Presentation given by Dr Keith Smyth (@smythkrs) and Dr David Walker (@drdjwalker) as part of #fdol132 in 2013. The presentation provided background on the Global Dimensions in Higher Education project http://globaldimensionsinhe.wordpress.com/ and examined some of the issues/challenges that confront institutions as they attempt to engage in open collaborative practices.

1. Collaboration beyond
boundaries: enabling crossinstitutional practice
Dr Keith Smyth and Dr David Walker
Webinar for Flexible, Distance and
Online Learning #fdol132

2. Future of HE: Identity and Place
• Collaborate to compete (HEFCE Task Force)
• Review of Higher Education Governance in Scotland (2012):
– Collaboration a ‘fundamental principle’ of Scottish HE system
– “…interest of Scottish universities...is collectively best served by creating
collaborative partnership arrangements with other higher education
institutions, and this should override any perceived competitive advantage for
an individual institution.”
• Online provision recognised as potential means to address diverse
learning needs and open education to a wider audience
• Increasing scrutiny of publically funded provision (duplication)
• Content versus experience – added value (Welsh initiatives)

3. Global Dimensions in Higher Education
•
Identified need for CPD provision that offers a
pragmatic way to engage academics in the critical
exploration of global issues in HE
•
Development informed through discussions and
contributions on these issues with international
colleagues and partners
http://globaldimensionsinhe.wordpress.com/

4. About Global Dimensions in HE
• Development focused on ensuring the integrity and relevance of
the module within international contexts
• An educational action research approach has allowed the
development of the module to take place within a framework of
‘public and reflective inquiry’ (Cousin, 2009)
• Project members, and potential international partners and
contributors, have engaged in a range of reflective activities and
joint dialogue, and experts from within the global education sector
have contributed ‘Global Stories’
http://globaldimensionsinhe.wordpress.com/global-stories/

5. Pedagogic Principles
• Structuring a collaborative learning experience that moves
participants from collective exploration of key issues to applying
concepts and ideas to their individual context
• Focus on choice and negotiation of tasks, and learning being driven
by both individual and collective needs within the group
• ‘Learners as tutors’ and ‘tutors as learners’

6. Pause for Thought
• It is proposed by some that fully online
learning is more suited to ‘motivated self
starters’ who understand themselves as
learners. What is your view on this?
• Is collaborative online learning more suited to
postgraduate and professional education?

7. Progress to date
• Development of four units and associated readings, activities, and
student guidance designed to support critical engagement with
themes of the module
• Creation of digital artefacts (e.g. video interviews, podcasts,
interactive case studies, digitised texts)
• Development of project blog where project we are documenting
progress and challenges, and papers to shared ‘lessons learned’
with the sector (e.g. OER13, Ascilite 2013)
• Development of the module nearing completion, to be piloted as an
open collaborative course during 2013/14 before being refined and
made available as an OER course.

8. Practical Challenges
• Joint approval of collaborative provision
• Potential need to restructure institutional policy and
regulations to accommodate collaborative
• open educational course design and delivery
• Enrolment and assessment of open access versus
institutional participants
• Access to licensed resources
• Integration of open platforms of delivery with institutional
educational technologies and administrative systems
• Distribution of developmental/administrative costs
• Alignment and compatibility of institutional curricula
models (including credit levels and teaching periods

9. Boundaries
• Language of openness – not shared, but ‘culturally bounded’
• Institutional systems and process are proprietary by design
• Educational model and the institutional educational technology (i.e.
The VLE) is fundamentally built upon information architecture - less
about meaningful interaction but managing data (where students
and course codes are ‘units of data’ in information transactions)
• Economics of openness – reputational

10. Pause for Thought
How open can we be?
How open should we be?

11. Isolation through massification?
• Can truly collaborative open, online learning be
enabled within large or massive contexts?
• Can we balance the needs of the individual, and
development support for the individual, when
learning in open online contexts?
• As we move from small to large to massive open
contexts, do we reduce our focus from collaboration
to cooperation to communication?

12. Contact Details
Dr Keith Smyth
Office of the Vice Principal (Academic)
Edinburgh Napier University
k.smyth@napier.ac.uk
Twitter: @smythkrs
Dr David Walker
Library & Learning Centre
University of Dundee
d.j.walker@dundee.ac.uk
Twitter: @drdjwalker