In the last blog we saw that algorithmic trading can open new doors in the world of e-Learning. The content can springboard into existence quickly and can be maneuvered to achieve near perfect refinement. The learning content takes better shape each time and the software can adjust the parameters of skill-level and demographic to sculpt this shape.
But can algorithms replace everything readily? Are there areas that traditional content creators can do a better job of? The answer is yes!
Algorithms that create content are yet to become the norm. The output of the initially rolled-out products could be riddled with bugs. The bugs may not just be technical bugs that prevent the course from rendering perfectly. It might have to do with the tone of the content being created, the adherence of the created content to the written and unwritten rules of the organization. Hence the trusty Instruction Designer can still ace the creation of content like before, at least until reliable systems are in place. But there is one area where algorithms work well which can also simplify the arduous task facing the designers. This is the area of assignment and quiz creation.
Creating quizzes, assignments are important for the e-Learning endeavor to be fruitful. The more effective strategies of today advocate the creation of multiple smaller units of assignments than one bulky exam at the end. As such creating on an average of 8-10 assignments per course can get cumbersome.
A software can help us in this regard by automating this process. The process of choosing questions especially ‘fill in the blanks’ or ‘multiple choice’ or ‘match the following’ involves selecting certain pieces of text, showing a part of it to the learner and asking him or her to choose or type out the other part. This method, coupled with a few others to bring in more refinement can be used by a software to ready up quick lists of questions.
The instructional designer can earmark certain areas of the raw content as easy or medium or expert for the software to pick and form questions accordingly for the learners. The advantage here is also the ability of the software to seamlessly move between the different levels of difficulty to keep the learner interested and challenged.
The power of algorithmic quiz creation can also be utilized for classroom trainings. At the end of each module of a classroom session, the Instruction Designer need not have prepared a list of questions for that module. He or she can fire up the quiz creator which can create a few questions on the fly. The trainer can then elaborate on the questions he or she finds important. Quiz creators can also be used by the learners who are interested in testing their skills further than are available with the content. The software can then get some more questions ready. This cannot be possible in the traditional packaging of e-Learning content.
This shows that algorithmic content creation has some ready problems waiting to be solved. It can simplify the creation of quizzes and free up a decent amount of time for the instructional designer to design more and better for the organization.
