OpenEd – Opportunities for Change:Reflections, Analysis and Discussions

Map Image from the University of Texas at Austin

Authors John Casey,

ALTO UK

– Cuts, Cuts, Cuts– Greater student numbers– More diverse students– Endangered subjects – a narrowing

curriculum– Working harder – reaching the limits of the

possible

The State of the Art

– Massification of an old elite system– Contradictions– Transparency and accountability– Commodification of education (new entrants)– Technology – Geronimo’s Cadillac?

Longer Term Trends

Technology as part of a fundamental shift in education

Future Practice(sustainable)

Current Practice(subsistence)

Really About Process Change - think of Open as an enabler

There is a lot that is good about our education system…

http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/2012/04/education-the-language-of-change.htmlMartin Weller

Avoiding the Rhetoric of Crisis

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There is a also lot that is long overdue for change…

Use the Rhetoric of Opportunity – but Deal with TINA!

Picture By Stavros Markopoulos @ http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=447602329&size=o

OpenEd as a Motor of Change?

Impacts on many critical factors simultaneously:

• Pedagogy• Culture (personal, departmental, disciplinary, institutional)

• Tech Infrastructure• Digital Professionalism (aka Digi. Literacy)

• Media Literacy• Policy (IPR, HR, PR, Quality, Inclusion)• Strategy (Markets, Efficiency, £Budget)• Management

A Systemic Disruptor – can be very useful…

Attempts to implement e-learning reveal underlying problems in structure and and culture – reification (Pollock & Cornford, 2000)

Assumptions are often incorrect (UK e-U crash of 2004)

Many technologies carry a strong organisational and pedagogical model – beware (Freisen, 2004)

Ineffective without the necessary changes in the structure of institutions and changes to working practices, needs top-down action

Obstacles are philosophical, pedagogical, political, and organisational - the technical issues are comparatively trivial (e.g. Phoenix)

Concentration on technical issues is often a ‘displacement activity’

Tradition, dominant groups and vested interests delay and obstruct new knowledge and practices (Kuhn, 1996)

Critical Observations About Technology and Change

So, What does Your E-learning System Look Like?

E-learning

Dysfunctional

Functional

sustainable

unsustainable

collective

individual

management by budget

management by analysis

teaching and research separate

teaching and research conflated

core business

systematic

fragmented

accurate MIS information

‘enterprise’ rhetoric but no decent MIS

senior management engaged

senior management disengaged

techno-skeptic

techno-fetish

evaluation

no evaluation

long-term

short-term

design once use many

Business not understood

design once use once

Benefits of OpenEd: Staff, Students, Institution

• A public portfolio of published work, • Supports teaching and learning across the institution [MIT]• Showcase - networking and attracting new students [Brazil/MIT/OU]• Prospective students making well-informed choices = better

retention rates• Link with national and international communities of practice [OU]• Development of instructional design skills [Key for Flex / Blended]• Frees up time to concentrate on teaching rather than content. • Sharing experiences – a positive professional development activity

[Quality]• A valuable form of institutional ‘memory’• Institutional recognition and reputation public service reputation • Encourage cross college/disciplinary collaboration • Passing on subject knowledge and teaching expertise• A driver for cultural change that can also help develop policy

Visualisation Tools to Support a Systems Approach to Change

Basic Systems Analysis and Audit Tool to support an ethnographical approach, Casey, Proven and Dripps 2006

derived from van der Klink & Jochems, 2004

References, Guides & Provenances

van der Klink, M., & Jochems, W. (2004) Management and organisation of integrated e-learning in Integrated E-Learning: implications for pedagogy, technology and organisation, Jochems, W., van Merriënboer, J., and Koper, R., Routledge & Falmer, London,

Casey, J., Proven, J., Dripps, D. (2006) Modeling Organisational Frameworks for Integrated E-Learning: The Experience of the TrustDR Project. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT2006) (pp.1216-1220). Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE.

Pollock, N. & Cornford, J. 2000. Theory and Practice of the Virtual University: report on UK universities use of new technologies. In ARIADNE issue 24. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/virtual-universities/

UK eUniversity: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2004/jun/23/elearning.technology1

Friesen, N. (2004) Three Objections to Learning Objects and E-Learning Standards. In McGreal, R. (Ed.) Online Education Using Learning Objects. London: Routledge. Pp. 59-70. Draft version online at: http://www.learningspaces.org/n/papers/objections.html

Kuhn, T. 1996 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press.

Map of Samoa from the University of Texas at Austin collection of maps – free to use and adapt