When ‘us’ and ‘them’ become one: Reflecting on disruptions in
learning space-time
Gregor Kennedy
The University of Melbourne
An ODLAA perspective?
Fostering an insidious link between quality and exclusivity
The Buzz
The Online Learning World Changed
A Small Explosion
A Slow Burn then a Small Explosion
http://cmadland.wikispaces.com/file/view/MOOC
Long time coming …
These changes reflect, and have been accompanied by a range of changes in the higher education landscape:
•‘Mass’ participation in more vocationally-oriented education system
• A‘deregulated’ higher education sector
• Increasingly competitive, global higher education market
• Increasing Higher Education costs … to the student
• The gradual maturing of online learning
• Rapid technological change and adoption
• OER : Free, high quality, online content (esp. instructional lectures)
• Reinvigorated learning analytics – adaptive tutoring
• Cheap or alternative credentialing
Disruptions in Learning Space & Time
Changes in the Online learning landscape
Changes in the Higher Education landscape
Changes in the relationship between “student” and “university”
Operational RelationshipFunctional Relationship
The Student and the Institution
Functional
Why do students attend University?
What do students see as the value of higher education?
Operational
How do students attend University?
How do students engage and interact with the University?
The Functional Relationship
Why do students attend University?
The Functional Relationship
James, Krause & Jennings (2010)
Why do students attend University?
The Functional Relationship
Norton (2012)
The Functional Relationship
Norton (2012)
Undergraduate : School Leaver : Arts Student
The Functional Relationship
Norton (2012)
Postgraduate : Professional Entry: Health Science Student
The Student and the Institution
Functional
Why do students attend University?
What do students see as the value of higher education?
From Norton’s perspective there are
at least 10 different reasons
– or “sub products” –
why students might attend University.
Different students see different value
in going to University.
The Student and the Institution
Operational
How do students attend University?
How do students engage and interact with the University?
The Operational Relationship
“There has been a significant decline in the amount of time first year students spend on campus…”
“On average, course contact hours have declined…”
“Time spent in private study has declined…”
“Only half of the students report feeling like they belong on their university campus...”
“One of the standout changes over time is the number of hours students spend online”
The First Year Experience in Australian Universities:Findings from 1994 to 2009
(James, Krause & Jennings, 2010, p.35)
Digital Native Students?
There is no evidence that there is a single new generation of young students entering
Higher Education and the terms
Net Generation and Digital Native
do not capture the processes of change that are taking place.
International Research
Jones & Shao (2011)
Another way of thinking about students:
- Numerous - Time poor - Working- Diverse - Strategic - Off campus
The Non-Digital Natives Students
- Access - Immediate - Flexible- Individualised - Relevant - Convenient
Mobile and Web technologies are used by students
as essential tools to support and enhance
their University and learning experiences
Where Students Learn
On CampusOut of Class
Off campusOut of Class
Off CampusIn Class
On CampusIn Class
Mobile and Web technologies are used by students
as essential tools to support and enhance
their University and learning experiences
Disruptions in Learning Space & Time
Changes in the Online learning landscape
Changes in the Higher Education landscape
Changes in the relationship between “student” and “university”
Operational RelationshipFunctional Relationship
A disruption of learning space and time
Traditional Learning Space and Time
Disruptions of Learning Space
www.sunway.com http://www.eecs.mit.edu/images/big-stata18.jpg
Do we need (to fund) Physical Space?
October 4, 2012
Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans has questioned whether the government should keep funding universities’ building programs as higher education rapidly moves online.
Physical vs Virtual Learning Space
Physical Virtual
1. Speed 2. Phase 3. Synchronicity
Disruptions of Learning Time
http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/relativity-ig-3.jpg
Disruptions of Learning Time: Speed
source: www.edudemic.com
Speed
Always Connected
ΙΙΙ
Immediate Access
Fast Response
Anytime
Anywhere
Any screen
Phase
• Intensives
• Semesterisation
• Modeularisation
• Summer School
Synchronicity
• Lecture Recordings
• Discussion Boards
• Presentation Tools
• Online Video
• Wikis
• Blogs
• Online Assessment Tests
• Google Docs
• Plagiarism Detection Tools
• Web Conferencing
• Survey Tools
• Social Networking Tools
• Podcasting
• File Sharing Tools
• Instant Messaging
• Social Bookmarking
• Texting
• Polls and Clickers
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
•We are experiencing a disruption in learning space and time….
•A disruption in …
The life and role of campus
Use of teaching spaces
Speed of learning
Phase of learning
Synchronicity of learning
So what …
So what …
• Possible implications for …
1. How different universities think about the ‘delivery’ of teaching and learning.
2. How we think about learning space design and student engagement.
3. The important elements of a University education and the ‘essential’
ingredients of teaching and learning practice.
Research intensive, comprehensive, campus-based Universities
When ‘Us’ become ‘Them’
Online and Distance Education Providers
Learning Space Design
1. Comfort
2. Aesthetics
3. Flow
4. Equity
5. Blending
6. Affordances
7. Repurposing
La Trobe University
Spaces for knowledge generation.
University of Technology Sydney
Learning Space Design
University of Melbourne
Learning Space Design
• The message: not less space … but different space
• The spaces being created are:
- comfortable
- collaborative
- technology imbued
- flexible
• Goal : Make the campus‘sticky’
Learning Space Design
Draw students into centralised space;
engage and then hold them when they get here
• Implications for the important elements of a University education and the ‘essential ingredients of teaching and learning practice.
Implications for Teaching & Learning
So what are these important elements or essential ingredients?
Implications for Teaching & Learning
• Engagement with a scholarly community; time to engage with the public debate about the issues of the day; opportunities for extra or co-curriculuar activities (sport, music, theatre, politics, religion, clubs, community service).
• Interaction with an expert: dialogue between, and activities among teachers and learners within the structure of a curriculum involving teaching, questioning, advising, facilitating, articulating, demonstrating, guiding, observing, and the provision of feedback along the way.
• Independent learning and reflection; self-directed learning and inquiry; individually, in pairs or in groups; semi-structured study undertaken independent of the teacher as part of a cohort.
• Access to high quality, often curated, content and resources (books, reading packs, library databases, web resources, specialised software, cases, judgments, specimens, musical performances, etc).
• Assessment and, eventually, accreditation.
Implications for Teaching & Learning
• Engagement with a scholarly community; time to engage with the public debate about the issues of the day; opportunities for extra or co-curriculuar activities (sport, music, theatre, politics, religion, clubs, community service).
• Interaction with an expert: dialogue between, and activities among teachers and learners within the structure of a curriculum involving teaching, questioning, advising, facilitating, articulating, demonstrating, guiding, observing, and the provision of feedback along the way.
• Independent learning and reflection; self-directed learning and inquiry; individually, in pairs or in groups; semi-structured study undertaken independent of the teacher as part of a cohort.
• Access to high quality, often curated, content and resources (books, reading packs, library databases, web resources, specialised software, cases, judgments, specimens, musical performances, etc).
• Assessment and, eventually, accreditation.
Implications for Teaching & Learning
Scholarly Community
Expert Interaction
Access to content and resources
Assessment and Accreditation
Independent learning and reflection
SpeedPhase
Synchronicity
Cam
pus
Teaching Space
Implications for Teaching & Learning
Scholarly Community
Expert Interaction
Access to content and resources
Assessment and Accreditation
Independent learning and reflection
Do I need to come to campus? Do I need to attend classes?Can I get it done quickly?
Can
I ge
t it o
nlin
e?
Can I do it online?
Implications for Teaching & Learning
Access to content and resources
Independent learning and reflection
Do I need to come to campus? Do I need to attend classes?
Can
I ge
t it o
nlin
e?
Can I do it online?
Implications for Teaching & Learning
Expert Interaction
Assessment and Accreditation
Do I need to come to campus? Do I need to attend classes?
Can I do it online?
Implications for Teaching & Learning
Scholarly Community
Do I need to come to campus? Do I need to attend classes?
Expert Interaction
Implications for Teaching & Learning
Independent learning and reflection
Can I get it done quickly?
And annoyingly, it varies by …
envisionwealth.wordpress.com
iconhot.com
desktop-icon.com
large-icons.com
And it varies by …
enro
lmen
ts
And by Students’ Priorities
And there are bargains to be made…
AccessQuality
Cost
Scholarly Community
Expert Interaction
Access to content and resources
Assessment and Accreditation
Independent learning and reflection
Campus OnlineExpert Accredit Content IDLScholar
Face-to-Face
Free
Wholly Online
Campus OnlineExpert Accredit Content IDLScholar
Campus OnlineExpert Accredit Content IDLScholar
Negotiating Forms of Higher Education
Free
Campus OnlineExpert Accredit Content IDLScholar
Campus OnlineExpert Accredit Content IDLScholar
Campus OnlineExpert Accredit Content IDLScholar
80%
5%
15%
Negotiating Forms of Higher Education
Wholly Online
Face-to-Face
Conclusion 1
• Traditional practices are being disrupted, not just by the Internet, but by a range of socio-cultural-political movements in the tectonic plates over the last 50 years.
http://www.civildefence.govt.nz/memwebsite07.nsf/
Conclusion 2
• All universities now need to negotiate how to provide open and distance learning, and how this is integrated with their existing delivery mechanisms and current teaching and learning practice.
Conclusion 3
• The role of‘campus’ is being challenged.
• The re-design and reinvigoration of physical space is seen as one way to attract and hold students on campus.
• But if the campus is to remain a central part of students’ University experience, then the events and activities that Universities and their educators design into campus spaces need to be seen by students as required, relevant and valuable.
Conclusion 4
• We need to understand and be clearer about the essential ingredients of high quality teaching and learning in all its forms: face-to-face, free and online.
• The ODLAA and ASCILITE communities in Australasia lead the charge here … improving staff understanding of learning design through eLearning and online learning.
• We need much more explicit about this;
And how it might be differentially valuable to a diverse range of students,
And importantly, we need to communicate to students what is valuable.
Us and Them
“Lord Rees of Ludlow, Astronomer Royal and former president of the Royal Society, also doubted whether MOOCs would affect teaching methods at Cambridge. ‘The lecturer can be replaced by distance learning - what cannot be is seminars or tutorials,’ he said.”
Times Higher Education, January 2013
“Personally, I think it has been pretty well established that online learning has captured the essentials of traditional education - access to learning materials, interaction, educational outcomes - without many of the distractions, such as commuting”
Steven Downes, January 2013
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