Stephanie Verbeken Researcher Blended and Distance Learning CenStat / i-Biostat – Hasselt University, Belgium

Transformation of a regular Master to a DL Master

2014  |  10  |  23  –  EADTU,  Kraków    (Polska)  

Distance Learning

Stephanie Verbeken Researcher Blended and Distance Learning CenStat / i-Biostat – Hasselt University, Belgium

Outline

1.  Introduction: Censtat & Master Of Statistics 2.  State of the art of the Distance Learning Program

3.  Educational choices made 4.  Conclusions

Stephanie Verbeken §  Educational Technologist §  Msc Educational Sciences §  Distance Learning developer at

Hasselt University.

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

Who am I?

1 23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

CenStat and the Master Of Statistics

Introduction

§  Division of I-Biostat (UHasselt + KU Leuven) §  Research

o Applied o  Theoretical o Commissioned research for companies

§  Education o Statistics courses at other faculties of UHasselt o Master Of Statistics

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

CenStat

§  International Program §  2-years (120 credits): 4 semesters + 1 summer

for Master’s thesis §  Inflow typically from Sciences, Mathematics,

Medecine, Informatics,… §  Nstudents(Ma1+Ma2)=60~90 §  3 majors:

o  Bio-informatics o  Bio-statistics o  Epidemiology & Public Health

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

Master of Statistics

§  VLIR-UOS = sustainable development program of the interuniversity council

§  Master Of Statistics is selected as VLIR-UOS program à scholarships for students from developing countries

§  N = 16 per year o  32 in total o  30%~50% of total number of students

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

ICP - program

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

Student numbers

6  

16   17  

7  4  

1   0  0  2  4  6  8  10  12  14  16  18  

MA1 MA2

5  

32  

16  

7  

0  

5  

10  

15  

20  

25  

30  

35  

2 23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

State of the art of the DL program

Attracting new target groups: §  Working students: Belgium > Europe >

rest of the world §  Students for BioInf: knowledge gap for

Bio-Engineers and Bio-Tech industry §  Students with limited financial resources:

specifically students from other continents, but also within Europe (e.g. Greece, Spain, Eastern Europe)

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

Motivation: why DL?

§  2014-2015: 30 credits in DL o  Sem. I: 15 credits

•  Concepts of probability and statistics •  Regression •  Statistical software (BioStat, EPI) •  Concepts of Bio-informatics (BioInf)

o  Sem. II: 15 credits •  Concepts of Bayesian Inference •  Discrete Data Analysis •  Correlated and multivariate data

o  Sem.I + II: Project – Learning from data

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

Situation description

§  Registration procedure is almost finished §  Challenges so far:

o  Examination: several scenarios o Collaborations with other universities o  Input from lecturers involved

§  Challenges for the (near) future: o  2nd semester of MA2: on-campus? Off-campus? o  Examination o  Promotion. (So far: none.)

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

Situation description

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

Technological §  VLE: Blackboard §  Video platforms:

o Matterhorn Opencast

o Camtasia screencasting server

Educational resources §  Web lectures §  Textbooks §  Exercises,

assignments, quizzes,… integrated in VLE

Situation description

§  NDLprogram = 8 (~ 10) §  Nsurvey = 5

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

Student Population

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

3 23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

Educational Choices Made

§  Information! Blackboard’s central role §  Clear and intuitive course structure §  Division of the materials in chapters §  Peer support is preferred above teacher

support

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

DL Principles

4 23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

Conclusion

§  2015-2016: o  remaining 30 credits of MA1 o  full-time study will be possible

§  2016-2017: o MA2

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

Future plans

§  More challenging course designs §  MOOCs? SPOCs? §  Knowledge clips vs. Web lectures §  Interactive videos §  Sustainable collaborations (worldwide)

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

Considerations

23-okt-14 CC-BY Stephanie Verbeken, CenStat/I-Biostat, UHasselt, Belgium

Contact stephanie.verbeken@uhasselt.be +32 11 268 257 www.uhasselt.be/master-of-statistics @stephanie_vrbkn slideshare.net/stephanieverbeken