Online learning in 2013: an Ontario perspective

I was struck by a recent comment from someone with 15 years of experience in designing face-to-face, blended and online credit programs: I am trying to understand what MOOCs can offer that my understanding of educational design, learning design and online and distance education does not include. I’m afraid that the answer continues to be: ‘Nothing,‘ at least for the moment.

However, there is one exception to my views on MOOCs. This came from listening to Stephen Downes at a conference in Lyon talking about his vision for MOOCs, which, if or when fully implemented, would be much more interesting than anything we have seen to date from the major MOOC providers. Downes, with George Siemens and Dave Cormier, invented the term MOOCs when they were developing an early MOOC at the University of Manitoba. These MOOCs – sometimes called cMOOCs – are very different from the instructional, lecture-based MOOCs offered by Coursera, Udacity and edX (xMOOCs), in that cMOOCs are more collaborative in their approach to learning, and more like communities of practice in the way they are constructed and operate. In essence though MOOCs are still evolving, in both form and pedagogy, so these sharp and simple distinctions between MOOCs – and between MOOCs and other forms of online learning – are likely to blur over time.

In many ways, MOOCs have become a major distraction from developing more innovative and more relevant applications of online learning for credit. MOOCs may be free to learners, but they are not free for institutions. With the average cost of just developing an xMOOC being between $50,000 – $100,000, this means that with over 1,000 MOOCs, more than $50 million to $100 million has been spent on non-credit courses that could have been spent on producing online courses for credit, leading to recognized credentials. In itself, this focus on non-formal learning might be OK, if it was tied to some clear policy objective, but we certainly haven’t seen the return on investment from MOOCs to date.

Of course, this money is unlikely to have been spent on online credit courses if MOOCs hadn’t come along. It has to be recognized that MOOCs have grabbed the attention of many elite universities who until the advent of MOOCs had paid no attention to online learning. More importantly MOOCs have also gotten the attention of university boards of governors, politicians, policy-makers and even government ministers, which credit-based online learning has never done. This has forced many universities for the first time to think strategically about online learning, and where MOOCs fit within such a strategy, which has probably been really good for credit-based online learning as well. This is particularly true in Ontario, where the University of Waterloo and York University developed or worked on institutional e-learning plans during 2013, while a senate sub-committee at Queen’s University presented a detailed and largely favourable report about online learning.

The problem though is that apart from those with prior experience or knowledge of online learning, MOOCs are being seen (and deliberately portrayed by elite universities) as the only form of online learning worth considering. The danger is that if or when the MOOC bubble bursts, all forms of online learning could be tarred with the same brush at the same time. However, this is looking forward.

The key point here is that while MOOCs may have been getting the media attention, for most professionals working in online learning in post-secondary education, what was happening within the institutions was rather different. Let’s look at some of these other developments in 2013.

Institutional strategies for online learning

Partly as a result of MOOCs, but also because of moves toward integrating online learning with classroom teaching, a number of institutions have either developed or started to develop a more strategic approach to online learning. In Ontario in particular, the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities requested in August 2012 that each post-secondary education institution in the province submit a strategic mandate agreement (SMA) proposal. Each institution was asked to provide a brief submission identifying three priority objectives, and a vision of how the institution plans to implement the objectives, using a template provided by the MTCU. These statements came in during 2013 and according to an analysis conducted by Contact North, among the 21 universities submitting agreement proposals, 18 specifically mentioned plans for an increase in online and/or blended learning activities. Among the 23 colleges submitting agreement proposals, 21 specifically mentioned plans for an increase in online and/or blended learning.

I was personally involved in discussions around strategic planning for online learning in 2013 with three Ontario universities (the University of Ottawa, York University, and Western University), as well with several universities in other provinces in Canada, in the USA and in Australia. I can’t think of another year where there has been so much interest at an institutional level in thinking strategically about online learning. These plans meant setting priorities and goals for online and hybrid learning and in some cases targets for online course development. Tied to these strategies were considerations of resources, organization and methods of working, some of which will be described more fully below.

From the periphery to the centre

The focus on strategies for online learning resulted in some cases in thinking about appropriate types of organization to support online learning. In many Canadian universities, online learning had been seen as an extension of distance education, and hence the responsibility mainly of Continuing Studies or Extension Departments, but with the move to hybrid learning and the move to online professional masters programs, mainline academic departments are needing access to the skills of instructional designers and web designers that until recently had been located in Continuing Education or Extension departments. In Ontario, Trent University has a plan to expand online learning and has established a distance learning and online education department to serve the whole university. Western University offers two services , The Teaching Support Centre and the Instructional Technology Resource Centre. At Georgian College, the faculty training initiative has been designed to support the strategic plan’s goal for increased technology-based learning.

No single solution to this issue seems to have been found, but many Canadian institutions now have established central units that report to the Provost and serve the faculties directly. As well as including support for online learning, these units now also cover general faculty development as well as distance learning.This has the advantage of facilitating the transfer of teaching innovations from one academic department throughout the institution. In some institutions these centres for teaching, learning and technology have grown rapidly, with some numbering more than 60 staff.

Hybrid learning

I saw in 2013 many Canadian universities and some colleges introducing flipped classrooms, where students view a taped lecture then come to class to discuss, solve problems, or do project work around the topic of the lecture. This is particularly popular for breaking up large lecture classes and making them more interactive.

There were fewer examples of designs that moved away from taping lectures to really thinking about the affordances of online learning and the campus from a design perspective. However in Ontario Niagara College has a blended course for students to learn about learning that involves extensive online activity-based learning and at George Brown College a course on English as a second language has designed and developed online activities to give the students in the program experience in all aspects of language learning – listening, speaking, reading, and writing. All of the online activities are closely tied to the language and objectives being covered in class that week, offering the students additional opportunity for practice and feedback.  These go beyond the flipped classroom models based on taped lectures.

I also came across some interesting discussions about the implications of hybrid and blended learning for classroom furniture and the design and layout of classrooms, Such physical designs will inevitably facilitate more integrated use of online learning within a classroom environment.

An increased push from government to use online learning for greater academic productivity