Friday Review

It's been another great week! Here's the review of what I've been learning:

Research: Making some exciting progress on the open-book project. I also had an idea for helping "orphan LDS books" find open online distribution. I look forward to working more on that.

Distance Education: I made some good progress on my research paper (see here) and have two more interviews scheduled for Monday. I also had my first formal "distance learning experience" as I experienced class from home this week. There were definitely advantages (being home earlier was the primary one), but to be candid I will state that I probably didn't get as much out of class than I would have had I been there face to face. I was tempted to eat dinner while listening to the lecture, and technical difficulties prevented me from making comments as often as I would like. In my case where distance is not a necessity, I believe that going to class F2F would be better. However, if I lived in Salt Lake and worked full time and it was the only way I could participate then it would be a great way to go.

Open Ed: I enjoyed spending several hours this week just reading and writing. I'm almost done with the OER Handbook (good job Seth). I also have been writing a draft of a paper to introduce somebody to OERs and hopefully motivate them to want to participate.

Assessment: I did some extra research learning about how to use multiple choice tests in literature. I was appalled at the paucity of information; perhaps I should be appalled at my research skills...but the research librarian couldn't find anything either. I wrote several multiple choice questions and am experimenting with some different forms of questions in an upcoming test.

Research and Statistics: We started getting into the numbers this week. It was a lot of fun, I haven't had to do any math for 9 years, and it's been 13 since I've taken a stats class. What I'm learning here is basic stats, and it's fun. I also submitted my IRB proposal to do research on how grading affects students' scripture study.

Good stuff!