The Open University and Borderless Education

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The Open University and Borderless Education
Professor Robin Mason
Institute of Educational Technology The Open
University Milton Keynes
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The much-vaunted f-t-f learning
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The so-called second-best option
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What do we mean by online education?

• Terminology
• e-learning, web-based training, online courses,
  virtual universities, computer-mediated
  conferencing, cyber-learning,
• Simple classification
• online course content
• online support (tutoring, resources, admin)
• blended combinations

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Content delivery and student support

• delivery of content still largely print based
• online content is conceived and designed for the
  web
• focus on online tutor support 170,000 students
  accessing online conferences
• administrative resources online study support,
  course tasters, registration, assignment
  submission

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Effectiveness and the Context of Use

• Need to be clear about why you are using an
  online environment
• Online learning is not a silver bullet and needs
  to be appropriate for the context of use
• Motivation of learners matters more than the
  technology, the teacher, the content or the
  context
• Assessing effectiveness is more complex than
  measurement of outcomes

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Authoring for a Multicultural Student Body

• Impossibility of culturally neutral content
• BUT
• Careful use of language editing, piloting
• Use of a range of examples, resource materials,
  case studies
• Preparatory materials for students study skills,
  assessment criteria, online interaction

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Encouraging Effective Interaction

• begin with pairs and move to small groups
• assign roles so people know what to do
• use email to encourage reticent students and
  dampen the over-enthusiastic
• provide clear directions for those with little
  time and outlets for those with too much time
• use tutor time to weave and summarise the
  discussions

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Quality Assurance in Borderless Education

• Course design
• 3 stage process of drafting and commenting
• piloting by mock students
• confirmation by external assessor
• Course presentation
• monitoring tutors effectiveness of feedback to
  students on assignments and in conferences speed
  of response

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Content on the Web

• should capitalize on the unique qualities of the
  web
• the hypertext relation of materials
• the extensive resources which can be referenced
• the ability to present material in multimedia
• the empowerment of students as publishers
• the ability to personalise learning

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Motivating Students

• appropriateness of the learning context
• clarity of purpose and instructions
• challenging but not overloading activities
• integrating online use with assessment
• individual attention
• scaffolding support to develop independence

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Feedback To and From Students

• To students from the tutor
• detailed comments on their work, how to improve
• summaries of discussions
• general comments on all the assignments
• From students to the tutor
• web questionnaires at the end of each module
• suggestions (rather than whingers!) conference

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