How is your institution dealing with disruptive technologies?

Terry Anderson, PhDProfessor, Athabasca University

Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada

* Athabasca University

34,000 students, 700 courses

100% distance education

Graduate and Undergraduate programs

Master & Doctorate

Distance Education

Only USA Accredited University in Canada

*Athabasca University

* Athabasca University

Population density Canada - 3.36 people per sq km (35 million)Thailand - 118.43 people per sq km

(66 million)

Alberta average low temperaturein January -19 C.

• “Canada is a great country, much too cold for common sense, inhabited by compassionate and intelligent people with bad haircuts”. – Yann Martel, Life of Pi, 2002.

Our Values

• We can (and must) continuously improve the quality, effectiveness, appeal, cost and time efficiency of the learning experience.

• Student control and freedom is integral to 21st Century life-long education and learning.

• Current educational models do not scale for lifelong learning for all residents of our planet.

Our Values

• We can (and must) continuously improve the quality, effectiveness, appeal, cost and time efficiency of the learning experience.

• Student control and freedom is integral to 21st Century life-long education and learning.

• Current educational models do not scale for lifelong learning for all residents of our planet.

Three Educ. Technology Disruptions:

1. Content Crash2. MOOCs and OERs3. Connectivist learning – Network effects,

Persistence and participation beyond the course

Dealing with disruption

Content Crash

Posted on October 30, 2011 by G.E. Ross

Content:A bargain even at 80% off??

Most of us like Free!

Cost of Content

• Cost to produce educational video– 1995 - $1,000-$3,000 per minute– 2012 – approaching zero

User Generated Content

Education was Based on Old Models of Scarcity

P. Banbury 2009

Now: Anyone, Teaching Anything, to Anyone

Lore.com

Educational Response

• Open Educational Resources– Textbooks– Learning objects– Open Scholarship

South African open Text project

"we are opening" in Nguni.

“innovative education project has enabled the government to print more than 2.4 -million free maths and science textbooks for a nominal cost.” SA Times, Mar. 2012

Siyavula | Technology-powered Learningwww.siyavula.com/

Are Open Texts Associated with Higher Marks?

“students in courses that used FWK textbooks tended to have significantly higher grades and lower failing and withdrawal rates than those in courses that did not use FWK texts.”

Feldstein, et al.(2012). Open textbooks and increased student access and outcomes. EURODL, 3. Retrieved from http://www.eurodl.org/?p=current&article=533.

We need more than objects, We need an OER culture

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/OER_Policy_Registry

http://www.poerup.info/

aupress.ca

Canada’s first Open Access press!!

But What about MOOCs??

• MOOC History by Alys

From http://prezi.com/754uv3qpe_0k/mooc-history/ a MOOC History by Alyssa Martin

MOOC Completion Rates??

• Coursera Course Computational Investing, January 6, 2013 by Tucker Balch ,

• 53,265 enrolled • Completed the course:

– 4.8% of those who enrolled– 18% of those who took a quiz.– 39% of those who submitted the first project.

Familiar Access rationale

• "If we continue to keep the barrier to entry low, we’ll enable students to taste many many courses, and that may be a good thing for education.” Tucker Balch

MOOCs

• Free Access• Who benefits from their

attention?• Is partial

knowledge/learning bad?• The bar has been raised,

we have to add value beyond content or “subject matter content”

MOOCsd Through the Lens ofOnline Learning Pedagogy

1. Behaviourist/Cognitive – Self Paced, Individual study

2. Social Constructivist – Groups, LMS

3. Connectivist – Networks and Collectives

Anderson, T., & Dron, J. (2011). Three generations of distance education pedagogy. IRRODL, 12(3), 80-97

xMOOC PedagogyGen. 1 - Cognitive Behaviourist

• Medium to high quality content– Screen captures, video lectures, page turners

• Machine scoring of quizzes and assignments• Optional testing (for fees) and emergent

accreditation– Badges, challenge exams for credit

Scaleable, Flexible!

MOOC Challenges to Traditional Schools

• Are our course really better than those from MIT?

• How interactive are our instructors?• Do we accredit seat time, courses or learning?• Will our students choose our fees over free?• Is American learning (knowledge) the same as

Thai learning?• Can we develop a business model from free

MOOCs?

2nd Generation - Constructivist

• Online Learning Current model – continued strong growth in US and globally

32% of higher education students now take at least one course online.

Constructivist Learning in Groups• Long history of research

and study• Established sets of tools

– Classrooms– Learning Management

Systems – Synchronous (video &

net conferencing)– Email

• Need to develop face to face, mediated and blended group learning skills

Garrison, R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical thinking in text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2), 87-105.

Problems with Groups• Restrictions in time, space, pace, &

relationship - NOT OPEN• Often overly confined by leader expectation

and institutional curriculum control• Usually Isolated from the authentic world of

practice• “low tolerance of internal difference, sexist

and ethicized regulation, high demand for obedience to its norms and exclusionary practices.” Cousin & Deepwell 2005

• “Pathological politeness” and fear of debate• Group think (Baron, 2005)• Poor preparation for Lifelong Learning

beyond the course Paulsen (1993)Law of Cooperative Freedom

Relationships

NOT Scaleable

3rd Generation: Connectivist Learning

Connectivism

• Building knowledge networks with resources and people.

Connectivist Learning

NOT Learning in a Bubble

Persistence Rosetta Stone

Networks add diversity to learning

“People who live in the intersection of social worlds are at higher risk of having good ideas” Burt, 2005, p. 90

If you want to learn how to fix a pipe, solve a partial differential equation, write software, you are seconds away from know-how via YouTube, Wikipedia and search engines. Access to technology and access to knowledge, however, isn’t enough. Learning is a social, active, and ongoing process.

What does a motivated group of self-learners need to know to agree on a subject or skill, find and qualify the best learning resources about that topic, select and use appropriate communication media to co-learn it?

http://peeragogy.org/

Connectivist Learninghttp://terrya.edublogs.org/2012/12/18/connectivy-your-course/

Walled Gardens (with windows)

• Connectivist learning thrives in safe learning spaces with windows allowing randomness, external participation and public presentation

Soft-to-hardGenerations 1-3Sets, nets and groups

Into action…

The Landing Platform

44

1,686 plugins available, our installation using about 90Fairly strong development team, plotted roadmap

What is the Landing?

• Walled Garden with Windows• A Private space for Athabasca

University – students, staff, alumni• A public Place• A user controlled creative space• Boutique social network• Networking, blogging, photos,

microblogging, polls, calendars, groups and more

• A campus for Athabasca

24

A soft space

Where to look first

setnetgroup

48

Multiple rationales for This Connectivist Space

48

setnet

group

collective

CoursesCommitteesResearch groupsStudy groupsCentres and departments

Sustaining tiesMaking tiesAd hoc networksKnowledge diffusionSocial capitalSocial presence

CooperationSharingSerendipityInterest -orientationSense-makingCollective intelligenceIntentional discovery

• Bottom up control and Innovation

LMS

ELGGAndersen, Henriksen, Secher & Medaglia, (2007) "Costs of e-participation: the management challenges", Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, 1(1)29 - 43

Is Your Institution ready to Exploit these opportunities??

http://www.amazon.com/Quality-Software-Management-Anticipating-Change/

• How can your university exploit and benefit from these four disruptions?

Theories of Disruptive Technologies

• Disruptive technologies:– Lead to profound change in

the business model, customer base or functionality of an existing organization

• Sustaining technology– Increases efficiency or

effectiveness of current product or process

Disruptive technologies

• “are typically:– cheaper, – simpler, – smaller, – more convenient to use" Clay Christensen (1997)– access to new users (social justice?)

• Classic examples are the micro computer, digital cameras or the innovations of the industrial model of distance education.

Impact of Disruptive Technologies

• Student’s access to content and learning activities no longer directly controlled by institution

• Very significant reductions in costs of some models of education

• Teacher role may be threatened• Opportunities for “de-skilling” and further

industrialization of academic role

Excerpts from The Innovator’s Solution – page 183-4 -- PROCESSES:”

“… Innovating managers often try to start new-growth businesses using processes that were designed to make the mainstream business run effectively.. the new game begins before the old game ends.

Disruptive innovations typically take root at the low end of markets or in new planes of competition at a time when the core business still is performing at its peak -- when it would be crazy to revolutionize everything. It seems simpler to have onesize-fits-all processes.

Christensen, C., & Raynor, M. (2003). Innovator's Solution. Cambridge: Harvard Business School.

A context for successful disruption

• An enduring Culture of Innovation• Learning communities of practice within the

institution• New partnerships, exploiting net tools• Extensive use of OERs and cloud computing• Constant work on testing and accreditation

• Are you building learning networks???

E-learning Readiness of Thailand’s Universities (2011)

• A list of many “top down” recommendations!• “Faculty support is essential, especially in

nurturing grassroots ideas from the faculty rather than imposing a top-down pedagogical approach. Institutions must offer instructional technology support to help faculty so that they can focus on the instruction rather than the technology.” p. 130

E-learning Readiness of Thailand’s Universities. Comparing to the USA’s Cases Apitep Saekow and Dolly Samson International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning, 1(2), June, 2011

Learning as Dance (Anderson, 2008)

• Technology sets the beat and the timing.

• Pedagogy defines the moves.

• More flexible To control your networked destiny you must be more flexible than your environment.

The Law of Requisite Variety Ross Ashby (1956)

Terry Anderson terrya@athabascau.ca

Blog: terrya.edublogs.org

Your comments and questions most welcomed!

http://www.slideshare.net/terrya/new-pedagogies-new-technologies-disruptive-threats-to-open-universities or http://tinyurl.com/9nxr74f