For this assignment we were asked to find an article related to some trends within adult education. Once we’d found an article that interested us we were paired up with a learning partner to share the articles with each other and discuss our insights to these trends.  My learning partner is Dazy, an Instructor and Faller Blaster from beautiful Vancouver Island. I’ve placed a link to Dazy’s blog in the Links section. Both of the articles that we’ve chosen can be found in the Resources section or just by scrolling further down to see some older posts.

My article was titled Making Multiple-Choice Exams Better. This article talks about some pros and cons to multiple-choice tests, from the standpoints of the students saying that they prefer them, to the issues of the majority of exam questions being fairly low on Bloom’s Taxonomy. The article talks about how changing questions to be geared towards critical thinking can show the students progress more accurately. Most multiple-choice questions, especially ones from exam banks rely too heavily on memory recall. This is why students seem to prefer them. They’ve become accustomed to study strategies like flashcards and memorizing definitions without truly understanding them. If the exam questions where more analytical or diagnosis based then we would truly get a better understanding on whether or not the student grasps the material.  Another thing the author talks about is getting rid of answers that are obviously wrong. Tracking the data from tests over a period of time and throwing out any answers that less than 5% of students chose. This helps strengthen the exam. If say two out of the 4 answers are obviously wrong, then the question just became a 50/50 guess for the student. It makes it difficult to really see if the student has a good handle on the subject matter or if they are just getting by because of easy exams.

Dazy’s article is titled Adaptive Learning: An Innovative Method for Online Teaching and Learning. His article discusses a method of instruction called Adaptive Learning. Adaptive Learning doesn’t follow a traditional, linear path for the course. Using an algorithm, software determines individual learners needs based on their past knowledge and experience. This style of teaching can be an excellent way to personalize lessons and avoid “teaching to the middle” as well as identifying which students need more support or help. Students seem to enjoy the course structure too, only learning about new exciting materials and not going over old facts or knowledge that they’ve already logged into their long term memory.