Transcript Document

sleeping with an elephant…one is
affected by every twitch and grunt
(Pierre Trudeau, 1969)
On this continent, for whatever reason, Athabasca University has been able
to do its own thing for decades.
This is no longer the case. The elephants are major US universities and now
even the University of Toronto.
We need to do strategic assessment of our strengths. How can we
contribute in a world of MOOCs? How can we benefit?
ALERT: the elephants are not just twitching and grunting, they have formed
some herds and are stampeding
“May you live in interesting times”
(fake Chinese proverb)
May 15, 2012 - Come the Revolution (Thomas L. Friedman)
Welcome to the college education revolution. Big breakthroughs happen when what
is suddenly possible meets what is desperately necessary.
July 18, 2012 - One Course, 150,000 Students
edX, the Harvard-M.I.T. partnership …will offer free online courses with a
certificate of completion…I thought we might get 200 students…but 10,000 a day
September 6, 2012 - Colorado State to Offer Credits for Online Class
Students will be able to take their final exams at any 0f Pearson VUE’s 450 testing
centers in more than 110 countries
September 19, 2012 - Education Site Expands Slate of Universities and Courses
Coursera…online education company…has enrolled 1.35 million students in its free
online courses…newly developed open-source platform of its own, Class2Go
October 17, 2012 - University of Phoenix to Shutter 115 Locations
Enrollments at the University of Phoenix…have been declining…growing
competition from other online providers…low graduation rates and high default
• The first three chapters in Sun Tzu’s timeless classic “The
Art of War” describe how to make net assessments by
comparing your strengths and weaknesses and those of
your adversary and how to formulate strategy. Near the
end of Chapter 3, he sums up his advice, saying,
• “Know your enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles,
you will never be defeated. When you are ignorant of the
enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing
are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself,
you are sure to be defeated in every battle.”
• TIME Magazine, US Edition, Feb 20, 2012 by Chuck Spinney
AU Strategic Assessment
Strengths
• Well established player
• High quality staff
• Continuous enrollment model
• Tutor model
• Ability to give credible credential
• Internet presence
• Home study model
AU Strategic Assessment
Weaknesses
• Internal problems (let’s not do laundry in public)
• High cost course model
• Isolation
• Canadian
• Dispersed and ineffective work model
• Reward system skewed
• Difficult to make changes to models
• Underfunded or mal-funded
Small steps
• Partnership with MIT
PHYS 302 course materials being used in 8.03SC,
MIT “Scholar” version of “Waves and Vibrations”
(see ocw.athabascau.ca)
• Open Yale (they don’t know I coming yet)
• We are world experts in home lab kits
This MIT pilot MOOC had
over 150,000 enrolments
and no lab component!
We can do that…
Thanks, let’s talk!
Strengths
• Well established player
• High quality staff
• Continuous enrollment
(can be a weakness)
• Tutor model
• Credible credentials
• Internet presence
• Home study model
Weaknesses
• Internal problems
• High cost course model
• Isolated
• Canadian
• Dispersed workforce
• Reward system skewed
• Difficult to change
• Under- or mal-funded
Dr. Evelyn Ellerman -Contribution of AU's e-Lab
initiative to Open Access and OER Development
The e-Lab at AU is one vision of what a university lab might
be if it were entirely virtual. It is intended to serve many of
the practical functions that physical labs have served in the
past. But it is a way that AU is imagining the future by
providing an online environment that encourages new
understandings of teaching, learning, research and
professional growth. The e-Lab offers e-Portfolio
opportunities, a virtual tool cupboard, social media space,
online workshops, and demonstrations of online research
and student projects in such areas as mobile learning.
The e-Lab also challenges current notions of pedagogy, as
well as relationships between the University and the wider
community. How does open access affect notions of
teaching and learning, especially in an asynchronous
undergraduate environment? How open can a university be
with the resources it has developed? What are the
copyright and FOIP implications of an open access lab?
How does a commitment to open access affect the
University’s partnering organizations? These are issues that
must be re-examined with every technological change, but
that are particularly interesting in the open access
environment.
Dr. Lisa Carter,
Mr. Tony Tin - Athabasca River Basin Research Institute Repository:
Enhancing open access, education and research
The Athabasca River Basin Research Institute (ARBRI)
supports interdisciplinary research and knowledge
transfer of the Athabasca River Basin, an area of more
than 159,000 km2 that is distinct by its watersheds,
lands, resources and communities. Recognizing that
information related to the Athabasca River Basin is
dispersed and in many different forms, and is often
difficult to locate, a comprehensive online repository
collecting as much information on the Athabasca River
Basin has been developed. At the heart of the ARBRI is
the commitment to collect materials and resources related
specifically to the Athabasca River Basin that can be
freely accessible to researchers, government, industry
stakeholders, and community members, both locally and
globally. Using advances in online technologies, a
comprehensive searchable and interactive digitized
repository is in development, using a number of
platforms, such as research and technical reports and
manuscripts, maps, videos, and audio records. This
presentation will describe some of the advances in the
development of the Athabasca River Basin Research
Institute (ARBRI) repository that enables open and free
access to materials.
Questions ?
Prize winners, please email: [email protected]
All Open Access Week presentations will be available from:
http://openaccess.athabascau.ca/ (The AU Open Access Week website)
Dr. Rory McGreal- UNESCO/COL Chair in Open Educational Resources (OER), Athabasca University
Dr. Wayne Mackintosh-the Director of the OER Foundation and Commonwealth of Learning Chair in
OER at Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand
Dr. Frits Pannekoek- President of Athabasca University, Canada
Dr. Jon Dron- Associate Professor, School of Computing and Information Systems, Athabasca
University
Dr. Terry Anderson- Professor, Centre for Distance Education, Athabasca University
Dr. George Siemens- Associate Director of the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute,
Athabasca University
Dr. Cindy Ives- Director of the Centre for Learning Design and Development and Acting Associate
Vice President (Learning Resources), Athabasca University
Mr. Steve Schafer- Director of Library Services, Athabasca University
Dr. Martin Connors- Professor & Canada Research Chair in Space Science, Instrumentation and
Networking, Athabasca University
Dr. Evelyn Ellerman- Associate Professor, Communication Studies, Athabasca University
Dr. Lisa Carter- Dean, Science and Technology, Athabasca University
Mr. Tony Tin- Head of Digital Initiatives, Athabasca University
Thank-You
Set the Default to Open Access
Athabasca University
UNESCO/COL Chair
IN OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES