‘Current Learning and Teaching with Technology Issues – have your say’

Online learning: MOOCS offer a myriad of new opportunities

 Online learning is a way for institutions to provide accessible and equitable learning experiences, as well as offering a student-centric choice of learning platforms and the ability to easily engage in transnational education. This applies to Australian students looking outward as well as International students looking towards the Australian education market.

Supporting online education to flourish requires institution-wide collaboration across divisional boundaries, including between Internet infrastructure operators, University IT Services departments, Teaching and Learning professionals and university contract and marketing staff. 

Massive Open Online Courseware (MOOC)s have grown in profile as one means of providing online education with more than 6.5 million students having enrolled in over 800 free classes produced by about 200 universities from around the globe in little over the year (Gallagher, 2013, p.1). On the 30th July 2013, two Australian universities (UNSW and UWS) formally joined Coursera and a new report titled Disruptive Education: Technology-Enabled Universities by Sean Gallagher, COO, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney and Geoffrey Garrett, Dean, Australian School of Business, UNSW Australia was published (see http://ussc.e-newsletter.com.au/link/id/zzzz51f8457d9a37f759Pzzzz51f759cf9b4c3607/page.html)

There’s no denying it, the fascination with MOOCs is in full swing around the globe.

   

What are your views on the MOOC phenomenon?  A series of questions will be posed over coming week and the NATA team and I would value your thoughts and engagement. Responses to questions will be summarized, with the aim of providing our community with insights drawn from all respondents that we can share, learn and benefit from.

James Sankar works for AARNet (Australia’s Academic Research and Education Network), he is responsible for AARNet’s Enterprise Services consulting service assisting University IT Services teams to realize the value of timely services for learning and teaching and research.  James is also a member of The Network of Australasian Tertiary Associations (NATA) whose mission is to improve engagement and practice through network leadership.

Week 1 Question:      

MOOCs – Are you involved in the design and/or delivery of a MOOC and how do you feel about it as an effective “more than just content” learning tool?

DEHUB 2013 Report Series Now Published

dehub 2013 Report Series Now Published

dehub operates under the sponsorship of the University of New England (UNE, located in Armidale, NSW, Australia) as a research initiative specializing in promotion of scholarship for innovation in online and distance learning (ODL). In the project (which finished in March 2013), UNE partnered with CQUniversity (CQU), the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Charles Sturt University (CSU) and Massey University in selected research activities, forming a consortium of Australia and New Zealand’s largest and leading distance education providers.

The following reports detail individual research projects led by the University of New England (UNE) partnered with CQUniversity (CQU), the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Charles Sturt University (CSU) and Massey University funded by dehub.

1. Learning interactions: A cross-institutional multi-disciplinary analysis of learner-learner and learner-teacher and learner-content interactions in online learning contexts
D. Rossi, H. van Rensburg, C. Beer, D. Clark, P. Danaher and B. Harreveld

2. Managing Institutional change through distributive leadership approaches: Engaging academics and teaching support staff in blended and flexible learning
M. Childs, M. Brown, M. Keppell, Z. Nicholas, C. Hunter and N. Hard

For a summary of the report 'Managing institutional change through distributive leadership approaches', please see the presentation below.

Managing institutional change in Higher Education from Merilyn Childs

3. Distance learning at times and places chosen by the learner: Adapting resources and learning behaviours for working with mobile digital devices
R. Jamieson-Proctor, P. Albion and K. Larkin

4. In their own words: Learning from the experiences of first time distance students
M. Brown, M. Keppell, H. Hughes, N. Hard, S. Shillington and L. Smith

5. Contextualising virtual interaction opportunities in the health sciences: Pharmacist and social work client counseling
I. Stupans and L. Orwin

NATA Evaluation Conversation - Friday 9th August, 2013

Discussion Participants: Mike Keppell (Project Leader), Gordon Suddaby (Project Leader), Tom Prebble (Project Evaluator) & Natasha Hard (Project Manager)

Threads from the evaluation discussion:

• A view that the project is moving from a process to product stage
• It is important to recognise that the context in which the NATA project proposal was initially developed has and continues to change – Changes to partner association roles/foci, changes in partner association representatives and leaders, as well as the expectations of those involved.  It took a long time to get the project partners on the same page due to the complexity of context and lack of unified vision etc. Thus, this has influenced the way that the project has developed.
• When the funded project comes to a close, it is important to reflect upon what would be the key motivations for partners to continue to engage with each other as the project requirements will no longer direct the reasons for collaboration. Subsequently, a revised purpose for engagement would call for a review of whether those involved are still relevant and interested in being engaged in some form into the future. Moreover, are there other possible partners out there who would be interested in being involved in future collaborations?
• It is important to think about the audience rather than getting too focused on the medium or the message. Is the sector interested in actually hearing what is being disseminated? For example, are educators actually interested in engaging in other OLT project reports or Good Practice Reports? Are these reports developed in a way that engages the sector when they are actually designed for reporting purposes rather than supporting the practical application of their findings (reporting for OLT/reporting for sector)? If dissemination or application of findings from other OLT projects is a key objective, then perhaps it would be beneficial to develop a range of different dissemination resources that target different audiences eg. The AKO Aotearoa Taking the Lead Project http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/takingthelead which developed a 2-pager, full report, bibliography and executive summary. Does the difficulty in disseminating the GPRs reflect a need to question the format in which they were developed?
• The project leaders should take advantage of their vantage point to reflect upon not only the project but the possible synergies and differences between project partners.
• There will need to be a consideration of project legacy issues. What will be maintained, where and by whom? What will happen to the eResources and/or the project website/Twitter?
• The project is really about a test of concept? Does this structure work and is it sustainable in some form?

If you have any thoughts to add to the evaluation discussion we would be interested to read your comments.

Over 1,000 pageviews on NATAonthenet this month for the first time!