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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?