The presentation focuses on the opportunities to provide online education that combines individual freedom with meaningful cooperation. Online students often seek individual flexibility and freedom. At the same time, many need or prefer cooperation and social unity . These aims are difficult to combine, so the presentation discusses online education tools and services that support both individual freedom and cooperation. The presentation also elucidates the opportunities and challenges with transparency in online learning environments and provides examples and experiences from Universidade Aberta in Portugal and NKI Nettstudier in Norway.

1. Cooperative Freedom and
Transparency in Online Education
Morten Flate Paulsen
Professor of Online Education
A Keynote presentation at
ICICTE 2012, Rhodes, Greece, July 5, 2012
http://twitter.com/MFPaulsen www.slideshare.net/MortenFP
http://nettstudier.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/mfpaulsen
http://home.nki.no/morten www.eden-online.org/blog/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mfpaulsen 1
http://issuu.com/mfpaulsen

2. Abstract
The presentation focuses on the opportunities to provide online
education that combines individual freedom with meaningful
cooperation. Online students often seek individual flexibility
and freedom. At the same time, many need or prefer cooperation
and social unity . These aims are difficult to combine, so the
presentation discusses online education tools and services that
support both individual freedom and cooperation. The
presentation also elucidates the opportunities and challenges
with transparency in online learning environments and provides
examples and experiences from Universidade Aberta in Portugal
and NKI Nettstudier in Norway.
2

3. About me
• Worked with online education since 1986
• Professor of Online Education at NKI Nettstudier , Norway
• President of European Distance and E-learning Network (EDEN)
• Doctor of Education from the Pennsylvania State University,
working for the American Center for the Study of Distance
Education (1990-1992)
• Adjunct Professor Athabasca University (1999 to 2005)
• Professor associado Universidade Aberta, Portugal (2009-2010)
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4. www.eden-online.org
• 20th anniversary in 2011, 8 in secretariat, 11 in EC
• EDEN members from 400 institutions in 56 countries:
– 20th anniversary
– 200 institutional members
– 2000 potential members of NAP –
Network of Academics and Professionals
• Conferences
– Open Classroom conference ,Athens October 2011
– Annual conference, Porto June 2012
– Research Workshop, Leuven October 2012
• EU-projects with 168 institutions
• European Journal of Open, Distance and E-learning
www.eurodl.org

5. EDEN-members in Greece
• Anelixis Vocational Training Center
• e-TUTOR
• Ellinogermaniki Agogi
• Lambrakis Foundation
• University of the Aegean
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6. Annual Conferences
22. Oslo 2013
21. Oporto 2012
Open Classroom 20. Dublin, 2011
9. Athens 2011 19. Valencia 2010
8. Oporto 2009 18. Gdansk 2009
7. Stockholm 2007 17. Lisbon 2008
6. Poitiers 2005 16. Naples 2007
5. Copenhagen 2002 15. Vienna 2006
4. Barcelona 2000 14. Helsinki 2005
3. Balatonfüred 1999 13. Budapest 2004
2. Crete 1997 12. Rhodes 2003
1. Oslo 1995 11. Granada 2002
Research Workshops 10. Stockholm 2001
8. Moscow 1999
7. Leuven 2012 7. Bologna 1998
6. Budapest 2010 6. Budapest 1997
5. Paris 2008 5. Poitiers 1996
4. Barcelona 2006 4. Birmingham 1995
3. Oldenburg 2004 3. Tallinn 1994
2. Hildesheim 2002 2. Berlin 1993
1. Prague 2000 1. Krakow 1992 6

7. Planning for Oslo
EDEN’s Annual Conference, June 2013

8. November 2011
NKI Nettstudier was established as a
correspondence school in 1910
• One of Europe’s largest providers of online distance education
• About 150 000 enrolments in online courses since 1987
• Broad range of subjects from secondary to master level
• About 400 distance education courses online (all in Norwegian)
• About 12 000 online students in about 40 countries
• About 70 % women
• Individual progress plans/individual follow-up
• Thousands of potential learning partners
• Global student catalogue with 1200 profiles
• Always room for more students
• Exams at local schools and embassies
8
www.nki.no

9. What’s special with NKI Nettstudier?
400 online courses in Norwegian College, vocational and secondary
9

10. Example of individual progress plan
10

11. NKI: A pioneer in Online Education
1986: First LMS – specifically developed for distance learning
1987: First online distance education course
1992: Mandatory course for new NKI tutors on the Internet
1996: First web-based courses
2002: First m-learning courses
2003: Speech synthesis in all courses
2004: Individual planning system and individual follow up
according to the student’s plan
2004: Continuous tracking of turn-around time
2006: Learning partner system
2008: Global student profiles
2010: Peer counselling system for tutors
2011: Quality barometer for tutors and course materials
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12. The most interesting pedagogical challenge in our
lifetime is to provide online education that combines
individual freedom with meaningful cooperation.
I have struggled with this challenge since I first
introduced my Theory of Cooperative Freedom in 1992.
www.ednews.org/articles/10626/1/An-Interview-with-Morten-Flate-Paulsen-
Focusing-on-His-Theory-of-Cooperative-Freedom-in-Online-Education/Page1.html
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13. Cooperative Freedom is discussed in my book
Online Education which is available from
http://issuu.com/mfpaulsen
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14. More resources on Cooperative Freedom
• Cooperative online education
www.youtube.com/user/nki2008#p/a/u/2/HVXtbLg5ycE
• Online education barometers
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyoe7dGIwkE&feature=relmfu
• Transparency in Cooperative Online Education
www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/671/1267
• E-viva em Portugal http://nettstudier.blogspot.com/
• Cooperative Online Education http://seminar.net/index.php/volume-4-issue-2-2008-
previousissuesmeny-124/100-cooperative-online-education
• Cooperative Freedom and Transparency in Online Education
www.slideshare.net/MortenFP/futuralia-3400339
• Visualizing student profiles
www.slideshare.net/MortenFP/visualizing-student-profiles-through-nkis-online-catalogue-and-
student-network
• Transparency for Cooperation
http://toonlet.com/archive?m=s&i=11245

15. Six Dimensions of Freedom
Compilation of resources made by my students at
Universidade Aberta in Portugal
It is difficult to combine individual flexibility and cooperation
http://ppel4.pbworks.com/

16. One may say that:
Individual learning is conducted alone
Cooperative learning takes place in networks
Connectivism?
Collaborative learning depends on groups
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17. NKI provides cooperative online education
Independence with the help of others
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18. Cooperative learning
• Cooperative learning seeks to develop virtual learning
environments that allow students to have optimal
individual freedom within online learning communities.
• Cooperative learning is based on voluntary participation
in a learning community
• Cooperative learning benefits from transparency
NKI’s Philosophy: We facilitate individual freedom within a
learning community in which online students serve as mutual
resources without being dependent on each other.
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19. Tools and strategies to enhance quality
in a virtual learning environment with:
• 12.500 students
• 400 courses
• 150 part-time teachers
• 60 full-time employees
should be systematic, continuous and cost-effective
www.nki.no 19

20. Strategies and tools to enhance quality
1. Large scale online education needs systematic,
continuous and cost-effective quality measures
2. Transparency improves quality
3. Teacher Support Services
4. Quality Barometers
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21. Transparency
or
privacy?
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22. 22

23. Transparency improves quality
…of system data, course content, course work etc….
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24. Scandinavian Online Program in Multimedia Journalism
www.webjournalisten.com
Audio Journalism: Berghs School of Communication (Sweden)
Video Journalism: UPDATE – Danish School of Media and Journalism
Text Journalism: NKI Distance Education (Norway)

25. Transparency promotes cooperation
Dalsgaard, C. and Paulsen, M.F. (2009) Transparency in
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Cooperative Online Education. IRRODL, Vol 10, No 3.

26. Three degrees of transparency
1. Low: Private e-mail
2. Medium: Class forum
3. High: Global web2.0 services
Transparency provides better quality and more
cooperation, but both students and teachers should
be comfortable with the chosen transparency level.
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27. Online teachers deserve decent support services
http://nettstudier.blogspot.com/2011/08/online-teachers-deserve-decent-support.html
1992: Online course for online teachers 2010: Peer counseling and self-evaluation
2004: Response Barometer 2011: Quality Barometer for Teachers 27

28. Response Barometer for Teachers
• Introduced in May 2004
• Resulted in much discussion in the
teachers’ online forum
• A few teachers voiced strong criticism,
doubts and reservations
The average response time for all In 2008 NKI introduced
150 teachers in 2010 was 1.77 days. an automatic e-mail
reminder to the tutors
who had one ore more
assignments waiting for 7
days or more.
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29. Barometer Questions
1. What to measure?
2. Which scale?
3. Transparent for whom?
4. Possible to show trends?
5. What about Evaluation Moment, Frequency and
Fatigue?
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30. Online Education Barometers
should have individual readings
cooperative readings, aims,, warning levels
and transparent feedback loops
Ideal for Individual Start
and Progression
Transparent feedback to the right people 30

31. NKI’s Transparent:
Quality Barometer
for Online Teachers

32. Evaluation Icon
As soon as a teacher provides submission feedback and enters a grade, the
far right evaluation icon shows up in the planning tool at the student’s
start page.
Click the box to open it.

33. Evaluation Button
The student has to evaluate the teacher to embed the grade.
Click the evaluation button to open the teacher evaluation window.

34. Teacher Evaluation Window
Choose the teacher satisfaction level.
The options from left to right are:
Very dissatisfied, Dissatisfied,
Neutral, Satisfied and Very Satisfied.
Then enter some optional comments
on the teacher’s work.
The chosen satisfaction level
influences the Teacher Quality
Barometer as soon as it is
submitted.
After a random time delay for
anonymity reasons, the teachers can
see the comments in their Details
Report.

35. Teacher Quality Barometer
Percentages shown in the teacher’s individual barometer and the
cooperative barometer for all 140 teachers, are updated continuously as
additional evaluations are submitted.
The impressive barometer readings show the percentages of Very satisfied and
Satisfied evaluations.
After a random anonymity delay, the student’s comments are shown in the
Teacher Details Report.

36. Teacher Details Report
Example of detailed quality report for a teacher including anonymous verbal comments.
36

37. NKI’s transparent Teacher Quality Barometer was
launched in 2011 for further quality improvements at
Scandinavia’s leading online education provider.
On September 7, NKI’s 12.000 online students started evaluating their
teachers.
On October12, NKI’s 140 online teachers could access the online
evaluation results.
At the launch, 2000 evaluations were accrued and 88% were
either Very satisfied or Satisfied.

38. Barometer Reading after 4017 Evaluations
2011Tutor quality barometer
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39. Peer Evaluation of Teachers
In 2010, NKI introduced an online course structure for systematic peer evaluation
among all the teachers. Random feedback the teachers have given on student
submissions are sent to a colleague who evaluate it and give advice on possible
improvements.
Professor Torstein Rekkedal has conducted a survey among the first participants and
concluded that they perceive it as motivating and informative. They also reported that
they learned at least as much from giving feedback as they did from receiving feedback.
They will therefore both give and receive feedback on each other's work in the future.
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40. Teacher Self-evaluation
Last school year, the majority of the teachers also
delivered self-evaluation of one of the feedbacks
they gave on student assignments. The experiences
were so positive that future self-evaluation will be
included in an online course structure in which the
teachers will use the online submission system to
evaluate their personal presentations, activity in
forums and feedback on student submissions.
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41. Star teachers deserve Golden Apples along
with other stars who are awarded with gold
medals, Oscars and Grammies. Therefore,
NKI has introduced a new, and hopefully
sustainable, scheme for nominating and
awarding NKI-teachers of the year.
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42. Thank you
I care, so I share:
http://nettstudier.blogspot.com
http://home.nki.no/morten
https://twitter.com/MFPaulsen
www.slideshare.net/MortenFP
www.facebook.com/mfpaulsen
www.eden-online.org/blog
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