 Hi there all and welcome to our next session and I'm going to introduce Sundi Richard and Autumn Keynes who are going to talk about the use and misuse of care. Hi everybody, my name is Autumn Keynes and Sundi you just want to say hi to everybody really quickly. Absolutely, good morning or good afternoon. Hello everyone. So I'm going to kick us off today with just a little bit of an overview of kind of where we've been in the past and where we're going to be going kind of in the future here for this presentation. So there's a lot of talk about care these days and I have to admit that about a year ago I was quite uninformed about care theory and care ethics and even today my knowledge is still gating on these issues. I'm still learning about these topics. But for several years now I've been very angered by the use of the rhetoric of care in advertising around what are really predatory technologies a lot of times that are, they just don't work at the end of the day. But when you go to the website when you hear from the sales agents they're telling you about how much care they give and how much good they're doing kind of out there in the world. So last year Sundi and I started talking about this in terms of OER20. We were building up to a presentation. We did a couple of blog posts. We did a blog post for the OER20 blog called the Weaponization of Care. And then we had another presentation that we did, I'm sorry, another article that we did on the DigSys blog called Care During COVID-19. And we weren't able to do the presentation for OER20, but instead what we've done is this time we've kind of taken it and we've gone into make things a little bit more interactive. And so one of the first things that we want to do though is I've heard some varying things. This is a very global audience. This is a very global conference. And I've heard varying things about how aware people are about the issues around remote proctoring. It's my understanding that this is called invigilation. They're in the UK. But basically we're talking about systems that either use live proctors or use AI to watch students while they're taking an exam in very, very intrusive ways. The technology can be quite buggy and there's lots of problems for people with disabilities, people of different racial identities, especially people with darker skin. And so I'm curious how aware are you of these issues? And if you could just put in the chat, rate yourself kind of between like a zero and a five, zero being I've never heard of this before. What are you talking about? And a five being I'm very involved in this. I know what's going on and completely informed. I've read all the articles. Where do you think you're at? And just pop those into the chat real quick so that way we can kind of get a temperature of the room about where we're at with these things. And I'll go ahead and when people put them in, Autumn, if you can't see them, I'll just let you know what people are putting in. Yeah, let me know. No one's added yet. Two to three. Okay. So from zero to five, four point five. Wow, that's very precise. Okay, four, a five, a five. Okay, so we're on one end of the spectrum, 3.5 ish. I like this, this very specificity. I hope someone does a point to three. Excellent. So we're kind of on the end of aware of this kind of stuff to varying degrees, I think. Yeah, I feel pretty informed, but yet keep getting surprised from Joe Murphy. So I'm with you there, Joe. I would not give myself a five in any sort of way. There's always more to learn. So before we jump into the game, I'd like to share with you a little bit about the creation of the game and kind of how we did it and where we came up with these things. I think when we first started thinking about creating something, it was more about recognizing what care is and is not and taking from vendor kind of emails and other things like direct quotes that purport care but really aren't care. And so like how do you decipher those things? I think we moved away from that a little bit as we started writing this and trying to like actually make a game out of it because I think we were more drawn to the actual stories. Things that it actually happened to a lot of people. So everything in the game actually comes from different articles and our own reading around the topic. So we didn't make any of this up. We just kind of put fiction around it and changed some things. The other thing I want to mention before we jump in is that this is very student focused so far. So as you see, if you've played the game, when you go in, it says, do you want to be a higher ed instructor or a student? And when you hit instructor, it's like, no, no, not done yet. Go be a student. We started with instructor and we realized that instructors have to make a lot of difficult decisions. And so we wanted to really recognize that and make that part of the story. However, we decided to start instead with a student story and then maybe we'll build the instructor part out. But we just want to recognize that and know that this is very student centered. The other thing we kind of came up with in our reflection is that this can be used, we think, and we are excited about your own ideas. Both as a way to kind of introduce someone to these things that really hasn't thought about it before. So a lot of times instructors aren't reading all the stuff that we're reading, right? And so kind of introducing them to this space from the student perspective. And then we also thought it could be a way to, you know, understand ourselves and our students as a teaching tool. This could be used as a teaching tool within the classroom. So anyway, we'll get back to that once we finish with a little bit of the demo of the game with you all. And I'm going to hand it to Autumn, who's going to be the driver. And I'm going to be watching the chat. We're going to kind of play so it's a choose your own adventure. It's a twine game. And we're going to play based on what you tell us as the audience. And so I'm going to be watching the chat and Autumn is going to be driving us. So we don't assume that you've already played the game. We hope that some of you have. But we're going to try to jump in here and maybe go through one or two of our scenarios. All right. So when you first come to the page, the front page is really just a facade. It's just there to kind of set the stage. And you'll see that we did pull in some of that, right? This is all about integrity. And if you read the first article, the weaponization of care, that brings in a lot of knell noddings and this separation between caring for and caring about. But you'll see all of this is just, it's just rhetoric. And I've had lots of people tell me, you know, this, it does remind you of kind of like one of these vendor websites, any button on the page will launch the game. So just come here, take a look, kind of get a feel for it. We do have this little silly little banner that we've created up here and a bit of a little bit of a warning here. So the game does in depict acts of injustice around race, gender, sex, socioeconomic status and disability. So you want to make sure you're in the right mindset for it. Again, like Sunday said, we're still working on the instructor path, but I'll just dive into the student path and we'll take a look at this here. In the beginning of the semester, your instructor informs you that the class is all, that all the exams are going to be done online with a trust management system called compel you. There's a list of compatibility issues that you'll need to make sure that your computer and internet can handle it. They're installing software, a webcam, a microphone and a minimum of two gigabytes of RAM. You're told that these, that there will be a test exam so that you can practice before the midterm, which is the first exam. And so we've got six different options here. You can pass over and only remember again when the midterm happens, it's going to be a week away. And just put your number in the chat. I'm going to be reading them out here, but as they come in Sunday, you'll be collecting those and we'll be figuring out who's got the, where the most interest is. So you write to the instructor and ask some questions about it. You could drop the class. Do an internet search to find out more about this trust management system. What the heck is that? Make sure that you get all the tech that you need and be ready for the exam. Check your computer and realize that you have everything that you need to complete the practice exam and feel prepared for the exam day. Which way are we going? So far we have a three for Matt Croslin, which is a bit of a short track, but maybe a one, a go north, a one. So we have a couple ones. We might want to go with one first. Okay. So you're probably a typical student, right? You pass this over. It kind of comes through in your email. You only remember again when the midterm's there. So you get an email from the instructor that you need to complete the practice test before the midterm next week. You try to install the compel you software, but you're having a few problems for one, it doesn't recognize your laptop camera on your Chromebook. You're feeling stressed about the midterm exam, but now you wonder if you'll fail completely because you won't even be able to access it. You finally get all the technical specs that you need by buying and borrowing. It's taken you quite a bit of time and there's not, you're not really in this headspace to be able to take a high stakes midterm, but you're ready and you know, you're going to make the most of it. The exam is two hours long though, and once you get through the login process, the proctor informs you that you're not going to be able to take a break during the entire exam. You instantly become anxious because you drank a bunch of water and you know you're going to need to use the restroom and you're going to have to go soon. But you end up not having to use the bathroom. You become so nervous and anticipation, plus the weird feeling that you have of someone watching you while you can't see them and you feel the need to vomit. You tell the proctor that you feel nauseous and ask what you could do. The proctor responds, go ahead and vomit at your desk, which you do. You're pretty sure that you didn't do your best on this exam. So this is a true story. This is actually out of a Washington Post article and it's very disturbing, right? That students are going to have to go through this. Should we try another scenario? Do we have time for that? Let's try one more. We had some twos and some ones. So you go ahead and decide, Autumn, from the twos and the ones. Unless someone wants to just jump in right now and say whether they'd rather write the instructor. Well, we just did one, right? We just did one. Sorry, some fours and some twos. So let's do two. Let's do two. Let's do two. So we're going to write to the instructor and ask some follow-up questions. So you write to the instructor expressing concerns about compel you for the exams. You live with your family and you're often in a shared space where you're doing your schoolwork. The computer is a hand-me-down from your older sister and works perfectly fine for other types of schoolwork. But it doesn't have those two gigabytes of RAM. Your instructor writes back. Your instructor writes back the following. I'm sorry to hear that you have reservations. It's my responsibility to make the exams fair. If one person cheats and gets away with it, every student is negatively impacted. Just like seeing a police car helps you to remember to slow down, compel you remind you and other students to keep your integrity. Research has been done to show that online exams are more fair when they are proctored. Please make arrangements to have a distraction-free zone for the exam. You should really have this for all of your studies. I'm letting you know what you need now so that you can make sure to have the technical requirements to pass the class, which include the two gigabytes of RAM. You have two choices. You can drop the course or you can take the exam. Which way are we headed, gang? Anyone drop the course at this point or continue with the exam? I know a lot of us would hopefully drop the course or hopefully have that option. That's not always an option, right? Right. Let's go. This instructor needs help with empathy. Yeah, I know. I felt a little bit bad. I think the instructor is just trying to be like on the line. And so maybe doesn't know the students that well. This was a hard one. But let's go ahead and go with it, Autumn. Let's take the exam. Which one? Let's take the exam. We're going to take the exam. OK. You take out a loan to get a new computer with the correct technical specs for the exam. You've also converted a small closet in your home to be your office. You put a lamp in there and you just hope that the internet will be good enough with the door closed. You ultimately get through the exam, but you don't feel very good about it. After all the auxiliary steps that you have to go through, along with studying, you feel stressed, unfocused, and tired. You end up with a C on the exam, which is a passing grade, but you don't feel positive about the experience. And Sunny, should I talk a little bit about the end screen? Please do. Yeah. And so if you go to the end screen here, we just want to do acknowledge that the scenarios described don't happen to everybody. However, they are real stories that students have shared publicly. Our intention is to draw attention to the various things that can happen, especially to students who are in vulnerable situations or who are dealing with more than just their studies. Exams are not necessary for learning. And so proctoring is not essential. And here we're linking to Matt Crosslin's article, which is his response to Proctor Hughes, CEO who wrote an article about how proctoring was essential. But I'm going to stop sharing now and jump back into the session with all of you so that I can see this chat and maybe interact a tiny bit. There we go. On my back. Yeah. We have five minutes left. Thanks, Joe. I don't know, Joe, if you need to do anything with us. But we'd love to hear your feedback. One person has already said they want people on their team to play the game. We'd love to make it better. You can write us and let us know your thoughts. But if people have ideas or thoughts now, we'd love to hear them. I really like the drop the class storyline and would love to see appeal or can't find an equivalent course plot line developed. Love it. Yes. Absolutely, Joe. Did anyone think it was hard to do the instructor as even somewhat empathetic? I guess building out the instructor line might help us a little bit with that to know the challenges that instructor space too. But if anyone has ideas about that, we'd love it. This is so awesome. Congrats and thanks. Lots of cheers. Thank you very much. Autumn can't see it. But I want to make sure others can. It's amazing even without that added in and many students might not even realize that consequence until after making the choice to drop. Yeah, absolutely. I also think sometimes the instructors, you know, I mean, like you said, this isn't going to apply to every student. There's some students who will probably be fine with it. And so if the majority of your students are like, oh, yeah, this is all right. I can do this because I can afford the computer. I don't have these kind of challenges. But those outliers, real impacts for them. I see Kyle here is saying it'd be enlightening to play different student profiles, student of color, nursing mother who's been affected differently by proctoring. The very last scenario is a scenario of a person of color. Some of those are some of the most heartbreaking, right? These folks, they don't get picked up by the AI. They're trying to do the check-in process. And yeah, it's just, it can be very, very dehumanizing. Joe Murphy says instructor issues. Yes, we have, when we were brainstorming the instructor, we talked about department pressures and pressures from the department and the colleagues, that kind of thing. Yeah, really good point from Gino. It felt non-empathetic, but it's an actual reality far too often and instructors are put in difficult positions. When we're thinking about the instructor track, we're also thinking like an adjunct, as opposed to like a tenure track person, how much support does this person have? How big is their course? There's a lot of issues that are involved in this for sure. Joe, you just had one up a second ago and I missed it. Could you put it back up? No. Yes. What the instructor is being told by the organization about the instructions they can offer students. Also, what about the instructor choosing the redesign of the assessment to avoid online exams? Exactly. Exactly. Online exams are not necessary. At my school, University of Michigan-Dearborn, we did just write a paper about this. The administration decided to not buy into a university-wide proctoring system and instead to come to us, instructional designers, and ask us to redesign the assessments in things that are more authentic and more real. Think about open book exams. Think about portfolios. Think about oral exams. There's lots of other ways that you can do examinations that you can assess learning. It doesn't have to be your typical online exam kind of situation. So there's other options. I think we're coming up on the hour. We just like to say that we'll continue updating the game and it will be up for at least a year on compelu.com that Autumn snatched up. Here I am back in, really, just to say thank you, Cindy, and thank you, Autumn, for really a wonderful, a wonderful session. I've been tweeting away in the background. Certainly in my own institution, I would use this just a bit to raise awareness and to have the discussion around these issues with this tool. I come from a community college, further education background, and some of these issues are issues that we need to take up with our awarding bodies. Because sometimes they dictate the assessment conditions, which we've done quite successfully, but some people don't realize that. So they'll immediately think because the awarding organization says it's a closed book exam, it's got to be a closed book exam, not realizing, particularly just now, there's room for negotiation. I think it's such an important point, Joe. Thank you so much for bringing it up. The fight of the abolition of these kinds of tools is not something that's just against companies. It's against ideologies, and those ideologies are held by different levels of power at all different levels. So thank you for bringing that up. And that's out of time. So I would just like everybody to give you a round of applause. And thank you so much. Thank you all for joining us. Thank you so much. Thank you, Joe. I'll see you in the green. Nom, nom, nom.