Examining the impact of e-learning on
the traditional role of a university
Gráinne Conole, University of Leicester
E-Learning Summit, Sydney
27-28th February 2012

Outline
• Affordances of new technologies
• From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg
• Learner experience & teacher
practice
• New pedagogies & Implications
• Strategies for change
– Linking research to policy and
practice
– The VLE as a Trojan horse
– New approaches to design

Ed tech trends
• Mobiles and e-books
• Personalised learning
• Cloud computing
• Ubiquitous learning
• BYOD (Bring your own
device)
• Gesture and
augmented learning
• Digital content
• The flipped classroom
http://learn231.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/trend-report-1/

Social & participatory media
Media sharing Blogging
Mash ups Messaging
Collaborative Recommender
editing systems
Virtual worlds
Social
and games
networking
Social Syndication
bookmarking
4 http://magicineducation.wordpress.com/2011/11/10/web-2-0-world-map/
Conole and Alevizou, 2010

Peer Open
critiquing
User
Collective
generated
aggregation
content
Networked Personalised
Social media revolution
The machine is us/ing us

Gutenberg to Zuckerberg
• Take the long view
• The Web is not the Net
• Disruption is a feature
• Ecologies not economics
• Complexity is the new reality
• The Network is now the computer
• The web is evolving
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/2617472088/
http://memex.naughtons.org/

Disruptive technologies
• The Web has transformed
practice
• No central ownership
• Ecology of abundance
• Examples
– Napster
– Malware

Learner experience
• Technology immersed
• Learning approaches: task-
orientated, experiential,
just in time, cumulative,
social
• Personalised digital
learning environment
• Mix of institutional systems
and Cloud-based tools and
services
• Use of course materials
with free resources
8 Sharpe, Beetham and De Freitas, 2010

EDUCAUSE study
• Students drawn
to new
technologies but
rely on more
traditional ones
• Consider
technologies
offer major
educational
benefits
• Mixed views of
VLEs
9

Mobile learning
E-books
Study calendars
Learning resources
Online modules
Annotation tools
Podcasting
10 Communication mechanisms

Inquiry-based learning
My community
The Personal Inquiry project
Inquiry-based learning across
formal and informal settings
Sharples, Scanlon et al.
http://www.pi-project.ac.uk/
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Virtual genetics lab
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMMfHZUNpZY&feature=youtu.be
The SWIFT project

Teacher practices: paradoxes
• Technologiesnot
extensively used
(Molenda)
• Lack of uptake of OER
(McAndrew et al.)
• Little use beyond early
adopted (Rogers)
• Despite rhetoric and
funding little evidence of
transformation (Cuban, Pandora’s box
Ehlers) What would it mean to adopt more open
practices? Open design, open delivery,
13
open research and open evaluation?

Open resources

Open courses: MOOC
Massive
Open
Online
Course
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW3gMGqcZQc
http://mooc.ca/

Open accreditation
Peer to Peer University OER University
http://www.p2pu.org/en/ http://wikieducator.org/OER_university

Open research

Citation indicators

Linking research to policy and practice
Horizon scanning OER
Learning design
Virtual worlds
Research
Learner experience Web 2.0
Blackboard rollout Design practice
Policy Teacher practice
OER/iTunes
Use of technologies
Learning spaces
Cloud computing
Learner practice
19 Diversity/culture
Use of technologies

The VLE as a Trojan horse
• VlE as a safe nursery
slope
• Shift from content to
activities
• Promote reflection and
collaboration
• Mobile VLE
• Integration with cloud
computing

VLE audit
• Data
– Online survey (260 returns)
– Departmental visits
• Key findings
– Used as content repository
and administration
– Pockets of innovation
– More support needed on
effective design strategies
– Tension between teaching
and research
– Useability issue

Blackboard+ at Leicester
BB plus Google+
Maths video-lets
Prof-casts
History conundrum Voicethread

Conceptualise
What do we want to design, who for
and why?
Consolidate
Evaluate and embed your design
http://beyonddistance.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/carpe-diem-the-7cs-of-design-and-delivery/

Course views
Learning outcomes
Course map
Pedagogy profile
Course dimensions
Task swimlane
24

Collaboration
25

New metaphors
Ecologies
Spaces
Memes Rhizomes
http://e4innovation.com/?p=489

Final thoughts
• Participatory and social media enable new forms of
communication and collaboration
• Communities in these spaces are complex and
distributed
• Learners and teachers need to develop new digital
literacy skills to harness their potential
• We need to rethinkhow we design, support and assess
learning
• Open, participatory and social media can provide
mechanisms for us to share and discuss teaching and
research ideas in new ways
• We are seeing a blurring of boundaries:
teachers/learners, teaching/research, real/virtual
spaces, formal/informal modes of communication and

Conole, G. (forthcoming), Designing for learning in an open world, New York: Springer
grainne.conole@le.ac.uk
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