Keynote The Arkansas Distance Learning Association (ARDLA)

Challenges and opportunities coming from a more open and

online worldThe Arkansas Distance Learning Association

(ARDLA)10 October 2012

Gard TitlestadSecretary General

ICDE

Outline

• Introduction• Higher education – a goldmine• Global context• Opportunities, trends and disruptive initiatives• Paradoxes• The users• System failure• A wake up call• Conclusion

What is ICDE?• the leading global membership organization for open and

distance education • an NGO official partner of UNESCO, and shares that agency’s

key aim – the attainment of quality education for all• member focused – ICDE is an organization which will involve

members in decision making, in cooperative action and in cooperative problem solving.

• transparent – Members will be able to follow the activities and decisions of ICDE.

• ICDE believes that in pursuing education as a universal right, the needs of the learner must be central.

• senior management in member institutions is actively involved in ICDE

Members

• 100 institutional members– All parts of the world– Organises most of the

mega-universities (>100.000 students)

• 10 regional associations as associate members

• Also some national associations and individuals

Suggested Strategic Objectives

The draft strategic Plan 2013 - 2016

1. To promote the importance of open, distance, flexible and online (e-learning ) education in educational policy. 2. To encourage quality in open, distance, flexible and online (e-learning) education.3. To support the development of new methodologies and technologies.4. To facilitate cooperation and networking amongst members.5. To strengthen ICDE membership and governance, and engage members in collaborative activity and organizational development.

Paradoxes• While governments world wide celebrate the

success of higher education, governmental policies are out-dated and are not capable of grasping the benefits from the most constructive and disruptive factor in the higher education sector: open and online education

• While the Academic world wants to show the way – are universities and higher education institutions prepared for reinventing themselves?

The talent pool is growing…

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Tertiary educationUpper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiaryBelow upper secondary

Chart A7.1

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Employment prospects increase with the level of education

Percentage of 25-64 year-olds in employment, by level of education (2010)

The crisis reinforces the importance of good education

• Over the past decade, more than two-thirds of GDP growth in EU21 countries was driven by labour income growth among tertiary-educated individuals, compared with just 51% in the United States.

• Even in the midst of the recession in 2009, labour income growth among tertiary graduates increased in the majority of EU countries with available data.

• In contrast, those with mid-range jobs and skills felt the most severe impact of the 2009 drop in GDP.

Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2012

Bottom line:

Higher Education – a goldmine for the individual and the society• For the individual – the

employment prospects increase

• For the individual – the net value is good business

• For the public – cost benefit is success!– Documented by OECD in

Education at a glance 2012

Global need for barrier-free access to higher education

• Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO “Higher education: In less than 40 years, enrolments have increased fivefold. Globally it is estimated that demand will expand from less than 100 million students in 2000 to over 250 million students in 2025.”

”Four universities a week”

Open and distance elearning is needed!

Example Tianjin

• Need for re-educating public servants

• The City Council co-operate with TOU

• Needs: 2 – 3 million the next years?

Education has to contribute to bringing youths back to

the labour market

Paris, 9 October 2012 - OECD Harmonised Unemployment Rates

World Development Report 2013

• “The youth challenge alone is staggering. More than 620 million young people are neither working nor studying. Just to keep employment rates constant, the worldwide number of jobs will have to increase by around 600 million over a 15-year period”

October 1, 2012

Mobilising the workforce:

Mobication

• Tomorrow’s employment policies must create conditions to facilitate labour mobility through the lifelong learning of the individual.

• Coordination between the labour market and education policy is crucial for business competitiveness and future welfare.

Education

WorkWelfare

Opportunities

Technology as facilitator

Mansoor Al Awar, Chairman, Middle East e-Learning Association.

The rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT) offers tremendous educational opportunities to provide new innovative, accessible and more affordable ways of learning.

Internet is hitting Education

• "The investing community believes that the Internet is hitting education, that education is having its Internet moment," – Jose Ferreira,

founder of the interactive-learning company Knewton.

”IT sector booms during downturn”, says OECD

• © OECD ActiveCharts – http://www.activecharts.org

ODL in rapid growth

• The world’s 18 largest mega-universities are open universities serving more than 14.3 million students. Most of these universities were founded after the 1970s.

• China: 1 of every 10 registered students in higher education is a student at The Open University of China.

• Africa: African Virtual University has signed up with 21 countries and 28 Universities to provide Open and Distance eLearning, based on OER and the Internet.

• Almost one-third of enrolments in HE in the autumn of 2010 in the USA were online enrolments, with more than 30% of the students taking at least one course online.

The Future - USA

• College presidents predict substantial growth in online learning: 15% say most of their current undergraduate students have taken a class online, and 50% predict that 10 years from now most of their students will take classes online.

• Nearly two-thirds of college presidents (62%) anticipate that 10 years from now, more than half of the textbooks used by their undergraduate students will be entirely digital.

• The Digital Revolution and Higher Education. 2011. By Kim Parker, Amanda Lenhart and Kathleen Moore

Crossroad or….

• 1,021 Internet experts, researchers, observers and users, 60% agreed with a statement that by 2020:

• “there will be mass adoption of teleconferencing and distance learning to leverage expert resources … a transition to ‘hybrid’ classes that combine online learning components with less-frequent on-campus, in-person class meetings.”

• Some 39% agreed with an opposing statement that said, “in 2020 higher education will not be much different from the way it is today.”

Pew Internet/Elon University survey, July 2012

Coursera

and more!

Disruptive innovationWikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Disruptive innovation does not make a good product or service better, but makes it more affordable and accessible, so more people can purchase or use it.

Disruptive innovation — in educationFor Anant Agarwal, MITx, the Institute’s new online-learning initiative, isn’t just a means of democratizing education. It’s a way to reinvent it.

MOOC Mania

The Chronicle's special report on Online Learning 2012

Many questions

• Motivation for MOOCs? Money, Branding or doing the Good things?

• Sustainable?• Business models?• The cost savings – for quality or profit?• Pedagogic quality? Flip the classroom?• Lot of criticism–Criticism can be the mother of progress

Paradoxes

Paradox• That "much-touted online

university, where a student can get a degree without ever encountering another student except online, is fine within the portfolio of higher education," Sexton said. But for it to be "the norm," he said, would be "disgraceful.”– Inside Higher Ed

John Saxton, President, New York University

India25% of Indian students are now covered by

distance education

Lakh = 100.000

ParadoxAugust 21, 2012• India's New Rules for Foreign Universities

Raise Questions at Home and Abroad

• ……the new restrictions include allowing only institutions ranked in the top 500 worldwide to collaborate with Indian universities………

New iPhone could boost U.S. GDP by up to 0.5 percent, JP Morgan says

Mobile connection booms all over the world

• According to Wireless intelligence institute:– World cellular

connections in Q3 2012 closed at 6.4 billion

– Already next year there will be more connections than the world´s population

Paradox• Governments don´t responds to

UNESCO´s questionnaires.• There is a lack of interest and

awareness on the part of policymakers and the public,

• There are attitudes that see mobile phones as disruptive devices that students use primarily to play games, chat with friends and potentially engage in inappropriate behaviours such as cheating and cyber-bullying.

Two books

The Academic worldshows the way, Göran Bexell

Two books

• Comphrehensive overview of challenges for universities.

• In 416 pages: almost nothing on the opportunities and challenges from a more open and online world

• One sentence: ”Internet offers an unused revolution in the thinking with regards to education.” End of story.The Academic world

shows the way, Göran Bexell, Lund University, Sweden

Two books

• Several articles, carefully analysing how future opportunities could be met. Blended learning. Experiences from the Open Universitiy, UK, and much more. Strong innovation in the university approach.

• Discussed with a holistic approach to the future university

Universitat Oberta de Catalunia, Barcelona, Spain

While the Academic world wants to show the way – are universities and

higher education institutions prepared for reinventing themselves?

What about the users?

EDUCAUSE: ECAR STUDY OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, 2012


19% 57%

Universities:ODL and OER can fuel the Knowledge Triangle

OER and ODL

Open AccessResearch based OERResearch based teaching

Innovation in educationInnovate the learning system and institutionsKnowledge supply for innovation

High quality educationResearch based educationResource based education

• Through holistic, strategic and systematic work to increase synergies in the flow between the components in the triangle:

• increase quality of education through resource based education and through research based education, using OER and ODL

• easy access to research based education through research based OER, open access and facilitation by technology and ODL

• build knowledge about education through research and development and ensure the flow to education practitioners and innovators

• stimulate innovation in institutions through using the opportunities inherent in OER and ODL

• strengthen knowledge supply to public and private sectors using the concepts of OER and ODL

• increase innovation in society through strengthened interaction between the knowledge triangle and society”

Universities:ODL and OER can fuel the Knowledge Triangle

System failure

School failure – system failure

• Reducing school failure pays off for both society and individuals. More education attainment provides better labour market prospects and contributes to economic growth and social progress. The highest performing education systems across OECD countries are those that combine high quality and equity.

Overcoming School Failure: Policies that WorkFebruary 2012

One of five don´t complete”Drop outs”Or ”Push outs” (Hal Plotkin)

School failure – system failure

University drop-outs (or push outs?) cost 660 million Euros per year in Spain alone

Norway – 2005 - 2010

Total drop outs/push outs in higher education: 12% (Health educations)- 37 % (Management and Economy)

Only health educations have lower drop out rate than 20%

System failure or not?

In my nightmares: ”Why not? Drop outs are fine. It filters for the talent pool – it filters for

the recruitment to the elite.”Anonymous

Dr Qian Tang, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO,Flexible learning for inclusive education

• Yet all people, regardless of their sex, race, religion, disability or national, ethnic and social origin, are entitled to a quality education. Denying them such an opportunity is not only an infringement of their fundamental human rights; it is also a serious waste of society’s human resources. Indeed, education that is restricted to certain social groups deprives a country of significant assets and skills that could be tapped to build prosperous communities. Furthermore, it limits the impact of national efforts to create peaceful, just, fair and cohesive societies.

• Inclusive education is therefore non-negotiable.

Paradoxes• While governments world wide celebrate the

success of higher education, governmental policies are out-dated and are not capable of grasping the benefits from the most constructive and disruptive factor in the higher education sector: open and online education

• While the Academic world wants to show the way – are universities and higher education institutions prepared for reinventing themselves?

So;

• The added value from HE• The need for HE around the world• The need for linking jobcreation with knowledge supply • The opportunities from a mor open and online world• The opportunities from open and disruptive innovation• The users needs• The global system failure• The observed paradoxes

A wake up call is needed!

To harvest the benefits from a more Open and Online world

To be adressed:

Governments (wake up): • Governmental policies to

facilitate a wanted development

• Optimal regulatory and policy framework for ODL, incentives for OER –

• Sector overarching policies for mobilising the workforce

• Initiatives for research, to support effective uptake of quality ODL and OER

Universities (shake up): • Strategies and leadership• Open and Conventional

universities to partner up• Faculty training, student

training for ODL• Flip the classroom for

student-oriented and personalised learning

• Prepare for reinventing yourself

HEI, private and public sector: Build partnerships and agreements for knowledge supply, mobilising the workforce

To harvest the benefits from a more Open and Online world

To be adressed:

Conclusion

• I believe we are at the beginning of a big debate about the future learning system.

• We need a professional, policy-oriented debate, in Europe, and throughout the world, on the opportunities and challenges coming from a more open and online world.

• Educational systems will be decided nationally, but the direction will also be a global issue.

• ICDE will be a visible and eager player in this debate.• And: You are welcome to join!

Thank [email protected]

www.icde.org

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.icde.org/

Keynote The Arkansas Distance Learning Association (ARDLA)

Education

Transcript of Keynote The Arkansas Distance Learning Association (ARDLA)