Post on 20-Aug-2015
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Issues in Online and Distance Education
Professor Mike Keppell Executive Director
Australian Digital Futures Institute
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Overview ‣ The context of online
education
‣ Do students have the discipline and skills to succeed in online education?
‣ How do we assist students to manage the transition into digital student life?
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The Context of Online Education
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10 Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States ‣ 2800 colleges and universities
‣ Academic leaders were unconvinced that MOOCs were a sustainable method for offering online courses
‣ MOOCS were an important means for institutions to learn about online pedagogy
‣ 70% institutions believe online learning is critical to their long-term strategy
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10 Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States
‣ 32% of students take at least one online course
‣ 77% academic leaders rated outcomes superior to face-to-face
‣ 88.8% considered students needed more discipline as a barrier to widespread adoption
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Disrupting Innovation
‣ New innovation redefines quality
‣ Technology enabler
‣ Online learning appears to be a technology enabler for higher education
‣ Disrupting higher education
‣ Enables learning in a variety of contexts, locations and times
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Do students have the discipline and skills to succeed in online
education?
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10 Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States ‣ May not be appropriate for all
students
‣ “Students need more discipline to succeed in online courses”
‣ 90% academic leaders have concerns about student discipline
‣ 73.5% academic leaders believe that lower retention rates are a barrier to growth of online instruction
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How do we assist students to manage the transition into
digital student life?
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Trends ‣ People expect to be able to work, learn, and
study whenever and wherever they want.
‣ The abundance of resources and relationships will challenge our educational identity.
‣ Students want to use their own technology for learning.
‣ Shift across all sectors to online learning, blended learning and collaborative models.
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Challenges n Seamless learning – people expect to be
able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want.
n Digital literacies – capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society (JISC)
n Personalisation - our learning, teaching, place of learning, technologies will be individualised
n Mobility is here!
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Horizon Reports
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Enablers
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Enablers
n Digital literacies
n Personalised learning
n User-generated content
n Mobility
n Seamless learning
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Digital literacies
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Digital Literacies n Literacy is no longer “the ability
to read and write” but now “the ability to understand information however presented.”
n Can't assume students have skills to interact in a digital age
n Literacies will allow us to teach more effectively in a digital age (JISC, 2012)
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Developing Literacies n Employable graduates need to be digitally
literate n Digital literacies are often related to discipline
area n Learners need to be supported by staff to
develop academic digital literacies n Professional development is vital in developing
digital literacies n Professional associations are supporting their
members to improve digital literacies n Engaging students supports digital literacy
development i.e. students as change agents (JISC, 2012)
Context of
Digital Literacies
(JISC)
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Personalised learning
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Personal Learning Spaces
‣ Personal Learning Environments (PLE) integrate formal and informal learning spaces
‣ Customised by the individual to suit their needs and allow them to create their own identities.
‣ A PLE recognises ongoing learning and the need for tools to support life-long and life-wide learning (Attwell, 2007).
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Connectivism
‣ PLE may also require new ways of learning as knowledge has changed to networks and ecologies (Siemens, 2006).
‣ The implications of this change is that improved lines of communication need to occur.
‣ “Connectivism is the assertion that learning is primarily a network-forming process” (p. 15).
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Personal Learning Environments
Tools Spaces
People
Interactions Interactions
Interactions
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User Generated Content
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" Interactive learning (learner-to-content interactions)
" Networked learning (learner-to-learner; learner-to-teacher interactions)
" Student-generated content (learner-as-designers; assessment-as-learning interactions) .
" Connected students (knowledge is in the network)
" Learning-oriented assessment (assessment-as-learning)
Interactions
Learning-oriented Assessment
Assessment tasks as learning tasks
Student involvement in assessment processes
Forward-looking feedback
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Questions?