The Evolution of Multiple Choice E-learning
Move over rote learning:
there’s a new development in multiple choice e-learning that facilitates and
deepens the application of the learning and not just short-term memory.
This is good news for companies who wish to develop the skills of their
employees and prompt them to act on their learning, instead of simply testing
their ability to remember.(Five
principles for effective training design that leads to change)
Peer
Instruction
This new generation of
multiple choice includes peer instruction. It makes it possible to combine
summative and formative assessment in e-learning, a benefit which does not
occur during the one-way communication that characterizes multiple choice as we
know it today. This is a huge step forward for e-learning because it creates a
change-oriented experience that will take corporate e-learning to a whole new
level.
"A change-oriented approach will take corporate e-learning to a
whole new level"
Involving
E-learners
“Tell me and I forget,
teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”– Benjamin Franklin
The brilliance of
introducing peer instruction in multiple choice e-learning is that, for the
first time, students are provided with an opportunity to involve
themselves in the process, observe what their peers are doing, reflect on and
then adjust their answer. This is important from a learning theory perspective.
According to neuro-pedagogical research, if we want to facilitate a learning
experience that leads to change, rather than as a means to test memory,
involvement and reflection is key. (Illeris, 2013. Lieberoth, 2013. Mezirow,
2001).
"Reflection is the key to facilitate a learning experience that
leads to change"
The
Importance of Reflection
According to Bjarne
Walgreen a Scandinavian professor who researches workplace competencies, it is
through reflection that we learn how to act in a certain situation in order to
achieve a certain goal (Walgreen, 2008). It is through reflection that we get
to know more about how and why we should act when we use newly acquired
knowledge in practice. But until now, it has not been technically possible to
use multiple choice to create a formative assessment learning experience other
than rote memory. Multiple choice e-learning has been limited to information dumping
and cannot be seen as a complete learning experience (Suen, 2014).
Filling the heads of learners with facts without taking their motivation
and engagement into consideration and only testing their recall of said facts
makes for an empty learning outcome.
"Multiple choice e-learning has been limited to information dumping
and cannot be seen as a complete learning experience"
Making
Multiple Choice Matter for Participants
Peer instruction is finally
breaking off its relationship with the old pedagogical approach to e-learning
in use today. Adding a social element to e-learning makes it possible for
participants to do more than choose a multiple choice answer: they get to
explain and share their reflections about their choices and to learn from each other.
How Peer
Instruction Works in Practice
Peer instruction has been
developed by edX.org (today’s most valuable LMS developed by Harvard & MIT,
worth more than $500 billion and accessible as open source at openedx.org),
with an aim to take e-learning to a higher level. The way peer instruction
works in practice is as follows (edX, 2016):
Step 1. Explain Your Choice
Step 2. Review Other
Initial Responses
Step 3. Revise Your
Response
Step 4. Review the Correct
Answer
Step 5. Compare Answers
Step 1:
Explain your Choice
The learner is prompted to
write an explanation for the answer chosen through multiple choice.
This step is their
opportunity to provide a persuasive argument about why the answer is the
correct one. The answer might include references to a course video, or a
practical experience, or describing how the learner arrived at the choice
he/she made.
Together, the answer that
the learner chose and this explanation comprise his/her initial response. When
the learner selects Next, his/her initial response is added to the collection
of initial responses by all of the other course participants.
Step 2:
Review Other Initial Responses
The learner then reviews
the initial responses submitted by other course participants. The course team
decides how many other responses the learner will see: they might see one
response for each of the possible answer choices, or a set that is chosen
completely at random.
This step gives the
participant a chance to learn from the explanations that other learners submitted,
and to reassess their own understanding of the topic.
Step 3.
Revise Your Response
The learner can now decide
whether he/she want to change the initial response by selecting a different
answer choice, revising their explanation, or both.
This is an optional step.
The learner can submit a final response that is the same as their initial
response, or change it completely. When they move on to the next step, they
learn the correct answer.
Step 4.
Review the Correct Answer
The learner can now review
the correct answer choice and the explanation provided by the course team.
Step 5.
Compare Answers
Graphs that reveal the
percentage of learners who selected each answer are shared to further help
reinforce the learning. The first graph, below, shows the percentage of
learners who selected each answer initially, and the second graph shows the
percentage of learners who selected each answer after they had the opportunity
to review the explanations that other learners provided. The learners can
compare their own choices, and the correct one, to the answers from their
peers. (The graphs appear after ten learners submit their final responses.)
This step can be just as
thought provoking as the others.
Successful Learning is Change
To me, a successful
learning experience is about change. It’s about being able to use new knowledge
in practice, to develop skills and competencies and to be able to do something
better than before. This is the kind of learning that leads to more skilled employees.
The development of peer instruction into multiple-choice e-learning is going to
change the learning landscape, for better.
Resources:
Illeris, K. (2013). Transformativ
læring og identitet. Samfundslitteratur.
Lieberoth, A. (2013).
Hukommelsessystemer og oplevelseslæring: Hvordan forvandler hjernen episoder
til semantisk viden?. Cursiv, 11, 59-82.
Wahlgren, B. Høyrup, S.
Pedersen, K. Rattleff, P. (2002). Refleksion og læring
Kompetenceudvikling i arbejdslivet. Frederiksberg: Samfundslitteratur
Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative
dimensions of adult learning. Jossey-Bass, 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco,
CA 94104-1310.
Suen, H. K. (2014). Peer
assessment for massive open online courses (MOOCs). The International Review
of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 15(3), 312-327
