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Technology Enhanced Learning Community of Practice Launched

15 March 2023 Posted in: Articles Tagged: , , By: Dawn Buzzard

The inaugural event of the new Technology Enhanced Learning Community of Practice (TEL CoP) led by the Technology Enhanced Learning Team, took place on Wednesday the 22nd of February. 146 participants attended the online event including, academics, learning technologists, and professional services colleagues. Three key topics that were discussed; the CoP launch and consultation, Online Assessment Tools and Opportunities, and Large Language Models (LLMs), see the slide below:

CoP Consultation findings and emerging themes

There were a range of questions to address in two breakout sessions, these and the notes from each session are held on the CoP Teams site for reference purposes. On our Teams site we will continue to engage in online discussions, share links of interest, and post information about relevant events.  The slides referenced in this article can be viewed more clearly here:

 

A frequency analysis was used to identify the top themes, and this is summarised in the word cloud below:

The top three themes identified were artificial intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality and Immersive Learning (VR), and Assessment and Feedback (A & F). The following is a summary of comments from the consultation, grouped under these headings.

There were two other popular themes, instructional design and QMplus. The key points of interest are displayed in the slide below:

These themes were mentioned slightly less than the three top themes.  The comments under each theme show an overlap in ideas and it has been suggested we combine these into one single theme.  This will result in four key themes to support in the coming year.

Amongst the theme suggestions were a range of notes on other ideas and these are summarised below:

These ideas do not seem like themes but concepts and ideas to pursue and support in other ways, and we will explore how to do that over the coming weeks and months.

Having completed the evaluation of the findings, a next steps plan will be developed but the immediate ideas are displayed below:

A big thank you to everyone that contributed to the consultation session and related discussions.

Assessment Tools and Opportunities 

The second session of the event was on Assessment and Feedback, led by William Goodyear from the Technology Enhanced Learning Team and joined by discussion panelists Richard Chantler and Ishani Chandrasekara.

William explored the increase in student dissatisfaction with summative assessment and the challenges QMUL has faced in recent years.  He also discussed academic misconduct and looked at what QMUL is doing to find solutions to assessment challenges.

In the discussion panel, it was noted student feedback indicated students felt online exams were truer to life.  For example, they were conducted using the student’s normal device, and this meant the students were familiar with the technology and had access to the software they used regularly.

The conference chat focused on the scale of academic misconduct; it was felt that misconduct was under-reported.  Misconduct cases are difficult and time consuming to prove, and the consequences were not considered significant.  It was mentioned that a considerable amount of plagiarism was identified as “sloppy scholarship” and ignored.

For more on this topic: a recording of the session and presentation slides can be found here:  Online assessment tools and opportunities – William Goodyear with Richard Chantler and Ishani Chandrasekara (  PP Slides)

Large Language Models in Assessment: issues with ChatGPT and beyond

The event ended with a presentation and debate on Large Language Models led by Dr. Fernando Barrio from the School of Business and Management.  Fernando made it clear it is not all about ChatGPT, and the focus should be on what can be achieved with this rapidly developing technology, and not solely on blocking its use. LLMs can help us with:

  • Personalised Learning
  • Tailored Materials
  • Writing Assistance
  • Research Assistance
  • Accessibility
  • Assessment

Fernando then focused on the way forward and stated this could include:

The conference chat carried a variety of discussion points covering the accuracy of LLM’s, testing the ability of ChatGPT to take an exam, shout outs for the good LLM’s can achieve, and the challenges it presents for academic integrity.

For more on this topic: a recording of the session and presentation slides can be found here: Large Language Models in Assessment – Characteristics and issues with ChatGPT and beyond – Dr Fernando Barrio ( PP Slides)

Additional information included links shared in the chat:

Call to action

Having identified our key themes, we are now seeking leads and collaborators for each of the four key themes:

  1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  2. Virtual Reality and Immersive Learning
  3. Assessment and Feedback
  4. QMplus and Learning Design

The lead(s) will have an interest in a relevant theme and with support from the TEL Team (TELT), will continue discussions on relevant topics and foster ideas from the community for further development.  If you are interested, please contact Surjit Uppal (s.uppal@qmul.ac.uk) or one of TELT to arrange a call and plan this further.

Next Steps

We are now arranging a face-to-face event (June 7th), we invite members of the community to showcase their work, research, and best practices via on-campus sessions. We have several sessions confirmed and remain open to more contributions. Please contact Surjit or TELT with any ideas. Alternatively, please use the CoP Teams Site for any questions.

Please save the date – the next event will be on-campus – more details will follow soon.

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