“Will you place it there?" development of distance learning and use of learning management

systems at the upper secondary level in Iceland

June 12th 2010

Valencia

EDEN 2010 Annual Conference

Sólveig Jakobsdóttir, Associate professor, University of Iceland – School of Education,

soljak@hi.is

Kristín Helga Guðmundsdóttir, manager, Fjarkennsla.com, Iceland, samvil@simnet.is

A Summary of Headings (ASH)

• Few facts: Iceland, Internet use, education

• Introduction to the study

• The main focus of this presentation

• Results from interviews with 25 teachers 2007

• Trends from 2005 to 2009

– Results from interviews with 31

administrators

• Summary and Discussion

Few facts: Iceland, Internet, Education

• Population 320.000.

• The size is100.000 sqkm.

• Latitude – northerly 61-66°N.

• Reykjavík capital

• 93% of Icelanders reported using Internet, 100%

age 16-34, 2009.

• 31 upper secondary schools and half of the

schools are in the capital area where the majority

of the population lives.

Context

• Rapid changes in distance

education 1997-2008 – Students registered as distance

learners at the upper secondary

level in Iceland increased from 2%,

1997 to 24% 2008 and 22% 2009.

– Government policy 2001, 2005

facilitate distributed learning – study

anytime, anywhere.

• Some have questioned the

quality of distance education

(programs mainly run online)

at this school level.

Study: Mapping DE changes

• A. Principals or key DE admin,2005, 2006, 2009:

– all 29 schools, fall 2009 same schools plus two new

ones – 31 total. Telephone interviews

– Information: overall picture, technology, changes,

advantages, drawbacks to use of DE and LMS

• B. Teachers and students 2007

– Six schools (location, type of school, LMS).

– 25 teachers and 53 students interviewed

(most via phone) from six schools.

– More in-depth view of teaching and learning

Results reported earlier

Jakobsdóttir, S., Jónsson, S. F., Elfarsdóttir, T., &

Jóhannesdóttir, S. (2007). Regatta for life and

learning? Trends and blends in distance education

at the secondary level in Iceland. In A. Gaskell & A.

Tait (Eds.), The 12th Cambridge International

Conference on Open and Distance Learning.

Jakobsdóttir, S. (2008). Waltzing from needs and

necessity to comfort and convenience: Online and

distance learning at the upper secondary level. In J.

Luca & E. R. Weippl (Eds.), Proceedings of World

Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and

Telecommunications..

Among earlier results

• 2005-2006 Big range:

• “DE groups” 1 to 5

• LMS’s, videoconferences

• Blends: online+f2f

• Increase in use of LMS’s, and DE

• Students: number and type

• 2007: student voices: why DE – needs and

necessities to comfort and convenience

The focus of our paper

• How do teachers regard distance, online and

blended learning and/or the use of LMS for

teaching and learning?

• What are the main changes in the schools

concerning distance, online and blended

learning and the use of LMS's at the upper

secondary level in Iceland from 2005 to 2009?

Results from interviews with teachers, 2007

Attitude regarding distance education (DE)

Benefits

• Increased opportunities for small schools in rural

areas.

• Increased flexibility - coordinate residence,

family, work and study.

• Students learn new practices.

• Increased freedom for teachers and be labor

saving in the long run.

... Attitude regarding distance education

Drawbacks • Increased workload for teachers and isolation.

• Insufficient teacher-student interaction and

student-student interaction

• Is not for everyone – not all schools or learners.

• Greater risk of students: cheating and dropout.

• Technical problems.

DE requires self-control and maturity in students.

... Attitude regarding distance education

Improvements

• Plan the DE programs well in the beginning.

• Get teachers´ team who teach the same subject

to design DE courses.

• Increase communication in the courses.

• Improve teachers' knowledge in information

technology.

• Increase technical assistance in the schools.

• Develop student assessment further.

LMS and its role

• Teachers are beginning to use LMS to manage

the courses taught both in face to face programs

and in DE programs

– Putting teaching material in LMS,

communicate with students, using interactive

tests and ratings of students.

– Mostly using only part of the built-in features.

Modified teaching methods – blended

learning

• Use of LMS appears to affect teaching.

• Changing from traditional learning to blended

learning.

• Rethinking use of f2f lessons

• Rethinking student assessment – more

continuous throughout the course

Modified teaching methods – blended

learning

Teacher:

“Face to face students often ask. Is this in LMS,

will you place it there?”

Teacher:

“teachers are using LMS and the kids are

beginning to becoming addicted to this ...

It is a pressure on teachers ... I understand that

time is changing...“

Administrators attitude regarding the use of

LMS’s

• The administrators tended to be very pleased

with the use of the LMS’s.

• LMS improves information flow between

teachers and students both in DE and in face to

face teaching.

• Financial cuts in relation to DE after 2008.

The choice of LMS

9

11

7

5

3

10

11

10

3 3

2 2 2

3

11

14

12

2

0 0 0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

2005 2006 2009 2010-11 (projected)

Commercial Foreign Commercial Icelandic Homemade Icelandic Open Source Moodle None

Choice of LMS

2006

• The language (Icelandic).

• Access and user-friendly

interface.

• Development and adaptions.

• Connection with other

systems.

• Cost.

• Timing/history (best system

when chosen).

• Eexperiencee.

• Ideology (open source).

2009

• COST

• Experience of others

Effects of the Financial Crash

• Administrators in schools with DE students were worried because DE financial cuts (50%).

• Some were trying to minimize the effects for the learners involved –even if it cost the schools money, hoping that the situation would improve within a year or two.

• Main DE groups affected were distance learners from the lower secondary level – who had been doing very well (low drop-out); and/or adult learners

• DE and use of LMS’s have been thriving at the upper secondary level in Iceland. The financial crash is having effects in various ways on that development.

• Issues of quality are important.

• Collaboration between schools should be explored.

Summary and Discussion

• Most participants were positive towards distance

education and although they think it does not

suit everyone – not all schools or learners.

• Schools are starting to rely on LMS’s and there

is increased use of them in all schools among

learners, teachers and administrators.

• Clear trend towards the use of open source

software is evident probably to a large extent as

a result of the financial crash.

Project Leader

• Sólveig Jakobsdóttir, Associate professor, University of

Iceland – School of Education, soljak@hi.is

Other Researchers

• 2009: Kristín H. Guðmundsdóttir, Fjarkennsla.com

• 2006-2007: Sigurður Fjalar Jónsson, Sigurbjörg

Jóhannesdóttir, G. Þórhildur Elvarsdóttir

• The study was supported by the Iceland University of

Education (IUE) Research Fund. IUE merged with

University of Iceland (UI) July 2008 to form the UI -

School of Education.

Acknowledgement

Thanks to you – our audience

To all of our study participants