Social Innovations in Online Learning at NKI

Please view and comment on my presentation via my homepage at: http://home.nki.no/morten/ A 25-minutes keynote presentation at the EADEN conference in Gdansk 14.05.2009

NKI Distance Education
One of Europe’s largest providers of online distance education
More than 110 000 enrolments in online courses since 1987
Broad range of subjects from secondary to master level
About 410 distance education courses online (all in Norwegian)
About 10 000 online students in about 40 countries
About 70 % women
Revenue of 14 M Euros in 2007, 9.5 M of them from online education
Individual progress plans/individual follow-up
Thousands of potential learning partners
Global student catalogue with 1100 profiles
Always room for more students
Exams at local schools and embassies
Online students get better grades
June 2009

From: Paulsen, Morten Flate Date: March 23, 2009 To: All NKI-employees Subject: Ten Thousand Users in NKI’s LMS
Dear all,

Today we can celebrate that we for the first time have more than 10.000 users. In our LMS (SESAM).
We introduced SESAM 3.0 on March 12, 2001. At that time, there was a little more than 2000 users, but I remember that we designed it to handle 10.000 users. It is therefore nice and interesting that we now have 10021 users (9805 students and 216 tutors/staff).

We should use this opportunity to be proud of our achievements and the important job we do for very many students.
Here is some fireworks to celebrate us and the occasion.
All the best from Morten
www.nki.no/pp/MFP

Secondary school courses: Tonje Kvalvik 18 courses completed Vocational courses: Thor Steinsland 24 and Roger Skogberget 27 College courses: Trude Helen Flak 13 and Erma Bratic 14 Celebrating 100 000 online course enrolments During the first 20 years, NKI’s online students enrolled in hundred thousand courses and spent many million hours of studying to reach their goals. This was celebrated August 22, 2008 with 5 students as guests of honour.

Online access available for the remaining correspondence students in July 2009

NKI provides cooperative online education

NKI’s Philosophy on Online Learning
NKI facilitates individual freedom within a learning community in which online students serve as mutual resources without being dependent on each other.
Features and Tools Supporting NKI’s Philosophy
Students may start whenever they like Tool for individual progress plans Automatic tracking of turnaround time
Learning partners Global student catalogue
Cooperative learning is based on voluntary participation in a learning community

NKI Innovations in Online Education
1986: First LMS
1987: First online distance education course
1996: First web-based courses
1998: First online journal for students (Nettskoleavisen)
2002: First m-learning courses
2003: Speech synthesis in all courses
2004: Individual planning system
2004: Continuous tracking of turn around time
2006: Learning partner system
2008: Global student profiles
2009: Individual progress reports
Rosing Competency Award 2003 Baldic Award 2006 Tisip E-learning Award 2007

Continuous tracking of turn around time
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 dropped month by month during the Fall of 2004. In October it showed 3,97 days, in November 3,06 days and in December 2,76 days. Since then, the average response time has been less than 3 days except during summer holidays. In 2008 we introduced an automatic e-mail reminder to the tutors who had one ore more assignments waiting for 7 days or more.

NKI introduced the individual planning system as a voluntary option in May 2004.

In January 2009 we started to e-mail individual monthly progress reports to all students
Includes personal:
Contact information
LMS settings
Progress report
Planed progress

Lists with information about next submission number and planned submission date makes cooperation easier

Boldic Award 2006 NKI’s Learning Partners
Innovative service for voluntary cooperation between students in a large online learning community
International award for the Baltic and Nordic countries.
The jury stated that NKI’s Learning Partner Service: "Furthers and develops the Nordic tradition in ODL. The learning partner concept adds a new, innovative dimension of student support to flexible distance education.“
Learning partner - opportunities for cooperation in distance learning
www.elearningeuropa.info/directory/index.php?page=doc&doc_id=8294&doclng=6

There is an online demo explaining in Norwegian how students may find learning partners
www.nettskolen.com/multimedia/laringspartner1_viewlet_swf.html
Make your personal presentation
Decide who may access it
Search for potential learning partners
Invite somebody to become your learning partner

Anders S., student at the NKI School of Project Management:
” I have three learning partners, whom I chose because the y were about at the same stage in the course as I was. Luckily enough, one of my learning partners also lives not far from me. The communication vary, in general I communicate with at least 2 of my LPs each week. I wish to increase my competence by seeing the subject matter content from different angles, and get healthy and inspiring discussions about the assignments. I feel like I have got some new friends, and a possibility to both learn and help others. I feel that I have benefited from the cooperation, I would very much like to recommend the Learning partner service to other online students. ”

Presentations May 2009
All 10102 users of NKI’s LMS have personal presentations which automatically list relevant information about them and their courses as shown below.
5299 of them have added some personal information, typically a photo and a description of previous education, work experience and personal interests as shown below. www.nki.no/pp/fagerbergtr

Presentations May 2009 The default values are: Limited visibility and Don’t want LP Visibility Want LP Don’t want LP Sum Percent Closed 141 913 1054 10 Limited 2096 3469 5565 55 Open 745 1580 2325 23 Global 670 488 1158 12 Sum 3652 6450 10102 100 Percent 36 64 100

Google translation of the Global Catalogue at www.nki.no/pp

350 Senior students
70 Fellow students
55 Senior Fellow students courses
Kurt Karlsen www.nki.no/pp/KurtKarlsen completed 56 courses from 1995 to 2005

Video with 20 random samples of global presentations

Online courses support individual needs and challenges
Man, 42 years: I chose online learning since I need flexibility to study . At the moment I work 50/50 in Norway and India, and it would be impossible for me to study without NKI’s flexibility. Online education makes it possible for me to study independent of time zones, geography and daily tasks .
52 of the 100 global students mention that they have children. 5 of them write that they are less than 23 years old and have children.
Woman, 18 years : I’m 18 years old…. I used to go to … secondary school, but when I got pregnant, I found that it would be easier to finish school via online courses and not take the baby with me to school.
10 of the 100 presentations disclose particular learning challenges.
Woman 23: I have dyslexia …
Woman, 38: I received the diagnosis Multiple Sclerosis two years ago, and to quit a busy job. With online courses, I can organize my days so that I have energy for my family, friends and physical exercises.
NKI has many gifted immigrants who study online to get Norwegian certificates and competencies.

How to manage 28 self-paced courses, three kids and a job in the North Sea Thor Steinsland www.nki.no/pp/steinslandt presented his experiences at the EDEN Research Workshop in Paris, October 2008

There are NKI students who understand Norwegian in about 40 countries Translated by Google from www.nki.no/pp/ThereseSvihus

Presented with permission from www.nki.no/pp/LexidhSolstad I now try to get a diploma showing that I can write. Have worked as a TV journalist … but now the Fibromyalgia pains restrains me so much that I have to work from bed in the future.

Translated by Google from www.nki.no/skole/pp/ViviHurtley I was accepted as a psychology student at the university, but had no interpreter, so I chose to study online to combine family life and education. I need a sign language interpreter to follow traditional lectures, since I am deaf. So it is ideal with NKI, since I do not need an interpreter.

Student Benefits
Firstly, it seems like many students appreciate the opportunity to share information about their online course activities with family, friends and colleagues. Others seem to use the presentation as an online CV to support job applications. In any case, most presentations act as favourable personal homepages that focus on the students’ achievements.
www.eden-online.org/blog/2008/10/01/profiling-online-students

The fact that so many serious, hard-working and successful students are willing to share achievements and experiences in an open, online catalogue is valuable for the field of online education.
Traditionally, distance students tend to be quite invisible compared to other groups of students. They are so dispersed and so busy with their courses, jobs and family obligations that they seldom form action groups or student unions.
Online student catalogues may help these students become more visible as a group that deserves more attention .
Sector Benefits www.eden-online.org/blog/2008/10/01/profiling-online-students

The catalogue appears to be a valuable resource for NKI. The users are excellent ambassadors for NKI when they share their presentation with others.
They provide a lot of relevant information for prospective students and key words for the search engines .
All the positive and trustworthy testimonials from current students and teachers will probably have a positive effect on NKI’s future course enrolments .
Institutional Benefits www.eden-online.org/blog/2008/10/01/profiling-online-students

Why the presentations are important to NKI
Better service since we see the human behind the e-mail addresses and student IDs
More cooperation since students know more about each others
Improved information to prospective students

Global teacher presentations
Courses thought are automatically listed
Many teachers provide advice to students in their presentations
The advice is valuable also for prospective students

Transparency or privacy ?

Risks!!!
Inappropriate content
Copyright issues
Criticism from dissatisfied students
Students who expose too much personal information
NKI handles these issues by asking readers to report inappropriate content to an e-mail address.
So far, we have not received any reports or complaints .

Transparency improves quality

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

Questions? Now, at my homepage or at the Keynote Workshop 11.30 The presentation and contact information is available via: http://home.nki.no/morten

Social Innovations in Online Learning at NKI

by Morten Flate Paulsen on Jun 08, 2009

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