I hope you all had a great summer break and have come back fully charged for another always challenging year in teaching. I thought it might be helpful to pull together some of the developments in online learning that occurred over the summer that you may have missed. My list, of course, is very selective and personal.
Online learning for beginners
During the summer I developed a series of ten posts aimed at those considering teaching online, or brand new to online teaching:
This was in response to concerns that many instructors and faculty were not well briefed or aware of best practices and what we already know about effective (and more importantly, ineffective) approaches to online teaching.
The posts of course were linked to my online, open textbook, Teaching in a Digital Age. However, the book itself is likely to appeal to those who have already made a major commitment to teaching well online. The blog posts in contrast aim to address some common myths and misconceptions about online learning and online teaching, and in particular to help instructors make decisions about whether or not to do online learning in the first place, and if so, what they need to know to do it well. Think of it as a prep for the book itself.
This won’t be directly relevant to most readers of this blog, but please direct any instructors or faculty in your institution who are struggling to decide whether or not to teach online, or must undertake it but are fearful, to these posts, as well as the book itself.
Contact North will be repackaging these blog posts and re-issuing them this fall; watch this space for more details.
Upcoming conferences
The big conference announcement is that the next ICDE World Conference in Online Learning and Distance Education will be held in Toronto in October, 2017, and the lead organiser is Contact North. This global conference is one of the major events in the world of online and distance learning and it’s the first time since 1982 that it’s been held in Canada. Next year’s theme is guess what? Teaching in a Digital Age. Well, that’s a coincidence, isn’t it?
Another major conference coming up at the end of this year is the OEB conference in Berlin in December.
Registration is also now open for the EDEN Research Workshop in Oldenburg, Germany, in October this year.
AACE’s World Conference on eLearning takes place in Virginia, USA, in November this year.
And, if you hurry, you might just make the 4th E-Learning Innovations Conference and Expo in Nairobi, Kenya from September 12-16.
Reports and journals
These are reports that have been published (or which I found) over the summer. I have blogged about one or two of them but for the rest I’ve not had the time. (Well, the weather’s been glorious here in Vancouver this summer and golf called and was answered.)
Centre for Extended Learning (2016) How do we create useful online learning experiences? Waterloo ON: University of Waterloo.
This is an excellent guide to multimedia course design, combining Peter Morville’s user experience (UX) honeycomb and Richard Mayer’s theory and research on the use of multimedia for learning, to create a well-designed set of guidelines for online course design.
Daniel, J. (2016) Combatting Corruption and Enhancing Integrity: A Contemporary Challenge for the Quality and Integrity of Higher Education: Advisory Statement for Effective International Practice: Washington DC/Paris: CHEA/UNESCO.
No need to say more other than some of these corruptions will almost certainly be found in your institution. A great read and very disturbing.
Contact North (2016) Connecting the Dots: Technology-enabled Learning and Student Success Toronto ON: Nelson.
This is the result of a symposium organized by Nelson in Toronto earlier in the year and looks particularly at three main issues in online learning:1. The notion of “program”; 2. The role of faculty; 3. The nature of student support services.
Garrett, R. and Lurie, H. (2016) Deconstructing CBE Boston MA: Ellucian/Eduventures/ACE.
This is a report on a three-year study to help higher education leaders better understand competency-based education (CBE), including the diversity of institutional practices and paths forward.
Bacigalupo, M. et al (2016) The Entrepreneurship Competence Framework Brussels: European Commission JRC Science for Policy.
“The EntreComp Framework is made up of 3 competence areas: ‘Ideas and opportunities’, ‘Resources’ and ‘Into action’. Each area includes 5 competences, which, together, are the building blocks of entrepreneurship as a competence.” Something concrete at last on one of the key 21st century skills. Don’t ask me though whether I believe it – read it for yourself, if you can stand European Commission English.
From Rory McGreal’s editorial: ‘This one is packed with 19 articles and a book review. We begin with three articles from Africa on access, entrepreneurship, and openness. Then the focus changes to the teacher with a critique and a look at expectations and perceptions. Learning design issues are the focus of the next group of articles, including open design and guidelines. Investigations into factors affecting learning follow…. Finally, mobile learning issues are addressed in the last two articles.’ Something for everyone here.
Distance Education, Vol. 37, No.2 (journal) Special issue on building capacity for sustainable distance e-learning provision.
This is a specially commissioned set of papers around the theme of the last ICDE conference in South Africa. I found it difficult though to identify a consistent message between what are individually interesting papers.
I am well aware that there are many other ‘must-read’ reports that slipped by without my paying attention to them. Any further suggestions from readers will be welcome.
So the world didn’t stop while you were away. Enjoy your teaching this academic year.
Dr. Tony Bates is the author of eleven books in the field of online learning and distance education. He has provided consulting services specializing in training in the planning and management of online learning and distance education, working with over 40 organizations in 25 countries. Tony is a Research Associate with Contact North | Contact Nord, Ontario’s Distance Education & Training Network.
