University For Distance Education Research Articles

Reviewing and analyzing peer review Inter-Rater Reliability in a MOOC platform

Peer assessment activities might be one of the few personalized assessment alternatives to the implementation of auto-graded activities at scale in Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) environments. However, teacher's motivation to implement peer assessment activities in their courses might go beyond the most straightforward goal (i.e., assessment), as peer assessment activities also have other side benefits, such as showing evidence and enhancing the critical thinking, comprehension or writing capabilities of students. However, one of the main drawbacks of implementing peer review activities, especially when the scoring is meant to be used as part of the summative assessment, is that it adds a high degree of uncertainty to the grades. Motivated by this issue, this paper analyses the reliability of all the peer assessment activities performed as part of the MOOC platform of the Spanish University for Distance Education (UNED) UNED-COMA. The following study has analyzed 63 peer assessment activities from the different courses in the platform, and includes a total of 27,745 validated tasks and 93,334 peer reviews. Based on the Krippendorff's alpha statistic, which measures the agreement reached between the reviewers, the results obtained clearly point out the low reliability, and therefore, the low validity of this dataset of peer reviews. We did not find that factors such as the topic of the course, number of raters or number of criteria to be evaluated had a significant effect on reliability. We compare our results with other studies, discuss about the potential implications of this low reliability for summative assessment, and provide some recommendations to maximize the benefit of implementing peer activities in online courses.

Influencia de las prácticas en el desarrollo de la identidad profesional de los estudiantes de educación social

The Social Education Degree placement for the National University for Distance Education (UNED) allows students to experience and reflect upon the labour situation. Its influence on the development of the student professional identity is an important subject for both placement tutors and teachers. The study combines the search for and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data to assess the influence of the Professional Placement III course, the students’ first contact with the real business world, on the development of their professional identity. Throughout the research it has been possible to determine an emerging concept in the professional identity of students before the start of the placement, which changes and consolidates depending on their experience within the placement programme; these results are similar to those obtained in research relating to other professions similar to Social Education (Pontes, Ariza & Del Rey, 2010). Therefore, it can be stated that this course is an important variable that especially influences the development of the professional identities of future social educators.

Seguimiento y evaluación en la UNED del sistema de prácticas de los alumnos en empresas

En este artículo se presentan las líneas básicas de trabajo iniciadas por el Centro de Orientación, Información y Empleo (COIE) de la UNED para la evaluación de uno de los ámbitos de actividad que resulta cada vez más solicitado por los alumnos: la gestión de convenios de cooperación educativa para la realización de prácticas en empresas. La necesidad de supervisar su desarrollo, establecer mecanismos de seguimiento y, en definitiva, diseñar procedimientos para su mejora, constituyen el punto de partida de esta investigación. Se presentan los resultados conseguidos en la evaluación de prácticas, tanto desde el punto de vista de las empresas como de los alumnos, que han tenido lugar en los cursos académicos 1998/99 y 1999/00, junto con las conclusiones obtenidas y medidas de mejora propuestas.

Open Service-Oriented Platforms for Personal Learning Environments

Learning management systems (LMSs) are software systems for administrating, tracking, and reporting on e-learning programs. The authors' next-generation LMS provides a personal learning environment (PLE) in which LMS functions are integrated into a context that users are familiar with and use for other purposes - that is, mashup platforms using gadgets. By modularizing LMS functionality as a collection of services, the system lets users select just those services they want, use services from multiple providers, and mix their learning with other activities in a more natural manner. The authors deployed and tested their system at the Spanish University for Distance Education, which has a virtual campus of more than 200,000 students. Their survey indicates that the system is useful and easy to use for building individualized PLEs.

Using Virtualization and Automatic Evaluation: Adapting Network Services Management Courses to the EHEA

This paper outlines the adaptation of a course on the management of network services in operating systems, called NetServicesOS, to the context of the new European Higher Education Area (EHEA). NetServicesOS is a mandatory course in one of the official graduate programs in the Faculty of Computer Science at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, Spain, the Spanish University for Distance Education. Since UNED is a distance university, this course is taught entirely online. The adaptation process includes the implementation of continuous assessment, a key feature in EHEA's methodology. This learning-teaching methodology is driven by a set of student activities that implement the continuous assessment. For this, a virtual machine-based framework was defined, and an automatic evaluation system implemented. The evaluation system can handle the large student numbers characteristic of distance learning. If the set of proposed activities had to be performed in person on site, significant resources would have been necessary since many computer laboratories would have been required to accommodate all the students. Furthermore, the proposed framework ensures that students can perform the practical work simply and flexibly, without the need for large computing platforms.

Evaluación de un modelo de orientación tutorial y mentoría en la Educación Superior a distancia

This paper reports a model of tutorial guidance and mentoring in college that has been implemented at the Spanish National University for Distance Education for two academic years, in order to welcome new students and provide them with orientation, thus enhancing the quality of their academic transition and early adjustment. Designed with the distance methodology, the model incorporates the role of the advisor (played by a faculty mentor) and peer mentors (senior students) and combines the use of e-mentoring with face-to-face mentoring. This guidance intervention is organised around the Tutorial Guidance Plan, starting with web-based specific training for those involved. Thus, new students can receive guidance and advice from a personal advisor and a peer mentor for at least their first year at university. The programme was validated using a complex research design to assess the process and product. Data were collected using ad-hoc questionnaires, interviews, diaries, records and discussion groups. The results corroborate the benefits participants gained from this mode of guidance. The evaluations describe students� orientation needs, the evolution of the helping relationship, the points it addressed and the means of communication used. A general assessment of the programme and the satisfaction of participants� expectations is also given. From the assessment of benefits, it is concluded that the model is viable and applicable in distance higher education. Also, the model makes it possible to demonstrate the suitability of this methodology for achieving a flexible mentoring relationship tailored to the needs of each student.

Factores de resiliencia que inciden en el éxito académico de estudiantes en la modalidad de educación a distancia

En la Educación a Distancia se presentan dos tipos de fenómenos; el primero, tiene que ver con el alto grado de estudiantes que desertan durante su proceso de formación, 50% según investigaciones realizados por el Ministerio de Educación Nacional (men); y el segundo, está relacionado con los estudiantes que a pesar de las situaciones adversas a las que se enfrentan (en lo personal y en lo educativo), tienen éxito académico durante su proceso de aprendizaje y formación. Estos fenómenos han llamado la atención de los investigadores, y se han venido estudiando desde la resiliencia. En la investigación eje de este artículo, se estudiaron los factores resilientes relacionados con la permanencia y el éxito académico de los estudiantes de un curso de psicología en la Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia (unad). Se aplicó la prueba creu, y una entrevista semiestructurada. Los resultados mostraron que los grupos colaborativos fomentan la resiliencia comunitaria ya que el interactuar con otros promueve el aprendizaje social, potencializando así las fortalezas propias y la de los demás; los estudiantes que reconocen sus debilidades y falencias y buscan la forma de corregirlas, por lo general poseen el factor de la introspección, que contribuye al éxito académico. Para próximas investigaciones en este tema es importante tener en cuenta variables como: sexo, edad, semestre, estado civil, etc., para analizar si estas variables inciden en el rendimiento<br />académico de los (as) estudiantes de esta modalidad.

Morbilidad y ciclos temporales en la consulta externa de la Universidad Estatal a Distancia de Costa Rica

Aparentemente no existen datos publicados sobre la morbilidad y consulta externa del personal en una universidad a distancia. Este informe presenta esos datos para la Universidad Estatal a Distancia de Costa Rica. Los participantes en el estudio fueron todos los empleados que se presentaron a consulta entre el 15 de enero del 2004 y el 15 de diciembre del 2006. En lugar de hacer un muestreo, se estudió el total de la población, usando como instrumentos los 1526 expedientes médicos correspondientes. Procedimiento: en una primera etapa se leyeron los expedientes en su totalidad y se tabularon los datos de morbilidad. A partir de este registro se procedió al análisis estadístico con el programa Statgraphics Centurion XV. Los hallazgos principales fueron que el 50% de los pacientes solamente asistieron una vez a consulta externa durante el periodo y que la mayoría tenía entre 20 y 50 años de edad. Los días con mayor cantidad de consultas fueron lunes, martes y miércoles. La cantidad de consultas es relativamente estable a lo largo del año, con un leve aumento en junio. Las tres principales causas de consulta fueron enfermedades de las vías respiratorias superiores, trastornos musculoesqueléticos y problemas de sistema digestivo irritable. Conclusiones principales: la mayoría de las consultas corresponden a los departamentos con mayor cantidad de personal, pero algunos departamentos tuvieron valores extremadamente altos o bajos de consultas per capita, tal vez debido a factores como patologías que necesitan control periódico, cercanía geográfica y problemáticas psicosociales de pacientes que crean un círculo vicioso por somatización de estos problemas. Se rechazó la hipótesis de que al ser esta una población de alto nivel educativo, diferiría en su morbilidad del promedio nacional, pero se mantuvo la hipótesis de que presenta ciclos semanales y anuales.

Teaching probabilistic medical reasoning with the Elvira software

Abstract:This paper briefly describes the main features of the UNED (Spanish National University for Distance Education) and the course on Probability and Statistics in Medicine. Then it introduces Bayesian networks and influence diagrams, two of the methods taught in this course. Finally, it explains how Elvira, a software package, can help the students to understand some difficult probabilistic concepts.

WOMEN IN DISTANCE STUDY ‐ WOMEN STUDENTS AT THE FERNUNIVERSITAT IN HAGEN (FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY)

The authors take up the hypothesis that distance education was also meant to facilitate the access of women to higher education. Recent studies carried out at the University for Distance Education at Hagen show that results do not always match expectations. By analysing in detail the causes for this partial failure, the authors come forward with some remedial proposals. The authors are all members of the staff of Hagen University.