Meeting the Student Where They AreMaking Good on the Promise of eLearning

Matt Morava 12.9.2013

Bona fidesStarted building learning and development with K-12 Environmental Interpretation programs in 1997

Student’s personal favorite -- “One Frog, Two Frog, Old Frog, New Frog!” on invasive species

Director of Video Production in 1998 -- Dozens of surgical and medical training videos

Manager of Instructional Design for University of Denver from 1999 - 2002

Grant Manager for the Business Knowledge Universe

Digitized content for eReader (pre Kindle) included working with Harvard Business School Publishing, McGraw-Hill, HarperCollins, and Prentice-Hall on making content digitally accessible

Created dozens of online modules using Flash, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and Director

Development of an online learning community and portfolio system

Part of a small team that redesigned the core MBA content

Managed faculty transition from WebCT to Blackboard, including designing instructional strategies

Bona fidesManaged $1.2 million dollar eLearning program for Qwest from 2002 - 2003

Increased unique users by an average of 27% for 12 consecutive months

Increased total time on system by an average of 17% for 12 consecutive months

CISCO Preferred Partner status secured due to efforts in certification

Led a corporate university for Intrado from 2003 - 2006

12 programs and 65 courses designed to improve management, leaderships, and communication

Redesigned the Leadership Development Program for Senior Leadership

Designed, developed and delivered 27 unique leadership experiences

Lead health initiative that provided onsite doctor visits, in conjunction with stress reduction programs, based on health data collected through extensive surveys and health insurance data

Provided executive coaching to senior leadership, meeting facilitation services, and delivered half dozen organizational effectiveness initiatives directed at increasing efficiency and effectiveness

Bona fides

2007 Started Endeavor Coaching

Completed a succession plan for major hotel chain

Helped secure second round of funding for tech start up totaling $1.1M

For the past four years I've been a coach and organizational consultant for the University of Denver

100% hire rate for private clients seeking employment

100% promotion rate for private clients seeing promotion

Bona fides

Adjunct Faculty for the University of Denver, Daniels College of Business since 1999

Delivered a class on Instructional Design from 1999 - 2004

Delivered $1.9M in eduction (based on tuition dollars) since 2008

Responsible for seven courses: Leading Teams, Introduction to Business and Management, Managing Human Resources, Strategic Human Resources, Employee Relations, Organizational Behavior, Organizational Dynamics

Undergrad, Grad, MBA’s, Professional MBA’s, and the Pioneer Leadership Program

Hundreds of hours working closely with Millennial’s to a point of deeply understanding their strengths, weaknesses, gifts, blind spots, and that dreaded word... potential.

Long Story, ShortI’ve been involved in learning a for long time, specifically focused on how students learn best, the challenges and interplay between competency development and student motivation and behavioral change

I’ve taught almost every age group, from K-12, Undergrad, Grad, Doctoral, MBA, and PMBA, and 18-65 yo in corporations (Only group I haven’t worked with are seniors)

I started with education technology, left to become the best stand up teacher I could become (have more than 10,000 hours in the classroom), I’m now in an excellent place to see where eLearning can have its greatest impact

This presentation outlines a vision for the future of eLearning

Enduring Questions

What Makes for Great Teaching?

Why is it when learning is one of the most exciting and fulfilling of human experiences, formal education at the university level doesn’t deliver?

Where is EdTech in delivering on the promise of improved quality of education?

Great Teaching Is...

We want the people we learn from to have experience and expertise in the area we’re trying to grow. The difference between the two is important...

Experience = 15 years on PGA Tour

Expertise = Won 4 Majors

Neither experience or expertise indicate the ability to effectively instruct students however

Great Teaching Is...Elements of Effective and Efficient Teachers:

Recognize expertise and break it into essential competencies

Develop learning outcomes and define benchmarks

Measure and evaluate progress (when models can be ignored due to personal style and when models must be adhered to)

Direct and encourage the learner as needed

Celebrate small wins

Sacrifice self -- those that can’t, teach or run for office

All Learning is at a Distance

We tend to underestimate the distance with in-person learning and overestimate the distance with online learning.

In person can be alienating, polarizing, and personality barriers account for misunderstandings

Online can be intimate, personal, and private

Learning is Frustrating Two kinds of frustration in learning

Birth of competence is often painful

Failure can be experienced as shameful

Teaching is an inexact science and art

There is such a thing as bad teaching

There are never bad students -- just bad teaching/bad timing

Constructivism vs. Objectivist

Constructivism -- Learners construct their own personal meaning of knowledge.

Objectivist -- Knowledge exists outside of the individual and can be transferred from teachers to students.

Old School KSA’s

Knowledge Delivery -- information dissemination

Skills Development -- Motor skills, Hand-Eye Coordination, Discovery and Exploration, Cause and Effect

Attitudes or Behaviors Change -- a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone

Personal Experience

Knowledge delivery tends to lend itself to the Constructivist view point.

Skill development tends to be both Constructivist and Objectivist.

Attitudinal and Behavioral change seems clearly grounded in the Objectivist view point.

In Other Words...

Knowledge retention is a complicated process dependent on where the learner is, their mood and attitude, their personal experience, and their motivation

Skill development has a knowledge component, but can also be learned through muscle memory and simple repetition

Attitude and Behavioral change is dependent upon role modeling -- the learner must see it to believe (mimic) it

The Promise of EdTechKnowledge Delivery

The Promise: Self paced, allows for greater exploration and depth, offers different paths to accommodate preferred learning styles, best scholarship from the best practitioners, and progressive testing

The Delivery: B+ -- has mostly met these goals

The Growth Edge: Reach different learning styles and allow for greater depth

The Promise of EdTechSkill Development

The Promise: Safe repetition of practice, access to multiple styles from different instructors, more specific and intense feedback personalized to the learner, increased performance

The Delivery: A- -- From flight simulators to virtual medical patients, this promise is being delivered

The Edge -- Limited range of skills. Move to fine manipulation of surgery, pottery, musical instruments and real time/mobile

The Promise of EdTech

Attitude/Behavioral Change

The Promise: Attitude or behavioral change hasn’t been directly addressed beyond the hoped for change from increased knowledge and skill development.

The Delivery: D+ -- Not the current focus

The Edge: This is the future of EdTech

Attitudes and Behaviors We have to fail a lot to learn

Speed up the iteration and fail quicker

Attitude/Behavioral change is hard because we trust so few people to speak into our lives: parents, coaches, spiritual leaders, coworkers, supervisors, romantic partners

Is this useful data? Filtered vs. Pure

Google glass will be multidirectional

Nike FuelBand... Imagine Nike BehavioralBand

The Future of Learning Knowledge -- Will become interconnected as clouds become smarter, content becomes flexible to meet preferred learning styles, allow for greater personal exploration and depth on subjects, games and play for higher retention rates

Skill Development -- Haptic interfaces allow for personalized correction and for the learner to demonstrate what they can do, not just what they know, in order to receive greater guidance

Attitude/Behavior -- Allow for role modeling to occur and real time feedback on human interactions, provide customized feedback reports on communication effectiveness and personality or idiosyncratic behaviors that are detrimental to personal success

The Future of Learning

When expertise and reach replace experience and credentialing as the primary evaluators of a person’s value in the marketplace, then individual responsibility for growth/development will overtake the value of formalized education. Talented individuals will go to where the action is... to learn from the best and the brightest in their respective fields. Who best delivers on increasing their expertise and reach will be the determining factors.

The Future of Learning The “Floating University” and “University of One” models take over how 99% of education is handled by the year 2022

Floating University -- Underground groups of people come together adhoc to learn a specific set of knowledge, skills, and behaviors

University of One -- Experts run their own “universities” backed by funding. The university and start-up become virtually indistinguishable

The Future of Learning

4 Billion Tweets

When do we begin to consider Google, Twitter, MicroSoft, Amazon and Facebook as the premiere institutions of learning of our time?