Transcript Slide 1

Overview of e-learning in the UK
Professor Gráinne Conole, University of Southampton
Email: [email protected]
NVU –Konferansen 2005, Kaltur for e-elearning
Levanger 15-16th March 2005
Emergence of a research field
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Pre-subject area – no perceived interest
Beginnings – questions arise
Emergence – more researchers
Diversification – different schools
Establishment – defined community and
alignment with other fields
Current status
• E-learning - Between stages 3 and 4
– Influx of researchers into the area
– Growth of new units and research centres
– Specialised journals
– Dedicated conferences
– Community for fostering debate
organisational
issues
pedagogical
aspects
underpinning
technologies
Making the connections in
e-learning research
Contextual factors
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Funding and policy drivers
Cultural dimensions
Subject-specific aspects
Current hot topics
– Accessibility
– Widening participation
– Lifelong learning
– E-business
– Plagiarism, digital rights, IPR
Underpinning technologies
• New and emerging technologies
– mobile and ubiquitous
– intelligent agents
• Understanding the media
– multiple forms of representation
– different characteristics of media
• A distributed electronic environment
– standards and interoperability
– infrastructure and architectures
• Access to information
– structuring and distributing information
– integrating different portals, gateways and resources
– exploiting the different communication mechanisms
Pedagogical aspects
• Student and staff experiences
• Best methods of
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representing information
Designing and accessing resources
encouraging communication and collaboration
integrating with other learning and teaching methods
• Development issues
– new forms of literacy
– mechanisms for skills updating and development
• Understanding the affordances of technologies
• Exploring the potential for new forms of pedagogy
Organisational issues
• Developing models for
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mapping institutional structures
supporting institutional processes
sharing knowledge
distributing information
supporting change
engaging different stakeholders
• Awareness of external factors
• Understanding changing roles and identities
• Linking strategy and practice
Common characteristics
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Change
Political dimension
Interdisciplinary
Access and inclusion
Convergence and interoperability
Interactivity
Themes
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The good and the bad of ICT
Speed of change
New collaborations and discourses
User focussed
Changing practice
Wider impact
Theme I
• The good and the bad of ICT
– Weblogs, issues of control
– The affordances of technologies
– Appropriateness, fit for purpose
– Ownership vs open source
– Simplifying the complex
– Content is king vs information overload
Theme II
• Speed of change, the Web in 2010
– Immense amounts of information
– New tools and resources
– The Web for nomads
– Predicting the unpredictable
– Researching where the light is
– A world beyond the Web
Theme III
• Supporting new collaborations and discourses
– New distributed Communities of Practice
– Self-sustaining Communities of Practice
– Interacting with the media
– Tailored and contextualised
– Making sense - the power of narrative
Theme IV
• Harnessing needs, understanding end users
– Adaptive and personalised
– Ethnographic approach to users
– The (semantic) web of meaning
– Supporting the whole learning cycle
– Learning objects and reusability
– Focus on learning activities
Theme V
• Changing practice
– Reflective research/practitioner
– Changing roles
– Passive to interactive technologies
– Focus on educational objectives
– Learning design and Communities of Practice
– How do you motivate people to do this
Theme VI
• Wider impact
– New models for society – the adaptive model
for Governance
– Blurring of boundaries
– Distributed cognition
– Compelling experience
– A changing world
– Technology is here and will continue to have
an impact
Discipline issues
• Variety of feeder disciplines
– education research, cognitive psychology,
instructional design, computer science, business and
management, philosophy, semiotics, critical discourse
analysis
• Benefits
– wealth of methods and approaches
– different perspectives
• Drawbacks
– no shared language and understanding
– lack of cohesion to the area
Choice of research methods
• Tension between
– Focus on evaluation or research
– Quantitative vs. qualitative approaches
• Choice of methodologies
– Has an impact on outcomes
– Tends to be based on previous experience, favoured methods
• Approaches
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Exploring individual case studies
Developing generic models
Undertaking systematic reviews
Applying specific theoretical perspectives
Active involvement and action research
Methodological issues
• Lack of
– rigour
– theoretical basis
– ‘academic credibility’
• Tensions
– between policy makers and practitioners
– stakeholders with conflicting agendas
– efficiency gains/effectiveness vs improving
learning
Impact
• Changing organisations
– structures, roles and processes
– teaching, research and administration
• Specifics
– students: impact on learning experience
– practitioners: exploring the potential
– support staff: developing reliable services
– senior management: integrating strategies
Research versus practice
• Researchers
– Explore, question
– Specific beliefs
– Removed from
practicalities
– Research drivers
– Research communities
– Defining the area
– Too anecdotal
• Practitioners
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Practical applications
Politics
Relevance and role
LT community
New breed
No clear pathway
Dearth higher up
My research interests
• Learning design
– DialogPlus project – learning activity toolkit
– LADIE – Design, construction and use of learning activities
• Evaluation
– E-learning materials for in-service teachers in China
– Online Neonatology course across Europe
– UK e-university!!!
• E-assessment
– TOIA assessment tool
– Evaluation of e-assessment in Scotland
My research interests
• Learning theories
– VEOU online environment for orthopaedic
surgeons across Europe
• Managed learning environments
– Organisational issues
• Review of tools for effective practice
• Research centres
– E-Learning Research Centre
– New national centre for research methods
References
• Conole, G., (2002), ‘The evolving landscape of learning technology
research’, ALT-J 10(3), 4-18
• Conole, G. (2003), ‘Understanding your organisation’ in the ‘Creating
a Managed Learning Environment (or MLE) infoKit’, available at
www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk
• Conole, (2004), ‘Report on the effectiveness of tools for e-learning’,
report for the JISC commissioned ‘Research Study on the
Effectiveness of Resources, Tools and Support Services used by
Practitioners in Designing and Delivering E-Learning Activities’,
available at www.cetis.ac.uk:8080/pedagogy
• Conole, G., Dyke, M., Oliver, M., & Seale, J., (2004), ‘Mapping
pedagogy and tools for effective learning design’, Computers and
Education, Vol 43, Issues 1-2, 17-33
• Conole and Dyke, (2004), ‘The affordances of ICT’, ALT-J, 12.2, 113124
Overview of e-learning in the UK
Professor Gráinne Conole, University of Southampton
Email: [email protected]
NVU –Konferansen 2005, Kaltur for e-elearning
Levanger 15-16th March 2005