Distance-Educator.com e-Newsletter – 5/20/13

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FEATURED ARTICLE Planning and Managing Distance Education Systems: Building the Model Dr. Farhad (Fred) Saba Founder and Editor, Distance-Educator.com In this series of articles, I presented a hierarchical model of distance education consisting of seven interrelated nested systems levels. These systems have been present in most distance education organizations that I observed, or planned and built over the past 30 years. In the previous weeks, I discussed Hardware, Software, Telecommunications, Instructional, Educational, Societal and Global Systems Levels. Last week I started to explain the process of system modeling so that you could start the planning process for your organization. I hope that conducting the environmental scan as presented in a previous article has given you a better appreciation of the components of the technology-based educational programs in your organization and the interrelationships among such components. But before I went any further on the process of modeling itself, I explained certain important concepts in system methodology in this article and showed how these principles can be applied in this article titled Planning and Managing Distance Education Systems: Applying system dynamics. Below, you will see an example in systems modeling in detail. RESEARCH-BASED ARTICLES OF THE WEEK Access the complete current issue of the journal of the Asian Association of Open Universities Designing an online learning environment on Open Educational Resources for science education Shironica Karunanayaka, Chandana Fernando and Vajira de Silva Personalised system of instruction: The ODL way Prakash Arumugam Comparative study on the usage of an online plagiarism-detection service when presenting distance learning courses Loo Choo Hong and Tung Lai Cheng Floundering among adult learners in classrooms: Fact or fallacy? Nantha Kumar Subramaniam and Maheswari Kandasamy Determinants of students’ loyalty at Universitas Terbuka Maximus Gorky Sembiring The establishment of academic credit accumulation and transfer system: A case study of Shanghai Academic Credit Transfer and Accumulation Bank for Lifelong Education Huikang Li, Yaoting Sun, Min Yang and Zhihui Wei Faculty: A success factor in improving quality of distance learning Muhammad Zaheer Supportive role of the“CBCI Chair” at IGNOU in ODL programme development Gracious Thomas Theoretical and practical dilemma of distance learning: The case of Universitas Terbuka Indonesia Hanif Nurcholis and Ace Sriati Rachman Addressing the issues of low student enrollment: The case of the Kandy Regional Centre of the Open University of Sri Lanka P.S.D. Aluwihare and R. Manoshika Independent learning skill, competence and job performance of graduates of Universitas Terbuka: Perceptions of graduates and supervisors Dewi Juliah Ratnaningsih Unlocking Open Educational Resources (OERs) Interaction Data Each time a teacher or a learner interacts with an Open Educational Resource (OER), these interactions produce data. This “interaction data” includes “artifact data” routinely captured during any online interaction by Web server logs (e.g., users’ browsers, users’ IP addresses) and “social data” created during Web 2.0-style interactions with resources (e.g., tags, comments, ratings, favorites). Interaction data can serve a number of purposes in a period of increased interest worldwide in OERs quality and uptake. First, interaction data is a valuable source of analytics about OERs and typical audience profiles. Second, combined with metadata, interaction data can enhance searching, ranking, and recommendations of learning resources. However, obtaining this data is not always easy since OERs, in particular, are generally dispersed among different systems where the interactions between resources and their users take place. This paper describes approaches to unlocking, collecting and aggregating this interaction data. D-Lib Mabaziine Up and Away: Open Access in Portugal Portugal stands out among nations that have embraced open access to scholarly communication because of its early adoption of institutional policies, creation of a network of repositories, and effective system of governance. And, nonprofit international publishing initiatives play an important role in opening up entire runs of Portuguese academic journals. EDUCAUSE Review Online Introducing blended learning: An experience of uncertainty for students in the United Arab Emirates The cultural dimension of Uncertainty Avoidance is analysed in this study of an introduction to blended learning for international students. Content analysis was conducted on the survey narratives collected from three cohorts of management undergraduates in the United Arab Emirates. Interpretation of certainty with blended learning was found in: student skills with technology; student acknowledgement of course organisation; and student appreciation of online feedback. Uncertainty with the introduction of blended learning was found: when membership was assigned for group work, higher quality research methods were introduced; where course structure lacked detail, increased time was required for new and different online activities. These international students, from countries with a high score on Uncertainty Avoidance, exhibited that dimension when introduced to blended learning. The implications of these findings are discussed, and strategies suggested for introducing blended learning to international students. The limitations of the study are considered, and a direction for future research is suggested. This is the first study on undergraduates in the Middle East for the effects of a cultural dimension when introducing blended learning. The findings increase the body of knowledge that relates to learning technology in the international business classroom. Research in Learning Technology IN THE NEWS Embrace Moocs or face decline, warns v-c “It’s Mooc or die”, a university vice-chancellor has said, claiming that institutions must embrace the massive open online course movement and adapt their teaching methods or face a tough future. Times Higher Education Massive (But Not Open) The Georgia Institute of Technology plans to offer a $7,000 online master’s degree to 10,000 new students over the next three years without hiring much more than a handful of new instructors. Inside Higher Education Kids coding in the cloud One of the most popular online destinations on the MIT network is not a website for scientists, engineers or college students, but an online community where kids learn to code. MIT Media Lab Farhad (Fred) Saba, Ph. D. Founder and Editor Distance-Educator.com

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Distance-Educator.com e-Newsletter – 5/13/13

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FEATURED ARTICLE Planning and Managing Distance Education Systems: Applying system dynamics In this series of articles, I presented a hierarchical model of distance education consisting of seven interrelated nested systems levels. These systems have been present in most distance education organizations that I observed, or planned and built over the past 30 years. In the previous weeks, I discussed Hardware, Software, Telecommunications, Instructional, Educational, Societal and Global Systems Levels. Last week I started to explain the process of system modeling so that you could start the planning process for your organization. I hope that conducting the environmental scan as presented in a previous article has given you a better appreciation of the components of the technology-based educational programs in your organization and the interrelationships among such components. But before we go any further on the process of modeling itself, certain important concepts in system methodology must be explained in the following as a follow up to this previous article about system methodology. RESEARCH-BASED ARTICLES OF THE WEEK MOOCs and Beyond In August, 2012, four months after opening, Coursera—one of several Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) providers quickly gaining traction on the Internet—registered one million students, from nearly 200 countries. This is only one of the many staggering statistics that could be shared about the sudden popularity of MOOCs, the total of which speak to the worldwide interest in accessing university courses online. This special issue of eLearning Papers brings together in-depth research and examples from the field to generate debate within this emerging research area. Measuring monographs: A quantitative method to assess scientific impact and societal relevance In the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), the monograph is an important means of communicating scientific results. As in the field of STM, the quality of research needs to be assessed. This is done by bibliometric measures and qualitative methods. Bibliometric measures based on articles do not function well in the field of HSS, where monographs are the norm. The qualitative methods which take into account several stakeholders are labour intensive and the results are dependent on self-assessment of the respondents, which may introduce bias. In the case of humanities, the picture becomes even less clear due to uncertainties about the stakeholders. This article describes a method that may complement the current research on scientific impact and societal relevance. This method measures the usage of online monographs and identifies the internet provider involved. The providers are categorized as academic; government; business; non-profit organisations and the general public. The usage is further cat-egorised in national and international. Combining this data makes it possible to assess the scientific impact and the societal relevance of the monographs. The method is quantitative, which makes the results easier to validate. It is not necessary to know the stakeholders in advance: the readers are identified through the method. The used data set consists of over 25,000 downloads by more than 1,500 providers, spread over 859 monographs. More than two thirds of the usage can be categorised, and almost 45% of all usage comes from non-academics. This might indicate that the monographs have an relevance in society. Two possible influences on monograph usage were analysed: subject and language. Most of the subjects that received a higher than average number of downloads come from the field of the social sciences; the humanities were less ‘popular’. Books in English – the ‘lingua franca’ of science – were downloaded the most. Languages such as Dutch were read much less outside of national borders that Italian or German. A Dutch or Belgian scholar would need a translation in order to have more influence abroad; this applies far less for Germans or Italians. While further research is needed, the results are promising and the proposed method could be used as an addition to the existing tools to measure the scholarly impact and societal relevance of the field of HSS. Firstmonday Complex Moving Parts: Assessment Systems and Electronic Portfolios The largest college within an online university of over 50,000 students invested significant resources in translating a complex assessment system focused on continuous improvement and national accreditation into an effective and efficient electronic portfolio (ePortfolio). The team building the system needed a model to address problems met throughout the planning, design, and implementation of the assessment and ePortfolio systems. The team adopted the FEAT model to ensure that multiple stakeholder perspectives were an integral component of how the assessment system and ePortfolio development worked together. This model consisted of four domains: functional encompassed how the software tool worked and was used; educational reflected the desired learning as a result of system implementation; administrative included policies and procedures, financial and human resources, and planning necessary for project implementation; and technical included the hardware, software, and networking infrastructure necessary for ePortfolio and assessment system implementation. The researchers documented the types of problems encountered in the process, the problem solvers involved, strategies used, and actions implemented. The researchers concluded that evaluating system development is more informative if a systemic approach is used to examine the interdependent relationships among the FEAT model domains that influence the overall system maturity. International Journal of ePortfolio Systematic Design of Blended PBL: Exploring the Design Experiences and Support Needs of PBL Novices in an Online Environment Designing problem-based learning (PBL), especially blended PBL, is very different from designing traditional teacher-centered instruction and requires a new set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. To be successful, teachers must step out of their comfort zone, adopt new roles and responsibilities, and develop new knowledge and skills required in PBL environments as well as technology integration skills. The purpose of this study was threefold: (a) to examine the difficulties and challenges that PBL novices faced as they designed their first blended PBL in an online environment, (b) to explore effective strategies for supporting PBL novices in the design process, and (c) to examine the impact of PBL design experience on PBL novices’ perceptions of PBL. The researcher collected qualitative data from multiple sources, including an online survey, initial design documents, feedback meeting notes, revised design documents, and reflection papers. The findings of this study provide practical insights into how to support PBL novices in designing blended PBL. The implications for teacher professional development, especially online professional development, and suggestions for future research are discussed. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education Mining interactions in immersive learning environments for real-time student feedback The analysis and use of data generated by students’ interactions with learning systems or programs – learning analytics – has recently gained widespread attention in the educational technology community. Part of the reason for this interest is based on the potential of learning analytic techniques such as data mining to find hidden patterns in students’ online interactions that can be meaningfully interpreted and then fed back to students in a way that supports their learning. In this paper we present an investigation of how the digital data records of students’ interactions within an immersive 3D environment can be mined, modeled and analysed, to provide real-time formative feedback to students as they complete simulated surgical tasks. The issues that emerged in this investigation as well as areas for further research and development are discussed. Australian Journal of Educational Technology The national broadband network and the challenges of creating connectivity in education: The case of Tasmania Tasmania, one of the first locations to have communities connected to the national broadband network (NBN), provided the context within which to ask significant questions about the implications of the NBN for all levels and sectors of education. This paper reports findings from a research project that developed innovative methodology to explore the issues with 21 respondents categorised as “leaders” in the field of information and communication technology in education. The aim of the research was to conduct an audit of actual and planned implementation of new technologies in classroom teaching through in-depth interviews, to assess challenges faced in implementation and to facilitate dialogue between leaders in disparate education areas through provision of forums online and face-to-face. In this way the action research both contributed to an understanding of issues and acted as a change agent in stimulating the sharing of new approaches to what turned out to be a set of highly complex “wicked” problems. Resulting models using a causal layered approach demonstrate that whereas the NBN did not become the immediate solution to connectivity for these leaders, it provided the motivation to consider what a connected educational environment could be like. The Australian Journal of Educational Technology IN THE NEWS New Book: Handbook of Mobile Learning, Edited by Zane L. Berge, Lin Muilenburg This handbook published by Routledge provides a comprehensive compendium of research in all aspects of mobile learning, one of the most significant ongoing global developments in the entire field of education. Rather than focus on specific technologies, expert authors discuss how best to utilize technology in the service of improving teaching and learning. For more than a decade, researchers and practitioners have been exploring this area of study as the growing popularity of smartphones, tablets, and other such devices, as well as the increasingly sophisticated applications for these devices, has allowed educators to accommodate and support an increasingly mobile society. This handbook provides the first authoritative account of the theory and research that underlies mobile learning, while also exemplifying models of current and future practice. Regulating Distance Ed Institutions that offer online education programs should not be forced to answer to regulators in each and every state where they enroll students, according to a group led by the former U.S. Education Secretary Richard Riley. Inside Higher Education Faculty Backlash Grows Against Online Partnerships Many professors recognize that online education is changing the landscape of academe. But faculty members at several colleges are making it clear that they will not be steamrolled. Chronicle of Higher Education Farhad (Fred) Saba, Ph. D. Founder and Editor Distance-Educator.com

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Distance-Educator.com e-Newsletter – 5/6/13

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FEATURED ARTICLE Planning and Managing Distance Education Systems: System Methodology Farhad Saba, Ph. D. Founder and Editor, Distance-Educator.com In this series of articles, I presented a hierarchical model of distance education consisting of seven interrelated nested systems levels. These systems have been present in most distance education organizations that I observed, or planned and built over the past 30 years. In the previous weeks, I discussed Hardware, Software, Telecommunications, Instructional, Educational, Societal and Global Systems Levels. Last week I started to explain the process of system modeling so that you could start the planning process for your organization. I hope that conducting the environmental scan as presented in a previous article has given you a better appreciation of the components of the technology-based educational programs in your organization and the interrelationships among such components. But before we go any further on the process of modeling itself, certain important concepts in system methodology must be explained in the following. RESEARCH-BASED ARTICLES OF THE WEEK Shape Shifting Smart Phones: Riding the Waves in Education The smartphone is a recent technological addition to post-secondary education and it has both educational and non-educational applications. This study examines the educational use of smartphones using principles from actor-network theory (ANT). The purpose of the investigation was to learn about the multiple entanglements of students, teachers and smartphones in overlapping networks or assemblages and to examine the pedagogical practices created within these assemblages. The discussion begins with an introduction to the mobile technology literature, an overview of ANT and an explanation of some key ANT terms and concepts. The research design and methodology are presented and the concepts of “fluid” and “fire” objects are explored. The new descriptor “protean” is proposed as a way to describe the highly mutable and unpredictable nature of the student-smartphone assemblage. The article concludes with a discussion of how these human and non-human assemblages are influencing and changing pedagogical practices and the significance for education. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology Evolution of the framework for 21st century competencies This article presents the successive changes and evolution of the frameworks for 21st century competencies, since the appearance of the first conceptual models during the final years of the last century, and also it is a review of the competencies that are needed in the 21st century with a special focus on the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) competencies. The included frameworks have been elaborated by diverse institutions such as international organizations, private consortia and also governments as a guideline for educational policies in elementary and secondary schools. Later, the frameworks are compared and analyzed according to a classification of the competencies into general categories, in order to visualize some trends and obtain some insights about the direction they are heading. Finally, it provides some suggestions for the conception of future frameworks. Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal Rich Media e-Compendiums: A New Tool for Enhanced Learning in Higher Education Electronically supported learning has increasingly been introduced and accepted into the academic community over recent decades, and a variety of new digital learning tools have been developed to serve students both for distance education and on-campus blended learning. To serve our distance education nursing students, we recently developed unique rich media e-compendiums, based on a combination of PDF and Flash technologies, as a substitute for on-campus lectures. Our e-compendiums are also available for our on-campus students as a supplement to their other learning tools (e.g., lectures, textbooks and podcasts). The aim of this study was to explore students’ perceptions of the e-compendiums as a learning tool compared with the other e-learning tools and more traditional tools used in a first-semester course. The study had a descriptive quantitative design and the data were collected by means of a questionnaire developed for this study. We found that a clear majority of the students scored the e-compendiums as a better learning tool than lectures, multiple-choice questions, podcasts and textbooks. Our results indicate that rich media e-compendiums were perceived as better learning tools than both traditional learning tools and other electronically supported learning tools. The European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning Is it cheating – or learning the craft of writing? Using Turnitin to help students avoid plagiarism Plagiarism is a growing problem for universities, many of which are turning to software detection for help in detecting and dealing with it. This paper explores issues around plagiarism and reports on a study of the use of Turnitin in a new university. The purpose of the study was to inform the senior management team about the plagiarism policy and the use of Turnitin. The study found that staff and students largely understood the university’s policy and Turnitin’s place within it, and were very supportive of the use of Turnitin in originality checking. Students who had not used Turnitin were generally keen to do so. The recommendation to the senior management team, which was implemented, was that the use of Turnitin for originality checking should be made compulsory where possible – at the time of the study the use of Turnitin was at the discretion of programme directors. A further aim of the study was to contribute to the sector’s body of knowledge. Prevention of plagiarism through education is a theme identified by Badge and Scott (2009) who conclude an area lacking in research is “investigation of the impact of these tools on staff teaching practices”. Although a number of recent studies have considered educational use of Turnitin they focus on individual programmes or subject areas rather than institutions as a whole and the relationship with policy. Research in Learning Technology Combining the formative with the summative: the development of a two stage online test to encourage engagement and provide personal feedback in large classes The aim of this action research project was to improve student learning by encouraging more “time on task” and to improve self-assessment and feedback through the introduction of weekly online tests in a Year 2 lecture module in biological sciences. Initially voluntary online tests were offered to students and those who participated achieved higher exam marks than those who did not, but completion rate was low. Making the tests compulsory led to high completion rates, but class performance decreased, indicating that using the same assessment for formative and for summative purposes is not always beneficial for learning. Finally, these problems were resolved by introducing a two-stage approach: the first stage of each test was formative and provided prompt feedback. However, students had to achieve 80% to progress to the second summative stage of the test. The two-stage online tests led to significantly improved class performance. This novel test design ensures that students go through at least two attempts and therefore fully benefit from the learning opportunities presented by the formative stage. Two-stage online tests present the opportunity to provide regular feedback in large classes and to improve performance not only of good but also of “weak” students. Research In Learning Technology Using ePortfolios to Measure Student Learning in a Graduate Preparation Program in Higher Education Ten second-year master’s students in a higher education program participated in this study, which was designed to assess their experience with an electronic portfolio that had been introduced recently as a primary component of their comprehensive exam. This qualitative study used a focus group and long-interview methods for data collection. Participants responded to an interview protocol of several open-ended questions that allowed them to discuss their experiences and challenges with this capstone experience. Through a variety of coding techniques, five themes emerged: (a) students have difficulty adapting to change; (b) reflection and decision-making takes time; (c) students need regular reassurance; (d) students learn a great deal about themselves; and (e) the ePortfolio is a very powerful experience. Findings suggest several implications for practice, including preparing new professionals, being a new professional, and supervising new professionals. International Journal of ePortfolio Exploration of ePortfolios for Adding Value and Deepening Student Learning in Contemporary Higher Education In recent years, higher education has undoubtedly faced a sea-change. The landscape of the sector has shifted with changes in the student body, increased pressure from government on costs and procedures, and an array of curricular transformations. While much has been written about the use of learning technologies generally and about ePortfolios in particular, there has been a lack of robust evidence about their added value for enhancing student learning opportunities. A case study of the integration of ePortfolios into a professional development master’s program in a Higher Education Institution in Ireland is presented, and added value in terms of the creative learning process is explored. Findings from this study indicate that development of the awareness and understanding of creativity within the student cohort is necessary to nurture creative and critical thinking abilities. International Journal of ePortfolio IN THE NEWS Quick and Dirty Research SAN FRANCISCO – To keep up with the breakneck pace of developments in online education, higher education researchers must be nimble and sometimes make do with “dirty” and quickly gathered data. Otherwise weighty discussions about student learning might get lost in all the hype around massive open online courses and other digital innovations. Inside Higher Education Does Community Engagement Have a Place in a Placeless University? It will be truly ironic if the most impersonal technology of all ends up saving the most personal kind of teaching and learning in higher education. The New England Journal of Higher Education Farhad (Fred) Saba, Ph. D. Founder and Editor Distance-Educator.com

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Distance-Educator.com e-Newsletter – 4/29/13

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FEATURED ARTICLE Planning and Managing Distance Education Systems: System Modeling Farhad (Fred) Saba, Ph. D. Founder and Editor, Distance-Educator.com In this series of articles, I presented a hierarchical model of distance education consisting of seven interrelated nested systems levels. These systems have been present in most distance education organizations that I observed, or planned and built over the past 30 years. In the last four weeks, I discussed Hardware, Software, Telecommunications, Instructional, Educational, Societal and Global Systems Levels. In this article the process of modeling will be explained in further detail so that you could start the planning process for your organization. I hope that conducting the environmental scan as presented in the previous article has given you a better appreciation of the components of the technology-based educational programs in your organization and the interrelationships among such components. We also hope that you realize that the environmental scan can be an iterative activity, and as you learn more about the modeling process, you would be able to develop more comprehensive models of your organization by reviewing the components and processes involved in your institution. Keep in mind that each institution is unique and the purpose of learning the modeling process is to create a unique plan for the future development of your institution as no one model or solution can be developed and applied to all institutions. RESEARCH-BASED ARTICLES OF THE WEEK Emerging Educational Technologies and Research Directions Two recent publications report the emerging technologies that are likely to have a significant impact on learning and instruction: (a) New Media Consortium’s 2011 Horizon Report (Johnson, Smith, Willis, Levine & Haywood, 2011), and (b) A Roadmap for Education Technology funded by the National Science Foundation in the USA (to download the report see http://www.cra.org/ccc/edtech.php). Some of the common technologies mentioned in both reports include personalized learning, mobile technologies, data mining, and learning analytics. This paper analyzes and synthesizes these two reports. Two additional sources are considered in the discussion: (a) the IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technology’s report on curricula for advanced learning technology, and, (b) the European STELLAR project that is building the foundation for a network of excellence for technology enhanced learning. The analysis focuses on enablers of (e.g., dynamic online formative assessment for complex learning activities) and barriers to (e.g., accessibility and personalizability) to sustained and systemic success in improving learning and instruction with new technologies. In addition, two critical issues cutting across emerging educational technologies are identified and examined as limiting factors – namely, political and policy issues. Promising efforts by several groups (e.g., the National Technology Leadership Coalition, the IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technology, Networks of Excellence, etc.) will be introduced as alternative ways forward. Implications for research and particular for assessment and evaluation are included in the discussion as means to establish credible criteria for improvement. Journal of Educational Technology & Society Thinking about Accreditation in a Rapidly Changing World Online learning has provided a platform for rethinking delivery models, yet much of accreditation is not designed to account for these new approaches. EDUCAUSE Review Online Mobile Knowledge, Karma Points and Digital Peers: The Tacit Epistemology and Linguistic Representation of MOOCs Media representations of massive open online courses (MOOCs) such as those offered by Coursera, edX and Udacity reflect tension and ambiguity in their bold promise of democratized education and global knowledge sharing. An approach to MOOCs that emphasizes the tacit epistemology of such representations suggests a richer account of the ambiguities of MOOCs, the unsettled linguistic and visual representations that reflect the strange lifeworld of global online courses and the pressing need for promising innovation that seeks to serve the restless global desire for knowledge. This perspective piece critically appraises the linguistic laboratory of thought such representation reveals and its destabilized rhetoric of technology and educational practice. The mobile knowledge of MOOCs, detached from context and educational purpose and indifferent to cultural boundary distortions, contains both the promise of democratized education and the shadow of post-colonial knowledge export. Canadian Journal of Educational Technology Digital fluency’: towards young people’s critical use of the internet The rise of the internet as the greatest source of information for people living in the UK today poses an acute challenge to the information literacy (IL) community. The amount and type of material available a mouse click away is both liberating and asphyxiating. There are more e-books, trustworthy journalism, niche expertise and accurate facts at our fingertips than ever before, but also mistakes, half-truths, propaganda and misinformation. This article presents research on how well young people are being equipped to meet the challenge of sorting good information from bad. It reviews current literature on the subject, and presents a new poll of over 500 teachers. With analysis supplemented by additional correspondence from librarians and other IL professionals, it argues that there is strong evidence that the web is fundamental to pupils’ learning and lives, but that many are not careful, discerning users of the internet. They are unable to find the information they are looking for, or they trust the first thing they see. This makes them vulnerable to the pitfalls of ignorance, falsehoods, cons and scams. The article proposes the appropriate response to be to embed ‘digital fluency’ – a tripartite concept constituting critical thinking, net savviness and diversity – at the heart of learning, in order to create a pedagogical framework fit for the information consumption habits of the digital age. It should be noted that both authors recognise the importance of non-teaching information literacy professionals in these debates. They recognise that the poll’s focus on teachers was too narrow, and have endeavoured, subsequent to the poll, to consult more widely in their research. Journal of Information Literacy Modeling a Peer Assignment Review Process for Collaborative E-learning The educational culture in most developing countries is lecturer-centred with lecturers as providers of information and students as receivers of information. This approach has impacted on student’s ability to seek and create knowledge to support their learning process. A collaborative learning approach that promotes students process of inquiry, critical thinking and skill development thus lacks in the context, yet these aspects are crucial in the knowledge society. Journal of Interactive Online Learning Lost in the lifeworld: Technology help seeking and giving on diverse, post-secondary campuses Information and communications technology (ICT) is integrated throughout a student’s lived experience in their post-secondary learning environment. In order for students with limited or no background with ICT to achieve their academic goals, a central part of their adaptation involves an intensive period of ICT help seeking. Using anecdotes from phenomenological research, this paper explores what we can learn about our practice as help givers through reflecting upon the lived experience of cross-cultural ICT help seeking and giving on diverse, post-secondary campuses. What surfaces from this investigation is the importance of developing an ICT support and training structure that appreciates the inter-subjective, activity-embedded nature of ICT help seeking and giving. An phenomenological educational approach to ICT help giving would be thoughtfully interwoven into a post-secondary learning environment, not as a remedial construct, but as an integral part of the learning, and help seeking, experience itself. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology An emerging digital divide in urban school children’s information literacy: Challenging equity in the Norwegian school system The emergence of information and communication technology (ICT) has been influencing our society, including the educational sector. In this paper we explore students’ information literacy at the completion of lower secondary school in Norway. Our aim is to measure students’ information literacy at the end of Grade 10, and to identify factors explaining the variations observed. Factors relating to the digital divide, e.g., books at home, language spoken at home and academic aspirations are explored in this study. The sample consists of 3,727 students from 50 lower secondary schools located in a Norwegian city with relatively high immigration rate and various ethnicities. Through statistical multilevel analysis our findings indicate that the number of books at home, the language spoken at home and the students’ academic aspirations explain a very large proportion of the variation in information literacy between schools, and a considerable part of the variation between students–within–schools. Firstmonday IN THE NEWS Download Report: State U Online Mention online learning in higher education and the conversation quickly turns to the explosion of Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, and the opportunities for delivering quality education to the greatest number of students. Indeed, online learning is increasingly becoming a permanent fixture in higher education. But the nation’s public higher education system–the two-year colleges and four-year universities that educate the large majority of all college students–has been visibly slower to embrace the potential of online education. Many of these institutions were founded with a mission to serve their citizens, including those unable to attend in residence. Yet even as the technological means to achieve this goal reaches new heights, many public universities are shying away from the challenge. State U Online examines the history of distance learning dating back to the 18th century when the U.S. Postal Service served as the primary platform for administering distance education (See advertisement below for correspondence shorthand course). As the need for distance education increased, so did the innovative ways in which it was administered. State U Online identifies the most common challenges to implementing successful distance-education programs, including cost, quality, and faculty buy-in. Rachel Fishman, New America Foundation Download Report — Advancing Access through Regulatory Reform: Findings, Principles, and Recommendations for the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) In a move that will help transform the delivery of distance learning, a diverse group of higher education and state leaders, accreditors, and regulators led by former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley today unveiled plans for a new interstate reciprocity system that will significantly streamline regulations and allow universities and colleges to more easily offer online courses across the country. The Commission on the Regulation of Postsecondary Distance Education’s report seeks to free higher education institutions from the maze of costly, inefficient, and inconsistent regulations and laws in different states that often make it difficult to offer online courses to students who reside outside an institution’s home state. The plan also sets in place consumer protections to safeguard students. State Higher Education Executive Officers Association Farhad (Fred) Saba, Ph. D. Founder and Editor Distance-Educator.com

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Distance-Educator.com e-Newsletter – 4/22/13

A bit under the weather today, so there won’t be a lot of blogging from this corner…

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FEATURED ARTICLE Planning and Managing Distance Education Systems: Modeling Your Institution Dr. Farhad (Fred) Saba Founder and Editor, Distance-Educator.com In a series of articles, I presented a model of distance education consisting of seven interrelated nested systems levels. These systems have been present in most distance education organizations that I observed, or planned and built over the past 30 years. In the last eight weeks, I discussed: Hardware, Software, Telecommunications, Instructional, Educational, Societal, and Global Systems Levels In this and future articles the process of modeling your institution will be explained in further detail so that you could start the planning process for your organization by using system modeling. We hope that conducting the environmental scan as presented in this article will give you a better appreciation of the components of the technology-based educational programs in your organization and the interrelationships among such components. We also hope that you realize that the environmental scan can be an iterative activity, and as you learn more about the modeling process, you would be able to develop more comprehensive models of your organization by reviewing the components and processes involved in your institution. Keep in mind that each institution is unique and the purpose of learning the modeling process is to create a unique plan for the future development of your institution as no one model or solution can be developed and applied to all institutions. RESEARCH-BASED ARTICLES OF THE WEEK Emerging Educational Technologies and Research Directions Two recent publications report the emerging technologies that are likely to have a significant impact on learning and instruction: (a) New Media Consortium’s 2011 Horizon Report (Johnson, Smith, Willis, Levine & Haywood, 2011), and (b) A Roadmap for Education Technology funded by the National Science Foundation in the USA (to download the report see http://www.cra.org/ccc/edtech.php). Some of the common technologies mentioned in both reports include personalized learning, mobile technologies, data mining, and learning analytics. This paper analyzes and synthesizes these two reports. Two additional sources are considered in the discussion: (a) the IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technology’s report on curricula for advanced learning technology, and, (b) the European STELLAR project that is building the foundation for a network of excellence for technology enhanced learning. The analysis focuses on enablers of (e.g., dynamic online formative assessment for complex learning activities) and barriers to (e.g., accessibility and personalizability) to sustained and systemic success in improving learning and instruction with new technologies. In addition, two critical issues cutting across emerging educational technologies are identified and examined as limiting factors – namely, political and policy issues. Promising efforts by several groups (e.g., the National Technology Leadership Coalition, the IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technology, Networks of Excellence, etc.) will be introduced as alternative ways forward. Implications for research and particular for assessment and evaluation are included in the discussion as means to establish credible criteria for improvement. Journal of Educational Technology & Society An emerging digital divide in urban school children’s information literacy: Challenging equity in the Norwegian school system The emergence of information and communication technology (ICT) has been influencing our society, including the educational sector. In this paper we explore students’ information literacy at the completion of lower secondary school in Norway. Our aim is to measure students’ information literacy at the end of Grade 10, and to identify factors explaining the variations observed. Factors relating to the digital divide, e.g., books at home, language spoken at home and academic aspirations are explored in this study. The sample consists of 3,727 students from 50 lower secondary schools located in a Norwegian city with relatively high immigration rate and various ethnicities. Through statistical multilevel analysis our findings indicate that the number of books at home, the language spoken at home and the students’ academic aspirations explain a very large proportion of the variation in information literacy between schools, and a considerable part of the variation between students–within–schools. Firstmonday Lost in the lifeworld: Technology help seeking and giving on diverse, post-secondary campuses Information and communications technology (ICT) is integrated throughout a student’s lived experience in their post-secondary learning environment. In order for students with limited or no background with ICT to achieve their academic goals, a central part of their adaptation involves an intensive period of ICT help seeking. Using anecdotes from phenomenological research, this paper explores what we can learn about our practice as help givers through reflecting upon the lived experience of cross-cultural ICT help seeking and giving on diverse, post-secondary campuses. What surfaces from this investigation is the importance of developing an ICT support and training structure that appreciates the inter-subjective, activity-embedded nature of ICT help seeking and giving. An phenomenological educational approach to ICT help giving would be thoughtfully interwoven into a post-secondary learning environment, not as a remedial construct, but as an integral part of the learning, and help seeking, experience itself. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology Linguistic Representation of MOOCs Media representations of massive open online courses (MOOCs) such as those offered by Coursera, edX and Udacity reflect tension and ambiguity in their bold promise of democratized education and global knowledge sharing. An approach to MOOCs that emphasizes the tacit epistemology of such representations suggests a richer account of the ambiguities of MOOCs, the unsettled linguistic and visual representations that reflect the strange lifeworld of global online courses and the pressing need for promising innovation that seeks to serve the restless global desire for knowledge. This perspective piece critically appraises the linguistic laboratory of thought such representation reveals and its destabilized rhetoric of technology and educational practice. The mobile knowledge of MOOCs, detached from context and educational purpose and indifferent to cultural boundary distortions, contains both the promise of democratized education and the shadow of post-colonial knowledge export. Canadian Journal of Educational Technology “Wouldn’t you like to talk it over before having your people die?” Engaging Middle School Students in Inter-school Online Synchronous Discussions While peer-to-peer online synchronous discussions offer students a means to engage those from other schools in discussions about matters of public importance, existing research offers middle school teachers limited insight into how best to conduct such discussions. This study examined the peer-to-peer interaction of three classes of students from three separate schools as they participated in a series of sequenced online synchronous discussions about why nations go to war. The results of the study suggest ways to strengthen the instructional support system provided during such discussions so as to foster better interschool and peer-to-peer participation and higher-level posts by students. Journal of Research Center for Educational Technology, Kent State University Developing Civic Agency in an International Videoconference: Reflecting on Audience and Public Voice in Participatory Media This article presents findings from a multisite case study that focused on three international videoconferences, which involved secondary students discussing controversial social issues. As a learning experience, the videoconferences helped students better understand their use of participatory media, authentic discussion, and public voice. Findings suggested that the students’ engagement in dialogue with a diverse audience of peers resulted in students reflecting on the quality of their classroom discussions and their regular interactions with participatory media. By engaging in authentic discussion with peers outside of their typical school and social circles, students’ better understood the purpose of their public voice. After reflectively comparing the videoconference experience to other participatory media and learning experiences, the students made decisions to use participatory media in the future to construct similar media-based authentic learning experiences. Thus, participation in the videoconference helped students consider and develop their civic agency. Implications for social studies educators are discussed. Journal of the Research Center for Educational Technology, Kent State University From “Community Helpers” to “Community Service”: Using a WebQuest with Second Graders Drawing on action research, a professor of social studies education reports on the development of a WebQuest to explore community service with second graders. Using the WebQuest, students wrote and asked appropriate questions to community workers who visited their classroom, collaboratively researched different community organizations, and selected a volunteer project that the class could accomplish. The WebQuest appeared to be developmentally appropriate, promoted higher-level thinking, and built social skills. Students completing the WebQuest showcased numerous skills advocated by the National Council for Social Studies and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Journal of the Research Center for Educational Technology, Kent State University IN THE NEWS Competency-Based Education Advances With U.S. Approval of Program Last month the U.S. Education Department sent a message to colleges: Financial aid may be awarded based on students’ mastery of “competencies” rather than their accumulation of credits. That has major ramifications for institutions hoping to create new education models that don’t revolve around the amount of time that students spend in class. Wired Campus Proposal would create online higher ed common market, set baseline consumer protections A proposed compact among the states unveiled by educational organizations and state officials Thursday would create a kind of common market for online education and make it easier for institutions to enroll students anywhere in the country. The Washington Post Farhad (Fred) Saba, Ph. D. Founder and Editor Distance-Educator.com

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