eLearning Opportunities and Challenges

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eLearning Opportunities and Challenges

• Nigel Gibson
• n.gibson_at_open.ac.uk
• Sussex Learning Network 21/06

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(No Transcript)
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Agenda

• I am going to try to map some of the issues
  surrounding online provision and supporting
  learning online
• I will offer a very fast pass over the
  landscape and Ill try to pick out some of the
  points of interest
• Ill highlight some questions we might try to
  answer while considering eLearning
• Then Ill look at some possible futures

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Before we start..............

• I dont have all the answers
• I dont know all the questions (and dont
  understand many of them)
• Ive been in this e-world for about 10 years as
  a learner, an educator and an observer and the
  arena is shifting so quickly it makes me dizzy
• You may leave with more questions than you
  started with!

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Assumptions Ive made

• Some people in here are already engaged in some
  form of eProvision
• Some people are new to all this
• Some are eConverts while others are eCynics
• (Isnt it great that all we have to do is add e
  to words to change the meaning?)

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The landscape
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What are we talking about?

• People bandy around terms like eLearning and
  blended learning without much thought of what
  they really mean!
• Oliver and Trigwell ask whether blended learning
  is lost (Oliver M and Trigwell K, Can Blended
  learning be redeemed?, E-Learning, Vol 2
  November 2005)
• When we talk about e-anything we need to agree
  common points of reference

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Words

• Blended learning describes a mix of face to
  face (f2f) and online provision
• Online seems to cover everything from email to
  web pages and includes peer discussion between
  learners
• Some eLearning takes place in a controlled
  environment the learners and educators are
  co-located. Some eLearning is less bounded by
  time or geography.
• Part of our negotiation of terms might look to
  situating where we think we are (or might wish to
  be)

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A scale
No f2f!
Limited meetings
Online group discussion
121 email discussion
What is a PC???
No paper
Most/all course material delivered online
Web site supporting course
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Spaghetti western

• Good
• Modesty aside The OU are doing some exciting
  stuff
• Bad
• I wont name names but many providers simply post
  lecture notes online
• Ugly
• Cumbernauld Shopping Centre

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An example of a blended course

• The Aichi Prefectural University (Japan) uses a
  blended approach to teach an English Thesis
  Writing course
• Students meet for one hour each week and work in
  English
• They have 24/7 access to a series of Yahoo groups
  (password protected so that only members of the
  class can participate) where they exchange ideas
  and work together on group exercises
• Very low tech - very low cost!!!

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Not just learning

• Learn Direct - and others - now offer
  information, advice and guidance online
• Practitioners (from any discipline) can meet,
  online, and create communities of interest and/or
  practice to share ideas (this harks back to the
  start of online communities)

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Some considerations
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Handy terms (or Death by jargon)

• VLE Virtual learning environment
• LMS Learner management system
• CMS Content management system
• Wiki What I know is and also Hawaiian for
  quickly or hurry an area that to which many can
  contribute (Wikipedia)
• Blog Web log, anything from an online journal
  to a polemic raging against the world. Free, easy
  to create and update low skill requirement
• Conferencing using an online area to chat

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Chat

• This might take the form of social chat
• Course specific chat
• An online exercise
• Any of the many things we do when meeting face to
  face
• Usually asynchronous
• Also known as forums
• Access usually restricted to participants on a
  specific course, wider level might be all
  students at an institution
• Synchronous chat using instant messaging services
  (MSN, Yahoo, etc)

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Technical stuff

• Many VLEs now are based on browser access, i.e.
  no need for any additional software on the
  learners PC
• Some are available at no cost Elgg and Moodle
  for example
• We cant assume that everyone involved (educators
  as well as learners) has the necessary basic
  skills
• If offering 24/7 access who makes sure the system
  is available?

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Speed of light

• Content can be quickly and easily updated
• Participants might expect always on this can
  put pressure on support services
• Managing expectations and setting an appropriate
  pace is important

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Content

• Not just tutor notes on a web page!
• Using online technologies content can be
• Dynamic
• Personalised
• Non-linear
• Multimedia voice, animations, text, film,
  podcast..
• The growth of Open Content initiatives means
  that materials can be sourced externally and
  mixed with locally written material
• Two points there I will enlarge on..

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Non-linear?

• Learning online can allow learners to select a
  path through the materials and set their own pace
  (the Distance Learning model)
• This may be appropriate where students are
  joining from different disciplines, i.e. some may
  need to study certain areas in more detail

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Open Content?

• There are a number of international Open Content
  projects underway
• The Open Content Alliance (OCA) represents the
  collaborative efforts of a group of cultural,
  technology, nonprofit, and governmental
  organizations from around the world that will
  help build a permanent archive of multilingual
  digitized text and multimedia content. Open
  Content Alliance
• Higher education institutions worldwide face
  significant challenges related to providing
  increased access, while containing or reducing
  costs. Meeting increasing and increasingly varied
  demand for quality higher education is an
  important consideration in the policy debate and
  institutional development in many countries. And
  it is particularly important in the case of
  developing countries, for whom demand often
  greatly exceeds capacity in the existing higher
  education system. UNESCO Virtual University

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Some Open Content providers

• Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative
• Utah State University
• MIT Open Courseware
• The Open University (UK)
• There are also a large number of consortia
  bringing together Open Content portals places
  to access materials for specific disciplines from
  a range of providers

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Pedagogy

• Simple web pages can be didactic, transmission
  based
• Conferencing, groups of learners accessing the
  same area to read and post messages, allows for a
  constructivist approach
• Use conferences to refer participants to specific
  web pages, a reading list, and then invite them
  back to discuss what they found.
• Invite participants to find resources about their
  discipline and bring them to the online conference

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Whats round the corner?
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Just connecting..

• The key principle of using online technologies to
  support learning is connecting
• Connecting whenever and wherever learners want to
  connect
• And however they want to connect.

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Convergent technologies

• In the olden days a computer was a computer

• and a game was Cluedo
• Now.

• A phone was a phone

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eLearning isnt (just) about PCs

• As technologies come together the range of
  connection opportunities increases
• Some schools are already using text messages to
  contact students
• Thinking outside the (beige) box can pay dividends

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Playstations and mobile phones?

• The Sony PSP and Palm Treo

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TESSA

• Teacher education in sub-Saharan Africa uses the
  Palm Treo mobile phone/PC to teachers, in
  training, across Africa
• A real example of partnership online learning
  partners include
• The African Virtual University, BBC World Service
  Trust, The Commonwealth of Learning, Egerton
  University (Kenya), Kigali Institute of Education
  (Rwanda), Kyambogo University (Uganda), Makerere
  University (Uganda), National Teachers' Institute
  (Nigeria), The Open University of Sudan, The Open
  University of Tanzania, The Open University (UK),
  South African Institute for Distance Education,
  University of Cape Coast (Ghana), University of
  Fort Hare - South Africa, University of
  Education, (Winneba, Ghana), University of
  Pretoria, University of South Africa (UNISA),
  University of Zambia
• They coordinate much of the work online

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PSP

• The latest Sony Playstation is a fully featured,
  wireless enabled, computer
• It has a high definition TFT screen and a USB
  socket for transferring files
• A learning platform for the future?

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Olden days again

• Im over 21 and I have a couple of O Levels
• My mum (probably) has all my old school exercise
  books somewhere safe
• My 12 year old daughter has a tablet PC (provided
  by her school) and a memory stick (1Gb 15)
  which will store all her school and university
  work

• I can carry all the work for my degree and my
  Masters in my pocket and keep copies on the web!

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Be afraid!

• Rheingold has a lovely term..
• Children (and young adults now) are digital
  natives
• Those of us over 21 are digital tourists
• They have grown up with ICTs we are struggling
  to keep up!
• Educators and anyone engaging with learning in
  the 21st C should remember that our learners take
  all this stuff for granted!

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Closer to home.

• Sussex is considerably more compact, and with
  better communication networks, than Southern
  Africa!
• The OU in the South East (East Grinstead) is
  going to be working with the SLN to
• Map current provision
• Establish eLearning networks and collaborative
  partnerships
• Develop shared resources/knowledge and expertise
• Progress staff development using these resources
  and expertise
• Disseminate best practice (Contact Jenny Lynden)

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Summary

• It can be a scary place this online stuff
• It allows people to interact in different ways,
  it can enhance and extend the opportunities to
  engage with learners and learning. Its also an
  excellent way of learning from and with peers
• It can be very exciting and demanding and fast
  moving and great fun.. and isnt that what
  learning and teaching should be all about?