Visualizing Student Profiles through NKI's Online Catalogue and Student Network

Visualizing Student Profiles through NKI’s Online Catalogue and

Student Network

The presentation is available via my homepage at:

http://home.nki.no/morten/

A 45-minutes keynote presentation, 23.09.2009The Cambridge International Conference on Open and Distance

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NKI Distance Education• One of Europe’s largest providers of online distance education• More than 110 000 enrolments in online courses since 1987• Broad range of subjects from secondary to master level• About 400 distance education courses online (all in Norwegian)• About 11 000 online students in about 40 countries• About 70 % women• Revenue of 14 M Euros in 2007,

9.5 M of them from online education• Individual progress plans/individual follow-up• Thousands of potential learning partners• Global student catalogue with 1100 profiles• Always room for more students• Exams at local schools and embassies• Online students get better grades

September 2009

Secondary school courses: Tonje Kvalvik 18 courses completed Vocational courses: Thor Steinsland 24 and Roger Skogberget 27

College courses: Trude Helen Flak 13 and Erma Bratic 14

Celebrating 100 000 online course enrolmentsDuring the first 20 years, NKI’s online students enrolled in hundred thousand

courses and spent many million hours of studying to reach their goals.This was celebrated August 22, 2008 with 5 students as guests of honour.

From: Paulsen, Morten Flate Date: March 23, 2009To: All NKI-employeesSubject: Ten Thousand Users in NKI’s LMS

Dear all, Today we can celebrate that we for the first time have more than 10.000 users. In our LMS (SESAM).

We introduced SESAM 3.0 on March 12, 2001. At that time, there was a little more than 2000 users, but I remember that we designed it to handle 10.000 users. It is therefore nice and interesting that we now have 10021 users (9805 students and 216 tutors/staff). We should use this opportunity to be proud of our achievements and the important job we do for very many students.

Here is some fireworks to celebrate us and the occasion.

All the best from Mortenwww.nki.no/pp/MFP

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Online access available for the remaining correspondence students in July 2009

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NKI provides cooperative online education

NKI’s Philosophy on Online Learning

NKI facilitatesindividual freedomwithin a learning communityin which online students serve as mutual resourceswithout being dependent on each other.

Features and Tools Supporting NKI’s Philosophy

Students may start whenever they like

Tool for individual progress plans

Automatic tracking of turnaround time

Learning partners

Global student catalogue

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Cooperative learning is based on voluntary

participation in a learning community

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NKI Innovationsin Online Education

1986: First LMS1987: First online distance education course1996: First web-based courses1998: First online journal for students (Nettskoleavisen)2002: First m-learning courses2003: Speech synthesis in all courses2004: Individual planning system2004: Continuous tracking of turn around time2006: Learning partner system2008: Global student profiles2009: Individual progress reports

Rosing Competency Award 2003Baldic Award 2006

Tisip E-learning Award 2007

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Continuous tracking of turn around time

• Introduced in May 2004• Resulted in much discussion in the

teachers’ online forum• A few teachers voiced strong criticism,

doubts and reservations

The average response time dropped month by month during the Fall of 2004. In October it showed 3,97 days, in November 3,06 days and in December 2,76 days. Since then, the average response time has been less than 3 days except during summer holidays.

In 2008 we introduced an automatic e-mail reminder to the tutors who had one ore more assignments waiting for 7 days or more.

NKI introduced the individual planning system as a voluntary option in May 2004.

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In January 2009 we started to e-mail individual monthly progress reports to all students

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Includes personal:

•Contact information•LMS settings•Progress report•Planed progress

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Lists with information about next submission number and planned submission date makes cooperation easier

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Boldic Award 2006NKI’s Learning Partners

• Innovative service for voluntary cooperation between students in a large online learning community

• International award for the Baltic and Nordic countries.

• The jury stated that NKI’s Learning Partner Service: "Furthers and develops the Nordic tradition in ODL. The learning partner concept adds a new, innovative dimension of student support to flexible distance education.“

Learning partner - opportunities for cooperation in distance learningwww.elearningeuropa.info/directory/index.php?page=doc&doc_id=8294&doclng=6

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There is an online demo explaining in Norwegian how students may find

learning partners

www.nettskolen.com/multimedia/laringspartner1_viewlet_swf.html

1. Make your personal presentation

2. Decide who may access it

3. Search for potential learning partners

4. Invite somebody to become your learning partner

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Anders S., student at the NKI School of Project Management:

I have three learning partners, whom I chose because they were about at the same stage in the course as I was. Luckily enough, one of my learning partners also lives not far from me. The communication vary, in general I communicate with at least 2 of my LPs each week.I wish to increase my competence by seeing the subject matter content from different angles, and get healthy and inspiring discussions about the assignments. I feel like I have got some new friends, and a possibility to both learn and help others. I feel that I have benefited from the cooperation, I would very much like to recommend the Learning partner service to other online students.

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Presentations May 2009All 10102 users of NKI’s LMS have personal presentations which automatically list relevant information about them and their courses as shown below.

5299 of them have added some personal information, typically a photo and a description of previous education, work experience and personal interests as shown below.

www.nki.no/pp/fagerbergtr

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Visibility Want LP Don’t want LP Sum Percent

Closed 141 913 1054 10

Limited 2096 3469 5565 55

Open 745 1580 2325 23

Global 670 488 1158 12

Sum 3652 6450 10102 100

Percent 36 64 100

Presentations May 2009

The default values are:Limited visibility and Don’t want LP

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Google translation of the Global Catalogue

atwww.nki.no/pp

• 350 Senior students

• 70 Fellow students

• 55 Senior Fellow students courses

• Kurt Karlsen www.nki.no/pp/KurtKarlsen completed 56 courses from 1995 to 2005

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Video with 20 random samples ofglobal presentations

The presentations show that online courses support individual needs and challenges

Man, 42 years: I chose online learning since I need flexibility to study. At the moment I work 50/50 in Norway and India, and it would be impossible for me to study without NKI’s flexibility. Online education makes it possible for me to study independent of time zones, geography and daily tasks.

52 of the 100 global students mention that they have children. 5 of them write that they are less than 23 years old and have children.

Woman, 18 years: I’m 18 years old…. I used to go to … secondary school, but when I got pregnant, I found that it would be easier to finish school via online courses and not take the baby with me to school.

10 of the 100 presentations disclose particular learning challenges.

Woman 23: I have dyslexia …

Woman, 38: I received the diagnosis Multiple Sclerosis two years ago, and to quit a busy job. With online courses, I can organize my days so that I have energy for my family, friends and physical exercises.

NKI has many gifted immigrants who study online to get Norwegian certificates and competencies.

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How to manage28 self-paced courses, three kids and a job in the North Sea

Thor Steinslandwww.nki.no/pp/steinslandtpresented his experiences at the EDEN Research Workshop in Paris,October 2008

There are NKI students who understand Norwegian in about 40 countries

Translated by Google from www.nki.no/pp/ThereseSvihus

Presented with permission from www.nki.no/pp/LexidhSolstad

I now try to get a diploma showing that I can write. Have worked as a TV journalist … but now the Fibromyalgia pains restrains me so much that I have to work from bed in the future.

Translated by Google from www.nki.no/pp/ViviHurtley

I was accepted as a psychology student at the

university, but had no interpreter, so I chose to study online to combine

family life and education. I need a sign language interpreter to follow

traditional lectures, since I am deaf. So it is ideal with NKI, since I do not need

an interpreter.

Student Benefits

Firstly, it seems like many students appreciate the opportunity to share information about their online course activities with family, friends and colleagues. Others seem to use the presentation as an online CV to support job applications. In any case, most presentations act as favourable personal homepages that focus on the students’ achievements.

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www.eden-online.org/blog/2008/10/01/profiling-online-students

The fact that so many serious, hard-working and successful students are willing to share achievements and experiences in an open, online catalogue is valuable for the field of online education.

Traditionally, distance students tend to be quite invisible compared to other groups of students. They are so dispersed and so busy with their courses, jobs and family obligations that they seldom form action groups or student unions.

Online student catalogues may help these students become more visible as a group that deserves more attention.

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Sector Benefits

www.eden-online.org/blog/2008/10/01/profiling-online-students

The catalogue appears to be a valuable resource for NKI. The users are excellent ambassadors for NKI when they share their presentation with others.

They provide a lot of relevant information for prospective students and key words for the search engines.

All the positive and trustworthy testimonials from current students and teachers will probably have a positive effect on NKI’s future course enrolments.

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Institutional Benefits

www.eden-online.org/blog/2008/10/01/profiling-online-students

Why the presentations are important to NKI

• Better service since we see the human behind the e-mail addresses and student IDs

• More cooperation since students know more about each others

• Improved information to prospective students

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Global teacher presentations

• Courses thought are automatically listed

• Many teachers provide advice to students in their presentations

• The advice is valuable also for prospective students

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Transparencyor

privacy?

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Risks!!!

• Inappropriate content

• Copyright issues

• Criticism from dissatisfied students

• Students who expose too much personal information

• NKI handles these issues by asking readers to report inappropriate content to an e-mail address.

• So far, we have not received any reports or complaints.

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Transparency improves quality

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Transparency promotes cooperation

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Dalsgaard, C. and Paulsen, M.F. (2009) Transparency in Cooperative Online Education. IRRODL, Vol 10, No 3.

Questions?

The presentation and contact information is available via:

http://home.nki.no/morten37