Online Education Tidbits

1. Online Education Tidbits • This presentation provides30 pointed citations from the book: • Online Education and Learning Management Systems • Global E-learning in a Scandinavian Perspective • By Morten Flate Paulsen Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

2. About the book • This book comprises a rich variety of material, perspectives, insights and assessments. Valid information can be found there for researchers, for students in the field, for teachers, for managers and for politicians who are looking for reliable knowledge. It is very clear in its structure and arguments. In strategic and policy terms it discusses issues at the forefront of current debate… (Wagner, Page 14) Introductory Part Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

3. Online education surpassing Old Traditional University Introductory Part Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

4. About higher education • …a Sloan Consortium study of online learning in American higher education shows that 97.6% of all public higher education institutions in the USA offer online learning degree programmes and courses, either as fully online programmes or as hybrid (blended) formats . But even if most European and Scandinavian universities are dragging their feet, online learning will eventually be pushed onto the classical campuses by their student constituencies and the hard-hearted forces of the higher education market. (Nipper, Page 204) Introductory Part Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

5. About melting pots • …online education may facilitate collaboration and stimulate discussion between people, cultures, institutions, and subject areas. It is like a melting pot for educators. Young professionals who now enter the field of online education should use these opportunities to learn from, and build on, all the experience and controversies that come from this melting pot. (Interview with Author) Introductory Part Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

6. About export • …in Australia, the official strategy is to develop education to become the second largest export industry. In the Nordic countries, however, the export of education does not seem to be an issue for public discussion. (Page 20) Introductory Part Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

7. About misapprehensions • One of the most obvious misapprehensions about online courses is that they should take place in front of a PC. Most online students spend much more time studying textbooks and preparing assignments than surfing the Internet. Even though both text and video can be presented online, paper is often a better medium for text and television is better for presenting video. Still, there is a tendency among online educators to substitute excellent textbooks with mediocre Web material and superb videocassettes with a tiny, degenerated PC-version of the video. Introductory Part Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

8. About lurkers • An online teacher once complained jokingly that he had too many lurkers in his discussion forums and that too few online students dared to expose themselves. Introductory Part Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

9. The online teacher’s workload Part One : Online Education, Teaching and Learning Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

10. About nightmares • Online education offers students excellent opportunities for individual communication with their tutors. They can be contacted via e-mail 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Few learning environments provide such opportunities for individual access to teachers. It is obvious that online students appreciate always having a personal tutor available. It is the students’ dream, but it could soon become a nightmare for the tutors. Part One : Online Education, Teaching and Learning Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

11. Sustainable online education is characterized by its ability to persist when extraordinary internal or external funding stops. Unfortunately, it seems to be a rare phenomenon. In most cases online education is sustainable when it generates an economic surplus or reduces costs. About sustainability Part One : Online Education, Teaching and Learning Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

12. About flexibility • Today’s students often have full-time jobs and families to take care of and many are reluctant to participate if it means relinquishing high-quality family life and job achievements. They need flexible education: education that allows them to combine job, family, and education in a manageable way. (Page 42) Part One : Online Education, Teaching and Learning Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

13. Both studies show that online students have better average grades and a lower percentage of failing grades. This does not necessarily show that online courses were better than traditional part-time courses, but it shows that online learning seems to work very well for students who have chosen to study online. (Page 55) About grades Part One : Online Education, Teaching and Learning Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

14. In correspondence courses, teachers are accustomed to mail carriers who deliver mail once a day. Online teachers, however, may receive e-mail 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This online immediacy results in student demand for swifter responses and, hence, a heavier workload for teachers. (Page 70) About teacher workload Part One : Online Education, Teaching and Learning Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

15. In traditional education and training allocation of resources is controlled by the “ringing of the bell”. (Page 70) About bells Part One : Online Education, Teaching and Learning Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

16. You are going to work harder in teaching a course online, at least the first time.... Being a “virtual” professor is a little bit like parenthood. You are “on duty” all the time, and there seems to be no end to the demands on your time and energy. (Page 70) About parenthood Part One : Online Education, Teaching and Learning Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

17. The Troll with three heads: Learning, Management and System Part Two: Commercial and Self-developed LMS Systems Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

18. About constraints • …it is important to understand that LMS systems may be built on very different pedagogical methods and theories and that these underlying constraints may influence and limit the systems pedagogical use. (Page 32) Part Two: Commercial and Self-developed LMS Systems Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

19. About Straitjackets • “Straitjackets!” a friend of mine hissed with malice in his voice, when I discussed [LMS systems] with him the other day. (Page 207) Part Two: Commercial and Self-developed LMS Systems Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

20. About student management systems • …the Student Management System is the central, most important system for large-scale online education. For historical, legal, and financial reasons, the SMS system is the most important system for an educational institution. Hence, all other systems that offer online education services should rely on the SMS system as the master system with which they exchange data. (Page 30) Part Two: Commercial and Self-developed LMS Systems Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

21. About economic success • The analysis revealed few, if any, examples of institutions with substantial income from student fees. Likewise, there seem to be few institutions that can claim that provision of Web-based courses has been an economic success, if they disregard external research and development grants. (Page 129) Part Two: Commercial and Self-developed LMS Systems Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

22. About spread of e-learning • Evidence of the worldwide spread of e-learning in recent years is easy to obtain. In April 2003, no fewer than 66,000 fully online courses and 1,200 complete online programs were listed on the TeleCampus portal…(Page 140) Part Two: Commercial and Self-developed LMS Systems Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

23. About loyalty • The institutions do not seem to be especially loyal to, or dependent on, one LMS system. The majority of the institutions had changed system, planned to change system, or operated secondary systems. (Page 152) Part Two: Commercial and Self-developed LMS Systems Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

24. About Danish culture • …the organisational and pedagogical concepts underpinning most modern LMS systems fit badly with Danish educational culture and with the way Danish educational institutions traditionally organise learner support and learner management. (Page 207) Part Two: Commercial and Self-developed LMS Systems Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

25. American educational imperialism Part Three: Global E-learning in a Nordic Perspective Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

26. About imperialism • In the US, online educators tend to perceive the Internet as their home market. In the Nordic countries, educators regard it as an opportunity to study online courses from the United States. If these countries do not change their attitudes, they may soon experience a disturbing form of, American instructional imperialism. The Nordic countries are in several ways ahead of the US with regard to online education. Still, it is quite possible that American online tutors will dominate online education in the Nordic countries, just as American textbooks already dominate Nordic higher education. Part Three: Global E-learning in a Nordic Perspective Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

27. About service industries • …the concept of online learning as a service industry may well be the most important lesson that Nordic providers of online education could take from their Canadian counterparts. (Page 303) Part Three: Global E-learning in a Nordic Perspective Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

28. About living words • [Third Generation Distance Learning] was firmly rooted in a longstanding Danish tradition for learning through ‘the living word’ (as opposed to the printed word). (Page 199) Part Three: Global E-learning in a Nordic Perspective Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

29. About collaborative learning • The development of a collaborative learning program is much faster and many factors less expensive than the development of a CBT course. (Page 201) Part Three: Global E-learning in a Nordic Perspective Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

30. About Achilles’ heels • The Achilles’ heel of Collaborative Learning is that it scales so badly. And the ability to scale in a controlled and manageable way is a substantial and timely requirement in Danish online learning right now...(Page 201) Part Three: Global E-learning in a Nordic Perspective Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

31. About people and systems • … the very concept of systems which manage learning is something strange to Danish educational thinking. Systems should be used to support learning. The management of learning activities and learning players is best left with people. (Page 205) Part Three: Global E-learning in a Nordic Perspective Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

32. About compliancy • Is your lecture today SCORM compliant, Professor? (Page 206) Part Three: Global E-learning in a Nordic Perspective Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

33. About collisions • …the universities will need seamless and powerful integration of their online learning environments and their student management systems. [We] will see two worlds collide in this process: The world of the teaching staff and the world of the university administrations. Part Three: Global E-learning in a Nordic Perspective Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

34. Industrialized online education Part Four: Trends and Future Developments Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

35. About scale • The current mega trend shows clearly that online education is shifting from small-scale experiments to large-scale operations. (Page 272) Part Four: Trends and Future Developments Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

36. About bandwidth • The analysis shows that there is an obvious request for additional bandwidth and better multimedia abilities. (Page 275) Part Four: Trends and Future Developments Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

37. About evolution • All are evolutionary developments that were visible 15 years ago and not really hard to predict. The only really revolutionary development in online education during this period was the introduction of the Web. This technological development, which nobody foresaw, emerged as the development with the largest impact on online education. (Page 286) Part Four: Trends and Future Developments Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

38. About text • Even though we have experienced tremendous developments in online education during the last 15 years, it is interesting to observe that written communication, perhaps the most important part of online teaching and learning, has not changed much. Most communication still consists of plain text, and the time it takes to turn on the computer, receive e-mail and compose messages has not been reduced. (Page 287) Part Four: Trends and Future Developments Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

39. About speech synthesis • The recent development in speech synthesis has made it so understandable and user-friendly that more learners may benefit from it. These include blind students, dyslectic students, and students who for example spend much time in a car. It is conceivable that in the future it would be just as easy and inexpensive to “speech” a text as it is to print it. (Page 292) Part Four: Trends and Future Developments Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

40. About mice • …campus-based students are increasingly voting with their mouse and taking significant parts of their undergraduate degrees online from other institutions. (Page 303) Part Four: Trends and Future Developments Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

41. About penetration and money • Online education becomes mainstream education in Scandinavia. Before year 2000, typical universities piloted a few online courses with some pioneering students. Today, many higher education institutions are implementing online education services to all their students. Even primary schools offer online services to many teachers, students, and parents. This illustrates that the current mega trend in online education is the transition from small-scale experiments to large-scale operations. Still, few institutions can claim that the provision of Web-based courses has been an economic success. So, to obtain a sound economy for large-scale operation, some sort of industrialization of online education must be considered. Part Four: Trends and Future Developments Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com

42. Ordering information • You may order the book from • www.nkiforlaget.no Paulsen, M. F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems www.studymentor.com