Innovation and Disruption – ODL and Graduate Education

Terry Anderson

Professor, Centre for Distance Education

Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada

* Athabasca University

34,000 students, 700 courses

100% distance education

Graduate and Undergraduate programs

Master & Doctorate

Distance Education

Only USA Accredited University in Canada

*Athabasca University

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Growth of Graduate education

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Growth of demand for grad programs

DEGREE INFLATION !!

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Fastest Growing group at AthabascaHighest Tuitions! Older studentsFaculty Research

• MBA• Master of Health• Master of Nursing• Master of Education

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Innovations in Online Graduate Education

• E-Portfolios• Social Networks• Production of Artifacts• Research opportunities• Peer review of Thesis• PLAR, MOOCs and Credentialing

E-Portfolio• Process and product• Archiving, artifacts and reflections• At a course, program or institutional level• CVs and the next step• Network entity and presence• Lifelong learning• Personal ownership of process and product• Exportable to other archives and use ??

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Innovations in online Graduate Education

• E-Portf

http://www.nie.edu.sg/practicum/practicum-structure/niefolio

Students Creating Net presence

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Social Networks

Social Media• Tools for Building Personal Networks of people and Resources• Means to reify and share knowledge• Ownership and identity• Supports long term partnerships, relationships, alumni• Weak and strong ties • Boundary crossing and serendipity• Place for coalescence of Sets into networks and groups, nets

into groups.• Discovery, external validation “danger of good ideas”

NOT Learning in a Bubble

Networks add diversity to learning

“People who live in the intersection of social worlds are at higher risk of having good ideas” Burt, 2005, p. 90

Educational Theoretical Rationale• Social Presence• Cooperative work in self-paced programming• Interaction results in increased social, institutional and

academic integration, leading to increased completion rates (Tinto, 1987)

• Need to develop a virtual campus supporting community beyond course interactions

• Social Capital Building• Student Control and identity• Persistence and Networking (Connectivism)• Potential for community and alumni contribution

3 Generations of Distance Learning Pedagogies1. Behaviourist/Cognitive –

Self Paced, Individual Study

2. Social constructivist – Groups, classes

3. Connectivist – Networks

Anderson, T., & Dron, J. (2011). Three generations of distance education pedagogy. International Review of Research on Distance and Open Learning, 12(3), 80-97

net

group

indiv-idual

Anderson, T., & Dron, J. (2011). Three generations of distance education pedagogy. IRRODL, 12(3), 80-97.

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Production of Artifacts• Have you or your students contributed to Wikipedia this

week?

Persistence Rosetta Stone

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Students as researchers• More Challenging at

a distance• Need for

Synchronous, project management tools

Research Paradigms Quantitative ~ discovery of the laws that

govern behavior

Qualitative ~ understandings from an insider

perspective

Critical ~ Investigate and expose the power

relationships

Pragmatic~ interventions, interactions and their

effect in multiple contexts (design-based, action

research

Students Thesis reviews

Aghaee, N., & Hansson, H. (2013). Peer Portal: Quality enhancement in thesis writing using self-managed peer review on a mass scale. 2013, 14(1). http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1394/2436.

“The underlying philosophy with this peer review approach is that students should manage their involvement without supervisors’ intervention firstly because supervisors might change the nature of dialogues (create a power asymmetry) and secondly because the Peer Portal is meant to reduce the work load for supervisors, not create another task to take care of.”

AGHAEE, N., HANSSON, H. 2013Peer Portal: Quality enhancement in thesis writing using self-managed peer review on a mass scale. IRRODL 14(1),

Moocs

•Massive: - Scalable, How big is Massive?

•Open – Free as in tuition for students, not as in editing, reproduction, remixing

•Online – may support F2F MeetUps

•Course – Bounded by topic and time frame, paced or continuous

Duke University/ CoursEra 2012Bioelectricity: A Quantitative Approach

Promoted to millions through Coursera

12,000 Registered, Paced

4,000 no shows first week

313 (4%) from 37 countries completed

Clow, D. (2013). MOOCs and the funnel of participation.

• “The students who drop out early do not add substantially to the cost of delivering the course. The most expensive students are the ones who stick around long enough to take the final, and those are the ones most likely to pay for a certificate”. Daphne Koller, Founder Coursera

The Interaction Equivalency Theorem by Anderson (2003)

• Thesis 1. Deep and meaningful formal learning is supported as long as one of the three forms of interaction (student–teacher; student–student; student–content) is at a high level. The other two may be offered at minimal levels, or even eliminated, without degrading the educational experience.

• Thesis 2. High levels of more than one of these three modes will likely provide a more satisfying educational experience, although these experiences may not be as cost- or time effective as less interactive learning sequences.

　　　　　　See http://equivalencytheorem.info/

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IS UNISA READY TO EXPLOIT THESE OPPORTUNITIES??

http://www.amazon.com/Quality-Software-Management-Anticipating-Change/

• Slides on SlideShare:• http://tinyurl.com/bzfdtlg

• https://landing.athabascau.ca

• terrya@athabascau.ca• Terrya.edublogs.org