OpenEd – Opportunities for Change: Reflections, Analysis and Discussions

1. ALTO UK OpenEd – Opportunities for Change:Reflections, Analysis and Discussions Map Image from the University of Texas at Austin Authors John Casey,

2. The State of the Art • Cuts, Cuts, Cuts • Greater student numbers • More diverse students • Endangered subjects – a narrowing curriculum • Working harder – reaching the limits of the possible

3. Longer Term Trends • Massification of an old elite system • Contradictions • Transparency and accountability • Commodification of education (new entrants) • Technology – Geronimo’s Cadillac?

4. Technology as part of a fundamental shift in education Current Practice (subsistence) Future Practice (sustainable) Really About Process Change - think of Open as an enabler

5. Avoiding the Rhetoric of Crisis There is a lot that is good about our education system… This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. Martin Weller http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/2012/04/education-the-language-of-change.html

6. Use the Rhetoric of Opportunity – but Deal with TINA! There is a also lot that is long overdue for change… Picture By Stavros Markopoulos @ http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=447602329&size=o

7. OpenEd as a Motor of Change? Impacts on many critical factors simultaneously: • Pedagogy • Culture (personal, departmental, disciplinary, institutional) • Tech Infrastructure • Digital Professionalism (aka Digi. Literacy) • Media Literacy • Policy (IPR, HR, PR, Quality, Inclusion) • Strategy (Markets, Efficiency, £Budget) • Management A Systemic Disruptor – can be very useful…

8. Critical Observations About Technology and Change Attempts to implement e-learning reveal underlying problems in structure and and culture – reification (Pollock & Cornford, 2000) Assumptions are often incorrect (UK e-U crash of 2004) Many technologies carry a strong organisational and pedagogical model – beware (Freisen, 2004) Ineffective without the necessary changes in the structure of institutions and changes to working practices, needs top-down action Obstacles are philosophical, pedagogical, political, and organisational - the technical issues are comparatively trivial (e.g. Phoenix) Concentration on technical issues is often a ‘displacement activity’ Tradition, dominant groups and vested interests delay and obstruct new knowledge and practices (Kuhn, 1996)

9. So, What does Your E-learning System Look Like? senior management engaged accurate MIS information Functional teaching and research separate management by analysis long-term techno-skeptic systematic sustainable evaluation collective core business design once use many E-learning no evaluation design once use once techno-fetish individual Business not understood unsustainable short-term fragmented management by budget teaching and research conflated Dysfunctional ‘enterprise’ rhetoric but no decent MIS senior management disengaged

10. Benefits of OpenEd: Staff, Students, Institution • A public portfolio of published work, • Supports teaching and learning across the institution [MIT] • Showcase - networking and attracting new students [Brazil/MIT/OU] • Prospective students making well-informed choices = better retention rates • Link with national and international communities of practice [OU] • Development of instructional design skills [Key for Flex / Blended] • Frees up time to concentrate on teaching rather than content. • Sharing experiences – a positive professional development activity [Quality] • A valuable form of institutional ‘memory’ • Institutional recognition and reputation public service reputation • Encourage cross college/disciplinary collaboration • Passing on subject knowledge and teaching expertise • A driver for cultural change that can also help develop policy

11. Visualisation Tools to Support a Systems Approach to Change Basic Systems Analysis and Audit Tool to support an ethnographical approach, Casey, Proven and Dripps 2006 derived from van der Klink & Jochems, 2004

12. References, Guides & Provenances van der Klink, M., & Jochems, W. (2004) Management and organisation of integrated e-learning in Integrated E-Learning: implications for pedagogy, technology and organisation, Jochems, W., van Merriënboer, J., and Koper, R., Routledge & Falmer, London, Casey, J., Proven, J., Dripps, D. (2006) Modeling Organisational Frameworks for Integrated E-Learning: The Experience of the TrustDR Project. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT2006) (pp.1216-1220). Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE. Pollock, N. & Cornford, J. 2000. Theory and Practice of the Virtual University: report on UK universities use of new technologies. In ARIADNE issue 24. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/virtual-universities/ UK eUniversity: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2004/jun/23/elearning.technology1 Friesen, N. (2004) Three Objections to Learning Objects and E-Learning Standards. In McGreal, R. (Ed.) Online Education Using Learning Objects. London: Routledge. Pp. 59-70. Draft version online at: http://www.learningspaces.org/n/papers/objections.html Kuhn, T. 1996 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press. Map of Samoa from the University of Texas at Austin collection of maps – free to use and adapt