Dr. George Veletsianos Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning & Technology

Associate Professor School of Education and Technology Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC

eLearn Center– Open University of Catalonia, September 30, 2013

The significant opportunities and challenges that learners,

educators, researchers, and learning institutions are facing in the

age of "open" and "connected"

Gràcies per la seva hospitalitat i per la

invitació a passar temps amb eLearn

Center

School of Education and Technology http://tinyurl.com/RRUMALAT

The MOOC phenomenon

•  MOOCs & rise of “edtech”

– A symptom or a solution?

Contemporary universities are facing numerous powerful forces that may

shape their future.

a worldwide economic downturn

globalization and competition

changing demographics

curtailment of public funding

pressures for accountability

impact of emerging technologies

(Morrison, 2003; Schwier, 2012; Siemens & Matheos, 2010; Spanier, 2010).

a worldwide economic downturn

globalization and competition

changing demographics

curtailment of public funding

pressures for accountability

impact of emerging technologies

(Morrison, 2003; Schwier, 2012; Siemens & Matheos, 2010; Spanier, 2010).

An increasing desire by faculty

members, educators, &

designers to “do better” to “do

more”

What is our opportunity?

•  To be involved in the design of future educational systems. How?

– Advocacy – Partnerships – Design & Development – Research

Higher Education in 2012-2013:

Sense of urgency. And tension.

Techno-enthusiasm & techno-determinism* dominate

e.g., Technology will ____________

Narratives of disruption & revolution

(*skeptics != naysayers)

Disaggregation & Unbundling

“Whether the practice is called

outsourcing, contracting out, or

privatizing, the impact is the

same. Food services, health

care, the bookstore…endless

array of activities that

universities used to manage…”

Kirp,  .L  (2003).  Shakespeare,  Einstein,  and  the  Bo3om  Line:  The  Marke9ng  of  Higher  Educa9on.  

Cambridge,  MA:  Harvard  University  Press    

“Online program management services”

The role of the faculty member

The roles of instructional designers, tutors, instructors

“academic freedom, shared governance, a livable wage, greater job security for non-tenure-track faculty teaching and scholarship cannot be fully unbundled…”

Academic Advisor, Mentor, Coach Instructor/Instructional Technologist Professor/Instructional Designer

Course assistants Teaching assistants

What is our opportunity?

•  To prepare learning designers for a new era of educational technology

Efficiency. Automation. And robots.

Open Practices

Open Education Open Scholarship

Networked Participatory Scholarship: “scholars’ use of participatory technologies and online social networks to share, reflect upon, critique, improve, validate, and further their scholarship” (Veletsianos& Kimmons, 2012)

Open courses & Open teaching

Veletsianos (2013); Veletsianos & Kimmons 2012, 2013

Announcements

Draft papers

Open textbooks

Syllabi + Activities

Live streaming Live-Blogging

Collaborative authoring

Debates + commentary

Open teaching

Public P&T materials

The doctoral journey (e.g., #PhDChat)

Crowdsourcing

What do they share?

Why do they share?

•  Faculty use blogs to: – Explore scholarly ideas (Kirkup, 2010) – Re-envision their identities as public

intellectuals (Kirkup, 2010) – Share knowledge (Kjellberg, 2010) – Connect with other researchers (Kjellberg,

2010) – Reach multiple audiences (Kjellberg, 2010;

Martindale & Wiley, 2005)

Open Sharing

The  open  web  is  a  monstrous  place  

The  open  web  is  a  wondrous  place  

Identity & Participation

“I made it [Facebook] this hybrid space ... and sometimes it's really annoying. … I keep thinking I should be writing or looking at data, and I'm doing this! … I created the conundrum that I live in now.”

“My position [as a professor] is building a community of teachers that I talk to ... where you can share, and so [participation in these spaces] makes total sense.”

“All the [expletive] is not really worth it. … I think that it's okay for students to not know everything about their professor. … [These practices] add to the complexity of those who struggle with the home-work balance and the ... technology pull. … I don't have time for you. “

Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2013

Designing for Learner Experiences

What is it like to participate in open online learning?

Veletsianos, G. (2013). Learner Experiences with MOOCs and Open Online Learning. Hybrid Pedagogy. Retrieved on Sept 29, 2013 from http://learnerexperiences.hybridpedagogy.com.

Key takeaways

•  We should be asking students to do a discipline, not just read about it.

•  In the frenzy surrounding the rise of “edtech” and MOOCs, it seems that student voices and experiences are rarely considered.

•  To gain a holistic understanding of learner experiences researchers need to use multiple methodologies.

•  Macro (Kizilcec, Piech, Schneider, 2013) •  Learners were: “Auditing, Completing. Disengaging, Sampling”

•  Micro •  “[I was] left with a partial sense of accomplishment and feelings of hollowness and incompleteness.”

Key takeaways

The realities of open online learning are different from the hopes of open online learning.

We only have small pieces of an incomplete mosaic of students’ learning experiences with open online learning.

What do we want learner experiences to look like?

Thank you!

www.veletsianos.com

@veletsianos on Twitter

veletsianos@gmail.com