Workshop delivered to Athabasca University's Faculty of Health Disciplines (Edmonton, Feb 2014). Focuses on online learning strategies, emerging technologies, the current status of higher education and online online education, open scholarship, social media, and what the future of higher education may hold. Part 2: The 2011-2014 higher education landscape: Seismic shifts, challenges, and pressures

1. The 2011-2014 higher education landscape:
Seismic shifts, challenges, and pressures
George Veletsianos, PhD
Canada Research Chair
Associate Professor
School of Education and Technology
Athabasca University, Faculty of Health Disciplines, Edmonton, Feb 2014

2. What are your hopes for the future of
higher education?
What are your concerns?

3. The Horizon Report Trends

4. The Horizon Report Trends
Via Ruben Puentedura as quoted by http://bit.ly/Ma8YrX

5. Contemporary universities are facing
numerous powerful forces that may
shape their future.

6. a worldwide
economic downturn
globalization and
competition
purpose of education
- Employment?
Rebirth of edtech
impact of emerging
technologies
changing
demographics
pressures for
accountability
curtailment of public
funding
(Morrison, 2003; Schwier, 2012; Siemens & Matheos, 2010; Spanier, 2010).

7. a worldwide
economic downturn
globalization and
competition
purpose of education
- Employment?
Rebirth of edtech
impact of emerging
technologies
An increasing
desire by faculty
members,
educators, &
designers to “do
better” to “do
more”
changing
demographics
pressures for
accountability
curtailment of public
funding
(Morrison, 2003; Schwier, 2012; Siemens & Matheos, 2010; Spanier, 2010).

8. Emerging Technologies
• May or may not be new technologies
• Evolving, “coming into being”
• Go through “hype cycles”
• Not yet fully understood
• Not yet fully researched
• Potentially disruptive (but potential is unfulfilled)
(Veletsianos, 2010)

9. Higher Education in 2011-2014:
Sense of urgency. And tension.
The case of FutureLearn

11. Techno-enthusiasm & technodeterminism* dominate
e.g., Technology will ____________
Narratives of disruption & revolution
(*skeptics are not the same as naysayers)

12. At times, it feels like déjà vu with a
dose of more of the same…

13. “Motion picture is destined to revolutionize our education
system …in a few years it will supplant largely, if not entirely,
the use of textbooks”
“Education over the Internet is going to be so big it is going
to make e-mail usage look like a rounding error”

14. “Strong
pressures
to
produce
mediocre
instruc1onal
products
based
on
templates
and
preexis,ng
content.”
Wilson,
Parrish,
&
Veletsianos,
2008

15. “Examples
of
outstanding
[online]
instruc1on
are
hard
to
find.”
Wilson, Parrish, & Veletsianos, 2008

16. Disaggregation & Unbundling

17. “Whether the practice is called
outsourcing, contracting out, or
privatizing, the impact is the
same. Food services, health
care, the bookstore…endless
array of activities that
universities used to manage…”
Kirp,
.L
(2003).
Shakespeare,
Einstein,
and
the
Bo3om
Line:
The
Marke9ng
of
Higher
Educa9on.
Cambridge,
MA:
Harvard
University
Press

19. “Online program management services”

20. But where does it stop? Are there institutional core
functions that should be safeguarded?

21. But where does it stop? Are there institutional core
functions that should be safeguarded?

22. The role of the faculty member
The roles of instructional designers,
tutors, instructors

23. Course assistants
Teaching assistants
Academic Advisor,
Mentor, Coach
Instructor/Instructional
Technologist
Professor/Instructional
Designer
“academic freedom,
shared governance,
a livable wage,
greater job security
for non-tenure-track
faculty
teaching and
scholarship cannot be
fully unbundled…”

25. Efficiency. Automation. And robots.

30. Data Analytics. Big Data.
The “new science of learning”
“Adaptive, personalized, granular
learning”

32. Open Practices
Open Education  Open Scholarship

33. Open Sharing

34. In closing
Myth: Classrooms are the same today
as they were hundreds of years ago.
The reality: Educational institutions are
always evolving and reflect the
societies which house them.
What does our society look like? That’s
what our institutions will look like.