Nikon Instruments Inc. has just announced the launch of the Eclipse Ei educational microscope. Known for their innovation in the world of microscope technology, Nikon’s newest device is a notable advancement in the remote learning toolbox. The Eclipse Ei microscope allows for a unique combination of independent and communal learning, as it can be operated individually while images can be easily shared with fellow classmates. The device’s design puts special emphasis on being accessible and user-friendly so that the task of working independently is made more straightforward for students.

The Nikon Eclipse Ei Educational Microscope for Independent Learning

The microscope’s first significant innovation is that it is smartphone compatible. The user’s guide as well as various video tutorials can be accessed by simply scanning a QR code located on the device. This allows students to use personal technology that they already have available to access the guide, encouraging independent learning before the microscope itself is even used. The guide itself contains easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions.

We are pleased to announce our new Eclipse Ei educational microscope. Combined with the real-time image sharing capabilities of our DS-1000 camera and NIS-Elements L software, the Ei microscope is perfect for distance learning. Click to learn more: https://t.co/1tFRDjKJUW pic.twitter.com/dictFdj64Q

— Nikon Instruments (@NikonInst) November 17, 2020

In terms of features, the device uses a Digital Sight 1000 microscope camera, capable of taking both HD images and videos of the observed specimen. This content can then be easily shared with others either on a projector or through PCs and other smart devices, making it ideal for an academic environment, both in-person and virtual. The device is also designed to be physically easy to use. It allows users to maintain a natural posture in order to limit fatigue from bending down. It is also 30% lighter than previous microscopes, increasing portability.

The Innovation of User Guides

The Eclipse Ei is an innovation for science education technology mainly because of how the ability to encourage independent learning is built into the device’s design. Similar smart microscopes have been available for some time now, such as the SmartMicroScope 5M, many of which have similar innovations in terms of accessibility and shareability. However, what makes the Eclipse Ei so notable is, oddly enough, how the guide is accessed. Encouraging independent learning by asking students to understand how to use a device on their own may seem like putting a burden on students. Self-directed and flipped learning reflect recent changes in technology-informed pedagogy.

In the past, instructors would be readily available in-person to guide students in how to use certain technologies. Even if a student were entirely enrolled in online education, their unique circumstances would mean counselors and faculty would still be easily available should the student need immediate guidance. However, online education is no longer unique to certain students, it has become universal as of late due to the pandemic. This means students are increasingly in need of guidance while faculty are becoming less immediately available. The ability of a device to guide students through how to use it properly is quite indispensable in the current conditions of education. Technology that teaches its users could very well be the next necessary modernization.

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As the world of education shifts further into the realm of online learning, new research has emerged to track this transition. Whether the drastic move towards online education is a consequence of Covid-19 or a more personal choice of an individual, it is clear that eLearning has become a thing of the present rather than just a vision of the future. New studies are emerging about the various effects, obstacles, and possible outcomes of a primarily online education. Despite all of these useful studies, however, the sudden shift has brought to light a sizeable hole in online learning research. There has been notably little investigation into online academic advising.

A Rise in Advising Software

A product developed by Hobsons, known as Starfish, seeks to make the transition to online academic advising easier. This technology aims to improve academic performance among students by encouraging and making accessible communication between students and advisors. Starfish operates around a unique “flag” system, where school faculty are able to immediately alert advisors about certain students who are in need of academic guidance, namely those who are at risk of failing or being dropped from their courses. It also connects those who are in need of career, mental health, or financial counsel. This software currently hosts over 6 million student users across over 500 institutions.

According to recent data collected by Starfish, flags that pertained specifically to student technology issues rose 32,074% compared to 2019, going from 35 to 11,261 flags between March and May. Student engagement also increased 963%, and flags notifying advisors that students had been inactive for three days on their learning platform increased from 294 in 2019 to 75,028 in 2020.

Like many other edtech products, online academic advising has been overloaded with students who would normally seek guidance in person. It is important to note that the data released by Starfish pertains specifically to the period of sudden transition to online learning due to Covid-19, meaning these numbers could have been quite different if there had been proper preparation ahead of the shift. Though an increased use of technology naturally means more technological difficulties, it is important to keep in mind that the dramatic rise in difficulties can be largely explained by students’ unfamiliarity with navigating these online platforms.

What Students Desire from Their Advisors

If one thing can be concluded from all of this contemporary research, it is that the venture into online learning can either exacerbate or resolve many issues depending on how the technology is utilized. Academic advising is a prime example of this. According to a 2018 survey published in the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) Journal, graduate students who were enrolled in online courses reported overall satisfaction with their online advising situations, with the biggest concern being that students wished that their advisors would take a more proactive approach to initiating contact with them. Though this survey took place before the current pandemic, it does conclude that online advising has similar issues as in-person advising, at about the same rate.

A much more recent study conducted in March of 2020 seems to support the notion the significant issue are present with inadequate communication between students and their online advisors. This study drew from a sample of online graduate and undergraduate students split into three groups; those with an individual academic advisor, a departmental advisor, and a general advisor. Overwhelmingly, the students with the individual advisors showed the most satisfaction with their advising experience. The next best rated was the departmental advisors, and lastly the general advisors.

Both of these studies, as well as the data from Starfish, suggest that academic advising could be vastly improved by an increase in interaction between students and their advisors. Remote learning technology could make this task much easier if navigation is made more accessible.

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A study recently published in the Online Learning Journal suggests that the overall effectiveness of debates as an educational tool is essentially unaltered by moving the classroom debates to an online platform. The study, published in September, was authored by Dr. Cheng-Chia “Brian” Chen, a graduate professor of public health, and Dr. Karen Swan, a graduate professor of educational leadership. Conducted at the University of Illinois at Springfield, the study draws from a sample of 52 students, split into two groups, enrolled in health-related online courses with a special focus on debate. The results found no outstanding differences between debate efficiency and experience in online courses versus on-ground courses.

Online Debates and the Importance of Active Learning Across Education

The groups were split into one completely online program and one primarily on-ground program, consisting of 25 and 27 students, respectively. While the on-ground group followed a more traditional form of face-to-face synchronous debating, the online program utilized an alternative method of asynchronous debates spanning a period of 16 weeks.

Focusing on the topic of obesity, these debates asked students to discuss its context, determinants, and whether it should be considered a disease. These discussion methods placed substantial importance on active learning.

“One of my major philosophies of teaching is constructivism, meaning students must build the knowledge on their own” said Dr. Chen, the study’s lead author. “Through active learning, students are also undergoing a self-learning process… I want my students to be able to identify what is valid information, and active learning helps them to gain the ability to recognize credible sources on their own.”

The Asynchronous and In-Person Groups Reported Similar Experiences

The productivity of the asynchronous program matched that of the synchronous debates. Close to 87% of the participants felt that the online debates enhanced their active learning experience, with more than half of the students strongly agreeing with that statement. In addition, about 81% of the students agreed that the online group debate had increased their critical thinking skills and about 90% of students found that the online setting actually improved their interaction with one another as well as the instructor. Overall, the study resulted in a positive experience that students overwhelmingly maintain had produced a refinement of their active learning as well as their critical thinking abilities.

“The reason I initiated this study is because I like to connect my teaching with my research” said Dr. Chen. “I was still new, or at least I had not reached my full capacity to teach online courses and I had been working really hard to make that transition. We all know the persistent challenge of adjusting on-campus methods of teaching to online teaching, so the purpose of this research was to closely examine the innovative approaches that I use for this debate-formatted class. The results gave me confidence that what I’m doing is working.”

The Obstacles and Advantages of Asynchronous Learning

One of the major features in asynchronous education emphasized by the study is the use of online tools and apps. In particular, the study underscores the importance of Google Docs as a platform used for collaborative projects and WhatsApp as an application useful for direct communication between students.

“Google Docs and other apps are often vital to asynchronous learning,” said Dr. Chen. “Students use them to collaborate and assign jobs, a way to combat the lack of interaction. Actually, at the time I began my study, Google Docs had just added the feature of chatting.” The comments are also visible to instructors, making them a convenient way to receive constructive feedback. Most notably, these tools increase the ability and, consequently, the eagerness of students to work together on a project.

These tools serve mainly as a mechanism to encourage teamwork among the students, an aspect which is prioritized in this study. The first 4 weeks of the study were dedicated to students becoming familiar with each other, with online meeting and other collaborative assignments being spread out the duration of the course. In a debate-focused class, there is special emphasis on team-building and collaborative development, a task that can be more daunting in an online setting. However, there are various tools and strategies available to overcome this obstacle, and despite the drawbacks, there are definite advantages to online education.

Overcoming New Challenges

“There are many challenges associated with this new technology, but one of the benefits of the asynchronous method is that it allows students to have great control over their learning. They can decide how, where, and when to learn,” Dr. Chen added. “In addition, it allows us to be respectful of everyone’s unique learning pace. For example, if I’m learning from watching a video, I can stop and rewind to watch it again, or shuffle to the different durations where I felt confused. I always provide lecture videos with corresponding lecture notes. If someone is a fast learner, they may be able to watch and absorb the video sped up. This sort of control is not available in synchronous learning.”

Given his experience as an instructor and the results of this study, what would Dr. Chen say to students who are concerned that a primarily online education could possibly inhibit their ability to learn actively or think critically?

“If an instructor is not able to overcome the disadvantages of asynchronous learning, then it is understandable for students to be concerned about the quality of their education. But for me and for this online program [at the University of Illinois at Springfield’s Department of Public Health], this is not a problem. Especially in the field of public health, a lot of professionals would like to work while also getting their Master’s Degree, so this online degree program is actually growing in popularity. I would tell these students that if you are able to find a reputable online program, then just go for it. If you can identify good programs, then you shouldn’t have to worry about the quality of teaching.”

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A recent study published by Frontiers in Education suggests that certain modern communicative applications, namely WhatsApp and Google Drive, can be just as effective a mode of communication between students and their instructors as face-to-face meetings. The study was conducted using a sample of 123 Spanish pre-service students, all of whom are studying to obtain their Educational Master’s Degree from the University of Granada, Spain.

WhatsApp, Google Drive, and Other Digital Platforms as Modes of Communication in Academia

These students were selected through a process of intentional sampling. Out of the sample of 123 students, 34 were men and 89 were women with a mean age of 26 years old. Students were split into two different study groups, a Control group that primarily communicates via in person contact and email, and an Experimental group that uses WhatsApp and Google Drive as the primary modes of communication. Data on these students was collected through a questionnaire.

This study aimed to test the effectiveness of new technological devices as modes of communication in the realm of academia, specifically communication between students and instructors. With the increasing popularity of media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, as well as WhatsApp and various Google platforms, the study acknowledges the exponential relevance of these media as becoming fundamental to our society at large. Much of contemporary research and scientific literature proposes taking advantage of these platforms as tools to further the development of education.

Researchers chose to focus this study on WhatsApp and Google Drive primarily because of their prominent use in the field of teaching. This inspired researchers to further investigate the integration of these tools into the teaching-learning process. WhatsApp in particular appears to motivate and encourage more active participation for students communicating with teachers, due in part to its multiplicity of engaging elements (visual, auditory, and interactive) as well as the simplicity of its design. Google Drive is equally easy to use and includes a variety of functions applicable to academia. Most significantly, it provides a simple way to share documents and store them in the cloud. For these reasons, Google Drive has become an essential tool for most academic settings.

The Teaching-Learning Process in the Digital Age

The rising prominence of these platforms seems to be a symptom of the evolution of the teaching-learning process. As the study describes, the ideology and methodology of teaching has progressed into encouraging more active participation on the part of the student, resulting in something more akin to a collaboration than a supervision. This modern methodology has been demonstrated to increase student motivation, which in turn improves critical thinking skills.

The results of this study indicate that these applications are indeed effective modes of communication in academia. They appear to encourage a more social and participatory learning experience. “Particularly, these educational tools also allow a supported learning as well as an individualized way of teaching, which clearly makes it more attractive to the learner. From the research side, the theories underlying this study show the advantages of applying these educational applications in Higher Education… While planning is a key aspect before introducing these tools, they are a good follow-up method for hands-on activities. The advantages they bring with this group of students are numerous and facilitate the development of learning in the new framework of Higher Education in which digital competence has become an essential skill.”

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A recent study conducted by MIT researchers has demonstrated that the current state-by-state reopening policies for schools, businesses, and other institutions could potentially be less effective against the COVID-19 pandemic than the initial estimations proposed by policy makers. The study was undergone by MIT researcher and PhD student Michael Zhao, along with MIT’s Director of the Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE), Sinan Aral. Over 22 million mobile devices and 220 million Facebook users were analyzed to collect daily data on various closures across state lines. The results suggest that the current policies and the reinforcing of those policies amidst mass reopenings could in fact be counterproductive to preventing further substantial spreading of the virus.

The Effectiveness of Closings and Reopenings

The study primarily tracked the policies implemented as a result of the mass reopenings that took place after the initial shutdowns caused by the first outbreaks of the virus in the U.S., as well as the effects of those policies. All of the data collected was generated between January 1st and July 1st, 2020. Over the 6-month period, the social distancing policies imposed after the initial lockdown period proved to be less effective than the policies imposed in the earliest stages of the pandemic.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1280691324925116416?lang=en

A close examination of the data collected through social media suggests that a lack of coordination is mainly to blame for the decline in efficiency. When certain places have stricter policies and lockdown guidelines than others, people are more likely to travel to the locations that have looser restrictions. These places that have the looser restriction usually have so because they are considered low-risk zones, however, the new overcrowding caused by masses flocking to these locations exacerbates the spread, causing these once “safe zones” to become virus hotspots.

In other words, re-imposing policies is less effective than the initial imposing, at least when it comes to those regarding social distancing and shelter-in-place mandates.

Back in March, California Governor Gavin Newson declared a state of emergency, issuing a statewide shelter-in-place order and urging all counties to implement stricter prevention policies. Not long after, these strictness of these policies began to ease, and only one month after dine-in restaurants and other non-essential businesses were allowed to reopen, the governor was forced to re-implement those policies due to the sudden surge in COVID-19 cases. This resulted in the most intense and abrupt reversal of reopenings that had been seen in the U.S. Several other states have seen similar setbacks, including but not limited to Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Colorado, Michigan, Oregon, New Mexico, Texas, and West Virginia.

Lack of Coordination Sparks Need for Other Alternatives

More specifically, the study found that widespread shutdowns reduced people’s overall mobility by 5-6%. However, the reopenings caused mobility to spring back to the same traffic levels as prior to the pandemic. Travel to counties that have loosened restrictions has been demonstrated to rise 12-13% amidst reopenings. Counties that had not yet issued lockdowns saw their amount of visitors increase by 52-65% as a result of statewide shelter-in-place orders. Meanwhile, counties that are under shelter-in-place orders are 8-14% less likely to encounter new visitors. MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy Director Sinan Aral said in a statement, “The problem is that uncoordinated state reopenings, and even closures, create massive travel spillovers that are spreading the virus across state borders. If we continue to pursue ad hoc policies across state and regional borders, we’re going to have a difficult time controlling this virus, reopening our economy, or even sending our kids back to school.”

As the fall semester begins, schools have, for the most part, individually decided their own re-opening policies. If the findings of this study are taken into account, online education as an alternative to in-person contact could very likely be needed even more so than initially anticipated.

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Prodigy Learning, an edtech business designed to provide schools with the necessary tools to administer education through online platforms, has recently been awarded a contract with Ireland’s Educational Research Centre (ERC) to provide an online platform for standardized testing in primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. The contract is set to last for 5 years, with the possibility of a 3-year extension. This contract comes as a result of a 9-month period of Prodigy Learning pitching their platform internationally across Europe and marks a major step forward for the future of K-12 online learning.

Prodigy Learning’s Customizable Platform

First established in 2000, Prodigy Learning has already opened several offices in both Europe and the U.S. It currently hosts over 3,000 users of its educational training technology in both corporate and public sectors across Ireland, the UK, Europe, Australia, and the U.S. This contract is potentially the company’s biggest victory so far. The ERC’s contract with the Prodigy Learning will focus primarily on the company’s “Skillify” platform, designed as a specialized and customizable assessment testing program for schools. The platform gives authority to the ERC to choose and author what questions will be included on the administered tests, allowing each test to be tailored. Schools will then have the freedom to choose which tests are most suitable for assessing their students.

Although the contract will initially be €180,000 (about $213,095 USD) for the first 30,000 tests, the program is expected to be worth about 5 times more than that by the end of its 5-year run. Approximately 40,000 tests will be accommodated in the program’s initial run, but more tests can be accommodated should there be a requirement. With the program expected to expand in the coming year, there are already plans to develop more tests to meet the growing need. Among these initial tests, there will be assessments for both English and mathematics available to primary schools. For post-primary schools, there will be assessments for a wider variety of reasoning skills, including verbal, spatial, and numeric.

A “Major Win” for Online Education

Prodigy Learning CEO, Andrew Floods, acknowledges the progress of his company’s achievements. “This national contract is a major win and vote of confidence in our online assessment platform at a time of growing worldwide demand for online learning and assessment tools,” he said in a statement. “We are proud to be selected to provide this critical platform to Irish schools. Our team will be with the ERC every step of the way to continuously improve both the test-taking process and results based on continuous feedback.”

The ultimate objective of this program is to provide a safe and simple to navigate way for students to take standardized testing in the current environment. Having been built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud, the program is compatible with all major web browsers, allowing for maximum accessibility and flexibility. Possibly the most notable feature of Skillify is the instructional element, as it not only allows for a variety of ways a test can be designed, but it also guides test administrators through the process of how to design a test depending on subject, grade level, etc. If the contract is ultimately successful in its goals, Prodigy Learning could serve as further proof of online learning as a necessary tool for educators as well as students.

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A study recently published in the Journal of Educational Psychology suggests that the abundant availability of information provided by internet search engines negatively impacts a student’s ability to retain the answers to homework questions. This lack of memory retention then translates into increasingly poor exam performance. The study was conducted at Rutgers University in New Jersey over a period of eleven years. A total of 2433 students were assessed, spread across twelve different lecture courses. The results indicate that the accessibility of smartphones and other digital devices render the task of homework as progressively irrelevant, as positive performance on homework questions no longer directly correlates to positive performance on quiz and exam questions.

How Smartphone Use and Google Affects Long-Term Memory Retention

Teachers use homework and questions to help students learn. In their study, the Rutgers authors draw special focus to the methodology of instructional distributed questioning. This method of teaching relies on asking the same questions (usually phrased slightly different) repeatedly over the course of a semester, distributed consistently throughout.

The element of repetition greatly increases the students’ likelihood of retaining the information. In addition, the slight variation in phrasing allows students to draw cognitive connections between each piece of the presented information. This creation of mental links further increases the ability to recall details from memory, just as a coherent phrase is easier to recall than a string of unrelated words. The mental effort necessary in first trying to calculate or even guess an answer is what allows these connections to be drawn. As a result, students who initially attempt to solve a question on their own are more likely to remember the correct answer, regardless of whether their initial attempt was correct.

Over the eleven-year period of the study, the researchers uncovered a fascinating phenomenon. Students who performed the highest on homework assignments consistently did worse on exam questions. By questioning learners, the researchers uncovered that many achieved high homework scores by searching for the answers on a smartphone and copying them. The number of students who chose to copy their answers also increased with each year.

On the other hand, students who performed worse on homework assignments consistently performed higher on exam questions due to the effort exerted in problem-solving. The researchers hypothesize that the hyper-accessibility of new digital technology is largely responsible for the steady decline in the usefulness of homework assignments as a preparation for exams.

Interestingly, the study also found that students who copied their homework did not have their performance negatively affected on tests given shortly after the completion of their homework assignments, such as post-lesson plans meant to cover material recently presented. This further indicates that copying answers primarily affects long-term memory retention as opposed to short-term recollection.

Stricter Regulations or Looser Limitations?

Naturally, there are other factors that could affect a student’s decision to copy answers and their subsequent performance on exams. The study acknowledges these limitations. “Other factors that may have influenced the decision to google the answer to a question, such as its apparent difficulty and whether the student was multi-tasking while doing the homework assignment or doing it under time pressure, were not investigated,” the authors write. “Also, other factors besides the initial decision to look up the homework answer may have contributed to the ultimate decline in exam performance.” Further research would have to be conducted before a definite conclusion could be made that looking up answers necessarily correlates to laziness or a decline in patience caused by new technology.

The results of this study pose an intriguing question to instructors and all education stakeholders alike. Should there be an attempt to limit the accessibility of new technology to students when completing certain forms of school-related work? Or should the education system accept that homework is becoming increasingly irrelevant as a learning tool in the digital age and do away with it altogether? Given the growth of online education, the former seems less and less practical. Regardless of what route is taken, it is clear that schools must make a greater effort to adapt to contemporary technology, both in material and medium.

Access the study here.

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The online education platform Outlier.org began an institutional partnership with Florida Polytechnic University this summer. The company says there is an appetite for their professionally produced online courses beyond their existing direct-to-consumer model. As the majority of undergraduate education remains remote, the company believes it is poised to re-inject value into the online learning experience in the face of ongoing campus closures.

“Through our partnership with Outlier.org, we have been able to uphold our commitment to serving our students through excellence in education as we work together to navigate the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic,” said Dr. Ben Matthew Corpus, Associate Vice Provost at Florida Poly, in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to work with Outlier.org given the need to expand the STEM pipeline in mathematics and science in a labor market dramatically altered by the pandemic. Their innovative delivery and rigor provided our students with a robust foundation while also meeting our mission for affordable, high quality excellence in a public STEM university.”

Outlier.org Expands Partnership with Florida Polytechnic University

Florida Polytechnic piloted the arrangement with Outlier.org this summer. Their Calculus I course witnessed a record collective student achievement. In August, the institution agreed to carry things forward into a bigger partnership. Outlier.org will supply online courses in various STEM fields.

In the world of online education, Outlier.org is a platform designed to closely resemble the conventional experience of undergrad academia, while also aiming to favorably affect the national student debt crisis. Founded in 2019 by Aaron Rasmussen, who also co-founded Masterclass, Outlier.org brings production value to online courses.

Summer internship canceled? @outlier_org is an option (and so is @masterclass!) https://t.co/yw86y32VET

— Aaron I Rasmussen (@AaronIRasmussen) April 15, 2020

When the true weight of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. back in March, schools were forced to close their campuses and move all courses online with little-to-no preparation for such a sudden event. As a result, the transition from in-person to online classes was chaotic, with many college students struggling to find the motivation to continue their rigorous coursework in an environment that is normally associated with leisure time.

Some students had to work harder than normal to maintain a stable GPA in this format. Much to the institutions’ credit, many tried to ease this conflict by giving their undergraduate students the option of a Pass or No Pass grading option. However, this option does not always bode well on a transcript when entering the job market or applying to graduate school.

Online Education by Design

Though many colleges did try their best given the current circumstances, students and instructors alike struggled to adapt to the unanticipated switch of format. The key word here is “unanticipated,” which is often overlooked by those with a critical eye towards online learning. While one could not exactly call the timing of Outlier.org’s launch as coincidental, Rasmussen was working on the conception of Outlier.org long before the emergence of COVID-19. His experience with Masterclass has helped him to master the art of holding attention spans, arguably the most vital component to an online session. There is a glimmer of light in the perceived dark world of socially distant education; that leading minds are thinking of solutions before the problems even arise.

One of the most popular critiques of online learning is that it ignores the importance of being “present” in an educational setting. Bob Samuels of the University Council-AFT (a union representing faculty in the University of California system) writes “I worry that students are losing the ability to make eye contact and read body language, and that they are not being prepared to be effective citizens, workers, and family members. This disconnect from in-person communication also relates to a distance from the natural world, and a growing indifference to the destruction of our environment. In this alienation from nature and natural environments, people, also lose the ability to distinguish between true and false representations.”

To mitigate these factors, more institutions may be inclined to follow Outlier.org’s high-production online learning model.

Featured image courtesy of Outlier.org

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