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OUA: Ongoing Online Evolution of Challenges and Opportunities
- 1. DEHub Education 2011-2021 Summit Dr Michael Crock Executive Director , Academic Products & Services Open Universities Australia (OUA) OUA: Ongoing Online Evolution of Challenges and Opportunities Distance Education in Australasia: Challenges and Opportunities post 2012
- 6. OUA Model
- 14. Research Heights Dot.com Marsh Shadowlands Techno Jungle Opportunity Falls Early Adopt River Temple Of Pedagogy Mountains Of Disciplines Techie Firewall Competition Peak Spring of Innovation Government Cumulus Isle of Instead Of Management Camp As Well Bay Weavers’ Plain… site for development Freshers’ landing E-learning Land From Professor Gilly Salmon
- 15. For Further Information: Dr Michael Crock Executive Director, Academic Products and Services Open Universities Australia Tel: +61 3 8628 2519 Fax: +61 3 8628 2955 E-mail: michael.crock@open.edu.au Questions
Editor's Notes
- Slide #1
- OUA Overview Slide #2: Area of Study Over 1100 units and 140 qualifications, across 18 different Providers OUA students study off campus, from across Australia to overseas. Undergraduate entry without prerequisites. OUA offers over 1100 units and 140 qualifications. These qualifications range from Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Behavioural Studies, Certificate of Journalism, Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Education, Bachelor of Nursing, Bachelor of Technology, Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Bachelor of Science, as well as post graduate qualifications ranging from Graduate Diploma in Extractive Metallurgy, Master of International Relations, Master of Information Technology Project Management, Graduate Diploma of Education, MBA, Graduate Certificate in Linguistics, amongst others. Open Universities Australia is a consortium of 18 tertiary institutions and professional associations which started in 1993, and has steadily increased, now with: 14 Universities 2 TAFEs (Community Colleges) 1 Professional Association 1 Learning Network
- Slide #3: OUA Overview continued... Students are able to study 'at their own pace' across the study periods, according to their work timeframes or personal circumstances. The courses and units offered through OUA are the same units offered 'on-campus' by the Provider institution, and the tutors teaching the OUA units online - are also the tutors delivering the 'on-campus' versions of the course. Successful completion of course units allow students to either work towards a qualification entirely through OUA studies, or if their results are of the required standard; they are also able to apply for a direct university place.
- OUA Overview Slide #4: We Continue to Grow The national leader in online higher education Over 144,000 unit enrolments across Australia since 1993 Access to over 1,100 units and 130 qualifications Undergraduate Postgraduate VET Preparatory The 2009 Sloan survey of online learning in the US showed that enrolments in online programs increased by 17% in a year. Enrolments at OUA grew by nearly 32% last year and so far this year are about 36% up again on target for further growth, continuing a trend that has been pretty steady over the last 5 years. OUA has experienced exceptional organic growth from 2007 to 2010 through the introduction of new programs and units, highlighting the need to ensure secure supply of demand-responsive academic content. Importantly, OUA, already having a large online presence of currently 1,050 units catering to over 144,000 unit enrolments, requires particular teaching and learning support initiatives to further progress its own capacity to provide consistent quality delivery.
- Slide #5: Overview continued... OUA has gained expertise through the development of teaching and learning initiatives such as the Tutorial Support Management (TSM) model, Smarthinking, Retention Strategy, Online Student Centred Discussion (OSCD) training, and Engaging Learners in Online Discussion.
- OUA Model Slide #6 – Distance Distance Providers are positioned to become part of international quality networks in online technology and in education. They are more flexible than campus based universities in being able to cater to more diverse student clienteles via their inherent flexibility and ability to design programs that are suitable for lifelong learners. Distance education providers also hold an advantageous position for being able to collaborate with the corporate sector through partnership and innovation developments. OUA has already cemented its ability to collaboratively innovate and form effective partnership with the corporate sector, and will continue to do so for future innovations and pathways. The structure of OUA in being spread across the Provider education institutions, will continue to allow it the benefits of being placed to work collaboratively on new innovations and education quality and delivery, as well as to share and network across the Higher Education sector. OUA's success so far suggests that the OUA model structure will still be appropriate in 10 years time.
- OUA Model Slide #7 – technologies OUA's structure being spread across the providers also enables it to adapt to and adopt new technologies. Changes in the technology that delivers online learning are significantly fast moving. Elearning provides universities and other academic institutions with a means of enhancing and enriching the teaching performance of staff, as well as pedagogically and economically enhancing and enriching the learning activities of students. The rapid growth in technologies for education purposes as well as the general uptake across workplaces and households of these technologies - means that there has also been increased interest and demand for the use of online technologies in delivering training and educational programs for adult learners. The most recent web generation, for example, web 3D, has meant that 3D virtual worlds for elearning are now available, along with the ability to build and simulate online activities, illustrate and demonstrate realistic environments and scenarios (i.e. operating theatres).
- Trends for Distance Education Slide #8 - trends for distance providers "When it comes to technology, most people overestimate it in the short term and underestimate it in the long term" (Arthur Clarke in Guri-Rosenblit, 2009:121). An ongoing evolution of online learning technology and ability to adapt and innovate will continue to be a key issue for providing quality in online education. Current trends, for example, are seeing the PC being pushed aside, for a suite of smaller (and generally wireless) devices such as Smartphones, netbooks and tablets (The Economist, 2009). The use of mobile devices has grown significantly in the professional and social contexts (Herrington, 2009), and has now begun to permeate the education sector in online learning. New technologies require constant reflection, trials, adaptation and adoption - even at the risk that some will not always return the expectations or resources invested in them. We can predict that the future will be unpredictable, but that it will involve change and the collaboration that has marked its developments so far. With a myriad of content, information options and availability, the issue for online learning is no longer about information and information access. The focus for online learning has shifted to the control of the limited resource if attention, to the act of information distribution, over to the act of information consumption. OUA will need to focus its role in delivering online education to direct students in accessing the range of information, capturing their attention, and assisting them to evaluate, discern and retain the information most useful and appropriate. With a myriad of content, information options and availability, the issue for online learning is no longer about information and information access. The focus for online learning has shifted to the control of the limited resource if attention, to the act of information distribution, over to the act of information consumption.
- Trends for Distance Education Slide #9 - technologies The near Future Open Content Open content shares and reuses learning and scholarly materials by utilising the internet as a worldwide dissemination platform to allow the collective sharing of information and knowledge, and a platform to design experiences that maximise learning. Open content and digital content (including electronic books) dual well together, with open resources usually tending to be electronic in nature. Open content has the potential to promote skills in finding, evaluating, and putting new information to use, as well as to inform a wide variety of learning modalities, and it also enables teachers to readily customise their courses quickly and inexpensively, as they can include materials that are up to date with emerging ideas and information. Cloud Computing Cloud computing consists of huge data centres housing immense amounts of data storage systems, and hundreds of thousands of servers. It assures a higher level of access, efficiency and security beyond the scope of most institutions individually. Cloud computing poses great benefit for online learning Providers via the reduction of physical material required for course delivery to students, but also the immense amount of data that can be stored. It also means that students can access their information from a variety devices and across a mobility context. the Semantic Web The Semantic Web refers to the methods and technologies that allow the processing of data meaning ("semantics") and internet information by machines either directly or indirectly. This means improvements to the searching capabilities in returning information on the internet, and in turn to the returns of internet research for students and academics (NMC, 2010). The improvements will mean that applications can use the context of the information to determine the relationships between bits of information - determining the correct meaning of words that have double meanings, and also allow for searching of questions. Game Based Learning Game Based Learning is poised for integration into education. Gaining significant momentum in recent yearsm developers and researchers working within the field of game based learning, are now working on games that are goal-orientated, 'non-digital games that are easy to construct and play', social game environments, games developed expressly for educational purposes, as well as those that lend themselves toward teambuilding skills and refining groups skill. Role playing games and simulations in education allow students to be able to enact difficult scenarios or situations, and to try new responses or pose creative solutions, and additionally may be used to teach multidisciplinary concepts in an engaging way. Simple Augmented Reality Simple Augmented Reality has great potential for learning and assessment as it can assist students to construct a greater understanding of their learning topic via the interactions that use virtual objects to bring the underlying data (or information for learning) to life (NMC, 2010). Augmented reality technologies are able to respond to user input - creating dynamic processes, extensive datasets, and objects. By allowing an overlay of data onto the 'real world' or live view of the surrounding environment, whereby elements are augmented virtually by computer-generated sensory input and/or graphics - for a visually stimulating and highly interactive form of learning. Games, for example, that are 'based in the real world' and augmented with networked data are able to provide educators with an immersive platform through which to demonstrate relationships and connections (NMC, 2010). Augmented reality's particular relevance to teaching and learning however, is via its potential for teaching, learning and creative inquiry and in the ability to provide an 'in situ' learning experience Collaborative Environments Collaborative environments, are generally defined as technologies enabling support of a range of collaborative tools such as those like Voicethread, and collaborative editing tools like Adobe Buzzword, Google Docs, Prezi and Etherpad, through to collaborative and group blogging and wikis programs like Moodle, Ning, PageFlakes and collaborative rich media creation tools like Kaltura. Collaborative environments continue to show and upward trend in adoption of their use to support both teaching and learning. By providing an efficient mode for students to work together, collaborative environments can bring together students - regardless of whether of where they are geographically located, or their ability to come together at the same time.
- Trends for Distance Education Slide #10 – technologies continued... More distant future visual data analysis learning analytics gesture based computing Other areas such as 'visual data analysis', 'learning analytics', and 'gesture based computing', will need to be given further future attention, as they come closer in their potential widespread adoption for online learning over the next 2-5 years or more. OUA, consistent with its history of trialling, adapting, adopting, innovating, planning, implementation, evaluation and re-evaluation will continue to explore these new innovations and their ability to assist in delivering effective online learning for OUA and its Providers.
- Student needs Slide #11 Increase in Higher Ed. Student no#'s Australian Federal Government’s strategic education policy to increase the proportion of 25 to 34 year olds with a bachelor-level qualification or above by approximately 35 percent by 2025, provides a strategic direction and opportunity for OUA to pursue. The federal government strategic direction of increasing the number of 25-34 year olds with a bachelor (and above) level of education will have significant impacts for distance education and distance education providers, in the strategic direction and opportunity it provides. The government's participation targets would require an estimated 20 additional university campuses accommodating 248,000 extra students according to Monash University demographer, Bob Birell. A significant component to achieving this will be the improvement to provision of quality educational opportunities that are affordable, readily/easily available, as well as attractive to the targeted age range. The OUA model is one way of addressing this. Increase in student diversity As enrolment rates grow and participation increases at OUA, student cohorts are likely to become diverse. OUA will need to continue to cater to and develop means of assisting students from diverse backgrounds, including geographically, financially, and/or socially disadvantaged backgrounds and from English as a Second Language (ESL) backgrounds. OUA has traditionally specialised in assisting such students, and will need to continue to do so for future directions. The value of quality educational design expertise to shape and develop the materials and learning environments in such a manner to enable high quality learning experiences for students is critical and often underestimated. Academic staff need access to pedagogical and/or technical expertise and time in order to develop high-level learning experiences.
- Student Demand and Flexibility Moving with technology and developing new models to meet student demand and flexibility Slide #12 Overall, OUA's future focus will need to continue to be agile and able to adapt with flexibility to the technological innovations readily becoming available and transferrable to the education sector with existing and newly developed models that meet student demand and flexibility. OUA's will continue the expansion of its teaching and learning services, and follow the impetus for broadly disseminating its expertise and knowledge in online learning excellence. The collaborative approach - working with Providers In collaboration with its providers, the OUA model has led the way in the transition of distance Australian higher education from a predominately print based delivery approach, to an approach that encompasses the (global) online delivery of study materials and ability to digitally access a wide range of learning materials, research materials and libraries - by working with Higher Education providers to collaboratively share and innovate. For OUA, the collaborative model is a priority to meeting student demand and flexibility, which OUA will continue to develop on. Online student centred interactive learning OUA has fostered online student centred interactive learning , along with the educationally sound use of multimedia, its development of technologies for learning focus, and responsiveness to student demand for innovative new technologies. OUA continues to innovate and respond to demand by exploring, testing and developing new resources that further teaching and learning capabilities and evolve with the emergence of new technologies. Best Practice and moving with technology and learning models - COLE OUA needs to continue to be agile, adapting and utilising these technologies, in order to continue delivering effective and fulfilling online learning. OUA's future directions are beginning to take shape, with a number of typically innovative ventures - such as the piloting of a Centre for Online Learning Excellence (COLE), which provides a central focus for OUA consortium leadership in the online learning space. The Centre for Online Learning Excellence (COLE) COLE consolidates best practice options for OUA's products and services' adoption and provides guidance and a framework for developing online learning excellence amongst providers and the general educational community. OUA, via new innovations such as the piloting of projects through COLE - are exploring a range of new technologies and their merging with the delivery of online learning to present high quality Higher Education courses that not only provide students with the myriad of information now readily available to them, but also that effectively engage students, assist them in retaining information, and to become discerning thinkers who can critically evaluate information, and overall, assist them to become lifelong learners.
- Student Demand and Flexibility Slide #13 - Centre for Online Learning Excellence (COLE COLE is one mechanism that can provide the ‘hub’ or connection across providers as they address learning challenges and adaption of new technologies. COLE needs to be ‘agile to move quickly and flexibly’ in response to learning challenges and such an entity could bring greater organisation and coordination into the elearning environment. Via COLE, OUA will be able to scan and disseminate information including recommendations of new and emerging technologies and alert its Providers to what is on the horizon. Currently, for example, COLE is currently trialling mobile technologies for adoption across its Providers' online learning environments. Mobile technologies are assisting COLE in finding flexible and innovative teaching and learning solutions for OUA. By testing the accessibility and useability of its projects on mobile technologies, students studying through OUA will be able to benefit from a new level of online learning mobility.