Exploring AI-Powered Social Network Analysis And Remote Hands-On Experience
Dr. Panos Vlachopoulos is the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Deree – The American College of Greece. As a member of the President’s cupboard, he advises on future developments in greater schooling globally and their affect on the college. Panos can be a Senior Academic Leader with 20 years of expertise in greater schooling improvement, digital studying, and experiential studying. He has over ten years of demonstrated expertise as a Senior Leader in Academia with over ten accomplished strategic tasks in curriculum innovation, coverage renewal, and university-industry partnership improvement. Today he shares insights about distant schooling challenges and team-based studying.
One of your major management duties is planning, implementing, and coordinating the academic applications of Deree College. Can you inform our readers a bit extra in regards to the curriculum structure program you are creating to align curriculum with {industry}?
Aligning a curriculum with {industry} wants is essential in making ready learners for the workforce, particularly in a rustic like Greece, the place there’s a large hole between the talents wanted within the {industry} and the talents with which college students graduate from the Greek private and non-private greater schooling establishments. Bridging the hole entails understanding the talents and core theoretical and technical data required for numerous jobs and making certain that the curriculum gives learners with the required capabilities. At Deree, the American College of Greece, we have interaction with {industry} representatives to establish the present and future wants of the job market.
Our intention is to construct applications and programs that aren’t simply “job ready” however to make sure that {industry} (and neighborhood) are energetic companions within the means of designing, delivering, assessing, and quality-assuring the curriculum. We intention to have a Capability Framework developed with a few of Greece’s most influential industries after which apply this framework to each program, together with our on-line applications, and supply a possibility to future learners to combine and match programs, micro-courses, and steady skilled improvement alternatives based mostly on the educational wants and/or their present or deliberate profession phases. We must assume exterior the field and supply future generations of learners high quality, agility, and interdisciplinarity in the way in which they examine. An instance right here is our lately launched Master in Learning Design and Technology, which is constructed with session by international consultants within the discipline, together with practitioners from main studying applied sciences firms, and has a powerful utilized focus based mostly on the kind of jobs we anticipate to see available in the market, akin to studying designers and versatile studying coordinators, but in addition studying entrepreneurs.
In your opinion, what’s an typically missed problem related to distant greater schooling, and the way can directors and school leverage fashionable tech to plan an revolutionary answer?
One typically missed problem related to distant greater schooling is the dearth of social interplay and sense of neighborhood that college students might expertise. When college students examine remotely, they might really feel remoted and disconnected from their friends, which may affect their motivation and engagement. One answer is to create digital communities the place college students can work together with one another and with school members. This will be executed by means of on-line dialogue boards, video conferencing, and social media platforms. While it could be straightforward to set them up, it is extremely difficult to take care of such communities, which frequently die dying due to the dearth of engagement. They require a deliberate effort on the a part of the facilitator (the trainer) to design significant and genuine alternatives for interactions and supply causes for learners to return to their on-line neighborhood.
Learning analytics and AI also can play a big position right here. I personally use, as a researcher and as a practitioner, AI-powered social community evaluation, which can assist academics and directors perceive the social dynamics of on-line studying communities. This can assist establish influential learners, detect patterns of collaboration and interplay, and promote social studying and neighborhood building. Equally, AI-powered sentiment evaluation instruments can assist academics and directors monitor learners’ engagement ranges and establish potential points. For instance, sentiment evaluation can analyze learners’ dialogue discussion board posts to detect patterns of disengagement or frustration, permitting academics to intervene and supply help.
Is there an instructional analysis undertaking or one other initiative you want our readers to learn about?
For greater than 5 years now, I’ve been actively concerned with team-based studying (TBL), and I’ve been experimenting with methods to make this pedagogical methodology work for absolutely on-line programs in addition to for scholar populations that haven’t been uncovered to such a collaborative studying mannequin earlier than (e.g., major and secondary faculties). TBL facilities on college students making use of their data to genuine issues and real-world challenges. Through an organized construction that encompasses each particular person and group work, TBL equips college students with the talents to organize them for his or her future careers.
What had beforehand been passive lecture time is freed up for scholar engagement in group studying actions within the TBL mannequin, the place teams are configured, for a short-term course of, a single undertaking, or a single class. TBL adopts the flipped classroom method, the place college students individually study assigned curriculum content material earlier than class and are given the chance to use this data at school group actions. You can learn extra about our undertaking here. We have additionally carried out a primary analysis of the undertaking, which is printed here.
Experiential studying is considered one of your areas of experience. What is without doubt one of the most revolutionary ways in which educators can use digital studying instruments to offer hands-on expertise and encourage college students to place data into apply? Also, are there any experiential studying developments or rising applied sciences we needs to be looking out for?
I suppose the reply to this query is determined by the kind of experiential studying we’re aiming to create the situations for. For instance, if we wish to simulate an expertise for learners to get a glimpse of a future apply or to apply safely in a mock setting earlier than they check out an expertise in the true world, digital simulations could also be a really worthwhile expertise to discover. For instance, in healthcare schooling, digital simulations will be (and have been) used to train medical college students and healthcare professionals on medical procedures and eventualities. This can embody simulations of emergency conditions, surgical procedures, and affected person consultations. Learners can apply responding to those eventualities in a secure and managed setting with out placing actual sufferers in danger.
One revolutionary approach that educators can use digital studying instruments to offer hands-on expertise and encourage college students to place data into apply in, say, much less vocational areas such because the humanities is thru digital storytelling. Digital storytelling permits learners to make use of multimedia instruments, akin to video, audio, and pictures, to create and share their very own tales. Again, within the close to previous, I used to be concerned with organising a partnership with Adobe to advertise digital storytelling for the humanities. This can embody private narratives, historic accounts, and artistic expressions of information and understanding. For instance, in literature programs, learners can use digital storytelling to create their very own interpretations of literary works, utilizing multimedia instruments to carry the tales to life. In historical past programs, learners can use digital storytelling to analysis and present historic occasions and figures, utilizing multimedia instruments to create partaking and interactive shows.
Regarding any present or rising developments, on the core of any experiential studying alternative lies the flexibility of the learner to have interaction with what we name “metacognition,” which refers back to the means of reflecting on one’s personal studying experiences and serious about tips on how to enhance future studying. Online or digital portfolios have been in use for a few years to help learners with experiential studying and reflection, however with restricted success primarily due to the dearth of personalization and talent to offer adaptive suggestions. I might anticipate that, with the fast development of AI and Machine Learning these days, these applied sciences can be utilized to offer customized studying experiences that adapt to learners’ wants and preferences. AI and Machine Learning will also be used to offer learners with real-time suggestions and help, serving to them to remain on observe and obtain their studying targets.
Wrapping Up
A giant because of Dr. Panos Vlachopoulos for collaborating in our Q&A and providing his insights. You can study extra about Panos and Deree – The American College of Greece by visiting the university’s website.
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