Czerniewicz the big questions responses to flexible futures january 2015

THE BIG QUESTIONS

Responses to Flexible Futures 2015

Laura [email protected]/ @czernie

27 January 2015

The focus of the talks has been on

institutional responses to a HE

education landscape where “the

digital is everything” (Siemens)

WHO ARE WE?

WHO ARE WE?

o Teachers, learning and teaching

specialists, advocates for learning

o Advocates for learning for all with

potential to succeed in Higher

Education in South Africa

o Educators in a research-intensive

public university

o Inputs from international guests • Both familiar and different

• Similar institutional types

• Local differences

o Cheryl de la Rey: Change always mediated by a range of contextual factors

o Gini coefficients• Scotland 31, Australia 30.5, South Africa 63.1

HOW DO WE INSERT ISSUES OF INEQUALITY

INTO ALL STRATEGIC PLANS AND

DISCUSSIONS?

HE TRENDS IN SOUTH AFRICA

o Gross enrolment rate (no of students at particular level)

• 16%, Low internationally, Low considering 700 000 matriculants officially qualifying for HE

o Low participation high attrition system

o Throughput & success critical concerns

o Serious divides continue• Participation rates over 50% for white students,

13% for African students

• White students twice as likely to graduate in 5 years

• Only 5% of African youth succeed in any form of higher education

o 1st year attrition• 40% of 1st year students leave HE

Fisher & Scott 2011, Letseka & Maile 2008.

WHAT IS OUR UNDERSTANDING OF

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES?

Very simply, there are two prevailing social imaginaries about

digital technologies ..both of which involve a deep commitment

to the idea that these technologies provide opportunities for

building ‘good’ or just and equitable societies.

The prevailing dominant imaginary in today’s information

societies is market-led. In contrast, alternative imaginaries

are best described as ‘open’ or commons-led.

…. It is this conflict that leads to major problems for

stakeholders in deciding which policies and strategies, or mix

of policies and strategies, is most likely to facilitate

progress towards more just and equitable information societies.

Mansell, R 2013

HOW TO GRAPPLE WITH THESE

IMAGINARIES?

o Market- led George Siemens

o What is the institutional response to the

new stakeholders?• In online education

• In all aspects in the teaching and learning

cycle

o Commons “imaginary”• Open Education (Catherine Ngugi, Wayne

Mackintosh, UP Vet Panel)

• Institutional implications (policy,

changing practices, support)

HOW DO WE ENABLE AND MANAGE

CHANGE IN RESEARCH-INTENSIVE

UNIVERSITIES?

WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF OUR

INSTITUTIONAL CULTURE?

Policy definition:

Tight

Policy definition:

Loose

Control of

implementation:

Loose

Control of

implementation:

Tight

Collegium

Enterprise Corporation

Bureaucracy

McNay, I. 1995.

o Managing change (Cheryl de la Rey)

o Changing the power dynamics (Sue Rigby)

o Sharing experimentation (Wendy Kilfoil)

o Centralisation vs devolution (Sherman Young)

o Role of champions (Max Braun)

HOW DO WE NEGOTIATE THE FIERCE

CONTESTATIONS ABOUT ONLINE CONTENT

THAT ARE RAGING?

o Online content• Ownership.

• Product or service? Access or license?

• Open or closed?

• Degrees of openness

• Visible or invisible?

• Curation

• North or south?

• Geopolitics of curriculum and knowledge

HOW DO WE BUILD THE LEARNING

COMMONS?

o Curation

o Interoperability

o New / reconstituted forms of expertise

o Librarians central

o Culture

HOW DO WE KEEP LEARNING AT THE

FOREFRONT?

http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2014/02/comparison-five-free-mooc-platforms-educators

ARE EXISTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

FRAMEWORKS WORKING FOR TEACHING

AND LEARNING IN A DIGITAL ERA?

o IP and copyright

o Rights management online • content, performance, production etc

o User rights

o Open licensing frameworks• Finding open, culture of attribution etc

o Institutional IP policies

HOW DO WE ADDRESS DIGITAL CRITICAL

LITERACIES?

o How do we engage with issues of

online presence, digital presence,

digital identity? (Sherman Young)

• with both their positive and negative sides?

• Privacy, surveillance

• Agency

• Openness, sharing

o Implications for critical literacies

DIGITAL LITERACIES

o Digital literacies for all in new online

spaces“A consistent diagnosis is made in the literature of

a potential lack of, or poor distribution of, the

particular networking, reputational and learning

skills that MOOC environments require for successful

learning.“

o High achieving 1stY students lack

resilience & sophistication (Sue Rigby)

o Digital literacies and inequality• uneven spread of capital

BIS 2013

DO WE HAVE THE CAPACITY & EXPERTISE

FOR SUCCESSFUL ONLINE EDUCATION?

EXPERTISE

o Instructional designers “knowledge of pedagogical elements to design a

strong learning experience ….knowledge of

administrative models and processes … knowledge

of and access to advice about learning

technologies …”

Moritz von Vuuren Lecturers would not have achieved their success without

the dedicated learning designer

o New forms of expertise for academics• Teaching transferable skills (Sue Rigby)

o Other forms of expertise

Fyle et al 2012

o The complexity of distance learning in comparison

to face to face delivery – requiring much more

advanced planning and integration of services and

functions.

o Distance learning has a different culture to campus

provision and core to this is a student focus and

service culture.

o Different ways of teaching and ways of working

• the different way distance educators worked

compared to campus provision – in multi

professional teams where ‘all are involved in this

teaching and learning process’ not just the

academics. Lentell H 2013

WHAT THEORETICAL RESOURCES CAN WE

BRING TO BEAR TO HELP US UNDERSTAND

WHAT IS GOING ON?

o There is nothing as practical as a good

theoryKurt Lewin 1952

HOW DO WE RESEARCH THIS

“REACTIVE STABILITY”?

HOW DO WE MANAGE THE TENSIONS?

o How can the tensions be managed

between• Inclusivity and experimentation

• Existing policy frameworks and new practices

• Existing ecosystem and a new vision

To ensure• A coherent student experience

• Both flexibility and innovation

HOW DO WE TAKE THE OPPORTUNITIES?

CONCLUSION

How do we ensure that advances in

online education have a positive effect

on educational practices in contact

higher education institutions?

Thanks to Ian Scott

How do we identify forms of online

education that best serve the

fundamental social and economic

interests of South Africa and sub-

Saharan Africa?

Imag

e: S

tace

y S

tent

THANK YOU

REFERENCES

o BIS (2013) Literature Review of Massive Open Online Courses and Other Forms of Online Distance Learning

o EdTech Magazine (2014) http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2014/02/comparison-five-free-mooc-

platforms-educators A Comparison of Five Free MOOC Platforms for Educators

o Fyle, C, Moseley A and Hayesb, N (2012) Troubled times: the role of instructional design in a modern dual

mode university? In Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 27(1)

o Fisher G and Scott (2011) ‘The Role of Higher Education in Closing the Skills Gap in South Africa’ The World

Bank, Human Development Group, Africa Region, October 2011, Background paper for the World Bank project

'Closing the Skills and Technology Gap in South Africa

o Lentell, H (2013) Accounts About The Convergence Of Odel And Traditional Face-To-Face Universities Are

Somewhat Premature, paper presented at The UNISA Cambridge International Conference in Open Distance

and eLearning 2013, Continuity, Change and Sustainability in open, distance and eLearning, Sunday 29

September – Wednesday 2 October 2013

o Letseka, M. and Maile, S. (2008). High University drop-out rates: a threat to South Africa’s future. HSRC Policy

Brief. www.hsrc.ac.za

o Mansell, R (2013) ‘Imagining the internet: Open, closed or in between’ in Girard B & Perini, F (Eds), Enabling

Openness: The future of the information society in Latin America and the Caribbean IDRC

o McNay, I. (1995). From collegial academy to corporate enterprise: The changing cultures of universities. In T.

Schuller (Ed.), The changing university. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open

University Press.