The Beautiful, Messy, Inspiring, and Harrowing World of Online Learning

George Veletsianos, PhD Canada Research Chair, Associate Professor

School of Education and Technology Royal Roads University

Islands

School of Education and Technology http://tinyurl.com/RRUMALAT

You probably know of it because of its unparalleled beauty…

•  Serve & support working professionals (i.e. what most

Schools/Colleges of Education do in Canada/US)

•  Focus on outcomes and the learning experience

•  Guided by social learning theory

•  Refined by learning sciences & education research

•  Learning designers working with faculty members

•  Flexible

•  (1-3 weeks Face-to-face + online = Hybrid) OR (Online)

•  Prior-learning assessment, flexible admissions policy

But, here’s what you really need to know…

We live in fascinating times

Universities are facing numerous powerful forces that may shape

their future.

a worldwide economic downturn

globalization and competition

changing demographics

reduction of public funding

accountability pressures

impact of emerging technologies

(Morrison, 2003; Schwier, 2012; Siemens & Matheos, 2010; Spanier, 2010).

Questions around the purpose of education

Rebirth of edtech

“I feel like I’ve been here before”

1922: “motion picture is destined to revolutionize our education system …in a few years it will supplant largely, if not entirely, the use of textbooks”

1999: “education over the Internet is going to be so big it is going to make e-mail usage look like a rounding error”

Techno-enthusiasm & techno-determinism

e.g., Technology will ____________

Educational Technology suffers from

exuberant positivity and optimism

(Selwyn, 2011a)

“curious amnesia, forgetfulness”

(Selwyn, 2011b)

Our memento moments

With respect to beliefs…

what we have is two opposing perspectives

Online learning as wondrous

Online learning as monstrous

They coexist.

Both are accurate.

Both capture the realities of online learning.

Realities. Plural.

Beautiful

Messy

Inspiring

Harrowing

Online learning can be…

Synonymous with:

appealing. caring. empowering.

flexible

Beautiful Online Learning

Beautiful Online Learning

“Examples of

outstanding [online] instruction

are hard to find.”

Wilson, Parrish, & Veletsianos, 2008

Beautiful Online Learning

•  Engaging students in knowledge production

Beautiful Online Learning

•  Engaging students in knowledge production

•  Creation of worthwhile digital artifacts – E.g., E-books and online textbooks

Beautiful Online Learning

Veletsianos, G. (2013). Learner Experiences with MOOCs and Open Online Learning. Hybrid Pedagogy: Madison, WI. Retrieved from http://learnerexperiences.hybridpedagogy.com

Beautiful Online Learning

Beautiful Online Learning

Beautiful Online Learning

“My oldest [child] will be 4 this June, and I'm thinking about her education and…what resources I want to be able to offer her…so I'm looking at spending my time in [open courses] acquiring some of this knowledge, so that I can enable her education”

Female, 38, homemaker Engages w/ online learning through iPhone

during “downtime” described as “feeding and nursing and stuff”

Beautiful Online Learning

“My oldest [child] will be 4 this June, and I'm thinking about her education and…what resources I want to be able to offer her…so I'm looking at spending my time in [open courses] acquiring some of this knowledge, so that I can enable her education”

Female, 38, homemaker Engages w/ online learning through iPhone

during “downtime” described as “feeding and nursing and stuff”

Beautiful Online Learning

“A routine visit, friendly chit chat … and then suddenly a quiet chill in the room, professionals looking at each other but not at me, an emergency biopsy, a result. I’ve had a thyroid scan, a chest X-ray, a CT scan, and tomorrow I’m having a bone scan.”

Harrowing Online Learning

disempowering. student as

consumer. detached. replicates f2f.

Harrowing Online Learning

Delivering education

Designing Learning Experiences

Harrowing Online Learning

“My most vivid memory was this huge argument that broke out at the [open course] discussion board about an assignment that I submitted… [I received] this absolute torrent of rudeness, just vicious personal attacks that I never experienced on the internet before… I mean, I know that they happen on YouTube, but I did not expect that in a class at all! The professor was totally checked out, he never visited the discussion board… and it was just depressing and discouraging”

Harrowing Online Learning

“I posted a comment stating that the grading was incorrect. [One] of the teaching staff [scolded me] stating that it was obvious I hadn’t viewed the lecture. While I didn’t expect staff to instantly take my word that there was a mistake, I certainly didn't expect negative and condescending remarks...[I was] left with a partial sense of accomplishment and feelings of hollowness and incompleteness.”

Inspirational Online Learning

creative. original. innovative.

Inspirational Online Learning

Inspirational Online Learning

Inspirational Online Learning

Inspirational Online Learning

Students  collect  water  data  in  the  field  and  upload  it  to  a  database.        

Students  post  blog  entries  describing  what  they  are  learning  

and  experiencing  on  their  expedi8on.  

Inspirational Online Learning

See http://www.slideshare.net/veletsianos

COHERE 2013 and ELI 2014 & Collier/Ross for more on this.

Messy Online Learning

varied. complex. real.

Messy Online Learning

To understand the messiness of

learning, the reality of what it means

to learn in digital contexts, we need

empirical inquiry that uses a variety

of methodologies.

Digital learning environments, that replicate traditional

classroom approaches often result in “showcase

environments that are often not much more than computer

assisted page turning” (Kirschner et al., 2004, pp. 47-48).

The reality

•  Educators, researchers, and designers working together

•  Collaboration, not competition (e.g., institutions to

collaborate on offerings)

•  Use the affordances of the technology & the affordances

of openness, to change practice

•  Understand the history of educational technology

•  Learn from the existing research on learning technologies

•  Offer solutions, design the future that you want.

Potential approaches to rectify this…

Thank you!

www.veletsianos.com

www.veletsianos.com/publications

@veletsianos on Twitter

veletsianos at gmail.com