Why learner support is an important component in the design of teaching and learning
The story so far
Chapter 5 of my open textbook, ‘Teaching in a Digital Age’ is about the design of teaching and learning, which I am...
Dialogue and discussion: critical for 21st century skills development
Introduction
First of all, thanks to the numerous people who commented on my earlier posts on Why Lectures are Dead, and on Learning Theories and...
Does distance education socialize students? A study from Québec
Loisier, J. (2014) Socialisation des Etudiants en FAD au Canada Francophone Montréal QC: REFAD
REFAD (the Canadian francophone distance education network) has published a very...
Teaching assistants, adjunct faculty and online learning
I am struggling these days with the issue of who should teach online courses, in terms of qualifications and status, and in particular, the...
Is Athabasca University moving away from tutoring?
Nolais, J. (2014) Concerns dialed up over ‘call-centre model’ at Alberta’s Athabasca University Metro: Calgary, January 27
More signs of trouble at 'Canada's Open University', as...
2020 Vision: Outlook for online learning in 2014 and way beyond
Taking the long view
Doug Saunders in the Globe and Mail on January 4 wrote an interesting piece on prediction, entitled: "Gadgets alone don't make...
Productivity and online learning redux
Summarizing the previous posts
In previous posts (see end of this post), I tried to identify a range of areas where online learning might enable...
Leadership in open and distance education universities
The conference
For 20 years, the Standing Committee of Presidents (SCOP) of the members of the International Council of Distance Education (ICDE) has provided a...
Improving productivity in online learning: can we scale ‘the learning that matters most’?
The story so far
This is a continuation of the discussion on whether online learning can increase educational ‘productivity.’ Previous posts in this series include:
Technology,...
“Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”: a retrospective of my work
Brindley. J. and Paul, R. (2013) Understanding the building blocks of online learning: Through the writings and research of pre-eminent online learning expert, Dr. Tony...