Technology, Higher Education and the Public Interest

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ILLINOIS BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION
June 8, 1999
Aurora, IL
Technology, Higher Education
and the Public Interest
Sir John Daniel
Vice-Chancellor, The Open University, UK
President, United States Open University
For text: http://www.open.ac.uk/vcs-speeches/

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Four issues:
- Why distance learning?

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Four issues:
- Benefits of distance learning

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Four issues:
- Technology in Illinois

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Four issues:
- Technology in Illinois
- United States Open University

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Four issues:
What can distance learning
do for you?

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TECHNOLOGY IS
THE ANSWER:
WHAT WAS
THE QUESTION?

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COST
THE ETERNALLY CHALLENGING
TRIANGLE

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OR QUADRILATERAL...
COST
QUALITY

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UK Quality Assurance Agency for HE
1. Audit of QA processes
2. Assessment of Teaching Quality
3. Assessment of Research

c CHALLENGES
• Access
• Cost
• Flexibility

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QUALITY
THE ETERNALLY CHALLENGING
TRIANGLE
FLEXIBILITY COST

c What is technology?
…the application of scientific
and other organized
knowledge to practical tasks
by organizations consisting of
people and machines..

c
“new applications of technology
rather than
applications of new technology”

c Distance learning uses
hard and soft technologies...
the softtechnologies of approachesand processes
the hard technologies of bits and electrons

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THE KEY soft TECHNOLOGIES
- DIVISION OF LABOR
- SPECIALIZATION
- TEAMWORK
- PROJECT MANAGEMENT

c MEGA-UNIVERSITY
 distance teaching
 100,000+ students
 unitary structure

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THE MEGA-UNIVERSITIES
CHINA: TV university system
FRANCE: Centre National d’Enseignement à Distance
INDIA: Indira Gandhi National Open University
INDONESIA: Universitas Terbuka
IRAN: Payame Noor University
KOREA: Korea National Open University
SOUTH AFRICA: University of South Africa
SPAIN: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
THAILAND: Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University
TURKEY: Anadolu University
UNITED KINGDOM: The Open University

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Costs compared:
USA (1996)
3,500 institutions
14 million students
$175 billion spent on HE
= ~$12,500 per student
MEGA-UNIVERSITIES (1996)
11 institutions
2.8 million students
$ 1 billion total budgets
= ~$350 per student

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Unit costs per student expressed as % of
average unit costs in each national
university system
CHINA
FRANCE
INDIA
INDONESIA
IRAN
KOREA
S. AFRICA
SPAIN
THAILAND
TURKEY
UK
China TV University system
Centre National d’Enseignement a Distance
Indira Gandhi National Open University
Universitas Terbuka
Payame Noor University
Korea National Open University
University of South Africa
Univ. Nat. de Educacion a Distancia
Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University
Anadolu University
The Open University
%
40
50
35
15
25
5
50
40
30
10
60

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BRITAIN’S TOP TWENTY
UNIVERSITIES
(Quality Rankings of Teaching
Programmes)
1 Cambridge 12 Lancaster
2 York 13 St Andrews
3 Oxford 14 Loughborough
4 Imperial 15 Southampton
5 LSE 16 Cardiff
6 Warwick 17 Glasgow
7 Nottingham 18 Bangor
8 Durham 19 Birmingham
9 University College London 20 Bristol
10 Sheffield
11 OPEN UNIVERSITY

c United Kingdom 1998
Teaching Quality Assessment of
GENERAL ENGINEERING
24/24 The Open University

c United Kingdom 1998
Teaching Quality Assessment of
GENERAL ENGINEERING
24/24 The Open University
23/24 Cambridge University

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FACT
The majority of all students in
English universities studying in
excellent-rated programs in:
Earth Sciences
Music
Chemistry
General Engineering
are Open University students.

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The link between quality and
exclusivity, that has tarnished
universities throughout history, has
finally been broken.

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The Open University?
- why
- what?
- who?
- when?
- where?
- how?

c Q: WHY?
Political input
1. Harold Wilson:
Access; Use of broadcasting
2. Jennie Lee
Quality; Autonomy
3. Margaret Thatcher
Lower costs

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The Open University mission
- open to people
- open to places
- open to methods
- open to ideas

c The Open University
- degree students: 160,000
- graduate school: 30,000
- research degree: 1,500
- outside UK: 30,000
- annual budget ~$400m

Total staff: 11,000
Full-time faculty: 800
Associate faculty: 7,500
Other full-time staff: 2,800

- outside UK: 30,000
- main examination session:
156,000 scripts; 111 countries

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SUCCESSFUL
SUPPORTED OPEN LEARNING
- Quality materials

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SUCCESSFUL
- Quality materials
- Support for each student

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SUCCESSFUL
- Quality materials
- Good logistics

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SUCCESSFUL
- Quality materials
- Good logistics
- Roots in research

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THE INSTITUTE FOR
EDUCATIONAL
TECHNOLOGY
- advice on course design
- student surveys
- teaching effectiveness
- consultancy

c THE KNOWLEDGE MEDIA
INSTITUTE
- Leading edge development of
the Web;
- Scaling up Net technologies;
- Enabling technologies
- New Internet applications

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Requisite Variety in Illinois
1. Illinois Video Education Network -
extending into the home

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2. Online Library Services and DE

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3. Satellite-based instruction (N.Leigh)

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3. Satellite-based instruction (N.Leigh)
4. TechKnowledgy Project

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The Open University
in the USA
- Partnerships:
with FSU (Masters, Upper Division)
with CSU (CalStateTeach)

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The Open University
in the USA
- Partnerships:
with FSU (Masters, Upper Division)
with CSU (CalStateTeach)
- Sister University:
United States Open University

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- own programs:
Master’s, Upper Division

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- own programs:
Master’s, Upper Division
- partnerships:
universities; community colleges

c
Competency + credit
Western Governors University

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