Virtual Canuck

Dear Colleagues

We are pleased to present another fine issue of the International Review of Research in Open  and Distance Learning.

This issue is packed with 8 research articles and 3 book reviews. You notice as well that all content is formatted in HTML, PDF, MP3 and EPUB to maximize your accessibility and learning. Finally don’t miss the opportunity to download two of the books reviewed in this issue which are available in open access format from www.AUPress.ca

Our thanks (on your behalf) to authors, reviewers and IRRODL staff for their contributions.

We trust you will enjoy and learn from the issue and I hope you go to WWW.IRRODL.ORG to register for free subscription or to volunteer as a reviewer.

Terry Anderson

Editor,

International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning

Athabasca University

Table of Contents

Editorial

Research Articles

Book Notes

The Chronicle of Higher Education interviewed me about  month ago regarding the “new” invention of self-paced learning and this week published the article  Will Technology Kill the Academic Calendar? After spending at least 30 minutes trying to explain distance education to the reporter, he managed to include a single quote from myself. Ironically, he wanted to interview someone with an opposing viewpoint and I suggested my former PhD supervisor Randy Garrison – who got much longer quotes, most of which I don’t agree with- but such is the way of journalists.

First, let me say that I am glad to have attention paid to both the benefits and challenges of self-paced learning. Self-paced (I don’t call it independent study- see below) is the model followed by a small (but growing) number of institutions around the world. However, most online and distance education, like campus based education, is cohort based-even that offered by the mega distance universities.

Self-paced programming maximizes individual freedom. Rather than making the obviously incorrect assumption that all students learn at the same speed, have access and control over their lives to march along with a cohort group of learners or are able, despite divergent life circumstances, to begin and end their study on the same day, self-paced study correctly  puts the learner squarely in control. Distance education clearly deals with geographic distance, but it can also afford  opportunities for individuals to set their own start dates, the type of relationships they develop with teacher and peers and more importantly their own pace of study. However, as has been documented by myself and others, that this freedom comes at cost of procrastination and often results in higher attrition rates.

Randy Garrison and other commentaries in the replies to the article argue that self-paced study denies learners the opportunity to engage in peer debate and discussion and thus leads to superficial learning. I’ll use the remainder of this post to respond to these concerns. (more…)

Here at Athabasca University, we are lining up a series of free, noon-hour webcasting events to celebrate, educate and extend interest and participation in scholarly Open Access activities. This the second annual celebration is in conjunction with the International Open Access week

The times, details and access methods for Athabasca’s sessions are detailed at openaccess.athabascau.ca

The sessions are listed below:

Monday, October 18, 2010
Using Open Production of Course Content to make a Difference.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Open Opportunity through Open Scholarship and Open Publication

Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Open Educational Resources and Copyright

Thursday, October 21, 2010
Managing and Learning in MOOCs (massive open online courses)

Friday, October 22, 2010
Panel on Open Library, Scholarship and Learning at Athabasca University

I hope you will be able to join us for one or more of these sessions.

Terry

I’m wallowing this morning in the short lived glory of an article published yesterday in the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration. My colleagues, Bruno Poellhuber (Univ of Montreal), Ross McKerlich and myself did a survey of students who enrolled in Athabasca in our self paced undergrad program in August 2009. We sent over  3,000 emial invitations and got survey response from over 950 – Not a great return, but not bad either for an online survey- with a draw for two iphones. The study was mant to measure the skills and interest of our students in a variety of social networking and to determine their interest in collaborative work in these individual learning designed programs. Here is the article abstract:

I was surprised at the generally low (but very mixed) self assessment of students in regards to their exposure and competency with various social media tools. As stereotype would predict, the younger males had a higher assessment of their own skills and assessment – but just maybe females assess themselves lower than their actual competencies.

We also noticed a very large split between those interested in collaboration and those who enroll in this type of programming with no expectation or desire to work with others. However the group of social learners is growing- and this even within a self-selected group of students who consciously pick this now rather unique form (continuous enrolment and no group pacing) form of online learning.

This work is part of a larger study aimed at developing real time (web cinferencign) and social networking (using elgg) interventions and assessing their value and adoption in self-paced learning modes of distance education.

Glen Groulx’s question about edu-blogging are inspiring a little Labour Day reflection on my own blogging. Glenn is a prolific and quite exception scholar of educational blogging and it is pleasure to respond to his questions, in small response of the many valuable posts he has distributed on educational blogging.

I started my first blog after returning from a conference in Australia where I presented some ideas on the pivotal role of social networking in distance education (see Social Networking: Distance Education’s Killer App). It became apparent that there was only so much academic pontificating one could do, without actually experiencing social networking. So I was ready to take the plunge. In 2005 edu-blogging was still relatively new, with mostly only innovators/early adopters participating. Still, I remember at the time thinking I was a bit late to the party, but time rolls on. (more…)

Like many educators with a social media agenda, I’m concerned with fear mongering, accusations and sometimes deleterious effects of snooping, stalking and Big Brother invasion of private spaces. The arguments against and the fear of participation in even semi-private networks, such as the ELGG environment we are building at Athabasca University, are real and palatable to a significant percentage of current and potential users. However, potential harm masks an equally large potential for participation, connection and building of social capital. Despite the affordance to control privacy settings offered in ELGG environments, some have argued that they see little point of posting anything as all it does is raise the potential for abuse and misuse. I use this post to expand on arguments over disclosure and surveillance. (more…)

John Hagel and John Seely Brown have come out with yet another in their blockbuster best seller series on innovation, that I found quite enlightening. The book (with 3rd author Lang Davison) is titled The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion. The text is one of this here is how to safe the world and revolutionize your business genre, that I don’t usually find has much value beyond hyperbole. But I liked this book.

The Power of Pull is the capacity for new social and networking technologies to provide the engines by which whole industries, social movements or governments can envision and implement radically different ways of caring out their business or mission. Given the need for change on many fronts (think climate change, end of oil, access to quality postsecondary education etc. etc.) there is certainly opportunity and need for many ‘game-changing’ activities. Pull (as opposed to push products, ideas, or ideologies) is the capacity to find and access people, attract relevant people and resources and pull from ourselves and these aggregations radically improved solutions to existing challenges.  It all sounds very Utopian, right up there with How to Win Friends and Influence People. But the difference between Norman Vincent Peel, and Hagel and Seely is that these guys have the Net and understand its potential to empower change. (more…)

George Siemens and I are putting the final touches on a doctoral and faculty seminar that TEKRI (at Athabasca University) is sponsoring here in Edmonton at the end of June. The seminar features presentations by Athabasca faculty – including George,  Kinshuk, Jon Dron, Dragan Gasevic, myself and special guests Allison Littlejohn Stephen Downes and others. The seminar runs for five days (June 21-25) and features social excursions around Edmonton each evening. For details see the seminar site at https://tekri.athabascau.ca/dr_seminar/ or the seminar poster at Doctoral Seminar poster

The seminar is designed for graduate students and faculty interested in an indepth look at social networking research in education from ed tech and information science perspectives. There is still room and time to register, so please consider coming to Edmonton- it actually is a beautiful city and the solstice summer evenings are wonderful. Also I would be grateful if you would forward or post the poster to colleagues!

Thanks

Terry

I just returned from 10 great days in New Zealand, knocking off a couple of keynotes (Distance Education Assoc of New Zealand and Moodlemoot) and two very fine visits and talks at Massey and Otago universites). Like most visitors I was impressed by the scenery, hospitality, friendliness and strange pronunciations (I couldn’t get used to being called Teary).

A highlight was learning about  Ako Aotearoa (Maori for teaching/learning in New Zealand) the National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence.

I encourage all readers to spend a few minutes on the Ako Aotearoa web site where you will be rewarded with a host of features, resources and ideas including:

Resources: These include reports listed by topic and by discipline. Many of these were commissioned by Ako Aotearoa and written by New Zealand authors. I found the recent Taking The Lead: Strategic Management for e-Learning of particular interest and value for all of us trying to get our heads around the business of e-learning in educational institutions.

Projects: Funding for small scale research and development projects is critical to stimulate innovators and early adopters to explore and define effective use of new technologies and pedagogies. This area also lists calls for and results of small-medium sized ($10-100,00) research projects.

Communities Though the e-learning forum doesn’t seem overly active, the opportunity to ask questions, voice concerns and other ways communicate with colleagues in the development of a network of practice is critically important for real change.

Awards Ako funds National Excellence in Tertiary teaching award competition with individual awards up to $30,000 (OK, they are New Zealand dollars but still….)

Regional Hub Activities Though by Canadian standards, New Zealand is a small country, they still recognize regional differences and thus support staff and activities in three regional hub cities.

Maori teaching Hub Maori language, culture and opportunities permeate New Zealand popular and institutional culture in much more visible and profound ways than we see First Nations influence in Canada. This is reflected in a set of resources for teachers from Maori background.

Good Practice E-Book. Ako funds post-secondary faculty members $3,000 each to compose 2,000 word good practice chapters on a host of topics relevant to teaching and learning in tertiary education. The results are a very impressive e-book with 30 chapters online  and still growing.

As you will see after a few fruitful moments on this website, New Zealand is doing a great job of supporting the development of high quality teaching and learning in tertiary education. By contrast in Canada we have no National support for teaching and learning at any level and none of the provinces come close to matching the resources and services available in New Zealand. Ako Aotearoa’s 2008 Annual report lists a budget of $4,729,000 (approx. $3.2 million Canadian) for all of the services noted above. One can contrast this with the ill fated Canada Council on Learning (CCL) which was allocated $85 million (though I understand they even failed to spend it all! ) before loosing further support from the Conservative government. Admittedly, CCL’s mandate was much broader than tertiary education, but there accomplishments, as measured by New Zealand standards were much less.

I only hope we can learn from New Zealand and manage to devise a strategy, rather than the current tragedy, to leverage the ingenuity, technology and resources of Canadian higher edcuation system to not just compete but really lead globally in the critical function of lifelong learning for the 21st Century.