International perspectives on e-learning: mapping strategy to practice

1. International perspectives on e-learning: mapping strategy to practice Gráinne Conole g.c.conole@open.ac.uk Towards a pan-Canada e-learning research agenda http://scope.lidc.sfu.ca/course/view.php?id=56rs? 13th May 2008

2. National policy Teaching, learning & assessment Roles, skills & practice “ICT catalysts” Funding drivers Organisational structures Increasing impact of technologies

3. Contemporary perspectives in e-learning Methodological issues Current research & development Mapping the field Historical perspective & policy timeline Discourses & tensions

4. Emergence of a research field • Pre-subject area – no perceived interest • Beginnings – questions arise • Emergence – more researchers • Diversification – different schools • Establishment – defined community and alignment with other fields

5. Current status • E-learning - Between stages 3 and 4 • Influx of researchers into the area • Growth of new units and research centres • Specialised journals • Dedicated conferences • Community for fostering debate

6. Structures & processes Changing roles Strategy & policy Staff development Organisational issues E-literacies Mobile & ubiquitous technologies Mobile & ubiquitous technologies New pedagogies The Grid: E-Science The Grid: E-Science Learning design Underpinning technologies Pedagogical aspects Experiences & perceptions Personalised & adaptive Personalised & adaptive Case studies of innovation Standards Standards Infrastructures Infrastructures Models of practice The e-learning landscape

7. Contextual factors • Funding and policy drivers • Cultural dimensions • Subject-specific aspects • Current hot topics • Accessibility • Widening participation • Lifelong learning • E-business • Plagiarism, digital rights, IPR

8. Underpinning technologies • New and emerging technologies • mobile and ubiquitous • intelligent agents • Understanding the media • multiple forms of representation • different characteristics of media • A distributed electronic environment • standards and interoperability • infrastructure and architectures • Access to information • structuring and distributing information • integrating different portals, gateways and resources • exploiting the different communication mechanisms

9. Pedagogical aspects • Student and staff experiences • Best methods of • representing information • Designing and accessing resources • encouraging communication and collaboration • integrating with other learning and teaching methods • Development issues • new forms of literacy • mechanisms for skills updating and development • Understanding the affordances of technologies • Exploring the potential for new forms of pedagogy

10. Organisational issues • Developing models for • mapping institutional structures • supporting institutional processes • sharing knowledge • distributing information • supporting change • engaging different stakeholders • Awareness of external factors • Understanding changing roles and identities • Linking strategy and practice

11. Common characteristics • Change • Political dimension • Interdisciplinary • Access and inclusion • Convergence and interoperability • Interactivity

12. Themes • The good and the bad of ICT • Speed of change • New collaborations and discourses • User focussed • Changing practice • Wider impact

13. Theme I • The good and the bad of ICT • Institutional vs. loosely coupled systems • The affordances of technologies • Appropriateness, fit for purpose • Ownership vs. open source • Simplifying the complex • Balance of content and activity

14. Theme II • Speed of change, the Web in 2010 • Explosion of Web 2.0 (and 3.0 and…) • Immense amounts of information • New tools and resources • The Web for nomads • Predicting the unpredictable • Researching where the light is • A world beyond the Web

15. Theme III • Supporting new collaborations and discourses • New distributed Communities of Practice • Self-sustaining Communities of Practice • Interacting with the media • Tailored and contextualised • Making sense of it all - new forms of digital literacy and the power of narrative

16. Theme IV • Harnessing needs, understanding end users • Adaptive and personalised • Ethnographic approach to users • The (semantic) web of meaning • Supporting the whole learning cycle • The perpetual beta • Developing for the unknowable

17. Theme V • Changing practice • Reflective research/practitioner • Changing roles • Passive to interactive technologies • The need for new organisational structures and processes • How do you motivate people to do this? • New methodologies for design and evaluation

18. Theme VI • Wider impact • New models for society • Blurring of boundaries • Distributed cognition • ‘Compelling’ experiences • A changing world • Technology is here and will continue to have an impact

19. Discipline issues • Variety of feeder disciplines • education research, cognitive psychology, instructional design, computer science, business and management, philosophy, semiotics, critical discourse analysis • Benefits • wealth of methods and approaches • different perspectives • Drawbacks • no shared language and understanding • lack of cohesion to the area

20. Choice of research methods • Tension between • Focus on evaluation or research • Quantitative vs. qualitative approaches • Choice of methodologies • Has an impact on outcomes • Tends to be based on previous experience, favoured methods • Approaches • Exploring individual case studies • Developing generic models • Undertaking systematic reviews • Applying specific theoretical perspectives • Active involvement and action research • Accounting for context - Activity theory, Actor Network Theory

21. Methodological issues • Lack of • rigour • theoretical basis • ‘academic credibility’ • Tensions • between policy makers and practitioners • stakeholders with conflicting agendas • efficiency gains/effectiveness vs improving learning • Research vs. roll out to policy and practice

22. Methodological issues Lack of rigor, anecdotal and case based Tension between quantitative and qualitative Feeder disciplines Wealth of methods No shared language Methodological innovations? New theoretical frameworks

23. Practice Development Resources Theory Learning Enhances Develops Shapes Builds Policy Networks Guides Improves Consolidates Informs Strategy Research

24. Blog: www.e4innovation.com