Walsh et al, 2011). However, little is known about student preference regarding tutorial delivery. This study begins to address the research gap by examining the views and preferences of students regarding tutorial delivery. This paper considers two academic years; 2011-2012 when online synchronous tutorials were employed for the first time on all Oscail programmes, both at undergraduate and postgraduate level. We outline the findings of a survey regarding student experience of engaging with online tutorials during 2011-2012. We then review statistics from the 2012-2013 academic year when all undergraduate students were asked to choose between three tutorial delivery options; completely online, blended or face to face. Returning student preferenc...
Research Interests:
In this book we aim to share the knowledge, resources and research generated by the #Openteach project. The aim of the project was to create an evidence-based and open professional learning approach to support educators to teach online.... more
In this book we aim to share the knowledge, resources and research generated by the #Openteach project. The aim of the project was to create an evidence-based and open professional learning approach to support educators to teach online. Teaching online is different, in this book we explore this difference with the aim of supporting educators to develop their online teaching practice and knowledge of online pedagogy. The Covid-19 Pandemic has been a game changer for online education, impacting 1.5 billion students worldwide and thrusting the majority of schooling and higher education online (Bozkurt and et al. 2020). Additionally, the pandemic has thrust most higher education staff into teaching online, the majority without previous experience of this mode of education (Bozkart et. al., 2020; Farrell, 2020) However, teaching online requires different pedagogical approaches to traditional lecturing, therefore institutions need to support educators transitioning into online teaching to...
Research Interests:
A rolling longitudinal survey of students’ usage of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) in various Irish Higher Education Institutions has been on-going since 2008. This presentation will explore findings from the survey, and what it... more
A rolling longitudinal survey of students’ usage of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) in various Irish Higher Education Institutions has been on-going since 2008. This presentation will explore findings from the survey, and what it might tell us about students’ engagement with technologies as part of their learning. The paper will also examine findings from the survey which have potential relevance to the continuing professional development of lecturers. The VLE survey questionnaire uses a common set of questions, and on condition of anonymity, the participating institutions have pooled their results to allow us to compare and contrast the results. While many institutions routinely conduct in-house surveys or studies from time to time, this study is unique in that it draws on data from multiple institutions, across multiple years, and diverse VLE platforms. By using a standard survey instrument over time, the study provides a unique picture of how student usage of virtual learnin...
Research Interests:
This case study details the development of a systematic, programme-focused assessment and feedback strategy by the Humanities Programme Team, in Dublin City University’s Open Education Unit. Such a strategy is represented by a design that... more
This case study details the development of a systematic, programme-focused assessment and feedback strategy by the Humanities Programme Team, in Dublin City University’s Open Education Unit. Such a strategy is represented by a design that explicitly provides students with appropriate opportunities to attain all programme learning outcomes, as well as module learning outcomes, as they advance through their studies. An essential aspect of this endeavour was to ensure the appropriate usage and variety of assessment types, and integral to this is the need to ensure that appropriate feedback is being provided to students for each of these assessment types. As such appropriate feedback mechanisms are vital in order to achieve a successful assessment that makes a real impact on learners. This is especially important in students first year of study when positive experiences with assessment feedback can contribute to retaining students.
Research Interests:
This paper summarises the findings of a study of textbooks costs reported elsewhere in a journal article and an associated open dataset. The cost of student textbooks is a huge concern in higher education, especially in North America.... more
This paper summarises the findings of a study of textbooks costs reported elsewhere in a journal article and an associated open dataset. The cost of student textbooks is a huge concern in higher education, especially in North America. Less is known about the costs of textbooks in other parts of the world, including in Europe. We address this gap in the knowledge through a case study of one Irish higher education institution, focussing on the cost, accessibility, and licensing of textbooks. We report here on an investigation of textbook prices drawing from an official college course catalogue containing several thousand books. We explain how we sought to determine metadata of these books including: formats (e-book, PDF) that they are available in, whether they are in the public domain and their commercial prices. We detail the methods we used to estimate textbook costs by using the Google Books API and how we made the code and dataset freely available.
Research Interests:
In this study we sought to examine MOOC learners’ levels of trust in the platforms, institutions, and instructors involved in MOOC design and delivery. We sought to examine what influenced learners’ conceptualizations of trust in MOOCs... more
In this study we sought to examine MOOC learners’ levels of trust in the platforms, institutions, and instructors involved in MOOC design and delivery. We sought to examine what influenced learners’ conceptualizations of trust in MOOCs and how this might influence their future intentions towards the related MOOC providers. To this end we examined whether an increase in perceived source credibility of the MOOC increased trusting beliefs of the MOOC learner. Furthermore, we examined whether increases in trusting beliefs of the MOOC learner would lead to an increase in their future trusting intentions. This second question has implications for whether a learner persists in their learning or decides to commit to further study pathways such as paid certificates. In addition to testing these two hypotheses we sought to determine the most significant underlying drivers that learners reported as affecting their trust in MOOCs they undertook. Drawing on concepts of trust from the literature,...
Research Interests:
Ethical reviews of research plans function as a cornerstone of good research practice in order that no harm should come to participants. Ethical concerns have taken on a new salience in a digital world where data can be generated at... more
Ethical reviews of research plans function as a cornerstone of good research practice in order that no harm should come to participants. Ethical concerns have taken on a new salience in a digital world where data can be generated at scale. Big data research has grown rapidly, raising increased ethical concerns. Several intersecting areas of big data research exist within educational research, such as learning analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). In the current study, an investigation was made of peer-reviewed papers on MOOC teaching and learning to determine if they explicitly refer to (a) ethical considerations in their studies, and (b) obtaining formal ethical approval for their research. This investigation was accomplished through a review of MOOC-related, English-language papers available in Scopus database, over the course of a year. The review produced a total of 1,249 articles, of which, 826 articles related to empirical studies involving human participants where full text of the articles could be obtained. The string "ethic" was searched for within these articles, and resulting articles analyzed, which found that a small fraction, 42 articles (5.08%), mention ethics in relation to the study presented in the article, and only 13 articles (1.57%) explicitly mention obtaining formal ethical approval for the research. The findings show a lack of transparency in reporting on and/or engagement with ethical considerations in MOOC teaching and learning research. These findings indicate the need for further stakeholder engagement and sectoral dialogue in relation to ethics education and training for researchers; consideration of ethics in big data studies in education; and norms/policies in academic publishing for authors to report how ethical issues have been considered.
Research Interests:
Something is making you read each one of these words, but once you get to the end of this sentence you will get a momentary relief. A mild stress or desire pulls you along word by word as you read, until you stop, ever so briefly at a... more
Something is making you read each one of these words, but once you get to the end of this sentence you will get a momentary relief. A mild stress or desire pulls you along word by word as you read, until you stop, ever so briefly at a comma or a full stop. Once we reach these waymarks of punctuation, there is a tiny cessation of desire. We experience it as a collapse of the subject-object distinction. In this way, we, the reader as subject, are completely absorbed by each word in a string of successive objects. We follow the line of words as a dog does a hare. The hare may be a living creature, or it may be a machine on a track. All that matters is that the lure is convincing, as once it is, we will run (Fig. 1). It does not matter who or what wrote these words. When we read, we cannot precisely remember what happened a few lines ago, and we have no idea what will happen in the lines ahead, but we continue nonetheless, as long as we feel progress is being made. If the words keep stringing together in a plausible fashion, we will follow. Nothing really needs to be said. In fact, nothing is. I am not telling you anything right now that you do not already know, nor giving you anything that you do not already possess. The argument of this paragraph, by implication, is that language has some quality of proliferation. We become caught up in a subject-object chase, punctuated now and then by almost imperceptible intermittent cessations. But further to this, there is sometimes a strange sense we can get, of object-subject instead of subject-object. That is, sometimes it would seem that we are not reading the words, but they are reading us.
Research Interests:
While ChatGPT has recently become very popular, AI has a long history and philosophy. This paper intends to explore the promises and pitfalls of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) AI and potentially future technologies by... more
While ChatGPT has recently become very popular, AI has a long history and philosophy. This paper intends to explore the promises and pitfalls of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) AI and potentially future technologies by adopting a speculative methodology. Speculative future narratives with a specific focus on educational contexts are provided in an attempt to identify emerging themes and discuss their implications for education in the 21st century. Affordances of (using) AI in Education (AIEd) and possible adverse effects are identified and discussed which emerge from the narratives. It is argued that now is the best of times to define human vs AI contribution to education because AI can accomplish more and more educational activities that used to be the prerogative of human educators. Therefore, it is imperative to rethink the respective roles of technology and human educators in education with a future-oriented mindset.
Research Interests:
This paper proposes a framework to support the use of digital formative assessment in higher education. The framework is informed by key principles and approaches underpinning effective formative assessment and, more specifically, by... more
This paper proposes a framework to support the use of digital formative assessment in higher education. The framework is informed by key principles and approaches underpinning effective formative assessment and, more specifically, by approaches to formative assessment that leverage the functionalities of technology. The overall aim is to provide a structured conceptualisation of digital formative assessment that supports the planning of lectures and other teaching and learning activities in higher education classrooms. At the heart of the framework, as presented in this paper, is a 12-cell grid comprising 4 key formative assessment strategies (sharing learning intentions and success criteria, questioning and discussion, feedback, and peer- and self-assessment) crossed with 3 functionalities of technology (sending and displaying, processing and analysing, and interactive environments). These functionalities of technologies are used as the basis to integrate digital tools into formati...
Research Interests:
The 2019 ICDE World Conference on Online attracted over 800 delegates from more than 80 countries. The World Conference papers are spread across two volumes, with Full Papers appearing in this first volume. All the papers that appear... more
The 2019 ICDE World Conference on Online attracted over 800 delegates from more than 80 countries. The World Conference papers are spread across two volumes, with Full Papers appearing in this first volume. All the papers that appear below have undergone an extensive peer review process involving: (i) a review of original abstract proposals, (ii) a review of paper submissions before the conference, and (iii) a post conference review. Not all submitted papers passed through the review process, with in some cases the work appearing under another paper category, which you will find in Volume 2.
This dataset is comprised of data collected from questions in 18 MOOCs in the areas of medical health education, life sciences and computer science. 204 questions were evaluated by two evaluators using an evaluation protocol from the... more
This dataset is comprised of data collected from questions in 18 MOOCs in the areas of medical health education, life sciences and computer science. 204 questions were evaluated by two evaluators using an evaluation protocol from the literature. Over 50% of the MCQs (112) were found to have one or more item writing flaw; 57 of the MCQs contained two or more flaws. A considerable proportion of the MCQs were found to violate item-writing guidelines, which confirms findings of previous research in this area that examined rates of flaws in MCQs in traditional formal educational contexts. The issue of flawed MCQs can be addressed by training faculty in how to conduct quality checks before before and after their deployment. The data consists of an Excel file with several workbooks
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Several reviews have been conducted of empirical studies of MOOC learners and teachers.The scope and foci of such reviews has varied, as has the reporting of the details of how they were conducted.This study analysed 1,435 published... more
Several reviews have been conducted of empirical studies of MOOC learners and teachers.The scope and foci of such reviews has varied, as has the reporting of the details of how they were conducted.This study analysed 1,435 published articles determining 922 to be empirical studies. We analyzed the full text of 826 of these articles to which the research team had access using the scienometic tool Scival, manual researcher evaluation and topic modelling to determine: the impact as measured by citations; geographic and institutional publishing patterns; and the themes and types of MOOC research. We found that MOOC research is mostly clustered in the discipline of computer science. Learner persistence and self-regulated learning continue to be a focus of study and most impactful finding respectively as studies of previous periods have found. Research is carried out worldwide, with the most influential studies and researchers clustered in particular institutions and countries. Implicatio...
Research Interests:
Assessment of Transversal Skills in STEM (ATS STEM) is an innovative policy experimentation project, which aims to enhance digital assessment of students' transversal skills in STEM. This Erasmus+ project is situated in primary and... more
Assessment of Transversal Skills in STEM (ATS STEM) is an innovative policy experimentation project, which aims to enhance digital assessment of students' transversal skills in STEM. This Erasmus+ project is situated in primary and secondary schools across eight European countries, involving 12 partners on different levels of educational system. Teachers and researchers have collaboratively developed and piloted several integrated STEM learning activities all focusing on UN sustainable development goals. Embedding formative digital assessment of STEM learners' work has been a central component. This paper provides an overview of the project and shares some results from Sweden and Ireland. We provide examples from practice that help illustrate the complexity with a particular focus on technology education.
Research Interests:
Several reviews have been conducted of empirical studies of MOOC learners and teachers. The scope and foci of such reviews has varied, as has the reporting of the details of how they were conducted. This study analysed 1,435 published... more
Several reviews have been conducted of empirical studies of MOOC learners and teachers. The scope and foci of such reviews has varied, as has the reporting of the details of how they were conducted. This study analysed 1,435 published articles, determining 922 to be empirical studies. We analysed the full text of 826 of these articles to which the research team had access using the scientometric tool SciVal, manual researcher evaluation and topic modelling to determine: the impact as measured by citations; geographic and institutional publishing patterns; and the themes and types of MOOC research. We found that MOOC research is mostly clustered in the discipline of computer science. Learner persistence and self-regulated learning continue to be a focus of study and most impactful finding respectively as studies of previous periods have found. Research is carried out worldwide, with the most influential studies and researchers clustered in particular institutions and countries. Implications of this study are that MOOC research is clustered in certain ways which may give rise to particular biases, that researchers should consider more interdisciplinary approaches in their research and greater awareness and use of open science principles and practices in their work.
Research Interests:
The editorial board of the Irish Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning (IJTEL) would like to use this opportunity to thank each and every one of you working through a very challenging time over the past twelve months of the pandemic. It... more
The editorial board of the Irish Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning (IJTEL) would like to use this opportunity to thank each and every one of you working through a very challenging time over the past twelve months of the pandemic. It is a significant event, a critical incident, that will take some time to document and reflect upon in future journal editions. So many words have already been written about this past year that try to capture the disruption and change. However, to summarise even a scintilla of what has happened across Irish higher education is a slightly daunting prospect. We have seen various terms used to describe the rapid shift to teaching and learning online, such as milestone, pivot, emergency remote teaching. None of these fully encompass the myriad of ways that those of us working in education have had to become resilient, responsive and supportive of colleagues during this period. Considering the response from members of the educational technology communi...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper introduces research concerned with investigating how Computational Thinking and online learning can be successfully married to help empower secondary teachers to teach this subject. To aid this research, a systematic literature... more
This paper introduces research concerned with investigating how Computational Thinking and online learning can be successfully married to help empower secondary teachers to teach this subject. To aid this research, a systematic literature review was undertaken to investigate what is currently known in the academic literature on where Computational Thinking and online learning intersect. This paper presents the findings of this systematic literature review. It outlines the methodology used and presents the current data available in the literature on how Computational Thinking is taught online. Using a systematic process eight hundred articles were initially identified and then subsequently narrowed down to forty papers. These papers were analysed to answer the following two questions: 1. What are the current pedagogical approaches to teaching Computational Thinking online? 2. What were the categories of online learning observed in the teaching of Computational Thinking? Our findings ...
Research Interests:
This paper will explore the experiences of the #Openteach project team in developing a flexible and evidence based approach to support professional learning for those who teach online. The project had a number of phases, which included a... more
This paper will explore the experiences of the #Openteach project team in developing a flexible and evidence based approach to support professional learning for those who teach online. The project had a number of phases, which included a needs analysis of online students and educators about effective online teaching, the publication of a review of the literature entitled Teaching Online is Different, and a pilot evaluation report. The #Openteach open course ran in March 2020 and focused on five key aspects of teaching online: social presence; facilitating discussion; collaboration online; live online teaching; and supporting online students. The final phase of the project involves the creation of an open textbook bringing together all of the project outputs, due for publication in summer 2021. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data collected from online educators pre and post the initiative, this paper reports on two aspects of the #Openteach project in detail: the design, dev...
Research Interests:
In this paper we present results of the initial phase of a project which sought to analyze the community who use the hashtag #MOOC in Twitter. We conceptualize this community as a form of networked public. In doing so we ask what the... more
In this paper we present results of the initial phase of a project which sought to analyze the community who use the hashtag #MOOC in Twitter. We conceptualize this community as a form of networked public. In doing so we ask what the nature of this public is and whether it may be best conceived of as a social or informational network. In addition we seek to uncover who the stakeholders are who most influentially participate. We do this by using Social Network Analysis (SNA) to uncover the key hubs and influencers in the network. We use two approaches to deriving a network typology - one based on follows and on based on replies and compare and contrast the results.
Research Interests:
The pressing problems we face from wars to pandemics erupt against the less dramatic background of the mundane continued destruction of our planet as a habitable realm. In education, technology can be environmentally destructive in a... more
The pressing problems we face from wars to pandemics erupt against the less dramatic background of the mundane continued destruction of our planet as a habitable realm. In education, technology can be environmentally destructive in a variety of ways. Educators may feel the urge to address these matters but we also know that EdTech solutionism can create new problems as fast as it fixes old ones. Something in the urgency of the fix may be the problem. It may be that we are too desperate to fill a hole in the world that we only see through a hole in ourselves. Hence, in order to truly escape our colonised and domesticated fates, we need to rewild our very thinking. We need to examine the underlying emotional tones and waves that cause us to act as we do against our own interests and that of our planet. This conundrum is explored here through the device of storytelling using a multimodal speculative auto-ethnography to push into realms beyond mere utility and out into conceptual wilds. No fixes or solutions are offered here for the planet. Lifeless celestial objects such as the sun and moon loom large by contrast. Both have walk-on parts in this tale, and watch us as we watch them, with whatever love and kindness we can.
Research Interests:
This article undertakes a critical appraisal of learning design and its relation to ethical ideas of care. We give an account of three personae of near future learning designers, developed using speculative methods, seeded with real-world... more
This article undertakes a critical appraisal of learning design and its relation to ethical ideas of care. We give an account of three personae of near future learning designers, developed using speculative methods, seeded with real-world data comprising job advertisements and validated with learning designers. The personae illustrate conflicts about the role of learning designers within the teaching and research missions of the academy and issues of care or lack thereof for these workers. The disembodied skills of learning designer job advertisements are contrasted with the bodies of (more than) real people that can suffer and care. We finish by contributing elements of a speculative job advertisement for a learning designer, who will help shape educational spaces of the near future by entangled care and unencumbered attentiveness.
Research Interests:
Computational Thinking (CT) is a problem-solving process applicable across all disciplines. It has been defined as a 21st-century skill (Wing, Communications of the ACM, 49(3), 33–35, 2006). Unfortunately, little pedagogical research is... more
Computational Thinking (CT) is a problem-solving process applicable across all disciplines. It has been defined as a 21st-century skill (Wing, Communications of the ACM, 49(3), 33–35, 2006). Unfortunately, little pedagogical research is available to guide teachers and designers when devising a CT course. This study addresses this issue by describing how a framework to teach CT to second-level students evolved. This framework, ADAPTTER, has been shown to result in a high quality, engaging, low threshold, effective, and practical course. A three-phase Educational Design Research study was employed to develop this framework. It involved six schools, eleven teachers, four content experts, and 446 students. Data was gathered using various means: teacher interviews and diaries, students' questionnaires, artefacts, and tests. The ADAPTTER framework is offered as a way for teachers and researchers to design a CT course, understand its components and have conversations around the same.
Research Interests:
This report was written as part of a research project titled, Assessment of Transversal Skills in STEM (ATS STEM). The project is funded by Erasmus+ (Call reference: EACEA/28/2017 - European policy experimentations in the fields of... more
This report was written as part of a research project titled, Assessment of Transversal Skills in STEM (ATS STEM). The project is funded by Erasmus+ (Call reference: EACEA/28/2017 - European policy experimentations in the fields of Education and Training, and Youth led by high-level public authorities). The report is based on outputs related to two of the project's work packages namely, Review of digital assessment approaches (WP1.4) and, Formative assessment design (WP2.1). This report is the third in a series of five reports based on deliverables related to the ATS STEM project.
Diaries in Research: An Annotated Abstract List
The field of Learning Analytics' ultimate promise is that it can turn insights into action so as to improve learning experiences and outcomes. Efforts have been made to consider the ethical implications of this field such that... more
The field of Learning Analytics' ultimate promise is that it can turn insights into action so as to improve learning experiences and outcomes. Efforts have been made to consider the ethical implications of this field such that learners are properly protected in such research. However, surprisingly little research has been conducted into how researchers in the field actually handle issues of ethics and participant rights as evidenced in published studies. In this paper we address this gap by conducting a literature review and analysis of Learning Analytics research. We analysed 104 papers and found that a majority (60) made no mention of ethics or ethical approval for the research. We found differences in opt-in and opt-out policies for learners in the published studies. It was not always clear that full learner consent had been given in many studies. We highlight considerable absence of details in ethical reporting and recommend that future learning analytics research studies cl...
Research Interests:
This literature report is a phase one output from the #Openteach: Professional Development for Open Online Educators project, which is funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. The... more
This literature report is a phase one output from the #Openteach: Professional Development for Open Online Educators project, which is funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. The #Openteach project aims to generate new knowledge about effective online teaching practice. It aims to harness this knowledge to support the professional learning of online teachers and to more effectively support online student learning experiences. This report was developed to help lay a foundation for the project through a critical analysis of relevant literature.
Research Interests:
Volume 2 is abstract only papers from the 2019 ICDE World Conference on Online which attracted over 800 delegates from more than 80 countries. The World Conference papers are spread across two volumes, with Full Papers appearing in the... more
Volume 2 is abstract only papers from the 2019 ICDE World Conference on Online which attracted over 800 delegates from more than 80 countries. The World Conference papers are spread across two volumes, with Full Papers appearing in the first volume. All the papers in Volume 1 have undergone an extensive peer review process involving: (i) a review of original abstract proposals, (ii) a review of paper submissions before the conference, and (iii) a post conference review. Not all submitted papers passed through the review process, with in some cases the work appearing under another paper category, which you will find in this Volume 2.
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) are a core building block of many MOOCs. In this exploratory study we analyze a sample of MCQs from a number of MOOCs and evaluate their quality. We conducted this analysis using a framework informed by a... more
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) are a core building block of many MOOCs. In this exploratory study we analyze a sample of MCQs from a number of MOOCs and evaluate their quality. We conducted this analysis using a framework informed by a body of empirical research, which describes several common flaws that may occur in the way MCQs are written or phrased. Studies have shown that the presence of these flaws are likely to compromise the reliability and validity of tests containing these MCQs, potentially leading to poorer pedagogical outcomes. Through our study we contribute to the broad debate of whether MOOCs are a force that can enable enhanced and improved pedagogies or whether they will be susceptible to replicating existing poor pedagogies or practises at scale.
Research Interests:
This practice report discusses the development of the Head Start Online MOOC. This initiative targeted flexible learners, defined as adults engaged in part-time or online distance learning, during the initial stages of the study... more
This practice report discusses the development of the Head Start Online MOOC. This initiative targeted flexible learners, defined as adults engaged in part-time or online distance learning, during the initial stages of the study life-cycle. Drawing on the literature, the experiences of major international Online and Distance Learning (ODL) providers, and a set of overarching design principles, the MOOC (Massive open online course) was developed with a suite of digital readiness tools at its heart. These tools were combined with other supporting materials in order to deliver a comprehensive pre-entry socialisation course. A small pilot of Head Start Online ran over five weeks with 150 people enrolled and 50 going on to receive a certificate of completion. The feedback received, albeit limited by the numbers of respondents, indicates that a course that strategically uses digital readiness tools can have a positive impact on new and prospective flexible learners.
Research Interests:
There is a relative dearth of research into what is being said about MOOCs by users in social media, particularly through analysis of large datasets. In this paper we contribute to addressing this gap through an exploratory analysis of a... more
There is a relative dearth of research into what is being said about MOOCs by users in social media, particularly through analysis of large datasets. In this paper we contribute to addressing this gap through an exploratory analysis of a Twitter dataset. We present an analysis of a dataset of tweets that contain the hashtag #MOOC. A three month sample of tweets from the global Twitter stream was obtained using the GNIP API. Using techniques for analysis of large microblogging datasets we conducted descriptive analysis and content analysis of the data. Our findings suggest that the set of tweets containing the hashtag #MOOC has some strong characteristics of an information network. Course providers and platforms are prominent in the data but teachers and learners are also evident. We draw lessons for further research based on our findings.
Research Interests:
A rolling longitudinal survey of students’ usage of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) in various Irish Higher Education Institutions has been on-going since 2008, with a new round of student surveys in the current academic year.... more
A rolling longitudinal survey of students’ usage of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) in various Irish Higher Education Institutions has been on-going since 2008, with a new round of student surveys in the current academic year. However, while the series of student surveys has proved to be highly informative, the staff voice has hitherto been unheard.Therefore, following a pilot survey; and using the online survey tool SurveyMonkey, lecturers were surveyed across more than four colleges. The VLE survey questionnaire uses a common set of questions and, on condition of anonymity, the participating institutions have pooled their results to allow us to compare and contrast the results. While many institutions routinely conduct in-house surveys or studies from time to time, this study is unique in that it draws on data from multiple institutions and diverse VLE platforms.Our previous findings from student surveys identified some of the key drivers and barriers to uptake and usage of a...
Research Interests:
This paper reports a work in progress to investigate the current and intended future use of open digital textbooks in Irish higher education. It begins by establishing that open digital textbooks, as a subset of the wider Open Educational... more
This paper reports a work in progress to investigate the current and intended future use of open digital textbooks in Irish higher education. It begins by establishing that open digital textbooks, as a subset of the wider Open Educational Resources (OER) movement, have not featured prominently in Irish higher education policy texts. A brief synthesis of the macro-level literature reveals the strong North American influence driving innovations in open digital textbooks over the past decade, particularly in response to increasing concerns about rising costs. At the mesolevel the research problem is framed by a gap in the literature and lack of information more generally about textbook use in Irish higher education, although more specifically the study aims to establish current and intended future usage of open digital textbooks. Five research questions that guide the study are then outlined along with the methodology for the first two parallel work packages: (a) an environmental scan ...
Research Interests:
This case study reports on the practical use of technology to support a programmatic approach to achieving learning outcomes. This is achieved through the provision of appropriate opportunities for online distance learning (ODL) students... more
This case study reports on the practical use of technology to support a programmatic approach to achieving learning outcomes. This is achieved through the provision of appropriate opportunities for online distance learning (ODL) students to achieve the range of 21st century skills needed to manage the complexity of future problems and continue to be critical consumers and producers of knowledge throughout their lives. A programme-focused assessment strategy is utilised on an ODL Humanities programme with a distributed, modular provision model, in order to satisfy related learning outcomes. This strategy allows for the deployment of a range of assessment types, many of which are only possible through the current affordances of online learning, for example, wiki-building in groups and debates using discussion forums. Both the students and the majority of the academic staff are off-campus, with technology providing the means for interaction and communication relating to assessment of l...
Research Interests:
This chapter aims to explore education as posthuman practice via the anatomy of a lesson plan. The lesson is narrated through the methodological device of speculative fiction. It is a fabulation set in the future but with roots that... more
This chapter aims to explore education as posthuman practice via the anatomy of a lesson plan. The lesson is narrated through the methodological device of speculative fiction. It is a fabulation set in the future but with roots that tangle with the past. Dark histories and futures are set to flicker here. Deception, de-identification and datafication lurk everywhere. If you are squeamish, you may wish to read no further. The datafication of people, their reduction to numbers, bytes and, most fatally of all, words, is laid out here in gory detail. If you do wish to read on, however, then you need nothing: just come as you are, and be assured as always that as the reader, choice is yours.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Little is known about open access publishing in educational technology journals that employ a hybrid model which charges authors only if they wish to publish via gold open access. In this study we sought to address this gap in the... more
Little is known about open access publishing in educational technology journals that employ a hybrid model which charges authors only if they wish to publish via gold open access. In this study we sought to address this gap in the scholarly understanding of open access publishing in hybrid journals that publish research into the intersection of education and technology. We analysed three categories of article access types: gold, green, and limited access, and collected data on their prevalence in the seven-year period from 2010-2017 across 29 journals. Data was gathered from Scopus, Unpaywall, Sherpa RoMEO, and via manual searches of the journal websites, resulting in a dataset comprising the metadata of 8,479 articles. Our findings highlight that most research remains locked behind paywalls, that open access publishing through legal means is a minority activity for the scholars involved, and that the complexity and costs of legal open access publishing in these journals may be inhi...
Research Interests: Instructional Design, Educational Technology, Open Access, Pedagogy, Online Learning, and 9 moreOpen Education, Open Educational Resources, Open Educational Resources (Education), Open and Distance Education, Open science, Education Systems, Open and Distance Learning, Open Distance Learning, and E Learning
This study examined the ethical considerations researchers have made when investigating MOOC learners’ and teachers’ Twitter activity. In so doing, it sought to addresses the lack of an evidence-based understanding of the ethical... more
This study examined the ethical considerations researchers have made when investigating MOOC learners’ and teachers’ Twitter activity. In so doing, it sought to addresses the lack of an evidence-based understanding of the ethical implications of research into Twitter as a site of teaching and learning. Through an analysis of 31 studies we present a mapping of the ethical practices of researchers in this area. We identified potential ethical issues and concerns that have arisen. Our main contribution is to seek to challenge researchers to engage critically with ethical issues and hence develop their own understanding of ethically- appropriate approaches. To this end, we also reflected and reported on our own evolving practice.
Research Interests:
Educational technology as a broad and applied interdisciplinary research field faces challenges in achieving consensus on what constitutes good quality research. As the field is embedded in many other disciplines, considering what... more
Educational technology as a broad and applied interdisciplinary research field faces challenges in achieving consensus on what constitutes good quality research. As the field is embedded in many other disciplines, considering what evidence matters and the optimal methodologies to conduct inquiry is continually evolving and maturing. Inhabiting a boundary between education, and computer science, and viewed through numerous theoretical lenses ranging from disciplines of sociology, politics, psychology, the learning systems, curriculum development, digital humanities, and beyond, the number of approaches contributing to the field is vast. The validity, trustworthiness and integrity of over two decades of research in this domain is continually questioned. Furthermore, as technology itself also changes, there are differing opinions on how best to explore and understand the role it plays in education. How we define, research and evaluate our evidence is central to our understanding of ho...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The rising cost of textbooks for students has been highlighted as a major concern in higher education, particularly in the USA and Canada. Less has been reported, however, about the costs of textbooks outside of North America, including... more
The rising cost of textbooks for students has been highlighted as a major concern in higher education, particularly in the USA and Canada. Less has been reported, however, about the costs of textbooks outside of North America, including in Europe. We address this gap in the knowledge through a case study of one Irish higher education institution, focusing on the cost, accessibility, and licensing of textbooks. We report here on an investigation of textbooks prices drawing from an official college course catalog containing several thousand books. We detail how we sought to determine meta-data of these books including: the formats they are available in, whether they are in the public domain and the retail prices. We explain how we used methods to automatically determine textbook costs using Google Books API and make our code and dataset publicly available.
Research Interests: Information Systems, Computer Science, Open Access, Open Access Publishing, Open Source Software, and 8 moreOpen Source/Open Access and Libraries, Open Data, Open Education, Open Textbooks, Open Government, Open Educational Resources (OER), Library and Information Studies, and Open Distance Learning
Rising textbook costs have been highlighted as an issue for students in higher education (HE), particularly in North America. Less is known about the costs and forms in which books are available to students in higher education in Europe... more
Rising textbook costs have been highlighted as an issue for students in higher education (HE), particularly in North America. Less is known about the costs and forms in which books are available to students in higher education in Europe and specifically in Ireland. This is despite significant moves towards openly licensed books as a potential response via established open access publishing platforms. This research sought to address a gap in the scholarly understanding of textbook usage and the potential of open alternatives in Ireland. We present the results of an analysis of the accessibility, cost and licensing of textbooks in Ireland taking one higher education institution as a case study. We report here on the findings of phases one and two of this study, including the retail prices of over 500 books, the formats they are available in and those that are in the public domain. The next phase of this study involved the design of research instruments to use with staff and students as participants in research. These instruments were designed, with reference to the research literature on Open Education Resources (OER), such as Wiley's 5 Rs of OER, to examine the current usage and perception of educational textbooks with the overarching aim of determining the relevance of digital open textbooks in the Irish context.