What Does the Data Say about Effective University Online Internships? The Universitat Politècnica de València Experience Using MOOC during COVID-19 Lockdown

Universitat Politècnica de València’s students can take in-company internships during their bachelor’s degrees, and, with the COVID-19 lockdown, 224 students had their internships cancelled. EdX launched a free certificate initiative for its partners, and UPV gave the possibility of using MOOCs to cover for the credit needed to graduate. We have tried to answer the question, “Is it possible to use MOOCs to replace an in-company internship in an emergency?” using Learning Analytics; 179 students chose this possibility. More than 90% of the students got their academic credit, and their satisfaction with the initiative was 4.6/5. They scored MOOCs’ quality with 4/5 and the contribution of MOOCs to their careers with 3.6/5; 95% will take a MOOC, and 69.3% think it is worth paying for the certificate. The answers to the question evaluating if MOOCs had given them the same knowledge as a company internship are positive but much less conclusive, with an average of 2.87/5. We conclude that MOOCs achieved the pursued goal during the emergency. With more time for planning and extra resources for remote support, they can be a good solution in environments where online is the only choice, and they can even be used as a tool to reinforce some of the knowledge needed to be successful in a traditional internship.

The creation of a nudging protocol to support online student engagement in higher education

Combining nudge theory with learning analytics, ‘nudge analytics’, is a relatively recent phenomenon in the educational context. Used, for example, to address such issues as concerns with student (dis)engagement, nudging students to take certain action or to change a behaviour towards active learning, can make a difference. However, knowing who to nudge, how to nudge or when to nudge can be a challenge. Providing students with strategic, sensitive nudges that help to move them forward is almost an art form. It requires not only technical skills to use appropriate software and interpret data, but careful consideration of what to say and how to say it. In this article a nudge protocol is presented that can be used in online courses to encourage student engagement with key course resources that are integral to supporting their learning.

Integrating Assessment, Feedback, and Learning Analytics in Educational Games

Assessment is a crucial aspect of any teaching and learning process. New tools such as educational games offer promising advantages: they can personalize feedback to students and save educators time by automating the assessment process. However, while many teachers agree that educational games increase motivation, learning, and retention, few are ready to fully trust them as an assessment tool. A likely reason behind this lack of trust is that educational games are distributed as black boxes, unmodifiable by educators and not providing enough insight about the gameplay. This chapter presents three systematic literature reviews looking into the integration of assessment, feedback, and learning analytics in educational games. It then proposes a framework and present a fully developed engine. The engine is used by both developers and educators. Designed to separate game and assessment, it allows teachers to modify the assessment after distribution and visualize gameplay data via a learning analytics dashboard.