Michelle Gallen

Possible Multiple Choice Quiz Ban

I recently read about Naomi Gadian, a medical student with dyslexia. She's taking legal action to try and prevent the use of multiple choice exams as part of doctors' training.

Naomi believes that multiple choice exams discriminate against dyslexics and wants the General Medical Council to scrap them. If she wins her case, all medical schools might have to drop the exams.

But it's not just medical schools who'll have to change. Institutions across the world rely on simplistic multiple choice quizzes to test learner's knowledge. It's how the UK government tests learner drivers. So as Naomi Gadian's solicitor, John MacKenzie, has pointed out, "Every professional body or employer who relies for a professional qualification, or as a promotional gateway, on multiple choice questions is heading for a fall."

Is it true that students with dyslexia are discriminated against in multiple choice quizzes? I'm not sure.

Students with dyslexia are usually allowed extra time in written exams. Multiple choice quizzes are no different. Students with dyslexia get extra time to complete these. However, a student with dyslexia may struggle in particular with multiple choice exams due to the particular eye control it takes to read AND select the correct option.

It doesn't state anywhere if Naomi is struggling with a paper exam or a PC exam. But I'm assuming it's e-learning. Today, most e-learning content produced by professional bodies or employers is screenreader compatible. It's designed to be accessible to blind or visually impaired students. In fact, any learner can choose to read text with the assistance of a screen reader. The correct answer can be typed in. There are lots of ways in which a student with dyslexia can get assistance in completing a multiple choice exam to the best of their ability, so I'm not sure how this case will proceed.

However, Naomi doesn't just seem to be questioning how the questions are delivered. She's also questioning whether testing a doctor's knowledge using multiple choice questions is valid.

The BBC quoted Naomi as saying "In normal day life, you don't get given multiple choice questions to sit. Your patients aren't going to ask you 'here's an option and four answers. Which one is right?'"

I hope not. Any time I've been to hospital or my doctor's surgery, I've given the doctor as much information as I can about my problem. Then I've expected the doctor to generate a list of possible options, which they may or may not share with me. I get to wait as they select the option they think is the most likely one.

So it seems to me that multiple choice questions are not the best way to test doctors for this type of knowledge. Multiple choice questions ask a question and provide the user with a list of possible answers.

However, user input quizzes (whether spoken or typed) more accurately reflect the situation Naomi describes. But would she be happier if user input questions were used? User input questions simply ask a question and require the user to come up with an answer. User input questions are an awful lot harder than multiple choice questions. It's sometimes hard to find the right answer when staring at a blank sheet, or at an empty screen. User input questions reflect real life.

I think that the real reason much e-learning relies on the multiple choice question format is that it's easy to write. And it's easy to assess. And I think multiple choice questions are easier for learners to pass - the odds of getting it right are usually 1/4. Much e-learning is over-reliant on multiple choice quizzes. It's easy. It's sometimes lazy.

But ban them and what happens?

Interactive Incentives - Rewarding Work and Learning

Recently I got to chat to Tom Harte of imcreative.co.uk. Tom is an Interactive Incentive and Performance Management solutions provider.

A what?

Tom designs interactive games that enable employers to drive productivity in a creative and competitive way. These games enable workers to compete against each other at work.

Tom demo'd some of his solutions for me. By rewarding productivity with real-life rewards - anything from extra holidays to cash bonuses - his games increase motivation levels. Workers can view their performance on their PC, or on a big screen on the operational floor. They can even compete individually or as a team against co-workers across the globe. And it turns out that harnessing the basic human urge to win is very good news for productivity and profits.

From the instant Tom showed me his solutions, I knew they work. Because one summer I worked in a shirt factory. We did a 10 hour day with one half hour break for dinner. I was at the end of the factory line - ironing shirts before they were packaged for delivery. I had to iron a minimum of 80 shirts an hour to earn my basic wage.

Everyone had their minimum number of pockets to sew, sleeves to cut out, or collars to fit. And all we did all day long was mentally compute whether or not we'd done enough work to make a bonus. And if we had made our bonus, how much it was. And whether we'd earned more than the person sitting nearest you.

If only Tom's games had been around then! Providing workers with incentives makes them perform better. And providing learners with incentives makes them learn better.

It's long been known that a Hogwart's style 'house' system helps children in schools achieve more. In a house system, pupils belong to one of a number of houses, and these houses compete over the year to win points.

But we only have Performance League tables, pored over retrospectively by anxious parents and governors. These tables report on how pupils have performed - they don't actually help the pupils perform.

So is it about time that our Government perhaps invests in an Interactive Incentive solution for our schools? Perhaps a nationwide performance board that reflects who's doing what well, when and where?

Imagine a system where the houses in each school compete internally for points, then the highest performing house goes on to compete locally, then nationally. Couldn't this really motivate all types of learning performance - from sport and academia through to social action?

Incentives like education-related trips or scholarships could be awarded. Top houses could be profiled. And instead of an empty facebook-style chattering space, we could have an educational space that rewards, connects and motivates learners.

100 useful web tools for different kinds of learners

You might not need 100 useful web tools, but you'll probably find one or two little gems on this list sent to me by Fiona King.

The list groups tools according to the type of task in hand (podcasting, mindmapping, notetaking), but has also organised them for various learning styles.

If you're an auditory learner who learns best hearing text rather than reading it, you can scoot down the list and check out sites like readplease.com, which can read aloud text for you (and is apparently also a great proof-hearing tool).

An tÚll Mhór - Learning Irish in New York

I'm in New York from tomorrow for 8 days. I'm there to talk to Irish language learners and teachers about what they use to learn Irish outside of Ireland. I've been working really hard to get the podcasts, flashcards and quizzes ready for launch on www.talkirish.com - I haven't got an official launch date just yet, but I'll email everyone who's already signed up and post here as soon as I do!

Seems like Irish is a hot topic now, and Des Bishop, the Irish-American comedian, has a great show called 'In the name of the Fada' which tackles the national problem with the national language. Catch up with the show online at RTE.

Des's website, www.desbishop.com, has a link to some interactive Irish learning materials. The materials certainly look good, but I haven't had a chance to test the content out yet, and I'm not sure at what level it's aimed at. If anyone else has tried it out, let me know!

Lingro.com - open source language learning

lingro.com is a cool new language-learning website I've been using this week.

lingro is different from other language-learning sites I've seen. First of all, it's free. Working with an open-source philosophy, lingro has created dictionaries for learners of English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Polish.

The dictionaries are open-source - if you don't find a word, you can add it. Or if you're using a derivative of a root word, you can link to the root word (not sure if what I link to affects what other people see, or if it's just my dictionary).

But lingro isn't just a collection of open-source dictionaries. The lingro team have cleverly linked together a series of tools. First you can look up a word in the dictionary. You'll get a definition(s), perhaps a phrase, and in some cases audio.

You can then add this word to your wordlist. From your wordlist you can then review words, or go to the games section to learn them. At the moment, the only game is a basic flashcard game, but the team are working on putting more together.

Apart from the dictionaries, you can also use their web viewer. The web viewer doesn't translate an entire page from one language to the next - it enables you to click individual words for a translation. I know I've used something like this in Firefox before - it's a great little tool for someone who's trying to improve their understanding, but is lacking key words. You can add the words you look up to your wordlist - giving you a list of vocab you need to work on.

Lastly, lingro has a file viewer, which enables you to open a file (.txt, .doc, or .pdf) in your web browser. You can then click each individual word in that doc for a translation, and add words to your word list for further learning.

For a test, I tried opening my 60 page word doc of 'Le Petit Prince' with images. Lingro's file viewer was able to cope with this long, image-heavy doc and quickly opened the file ready for use. Pretty cool.

Essentially, a lot of what lingro offers is not new. Language dictionaries aren't. Word lists aren't. Page viewers and integrated translators aren't. Flashcards certainly aren't. But what lingro does is it joins the dots...everything is integrated. It streamlines the process. It's pretty simple to use. And it's free.

The lingro.com team is made up of Artur Janc, Paul Kastner and Holmes Wilson who are all lingotechnophiles (I just made that word up!). They seem to be a pretty cool bunch, who are all for making it easy for people to learn and be creative using opensource technologies.

But guys...here's a question from someone who's trying to create online language learning resources, who loves opensource, who loves web 2.0, who believes learning shoudl be free and open to everyone...how are you funding your work??? I'd love to be creating free language learning materials for Irish, but can't get a model that enables me to create quality materials and interesting learning engines while not starving...and certainly no model that interests the funders!