Teacher education via distance Development and status

Sólveig Jakobsdóttir, associate professor, soljak@hi.is

Þuríður Jóhannsdóttir, assistant professor, thuridur@hi.is Presentation for visitors from University of Trondheim

April 20, 2012

Teacher education (B.Ed.) at a distance at KHÍ-HÍ - Overview

Period - years

Pro-gram Director

Special program 4 year (not 3)

Developments

1 1993-2002

x x Campus sessions +online teaching and learning: (e-mail, discussion boards, webs, LMS‘s)

2 2003-2007

x Aim that all courses are available as DE, up to 50% students or more DE (WebCT, netmeetings)

3 2007-2008

Curriculum changes, course content, size, number, drop-out problems among DE s‘s; co-teaching starting

4 2008-2009

Merging with University of Iceland; economic crash

5 2010-2011+

Co-teaching DE and campus students in most courses (Moodle adopted)

For further information Period 1

• Jón Jónasson. (2001). On-line distance education: a feasible choice in teacher education in Iceland? M.Ed. thesis, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. http://notendur.hi.is/jonjonas//skrif/mphil/thesis.pdf

Period 1-2

• Jóhannsdóttir, T. (2010). Deviations from the conventional: contradictions as sources of change in teacher education. In V. Ellis, A. Edwards & P. Smagorinsky (Eds.), Cultural-Historical pespectives on teacher education and development (pp. 163-279). London: Routledge.

• Jóhannsdóttir, T. J. (2010). Teacher education and school-based distance learning: individual and systemic development in schools and a teacher education programme. PhD thesis, University of Iceland, Reykjavík. http://hdl.handle.net/1946/7119

• Jóhannsdóttir, u., & Skjelmo, R. (2004). Flexibility and Responsibility in Teacher Education: Experiences and Possibilities in Iceland and North Norway. In L. Pekkala, W. Greller, A. Krylov, O. Snellman & J. Spence (Eds.), On Top of It: Overcoming the Challenges of ICT and Distance Education in the Arctic (pp. 85-98). Rovaniemi: University of the Arctic Press, University of Lapland.

Period 3

• Jakobsdóttir, S. (2008). The role of campus-sessions and face-to-face meetings in distance education. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 2008(II).http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2008/Jakobsdottir.htm

Period 4

• Geirsdóttir, G., Pálmadóttir, H., Ólafsson, R., Jakobsdóttir, S., Pálmason, o. og Jóhannsdóttir, u. (2007). Mótun stefnu í fjarkennslumálum hins sameinaða háskóla - Lokaskýrsla verkefnishóps - [Translated: Shaping the distance education policy for a joined university - final report]. Reykjavík, Iceland: Kennaraháskóli Íslands, Háskóli Íslands. http://www.hi.is/files/asset/stjornsysla/kennslusvid/kennslumidstod/071116_verkefnishopur_um_fjarnam_lokaskyrsla.pdf

Period 5

• Jakobsdóttir, S. og Jóhannsdóttir, T. (2010). Merging online and "traditional" courses and student groups: A "natural" trend or a temporary tactic - why and how? In A. Tait og A. Szucs (Eds.), Media inspirations for learning: What makes the impact?. EDEN 2010 Annual conference book of abstracts. Budapest: European Distance and E-Learning Network.

• Þuríður Jóhannsdóttir og Sólveig Jakobsdóttir. (2011). Samkennsla stað- og fjarnema við Menntavísindasvið Háskóla Íslands: Reynsla og viðhorf kennara og nemenda – togstreita og tækifæri [Co-teaching campus-based students and distance students at the School of Education, University of Iceland: Experience and views of teachers and teacher students – conflicts and opportunities]. Netla - veftímarit um uppeldi og menntun. http://netla.hi.is/menntakvika2011/033.pdf

Merging of two Icelandic-uni’s, 2008

Iceland University of Education (IUE) University of Iceland (UI)

Many different committees set up to ease the merging including a

DE policy group

Workgroup to identify ways to: reduce DE drop-out Organize f2f sessions

Workgroup to identify ways to: reduce drop-out rate

Some challenges and opportunities Challenges Opportunities

Divide - differences Dividend- what can we learn from each other?

Lack of data Collect data, take a close look at the situation

Lack of policy, benchmarking Work on vision, policy, benchmarking

Drop-out Find ways to reduce

Organization, blend of f2f and online

Find ways to improve?

Teaching methods Increase variety?

LMS, learning environments Go to open source? More use of social software?

IUE + UI: Merging universities: no of DE students in each, 2007-8

No and

% of

students

Kennaraháskóli Íslands

Iceland University of Education

University of

Iceland

Under-

grad.

Grad. Total Total

No of

students

1.703 679 2.382 9.783

No of DE

students

920 679 1599 267

% DE

students

54,0 100,0 67,1 2,7

DE – more differences

IUE • 52% of courses DE

(100% of the post-grad) • DE since 1979,

online/blended since 1993 • Main LMS: WebCT from ca.

2001 • Long list of systems/tools

email/postlists, open webs, Webboard, WCB, LearningSpace, It’s learning. More recently Elgg (PLE), wiki’s...

UI • 5% of courses DE

(0-14% by department) • DE since 1997,

videoconferences, online; DE students co-taught in with students in f2f courses

• Main LMS: Moodle • Some earlier experience

with WebCT, and It’s learning

Vision (a draft)

• UI is the nation’s university which aims at providing/doing outstanding teaching, research and support services for students and teachers. UI policy in DE will help establish those goals

• The UI will in the next years increase flexibility in learning and teaching by offering more distance and blended learning options. By doing so the united university can increase equality, improve access to higher education, and enable cross-curricular learning

• Within the next five years DE will be a real choice within all

departments and a way to strengthen the UI competitive edge.

Needs

• Needs/rights of individual and groups for access to education regardless of place or their situation

• Needs of the knowledge society where economice growth is based on education level

• Needs of the university to spend money well,

create better service for students, improve learning/teaching and provide a better competitive edge

Groups/individuals

• People who live outside the capital area or abroad

• People who want to work with their studies

• People who need to stay at home (e.g. Because of family, illess, handicap)

• Icelandic students who want to take courses at foreign university • Foreign students who want to study at UI

• Campus students who want to take part of their studies via distance

(cross-curricular, scheduling problems, convenience ...)

• High school/junior college students who want to take college credit/advanced placement

Some main goals

• The united university will icrease DE substantially (at least to 25% overall)

• Schools/departments will decide and be responsible for

which programs and/or courses are available based on awareness on the needs and demands for their respective fields

• The unversity will provide structure for the planning

process and necessary support for the development

• Quality issues, international benchmarking

2008

Need to reduce costs

• LMS – moving to Moodle (from Blackboard) summer 2011 - in sync with global trend towards open software and OER’s

• Co-teaching distance and campus-based students – rule rather than exception, 2010-? „Flexible learning“ in place of distance learning? A “natural” trend or a temporary tactic?

Co-teaching

• Most academic staff at UISE teach both in the DE and regular program

• A few years ago, some started co-teaching when they were teaching both types of courses at the same time

• In the spring semester 2009 – 19 cases where the two course types had been

merged

Co-teaching Advantages can include • Less workload when utilizing online resources for both groups

• Courses have been available which otherwise could not have been offered (too few students)

• Less expense to run a combined class

Disadvantages can include • Increased work-complicated planning

• Difficulties running live f2f sessions (low attendance or technical problems)

• DE s’s sometimes feel left out during live sessions

• Campus s´s: technology during recordings bothersome Scheduling difficulties for online/ synchronous meetings

• Worry by some t’s: more tendency for dropout

Co-teaching campus-based and distance students Experience and views of teachers and students

• Study to examine the experience of co-teaching campus-based and distance undergraduate students at the Faculty of Teacher Education

• In the school year 2010–2011, it was made a rule rather than the exception to merge teaching of these student groups, before it had only been done when student groups were small

• Data gathered with questionnaires among teachers and students and with interviews with 9 teachers and 22 students in 8 courses

Results The experience was mixed

• Majority of teachers and students felt that the co-teaching model was not as good as teaching separate groups

• The distance students complained that they were not as well served in the co-teaching model and on the other hand the campus-based students worried about getting fewer face-to-face lessons

• The teachers shared those worries and among their concern was how passive the distance students were on the course-webs

• The main benefit of teaching the two student groups together appeared to be that the courses would otherwise not be taught

• However, the majority of participants thought that this teaching mode should be developed further but not abandoned

• Preliminary data indicates ca. 25% cost cutting regarding teaching cost (working hours)

Teacher education (B.Ed.) at a distance Number and % of DE students at UISE (IUE) preparing

to teach at the primary and lower secondary level

180

287

425

341 355

190

34 41 47 42 49 31

355

412

471 463

375

416

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

DE students, no.

DE students %

Reg. Students, no.

Question

• Is our distance education "cool (ing down)"?

For further information Danaher, P. A. og Umar, A. (Eds.). (2010). Perspectives on distance education: teacher education through open and distance learning. Vancouver, Canada: Commonwealth of Learning. http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/detail.aspx?PID=332