Blind Monks and the Elephant - ICTs and Higher Education Futures

BLIND MONKS AND THE ELEPHANT
The shape of the emerging teaching
and learning environment
Laura Czerniewicz
14 October 2014

PRINCIPLES OF TECHNOLOGY
• Division of labour
• Specialisation
• Economies of scale
• Machines and ICTs
Adam Smith 1723 -1790
sirjohn.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/.../1400120OntarioRed.ppt

THE LANGUAGE OF TECHNOLOGY
Numerical
representation
Modularity
Automation
Variability
Transcoding
New media objects exist as data
The different elements of new media exist
independently
New media objects can be created &
modified automatically
New media objects exist in multiple
versions
The logic of the computer influences how
we understand & represent ourselves
Manovich, L (2001) The Language of New

TRADITIONALLY: A SINGLE
PACKAGE
Time Space
Content
Teaching & learning interaction
Assessment & certification

DISAGGREGATION
Time Platform
Content
Certification

DISAGGREGATION
Time Platform
Content
Assessment & certification

ACCESS TO CONTENT
Legal
Analogue
Digital
Illegal
Textbooks
Some
photocopying
E-Textbooks
Open
Education
Resources
Photocopying
Pirate sites
File
sharing

DISAGGREGATION
Time Place
Content
Certification

LEARNING PLATFORMS
Hill, P (6 Feb 2014) http://mfeldstein.com/resilient-higher-ed-lms-canvas/

http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2014/02/comparison-five-free-mooc-platforms-educators

Free
content
Pay to
access
platfor
m

CHANGES IN TEACHING & LEARNING
Time Place
Content
Certification

On
campus
Remote
Fully
online
Online-intensive
Internet
supported
F2F only
Forms of provision
Location
of students
Internet
dependen
t
Blende
d
(mixed
mode):
combin
es F2F
and
online

CERTIFICATION: NON UNIVERSITY
PROVIDERS

CERTIFICATION: NEW FORMS
o Badges- micro, granular certification
o A form of formal(ised) recognition
• for informal learning processes
• for chunks of
content
• for competencies

CERTIFICATION: NEW FORMS &
PROVIDERS
o “Degreed is a community of college
students, professionals, and lifelong
learners dedicated to advancing their
education. When you join Degreed, you
get tools to help you track, organize,
share, and validate everything you learn. “
o Degreed –
launched 2013

CERTIFICATION: NEW FORMS
£ 119
Pearson Vue
Test Centre
£ 24

CHANGING MONETISATION
MODELS
Traditional
Complete package (fees)
Emergent models
Individual elements
Fees Yes No
Content May be free/included in
fees/paid for
May be paid
Support Free/included in fees May be paid
Assessmen
t
Free/included in fees May be paid
Certification Free/included in fees Paid
Platform May be licensed or free
(student does not pay)
May be licensed or free

On
campus
Remote
Fully
online
Online-intensive
Internet
supported
F2F only
Forms of provision
Location
of students
Internet
dependen
t
Blende
d
(mixed
mode):
combin
es F2F
and
online
MOOC
s

Online course MOOC
Fees Cost to user No fees
Maybe certificates &/or support
Yes, as per all formal courses Entrance
requirements
None
Limited. Capped by resources
available for support &
assessment
Scale
Thousands
Savings due to limited support
Responsible for curriculum
alignment, QA, support
Lecturer role Flexible role re curriculum
Limited individual support
Largely proprietary, some open
Copyright
Content may be proprietary or
open, user generated content often
© MOOC provider
Distance education providers
Providers
Traditional residential research
universities partnered with private
companies
No, not usually Analytics Yes, one of the promises
Conventional Certification Non conventional
Aligned with the usual formal
courses QA processes
Quality assurance As per non formal offerings

MOOCS DID NOT JUST APPEAR
Long history
o Open education
o Distance education
o Online education
o Continuing education
o But new business models
2012

conventional flexible
FORMAL
SEMI-FORMAL
NON-FORMAL
Lectures
& tutorials
Block release Online courses
Short courses Professional development
courses
Summer school

MOOCS AS A CATALYST
o To the acceptance and take up of online
open and distance learning by traditional
universities
o New forms of certification
o New partnerships
o New varieties of provision

TYPES OF MOOCS
Varieties in the landscape

Teaching
Focus
Categories of MOOCs
Showcase teaching and
introduce topics with high-profile
‘rockstar’ presenters

CATEGORY 1: TEACHING FOCUS
o General interest high profile course
o Showcases the institution by means of an engaging
subject or personality led
o Global interest
o Matches a popular understanding of high profile MOOCs
o High production costs
o High enrollment
o Loose curriculum ties
o May attract external funding

CATEGORY 1 EXAMPLES
http://edulearning2.blogspot.com/2014/05/statistics-for-2014-
coursera.html

Research
showcase
Showcase research
and special interest
topics of interest to
postgraduate level
Categories of MOOCs

CATEGORY 5: RESEARCH SHOWCASE
o Showcase research or more specialised topics
of interest
o Offered at postgraduate level and assume some
background in the topic. Still geared towards
general or leisure learning
o Likely to have global appeal
o Moderate/high production costs
o Medium/high enrollment
o Loose curriculum ties

MOOC PROVIDERS
http://edutechnica.com/moocmap October 2013

PARTICIPANTS
http://globalhighered.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/courseramapoct2013.jpg

REPRESENTATION MATTERS
o Shapes what is known and what can be known
o Makes some knowledge visible and legitimate and
other invisible and illegitimate
o Consolidates power through normalisation
o Influences how knowledge is produced and
reproduced
o Online representation augments, echoes and
refracts physical representation

MOOCS AS NEO-COLONIALISM
o “any device that enlarges one’s
environment and makes the rest of the
world one’s neighbours is an efficient
mechanical missionary of civilisation and
helps to save the world from insularity
where barbarism hides”
Dolbear, an inventor of the telephone, quoted in Graham (2011)

Gateway
skills
Categories of MOOCs
Introduce fields and
support students in
undergraduate study

CATEGORY 2: GATEWAY SKILLS
o Provides foundational, bridging or enhancement
skills for pre HE entry or during undergraduate
pathways towards specialisation
o Local interest, either within the institution or at a
country-wide setting
o Moderate production costs
o Low enrollment
o Close curriculum ties

Graduate
literacies
Categories of MOOCs
Develop skills and
introduce topics for
postgraduate study.

CATEGORY 3: GRADUATE LITERACIES
o Post-graduate level courses to support
application or programmes of study
o Focussed on building postgraduate literacies
o Likely to be of local or national interest
o Moderate production costs
Low enrollment

CATEGORY 3: GRADUATE LITERACIES

Professional
showcase
Showcase professional careers
for continuing education and
Categories of MOOCs
qualifications

CATEGORY 4: PROFESSIONAL FOCUS
o Geared towards vocational skills development, re-tooling and
professional development
o Could be offered in conjunction with professional bodies
o Likely to be of local interest, although some specialised topics
may be globally relevant
o Moderate to high production costs |medium to high enrollment
o May attract organisational funding
o High potential for pathway to credit or revenue generation

ioelondonblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/what-is-the-problem-for-which-moocs-are-the-solution/

http://www.afr.com/p/national/education/top_mooc_provider_edx_no_longer_FooMSmV3LdSQHYGKND4LoI

X-SERIES PROGRAMME
o Let’s compare

£2140.00
(38,252.00 ZAR)
X 3
R114 756

Teaching
showcase
Research
showcase
Gateway
skills
Professional
showcase Graduate
literacies
Categories of MOOCs
Showcase teaching and
introduce topics with high-profile
‘rockstar’ presenters
Introduce fields and
support students in
undergraduate study
Develop skills and
introduce topics for
postgraduate study.
Showcase research
and special interest
topics of interest to
postgraduate level
Showcase professional careers
for continuing education and
qualifications

conventional flexible
FORMAL
SEMI-FORMAL
NON-FORMAL
Lectures
Short courses
Summer school
Blended courses Online courses
Professional development
courses
MOOC related
variants

EMERGING MODELS FROM MOOCS
Course
Formal course with lectures and
support.
MOOC
Massive Open Online Course
MOC
Massive Online Course: formal course with
“MOOC pedagogy”
Wrapped MOOC
Students in a course taking a MOOC with added
local support and additional material

EXAMPLE: WRAPPED MOOCS
o UCT 1st semester
• Critical Thinking in Global Challenges
https://www.coursera.org/course/criticalthinking
• Principles of Written English – Part 2
https://www.edx.org/course/uc-berkeleyx/uc-berkeleyx-colwri2-2x-principles-1348
• Understanding Research: An Overview for Health Professionals
https://www.coursera.org/course/researchforhealth
• Model Thinking
https://www.coursera.org/course/modelthinking
• Design and Interpretation of Clinical Trials
• https://www.coursera.org/course/clintrials
• Data Analysis and Statistical Inference
• https://www.coursera.org/course/statistics
• New Models of Business in Society
https://www.coursera.org/course/bizsociety
• The Data Scientist’s Toolbox
• https://www.coursera.org/course/datascitoolbox
• English Composition I: Achieving Expertise
https://www.coursera.org/course/composition
• Getting and Cleaning Data
https://www.coursera.org/course/getdata
• Understanding Research Methods

Course
support.
MOOC
MOC
“MOOC pedagogy”
Wrapped MOOC
Open Boundary course
Course offered simultaneously as a formal and
as a open course

EXAMPLE: OPEN BOUNDARY COURSE
o The 1st MOOC
(2008)
o 25 fee-paying
students on campus
o 2 300 general public
students who took
the online class free
of charge

http://www.mrowe.co.za/blog/2013/08/pht402-online-course-accreditation/ 3 August
EXAMPLE: OPEN BOUNDARY COURSE
2013

Course
support.
MOOC
MOC
“MOOC pedagogy”
Wrapped MOOC
Open Boundary course
Course offered simultaneously as a formal and
as a open course.
SPOC
Small private online course

FORMAL SEMI-FORMAL NON-FORMAL
curriculum innovation
CONVENTIONAL

FORMS OF PROVISION
o Multiple forms of provision conceptualised
• Ad hoc
• Up front
• Within/ across levels
o Implications for coherence across
provision types
• Quality oversight in different places

PARALLEL OFFERINGS
o Credibility and legitimacy of parallel
offerings
o Rise of acceptance of emerging forms of
certification
o Quality control of new forms of offerings
and of certification

EMERGING PROVIDERS
o Flexible providers

THE RISE OF THE ONLINE
o The major shift is to growing interest in
online education
• The rise of the online in the semi-formal and
informal arenas
• The rise of the online in the formal arenas

o Online education is in the hand of the
private sector
• “In the US the for-profit sector has a much higher
proportion of the total online market (32%) than
its share of the overall higher education market
(7%).
• Seven of the 10 US institutions with the highest
online enrolments are for-profits.
• For-profits seem better placed to expand online
because they do not have to worry about
resistance from academic staff, nor about
exploiting their earlier investment in campus
facilities.”
Daniels, J 2012

OUTSOURCING
IT departments may be skeptical about MOOCs, but
colleges are forging a digital future by creating
online programs. And they’re enlisting help: Nearly
a third (29 percent) of respondents said their
colleges were outsourcing online-program development
to third-party providers. Those “enablers,” such as
Pearson Embanet, offer marketing services and
technology support in exchange for payment.
Over all, 43 percent of IT officers said they
believe outsourcing “offers a viable instructional
strategy for their institution’s online efforts,”
but among those at private universities, 67 percent
do. A third (34 percent) think outsourcing will
provide a solid revenue strategy, but among those at
private universities, 59 percent do.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/optimism-about-moocs-fades-in-campus-it-offices-survey-
finds/54705 1 October 2014

SA ONLINE
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.unisa.ac.za%2Fcontents%2Fstudy2012%2Fdocs%2FmyStudi
es-Unisa-2014.pdf

THE IRON TRIANGLE IN THE POST
TRADITIONAL LANDSCAPE
o The central challenge
• Breaking the insidious link between quality and
exclusivity (John Daniel)
• The hope of the
emerging
landscape
Quality

GROWING THE PIE?
o New forms of provision reaching those
who are not can not access traditional
formal education?
o But concerns about keeping students
within the system (US)
o Effect on global system & developing
countries
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/higher-ed-leaders-worry-most-about-declining-enrollment-
survey-finds/86223 17 /9/14

THE GLOBAL MARKET PLACE
o The developing
world as the new
market to solve
crises at northern
universities

ACCESS: THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE
o Diversified offerings for different
groups
o MOOCs reached more non-US
students than any other form
• Students lost or gained?
o Analysis of 875k students on 9
Wharton Business School MOOCs
• Higher % of foreign born US
students
• Higher % of unemployed students
• Higher % of US under-represented
minorities
• Fewer women
MOOCs Won’t Replace Business Schools — They’ll Diversify Them
June 3, 2014 http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/06/moocs-wont-replace-business-schools-theyll-
diversify-them/

o Northern hegemony
• Northern curriculum
Northern knowledge
o US students in
formal courses

WHEN IS ONLINE SUITABLE?
o Surveyed 40 000 students in
nearly 500 000 courses
o Findings
• …While all types of students in the study suffered
decrements in performance in online courses,
some struggled more than others to adapt: males,
younger students, Black students, and students
with lower grade point averages
Xu & Jaggar 2013 Adaptability to Online Learning: Differences Across Types of Students and

ACCESS AND SUCCESS
o Completion rates low
o Absolute numbers high

o MOOC students largely educated and
working
o Suitable for professional and continuing
education
o Change in completion as certification
improves and becomes more credible?

DIGITAL LITERACIES
“A consistent diagnosis is made in the literature of a
potential lack of, or poor distribution of, the particular
networking, reputational and learning skills that MOOC
environments require for successful learning. Online
autonomy, group formation and inclusion/exclusion feelings
among learners, are a vital dynamic in MOOC learning, and
are probably insufficiently understood. “
BIS 2013 Literature Review of Massive Open Online Courses and Other Forms of Online
Distance Learning

o Cost savings
o New forms of revenue generation

COSTS
o Typical ratio of course
production &
presentation costs
• Production- fixed cost
• Tuition- recurring costs
Generic
student
support
Tuitio
n-
Paying
people
to
support
learner
s
Weller 2013, The Cost of Support
http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_rea
son/2013/06/the-cost-of-support.html

TURNING TUITION INTO A FIXED
COST
o Turning the tuition support costs partially
or fully into fixed costs through:
• Peer assessment
• Machine marking
• Outsourcing tuition costs
• Adaptive learning, intelligent tutoring systems,
computer-based learning

o We believe that embedded within the MOOC is a more
focused technology, which we will call SuperText. This
technology is characterized by:
• Content authored by a recognized expert and delivered primarily via
short video segments.
• Chunking of content so that a specific instance of a course can be
customized to particular learning objectives.
• Within an instance of a course, semi-synchronous pacing in which a
batch of new content and assignments are released by a course
administrator periodically (usually weekly). Between releases,
students consume the content when and how they wish.
• Assessment that can be adapted to the learning objectives set by the
course administrator.
• Students interact with a course administrator and with each other
but not typically with the expert content author.
MOOCs Won’t Replace Business Schools — They’ll Diversify Them -
Christensen, Alcorn and Emanuel - Harvard Business Review, 3 June
2014

o SuperText as the New Frontier
• The technology combines the adaptive nature of office hours, the
charisma of the best educators, the convenience of “anywhere and
anytime,” and economies of scale in production
MOOCs Won’t Replace Business Schools — They’ll Diversify Them - Christensen, Alcorn and Emanuel
- Harvard Business Review, 3 June 2014

ISSUES
o Changing roles of academic staff
• Divisions of labour- viable?
• Casualisation of academic labour
o Students’ data
o Business models determining learning
needs
o The holy grail
• Can the fundamentals of learning be met
• Can disciplinary knowledge be taught?

ETHICS
o Big data & student rights

o Versions of courses lead to 2nd tier
provision and income
• QA through 1st tier credit courses
• Widens access
• Who are these courses for?
o Traditional formal provision for the elite
o Monetisation of different aspects

KNOWLEDGE ABOUT GOOD LEARNING
o Good learning requires mediation
o We are more likely to get the learning outcomes we want
when the curriculum is aligned
o Learning is more likely to happen when students are
actively engaged
o Learning is more likely to be successful where the
teaching is cognizant of what students bring with them:
prior knowledge, language, experience
o Learning involves some degree of transformation of self
Shay, S 2013
Shay, S Good Learning: What we Know. Presentation at Heads of Department Workshop, University of Cape
Town, April 2013

QUALITY
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/professor-leaves-a-mooc-in-mid-course-in-dispute-over-teaching/42381
“the course is amazingly, shockingly
awful”
http://www.angrymath.com/2012/09/
udacity-statistics-101.html

STUDIES OF DUAL MODE
o The complexity of distance learning in comparison to
face to face delivery – requiring much more advanced
planning and integration of services and functions.
o Different ways of teaching and ways of working
• the different way distance educators worked
compared to campus provision – in multi professional
teams where ‘all are involved in this teaching and
learning process’ not just the academics.
Lentell H 2013

o Is the research about learning design
informing quality
• in traditional
• or post traditional education?
o Are current mechanisms of quality
assurance adequate and appropriate?

TENSIONS
o Where are the risks in the emerging
landscape?
o How can the tensions be managed
between
• A coherent student experience
• Flexibility and innovation
• Inclusivity and experimentation

POLICIES
o Need to map the policies which drive , shape
and enable the post-traditional landscape
• Within education
• Beyond education policies (telecom, privacy, IP
etc.)
o Consider
• Whose interests do existing policies serve?
• Do existing policies adequately address the
emerging terrain?

o What role can policy usefully play
• to enable required expertise (eg)
• Learning design
• Digital literacies
• Content (eg OERs)
• Re-alignment administrative systems
• Oversight of public-private partnerships
• Innovation and experimentation

o Blended learning will be the norm
• Array of “delivery formats” across courses and
programmes
• Within courses
o The shift as an opportunity
• to re-examine the nature of excellent learning and
teaching
• to explore possibilities and exploit new
affordances for an equity agenda

o As universities we need work together to
find ways
• to prioritise and firmly (re) assert access to and
contribution to knowledge production and
dissemination as social and public goods into the
very complex emergent landscape and into the
discourses which shape it.

THANK YOU
o Laura.Czerniewicz@uct.ac.za
@czernie
Acknowledgements to my excellent colleagues at CILT
especially Andrew Deacon, Janet Small, Sukaina Walji

READING
o Czerniewicz, L; Deacon, A; Small, J and Walji, S (2014) Developing world
MOOCs: A curriculum view of the MOOC landscape, in Journal of Global
Literacies, Technologies, and Emerging Pedagogies (JOGLTEP) Vol. 2,
Issue 3, July 2014, Michigan State, available at
http://joglep.com/files/7614/0622/4917/2._Developing_world_MOOCs.pdf
o Curation of MOOC resources: http://www.scoop.it/t/moocswatch

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