© terence karran ([email protected]) 1 building a virtu@l university: from bricks to clicks dr...

© Terence Karran ([email protected]) 11

Building a Virtu@l University:

From Bricks to Clicks

Dr Terence Karran © University of Lincoln, UK

WORLD BANK GDLN/LAC Workshop 5-9 July 2004

Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, México


What is a “ Virtual University” ?

Mason notes that ”there are some 10,000 references to virtual university to be found on the web, many of which represent unsupported rhetoricunsupported rhetoric about future aspirations and ambitions…”

Mason, R., ”European Trends in the Virtual Delivery of Education” in Farrell, G., ed., 1999, The Development of Virtual Education, p. 77.

"The label virtual is widely and indiscriminately usedwidely and indiscriminately used around the globe... it is frequently used interchangeablyused interchangeably with other labels such as open and distance learning , distributed learning, networked learning, Web-based learning, and computer learning… in spite of the increased use of the term virtual, there are very few examples of institutionsvery few examples of institutions using information and communications technologies to carry out all the functions”

Farrell, G., ”Introduction” in The Development of Virtual Education, p. 2f.


What is a “Virtual University” ?“The large number of different terms and expressions used in the context of distance or virtual education warrants semantic examinationwarrants semantic examination so that they can be classified, misunderstandings can be avoided and the major past and future trends highlighted”.

UNESCO 1998 World Conference on Higher Education in the 21st Century

“ ’“ ’Virtual University’ might be used to describe a mode of delivery rather Virtual University’ might be used to describe a mode of delivery rather than a discrete institutonal type.”than a discrete institutonal type.”

Bjarnason et al. (2000) The Business of Borderless Education: Analysis and Recommendations, p. 45

A virtual university:A virtual university: ” ... has virtually no students, virtually no courses, and can be virtually anything you want it to be”.

Tony Bates, (2000) Managing Technological Change, p.197


INCREASING NEED FOR MORE EDUCATION AND TRAINING EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES ARE MOVING ON TO THE WWW NEW PARADIGMS FOR LEARNING ARE EMERGING ENHANCED ACCESS FOR ALL CITIZENS TO LEARNING TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES GLOBAL COMMERCIAL OPERATORS ARE ENTERING THE KNOWLEDGE MARKET INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (IPR), COPYRIGHT AND STANDARDISATION

ISSUES ARE BECOMING CRUCIAL THE RAPID GROWTH OF THE INTERNET GROWING IMPACT OF NEW TELEMATICS-BASED LEARNING TOOLS CONVERGENCE, INTEGRATION AND STANDARDISATION OF TOOLS AND

TECHNOLOGIES

EU, 1998, Review of research and development of E-Learning in Europe

Trends Towards the Virtual University in Europe


DEMAND (and Competition)-QUALITATIVE-QUANTITATIVE

RESOURCES-human-material-economical

ACT DIFFERENT

OPEN AND

FLEXIBLELEARNING

CHANGEAND

TRANSFORMATION

VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY ?

CHALLENGE

DEMAND VS RESOURCES = THE CHALLENGE


Comparing Traditional and E-Learning

E-learning

COSTPER STUDENT

NUMBER OF STUDENTS

E-learning costs are higher initially, than face to face teaching but generate economies of scale

Face-to

-Face


Comparing Traditional and E-Learning

E-learning

QUALITY OF LEARNING EXPERIENCE

NUMBER OF STUDENTS

The quality of the learning experience falls for face to face teaching, as student numbers rise. With e-learning the quality is always constant.

Face-to-Face


“the combination of under-funded universities, high tech developments, corporate needs, and the prevailing ideology have lead to a basic transformation in the university … to a university oriented to the market place”, Buchbinder, H., (1993), Higher Education.

“Higher education is now in the global, competitive, marketplace .. where individuals are able to choose what they wish to acquire rather than accepting the dictates of institutions.” Arbeles, T, (1998), Futures,

“What would the post secondary marketplace look like if (say) Microsoft Deutsche Telekom, International Thomson and the University of California combined to offer UC courses and degrees world wide?. In time, its only competitor could be a combine of like standing and deep pockets: an IBM-Elsevier-NEC-Oxford combine, for example.” Marchese, T., (1998) AAHE Bulletin

The Impact of the Knowledge Economy.


Convergence of Universities and Knowledge Firms THE DEMANDS OF THE INFORMATION AGE AND THE KNOWLEDGE

BASED ECONOMY HAVE MOVED MULTI NATIONAL COMPANIES

AND UNIVERSITIES CLOSER TOGETHER

Knowledge Based Multinationals Universities

Focus of operations From local to global Local, regional, national

Competitive context New market players Declining state funding

Competitive focus Price and performance Cost and performance

Competitive response

Increased demand via product innovation

Adaptive, by anticipating change

Focus change From inward to outward From general excellence to core research business

Use of Networks to gain advantage

Networks via production chains and knowledge providers

Networks with universities and knowledge companies


TRENDS IN EDUCATION, TECHNOLOGY & ORGANIZATION

TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDSTECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS

1900s PRINT BASED MATERIALS1930s RADIO BROADCASTING1970s TELEVISION BROADCASTING1983 AUDIO AND VIDEO

RECORDING1985 AUDIOCONFERENCING1989 AUDIOGRAPHICS1989 CMC1990s VIDEOCONFERENCING,

INTERNET, SATELLITE 1992 CABLE-TV 1992 MULTIMEDIA 1992 INTEGRATED SYSTEMS 2000+ E-LEARNING?

ROLE OF THE ROLE OF THE STUDENTSSTUDENTS

OBJECT OF OBJECT OF TEACHINGTEACHING

SUBJECT OF SUBJECT OF LEARNINGLEARNING

MODELS OF MODELS OF ORGANIZATIONORGANIZATION

VERTICALVERTICALHIERARCHYHIERARCHY

HORIZONTALHORIZONTAL-MATRIX-MATRIX-PROJECT-PROJECT-NETWORK-NETWORK


E-LEARNING GENERATIONS

TYPETYPE

1960s COMPUTER BASEDTRAINING

1970s INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEMS 1980s MICRO WORLDS1990s COMPUTER SUPPORTED LEARNING AND MULTI-MEDIA2004 VIRTUAL LEARNING

ENVIRONMENTSMULTIPLE MEDIA AND BLENDED LEARNING

PARADIGMPARADIGM

INSTRUCTIONALIST

INSTRUCTIONALISTCONSTRUCTIONALIST

COLLABORATIVE

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE


Virtual UniversityVirtual University

NEW IDEA OF KNOWLEDGE AND VIEWS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

CHANGES IN WORKING LIFE

NEW POSSIBILITIES OFFEREDBY NEW TECHNOLOGY

STUDENTS

UNIVERSITIES

GOVERNMENTS

EFFICIENCY

SOCIOECONOMICAGENDAVISIONS

STRATEGIES

INTERNATIONALIZATIONAND GLOBAL MEGATRENDS

KNOWLEDGEECONOMY

NEW POSSIBILITIES OFFEREDBY NEW ORGANIZATIONAL MODELS

BACKGROUNDS - POSSIBILITIES - DRIVERS


PEDAGOGICAL ENVIRONMENT

TECHNOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT

DISTANCEEDUCATION-DT-DL

CE

Virtual University

BORDERLESS EDUCATIO

NOPEN & FLEXIBLE LEARNING

Development of the Virtual University


Campus university

Distance university

Virtual University

Author of learning material

Single lecturer on site

Commissioned from course team, off site

Commissioned from course team,

on site

Type of learning material

Closed Distance Open and distance

Delivery of learning material

Face to face Live lecture

Print, Multi- media

ICT / CBL Multiple media

Learning mediator

Author of learning material

Local tutor Course team

Mode of mediation

Face to face seminar

E-mail, phone, mail

Joint seminars; Face to face on site, CMC/VC for off-site


What might a Virtual University encompass ?A new virtual university must be able to:

cope with an increase in the demandincrease in the demand for higher education, throughout the world, in which the dominant languages for tuition will be English, Spanish and Chinese;

provide courses which address the need for new and new and emerging knowledge setsemerging knowledge sets,, and instill not just subject knowledge but interpersonal skills and competence appropriate to, and demanded by, firms operating in increasingly global markets;

enable students to undertake life-long learninglife-long learning,, and provide them with professional updating and skills upgrading courses throughout their working lives;

be customer focussedbe customer focussed by demonstrating flexible individual study programs, entry and exit points and modes of delivery;


What might a Virtual University encompass ?A new virtual university must be able to:

competecompete with newly emerging educational providers, both profit making universities, and corporate training providers;

realise benefits of collaborationbenefits of collaboration with other universities, and partnerships with companies to achieve viability, protect and enhance market share, and have a global reach;

source and secure fundingsource and secure funding from government and the private sector to undertake fundamental high level research, jointly with other universities and companies and exploit the results;

undertake a widening portfolio of responsibilitieswidening portfolio of responsibilities,, much broader than the original remit of knowledge creation and transmission, in an increasingly competitive environment, but with greater efficiency and lower funding levels.greater efficiency and lower funding levels.


What is a Virtual University?An organisation which uses a variety of ICT enabled methods in both teaching and research functions to:deliver learning content;deliver learning content;develop student learning communities;develop student learning communities;enable students to become life long learners;enable students to become life long learners;increase the stock of knowledge;increase the stock of knowledge;undertake technology transfer to move new undertake technology transfer to move new knowledge into the local learning region;knowledge into the local learning region;help create the knowledge economy and the help create the knowledge economy and the information society. information society.


What is a Virtual University?To under these tasks, Virtual Universities must make changes in the university’s traditional operations. Work undertaken as part of the EU funded HELENE Project identified the following changes:

fromfrom a teacher centred didactic instructional mode, toto a learner centred interactive exchange, in which

students take greater responsibility for their learning needs and skills requirements;

fromfrom “chalk and talk”, toto delivery via multiple-media, with access to materials

and resources world-wide, innovative teaching technologies and computer mediated communication;


fromfrom an externally time-tabled, temporally and geographically fixed, examination focused, passive instructional teaching mode, toto an individually determined, task related, active constructional learning process, unaffected by time and/or location;

fromfrom individual pursuit of classroom tasks, toto co-operative and collaborative learning within real and virtual peer groups characterised by increasing diversity (age, gender, location and learning style);

fromfrom assessment based on memory of given facts, toto measuring progress through students’ long term learning goals, arising via personal reflection and the creation and testing of knowledge;


fromfrom face to face tutoring with a known uniform student group via synchronous vocal discussion, toto an asynchronous text-based debate via computer mediated communications with an unknown differentiated virtual group;

fromfrom local utilisation of prescribed print based materials to address tutors’ questions, toto distance information mining of multiple-media sources via web-based technologies to solve student’s own learning tasks;

fromfrom a differentiated support network toto an integrated support network, with students creating knowledge via interaction with specialist facilitators, not only academics but Learning Support and other staff acting as “knowledge navigators”;


Shift from teaching to learning

MODEL 1I TEACH WHAT I KNOW

MODEL 2I TEACH WHAT I AM

TEACHER-CENTERED“Just in Case” Knowledge

LEARNER-CENTERED“Just for me” Knowledge

MODEL 3I DEVELOP MINDS

MODEL 4 I DEVELOP PEOPLE


Growth of Learning

Growth of Learning

Am

ou

nt o

f On

line

Inte

ract

ivity

Am

ou

nt o

f On

line

Inte

ract

ivity

Supporting, responding

The shift towards a Virtual University:The Tutor’s Role

DevelopmenDevelopmentt

Access and MotivationAccess and Motivation

Online SocialisationOnline Socialisation

Information ExchangeInformation Exchange

Knowledge ConstructionKnowledge Construction

Facilitating tasks, supporting use of learning materialsFacilitating tasks, supporting use of learning materials

Providing bridges between cultural, social and learning environmentsProviding bridges between cultural, social and learning environments

Role of E-Moderator: Welcoming and EncouragingRole of E-Moderator: Welcoming and Encouraging

Supporting, respondingSupporting, responding

Facilitating knowledge constructionFacilitating knowledge construction

from E-Moderating, Gilly Salmon, 2000, p.26


Shift from dependence to autonomyLEARNER

Autonomous

Engaged

Interested

Dependent

authority motivator

collaborator colleague

ROLE OF TUTOR


NEW OPEN AND FLEXIBLE LEARNING

ENVIRONMENTS

STUDY RIGHT PLACE TIME PACE FORM COST

OTHER PERSONAL ASPECTS

TRADITIONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Shift from closed to open environment


SHIFTS IN LEARNING and TEACHING

VIRTUALUNIVERSITY

EDUCATIONALTECHNOLOGY

(cg. LOWYCK 1994)SHIFTS IN KNOWLEDGE DOMAINSKNOWLEDGE DOMAINS

SHIFTS IN TECHNOLOGY

CLOSED, STEERINGSTABLE, FIXED

OPENSELF REGULATINGCHANGING

WELL-STRUCTUREDCOMPARTMENTALISATION

ILL-STRUCTUREDMULTIPERSPECTIVES

ONE WAYISOLATED MEDIAFIXED LOCATIONINDIVIDUAL

INTERACTIONA-LINEARINTEGRATIONTELEDISTANCENETWORKING

SHIFTS IN ORGANISATIONSHIERARCHIAL NETWORKS


LEARNING PROCESS

STUDENT

ASSESSMENT

SELFSTUDY

LEARNINGMATERIAL

STUDYCIRCLE

LEARNING-TASKS

LEARNING-SITUATIONS

-DISTANCE-CONTACT

TEACHER

TUTOR

LIFE

INTEGRATED

INTENSELYSUPPORTED

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

The student within the Virtual University


When virtual universities develope new e-learning environments, it is important that they are not thought of as duplicating machines of existing teaching modes, which is what they are at their worst.

At their best, virtual university VLEs form networked learning systems, which are part of the Information Society, the Knowledge Economy, and are facilitating the move to lifelong learning.


“If the university wishes to prepare itself for the tasks facing it in the future, it is not sufficient for it to regard the new technologies merely as additional media units and to misunderstand them as an extension and extrapolation of the previous familiar teaching operation … In concrete terms we are witnessing the change the change from traditional on-campus teaching to that of a university from traditional on-campus teaching to that of a university without wallswithout walls; from a university that remains closed to many, to an open university; from an exclusive system of teaching and learning to an inclusive system” - Otto Peters, [Changing University Teaching, (2000) p.21]

...if the new information technologies are to play a central role in university teaching, each institution needs to develop a set of strategies for change which will amount strategies for change which will amount to no less than restructuring the universityto no less than restructuring the university…

Tony Bates [Managing Technological Change, (1997) p.10]


What is e-Learning ? A review of 100 research papers about e-learning in h.e. identified four major features of good practicefour major features of good practice:: DialogueDialogue: using e-mail, bulletin boards, ‘real-time’ chat, asynchronous chat, group discussions and debate, the tutor or moderator structures interactive opportunities into the content of the course. InvolvementInvolvement: includes responses in structured tasks, active engagement with material, collaboration and small group activities.

Coomey, M., Stephenson, J., ‘Online learning: it is all about dialogue, involvement, support and control – according to research’, Teaching and Learning Online, Kogan Page, London, 2001.


What is e-Learning ? SupportSupport: e.g.periodic face-to-face contact, online tutorial supervision, peer support, advice from experts, feedback on performance, support services and software tools. This is the most important featurethe most important feature of successful online courses.ControlControl: refers to the extent to which learners have control of key learning activities and are encouraged to exercise that control over (inter alia) responses to exercises, pace and timing, choice of content, management of learning activities, navigation through course content, overall direction and assessment of performance.


What is e-Learning ? “Learning gains come from adequate instructional design theory and practice, and not from the medium used to deliver instruction”

R. Clark, ‘Research on Student Thought Processes During Computer Based Instruction’, Journal of Instructional Development, 1984 Vol.7, No. 3, p.3

“there is a need to redefine the ‘e’ from formally meaning ‘electronic’ to include the meaning of ‘experience,’ ‘engagement,’ and other high level contexts.”

Azma Hamid, ‘e-Learning: Is it the “e” or the learning that matters?’, Internet and Higher Education, 2002, Vol. 48, p.316


What is e-Learning – A European Perspective? “eLearning is a useful tool to help develop learning processes, but it is the pedagogical design of the whole learning process (possibly supported by eLearning) that will be decisive for the learner’s success” (p.7f)

“To be successful with eLearning … we should be aware that designing new eLearning software and creating new eLearning technologies is not the highest priority: the main effort in the future should focus on designing more intelligent learning processes. … these intelligent learning processes have to be based on a more constructivist and less on a cognitivistic or even behaviouristic learning philosophy.”(p.35)

G. Atwell, E-Learning in Europe - Results and Recommendations, (E.U. Brussels, 2004)


So, building a ”Virtual University” does NOTNOT mean:

developing a huge data base of print based content

BECAUSE BECAUSE information is not knowledge,

AS AS this represents no gains to the learner over face-to face delivery, and may be less effective,

OR OR using video conferencing for on-line lectures or seminars,

OR OR making large multi-media products available over the web,

AS AS it may be more effective to provide them on CDs.


Properly constructed a Virtual UniversityVirtual University should:

Utilise multi-media and computer mediated communication to create an intensely supportive collaborative learning environment.

Enable students to design personalised learning programmes to meet their individual needs.

Encourage students to come to university to study, not just for a degree, but for life.but for life.

Create new knowledge to pass on to students, and ensure that teaching is informed by active research.

Be at the centre of, and act as a lever for, the creation of a learning region within the global knowledge economy and information society.


Some advice before you start!

The futurologist, Arthur C. Clarke’s Fourth Law states:

1. It is completely impossible. Don’t waste my time.2. It is possible, but not worth doing3. I said it was a good idea all along.

Every revolutionary idea passes through three stages of reaction:


Building a Virtu@l University:

From Bricks to Clicks

Dr Terence Karran © University of Lincoln, UK

WORLD BANK GDLN/LAC Meeting 5-9 July 2004

© terence karran ([email protected]) 1 building a virtu@l university: from bricks to clicks dr...

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