University of Technology, Sydney
Shirley Alexander is Professor of Learning Technologies at the University of Technology, Sydney where she is Director of the Institute for Interactive Media and Learning. One of her major roles is university-wide responsibility for e-Learning developments, and she has recently conducted a major evaluation of e-Learning across the campus.
She has over 15 years experience in the use of information and communication technologies in education. Her research and development activities are underpinned by research in student learning and focus on the appropriate use of new media technologies in higher education.
She is a member of the Australian Universities Teaching Committee.
Dynix
Mr. Blount has more than 27 years experience in the computer industry and over 20 years senior management experience including the roles of Chairman, President, CEO, COO, and CTO. He has a successful track record of assembling powerful teams of professionals, and successfully leading companies to accomplish rapid growth and solid profits.
Blount has been an executive in several public companies such as Novell, Borland, Raindance Communications, TeleComputing, J.D.Edwards, and IBM. He has experience in all aspects of the technology arena including: Internet, telephony, data networking, wireless networking, software and hardware. In addition to his technical acumen, Blount has had responsibility for sales, marketing and operations for both national and international products and services where he has continually produced dramatic growth in revenues and profits.
As a well-known industry expert and a frequent speaker at industry conferences around the world, including COMDEX, Windows World, PC Expo, NetWorld, CeBIT, CTIA Wireless Apps and Asian Telecoms, Blount continues to provide vision and leadership to the industry.
Blount graduated from Southern Methodist University with a degree in Math and Computer Science with graduate MBA studies at IBM's Watson Institute and SMU.
Current e-learning systems can support timed and licensed delivery, in electronic and bound form, but cannot support custom annotations on top of the existing content. A college professor or instructor uses a book or e-book as base material and then provides notes and additional information such as hands on labs, live presentations, pictures, etc.
The linked information or metadata needs to be managed in a similar fashion as the core e-book. A system that would allow the notes and other explanatory information such as videos, pictures, diagrams, presentations to be bound into an arbitrary layered virtual book, with the correct ordering and licenses for all the parts, would be a very useful tool for both e-learning and real class rooms.
This has several advantages:
Associate Director ITS Griffith University
Bruce has spent some 24 years in the IT industry, in both the private and government sectors. A graduate of the Royal Military College Duntroon, he spent some 14 years as an Army Officer in various IT related jobs. This was followed by a number of years as an IT Manager in large local government authorities and further years as a business unit manager with AWA Computers. At present he is the Associate Director ITS for Griffith University, a position he has held for some five years. During this period Bruce has managed the Corporate Information Systems for Griffith. This includes extensive business systems based around the PeopleSoft ERP systems and teaching and Learning systems based around Blackboard.
Previous Presentations
Educause 2001 - Australia (650+ attendees)
Educause 2003 - Australia (750+ attendees)
Presented at various Executive PeopleSoft Group meetings in Australia
No previous presentations at PeopleSoft conferences
We are starting to realise that one of the principles assisting the success of implementation of an e-learning or e-knowledge service within an organisation, be it a higher education institution or a major enterprise, is the application architecture that underpins the delivery of the service, and the support model that then support the clients in the use of the service. What is not unusual is that we may focus on only one aspect at a time of this architecture and support. This is acceptable if we also have a comprehensive vision of long-term direction and a full understanding of the technologies required, the desired level of integration and the user interface. What are the component functions of such an architecture? Is it possible to start small and scale up? What factors affect the architectural design and product choices?
United Parcel Service Inc.
Rick Carter is a 27-year UPS employee currently serving as the department manager of the Organizational & Training Development group in the Corporate Learning & Development Department. His career with UPS began as a delivery driver from which he was promoted into operations management, and then went on to other responsibilities in Industrial Engineering, Security, Communications, and Human Resources.
He is currently responsible for much of the employee training that touches virtually all of UPS's approximate 370,000 employees worldwide. This training ranges from health and safety to package operations' job methods to government regulations and much in between. Rick has more than 12 years experience in training and development at UPS, and holds a BS degree in English, Secondary Education from the University of Wisconsin.
He serves on the Advisory Board for the Metro Employers of Atlanta, which assists high school students with their educational goals, and as a participant on the board of the National Coalition for Cooperative Education, which assists college-level students in the achievement of their educational and career goals. He is a member of the Corporate Executive Board's Learning & Development Roundtable, Elliott Masie's e-learning Consortium, and holds a Senior Professional in Human Resources Certification with the Society for Human Resources Management.
With regards to learning, and the inertia incumbent within a large organization, utilizing technology that has a rapid pace of change to improve the learning environment runs head on against a human desire to slow the pace down.
The primary issue facing UPS, which has a decentralized learning infrastructure, is implementing a learning strategy that is focused on the business needs, integrated with human capital development, is easy to access and use, has accountability, and can be sustained both economically and technically.
Helping build a coalition to create understanding of how the primary components of learning management, content management, and knowledge management can accomplish this is staggering. The pace of change in the technology world has leapt beyond the seeming capacity of organizations to appraise, digest, and implement such a strategy.
Visionary Technology in Library Solutions (VTLS)
Vinod Chachra, Chair and CEO of VTLS Inc., is an internationally recognized lecturer and consultant in the field of information system planning. His career represents a productive mix of academic and business pursuits.
After earning his Ph.D. in industrial engineering and operations research at Virginia Tech, Dr. Chachra served that university in many capacities, most recently as the vice president for computing and information systems. His responsibilities as Vice-President included the supervision of computers, communications, libraries, learning resources and the printing enterprise at Virginia Tech.
Chachra has been active in the library profession for more than 20 years. He represented Virginia in the White House Conference on Library and Information Sciences, and is a former member of the White House Conference on Library and Information Services Task Force.
Beginning in 1975, he designed the original Virginia Tech Library System (now called VTLS) and in 1985 founded VTLS Inc., which provides state-of-the-art library automation systems to more than 900 libraries worldwide. VTLS Inc. is based in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA, and has offices in six countries and does business in 35 countries. VTLS Inc. was the anchor tenant of the very successful Corporate Research Center at Virginia Tech and in 2003 received the honor of "High Tech Company of the Year."
During his career, Dr. Chachra has received many honors, including the Distinguished Information Sciences Award from the Data Processing Management Association and the CAUSE Award for Exemplary Leadership. Dr. Chachra has served on the Board of Directors of many organizations, including NISO, CAUSE and EDD. In 2003, he was named the "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Ernst and Young.
Chachra has written two books, and numerous journal articles.
Michigan State University
Christine Geith is director of the Global Institute at Michigan State University. She is a founder of the Horticulture Gardening Institute, managing director of the Global Community Security Institute, and responsible for new product development and creating new lines of business through MSU Global. Prior to joining MSU, Chris was executive director of E-Learning at Rochester Institute of Technology. At RIT, Chris built one of the largest online learning programs in the U.S. independently rated as one of the top three in enrollment of a single institution in the late 90's. Chris was also instrumental in launching one of the first online degree programs in the country in 1991 at RIT. She has conducted studies on the cost effectiveness of distance learning for the TLT Group, Sloan Consortia, and Mellon Foundation. An Arena Award recipient from the Center for Digital Education, she serves on the advisory board of the National University Telecommunications Network and co-leads its Corporate University and Military Resources Group. She has served as assessment editor for the Technology Source journal, board member of the New York State Center for Technology Skills Development, board member of the for-profit Global University Alliance, and founding board member of the Higher Education Knowledge and Technology Exchange. Chris is a doctoral candidate at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln studying the cost-effectiveness of structured engagement and has an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology.
The most popular model for elearning in U.S. higher education uses asynchronous group discussion facilitated by an instructor. While reported to be effective, this model also leads to increased faculty time beyond the traditional classroom-based environment. The workload issue has been cited as a barrier to faculty adoption of web-based courses and also a barrier to cost-efficiency due to the small class sizes needed to support a high degree of faculty and student interaction. The question is: are there more cost-effective ways to implement this model?
One way to reduce faculty workload is to structure online dialog using standard threaded discussion tools and activities such as jigsaws and peer feedback roles. Another, lesser known, way is to use software designed to support the specific activity workflow. Examples include CSILE and ThinkAboutIt. These kinds of tools are not yet widely known or available. Further research is needed to identify potentially cost-effective alternatives to labor-intensive approaches to web-based interaction.
President, Hezel Associates
Dr. Richard T. Hezel is president, founder, and owner of Hezel Associates. He built his company in 1987 on the needs of educational organizations to harness the promise of telecommunications and technology for learning.
Since 1987 Dr. Hezel has been a national expert, writing and speaking on distance learning policy, management, and research. His company has published Educational Telecommunications and Distance Learning: The State-By-State Analysis , providing a national perspective on the latest developments in educational telecommunications in the United States. Dr. Hezel frequently speaks at conventions and industry meetings throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Dr. Hezel is a member many boards and organizations, including NUTN and the United States Distance Learning Association.
Prior to establishing his company, Dr. Hezel was a professor of communications at Syracuse University and at the University of Houston. Hezel began his career in broadcasting as a producer and director of public television programs at WCNY-TV in Syracuse, NY, and later at the University of Akron and its station, WNEO-TV.
A native of Buffalo, NY, Dr. Hezel earned a doctoral degree in mass communication from Indiana University, a master's degree in television and radio from Syracuse University, and a bachelor's degree in history from Fordham University.
Originally a solution to the inaccessibility of education, e-learning has been driven more recently by financial concerns: raising new revenue or increasing profitability of the institution. Despite widespread discussion of quality in e-learning, few organizations have established sound criteria for quality or implemented systematic methods of determining the effectiveness of e-learning services. For that matter, systems for evaluating the quality of education, generally, have been generally poor, but e-learning cannot hide behind the shield of that excuse. Academicians, even administrators of e-learning, have not led the thrust toward accountability. Innovative as it is, e-learning should shine the light on new levels of rigor in testing quality and demonstrating accountability.
Two indicators are particularly important in accountability: learning outcomes and cost-effectiveness. They are linked, of course. Learning effectiveness and cost are the two counter-balanced elements in the cost effectiveness equation. Finding better measures of learning impact, especially within a causal model through which learning, test achievement, and skill performance can be adequately tested and appropriately attributed to an e-learning program offers a first challenge. The robust acquisition of cost, profitability, and return on investment data-and the analysis and use of the data for decision making-represent a second challenge. Finally, using the analysis for decisions about the strategic management and improvement of the e-learning initiative and program portfolio are critical.
WCET
Dr Johnstone is the executive director of the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET) at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE). In that role she is a resource for state governing boards, legislators, governors, as well as college and university leaders on higher education technology issues. She has worked with over a dozen U.S. states as well as governments and organizations in Brazil , Hong Kong , Mauritius , Mexico , Scotland , England , Canada , and New Zealand .
The WCET is a membership organization with staff located in Boulder , Colorado . Its 245 members are located in 45 U.S. states and eight countries. WCET members are primarily public colleges and universities but also include private institutions, government agencies, and corporations. The WCET staff develop research projects focusing on the integration of technology into the teaching and learning processes, consult with higher education institutions, hold professional development institutes for practitioners, publish timely reports, and generally support their members in the planning for and implementation of e-learning.
Johnstone writes a bi-monthly column for Syllabus magazine on distance learning, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Open Learning, and a Contributing Editor of Change Magazine. She has served on the Boards of American Association of Higher Education and the U.S. Open University. She has authored about 20 articles, four book chapters and five books/major reports on distance and distributed learning. She also leads workshops and gives about a dozen invited addresses each year to higher education organizations. She earned her Ph. D. in experimental psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill .
There is a proliferation of courses being put onto the web without adequate support systems for e-learning students and faculty. At traditional higher education and training organizations this results in over taxed faculty and unhappy students.
At most colleges and universities distance learning programs began as small experimental activities involving a few interested faculty members and, frequently, a special campus organization to administer the courses. As these programs became popular with students, the people in the special campus organization had to figure out a way to accommodate the growing enrollments. All too often this was done by hiring qualified individuals who could teach an extra section of the course when enrollments reach whatever magic number was determined to be the "maximum class size." These "qualified individuals" might be called adjunct or part-time faculty members, graduate teaching assistants, tutors, or any number of different titles. However, their numbers have soared and the ways they are compensated and supported by most of the campuses for which they work have not evolved to fit current realities.
Here is what seems to be a fairly typical scenario. The part-time instructor agrees to teach a section of a course that has been developed by someone else. In most cases the development involved a single person using a standard course management software package with little, if any, instructional design support from the campus. Rarely does anyone else review these course materials before they are used in a course. The course materials may, or may not, be well designed and integrated. Regardless of the quality of the course materials, the part-time instructor inherits them.
In entry level courses, which are frequently the most popular and likely to need extra sections, the students are quite heterogeneous. Some are taking their first college class. Others already have graduate degrees. Many are taking their first on-line course. Our instructor is likely to spend anywhere from 10 to 18 hours a week monitoring discussions, answering student emails, grading tests, and correcting problems with the course materials.
Our instructor is expected to have his or her own computer and internet service provider (ISP). If he or she uses a high-speed connection service, this can cost anywhere from $40 to $60 a month. I do know of a few cases where campuses actually offer a subsidy to the instructor to help with those costs, but this seems to be an exceptional practice, not the usual one.
Based on a survey of on-line instructor pay done by some colleagues two years ago, the average rate was $480 per credit hour. Thus teaching a three credit hour course would generate a salary of $1,440 for a 15 week term. If we consider the ISP fees (ignoring the cost of the computer), that means we are compensating these instructors at a rate of $8.60 per hour (in a best case scenario) or $4.70 an hour (in a busy week). Unless these individuals are getting some other rewards from their campuses (exceptionally good staff support, recognition for service, etc.), it is easy to see why the best ones will shop for the best deals leaving many campuses to scramble to find well-qualified instructors to meet the needs of their distance learning students.
It may well be time to re-think this model. After all, it is a model that is based on a simple exportation of the classroom. A fixed number of students working with a subject-matter-qualified instructor on what is basically a textbook-type set of materials coupled with on-line discussions, multiple choice on-line quizzes, and some essay questions on the final exam. We need to re-allocate the resource pool to ensure the quality of the course materials and student activities, offer greater support to the on-line instructors to enable them to accommodate greater numbers of students, and recognize these individuals as real members of our campus communities.
Delta Airlines Inc.
Bill has over 25 years of business experience in human resources management and training and development. He began his business career with the International Training & Education Company in 1980, where he worked on training projects in the Middle East. As a consultant with Sandy Corporation, he consulted on quality and training programs for General Motors, Ford and the Budd Company.
Bill created the first corporate university in GE in 1988, called Appliance Park University, designed and delivered the GE Work-Out process and established global human resource systems for Asian and European regions for GE Appliances. As the Senior HR Manager for the Engineering division at GE Aircraft Engines, he led the Six Sigma Engineering leadership program and facilitated engineering best practice initiatives.
Bill joined Delta Air Lines in 1999, as Vice President and Chief Learning Officer where he built a world class learning organization. He established HR processes and tools including performance management, succession planning, leadership 360, an e-Learning LMS platform and a business-wide project management system and change management model.
Bill received a BS in Education from Temple University and graduated with a MA in Adult Education from the University of Connecticut.
A key issue that will continue to impact multi-media technology delivery will be the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) of HR systems and training. Enterprise service providers (IBM, SAP, Accenture, etc.) are moving toward an integrated service delivery model for HR and training systems. The current e-Learning content houses and LMS/LCMS providers have remained focused on the training community, with a lack of focus on integration or alignment with HR systems. But, recently, enterprise service providers are impacting hardware and software decisions for learning as evidenced by Cigna's contract with IBM which included outsourcing its Learning function. This movement will continue to impact the training and e-Learning world as the industry consolidates and moves toward standardization. Several factors from a business perspective will drive BPO:
Several questions, among many, arise out of the current BPO movement:
What is the governance model for BPO learning content and security?
Where does the thought leadership reside for BPO learning content and delivery?
Where does the learning professional fit in the BPO model?
What happens to the multi-media, workbench and tool vendors/developers?
What is the individual and organizational learning impact via a BPO model?
How effective and efficient is the BPO service model for learning?
Coalition for Networked Information
Joan K. Lippincott is the Associate Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), a joint project of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and EDUCAUSE. Joan previously held positions in the libraries of Cornell, Georgetown, George Washington University, and SUNY at Brockport as well as the Research and Policy Analysis Division of the American Council on Education and the National Center for Postsecondary Governance and Finance. She has written articles and made presentations on such topics as networked information, collaboration among professional groups, assessment, and teaching and learning in the networked environment. She is on the board of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD), secretary/treasurer of the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage and a member of the editorial board of C&RL News. Joan received her Ph.D. in higher education policy, planning, and administration from the University of Maryland, her M.L.S. from SUNY Geneseo, and an A.B. from Vassar College.
Many discussions about using technology in teaching and learning focus on using technology as a tool for pedagogy. Another dimension of the teaching, learning, and technology landscape is the perspective of teaching students about the use of information and technology in their discipline(s) and in the information society context. Typically, libraries and computing centers in higher education institutions in the US offer informal and formal education and training sessions that incorporate such topics as use of particular software packages or searching databases of journal articles. Some institutions offer presentations on ethical and social issues such as plaigarism and netiquette in their freshman orientation programs.
Two important resources, a report by the National Research Council "Being Fluent with Information Technology," and the American Library Association's Association of College and Research Libraries' "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education", provide frameworks for describing the kinds of knowledge students should gain in order to be informed creators and users of information and technology in the information society. However, until faculty recognize the importance of information literacy and technology and fluency as critical to their students' future success, whether in academe or the business world, such skills will continue to get short shrift in the curriculum. What are some new ways of thinking about the incorporation of information literacy and technology fluency into the curriculum?
Ohio State University
Susan E. Metros is Deputy Chief Information Officer and Executive Director for e-Learning at The Ohio State University. She also holds the faculty appointment of Professor of Design Technology. As Deputy CIO, she is responsible for leading the academic community in appropriately using technology-enhanced teaching and learning, both on campus and at a distance. In her role as educator and designer, she teaches within the visual communication curriculum and has served as principal designer on several international award winning interactive multimedia and Web-based projects. She is also active on numerous international and national committees and task forces and has published and presented widely on the role of eLearning in transforming education to be sharable, engaging, interactive and learner-centered.
Learner engagement is a key issue that is impacting e-learning. Technology affords educators with new ways to present course content that is no longer text only, paper constrained, linearly organized and visually flat. Engaged learning can borrow from the interactive and community-based activities prevalent on the Internet. The use of gaming, role-playing, blogging, instant messaging and chat coupled with multimedia modalities that address multiple learning styles has the capacity to stimulate today's technology savvy learners. By employing these familiar methodologies to learning, educators can better meet the needs of a new student demographic that has grown up with computers, is predominantly visually oriented, watches rather than listens to music on MTV, uses Google as a key reference tool, shops online and accesses news through 24/7 online streaming feeds. These students expect to take part in experiential and authentic learning in unconventional and engaging ways. However, new ways of learning require new teaching methodologies. The traditional forms of teaching do not transition well to the online environment. In order to engage today's learners, faculty must understand interaction from cognitive, semiotic, psychological, artistic and pedagogical perspectives and use this knowledge to build unique learning environments
I believe this would be a meaningful addition to a panel discussion because it is an issue that is often overlooked.
Bibliography
Frand, J. "The Information Mindset: Changes in Students and Implications for Higher Education," EDUCAUSE Review, 35 (5), ( Denver , CO : Educause), September/October 2000), pp. 15-24.
Metros, S. "Visually Engaging Online Learners," LlinE: Lifelong Learning in Europe , Vol. VI, No. 2, pp.85-95, (KVS Foundation and Finnish Adult Education Society: Helsinki , Finland , June 2001).
VP, North American Operations, Sentient Ltd
BA (Hons) Information Systems and Business Administration 1999
Joe graduated from Northampton University in 1999 aged 21 with BA (Hons) Information Systems and Business Administration and went on to join Synopsis/ACT Financial Systems as a Graduate Programmer /Analyst.
In 2000 Joe joined Sentient, a Software company base in Liverpool to set up a business unit focused on Educational Software and Services.
Joe is the founder of Sentient Discover, an application which integrates course management systems with various library systems, improving access to learning resources and enriching the learning environment for Faculty and students. Joe was responsible for product strategy for three years providing much of the initial vision for Sentient Discover. Sentient Learning successfully launched their flagship product, Sentient Discover in January 2003. Within 12 months Sentient Discover has established a significant customer base in the UK and North America, and is generating worldwide interest.
Joe has relocated in Philadelphia where he is now responsible for North American Operations.
For countries in the vanguard of the world economy, the balance between knowledge and resources has shifted so far towards the former that knowledge has become perhaps the most important factor determining the standard of living - more than land, than tools, than labour. Today's most technologically advanced economies are truly knowledge-based. World Development Report, 1999
There is an abundance of knowledge at educational institutions which has enormous intangible value. The value of this knowledge far outweighs the tangible values of institutions physical assets, such as buildings, equipment, systems and even learning resources.
What is the value of a Learning Resource in the Knowledge Economy?
There is inherent value in a learning resource as it is designed to capture and share knowledge. In the current learning environment, however, the value of a learning resource diminishes significantly due to lack of access, associated knowledge dissemination and personalisation for the learner.
The convergence of technologies supported by open standards will ultimately improve resource discovery and access for learner. To achieve real pedagogical value, however, learners require personalized dynamic environments which facilitate the sharing of knowledge pertaining to learning resources and their relationships with other learning resources. A personalised knowledge sharing environment would enable Faculty to become true facilitators creating a Pedagogical Synergy accelerating collective and personal development.
Capturing and disseminating knowledge in a way that enriches sharing of thought and encourages innovation would provide significant benefits to educational institutions and commercial organisations, and should therefore be a mission critical activity.
Senior Education Specialist, International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group.
Ron Perkinson is a New Zealander who has held positions at Chief Executive and Director level in large multinational service industries in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, spanning more than 20 years.
Ron was seconded to the International Finance Corporation in Yr 2000 to the role of Senior Education Specialist, to assist with the establishment of the Global Health & Education Group focusing on private education projects in developing economies. Ron is an educationalist who brings an international education business perspective to the IFC in a role that provides technical advice and assistance for private sector education projects involving K-12 schools; technical and vocational training; universities and higher education; ICT / education technology companies; plus distance education and e-learning projects in developing countries.
In 1989 and prior to joining the IFC Ron was appointed as Chief Executive of Multi Serve Education Trust in New Zealand. Multi Serve was the privatised outcome of government education services after the sweeping education reforms in New Zealand throughout the late 1980's. Ron was responsible for the pioneering the successful development of Multi Serve in New Zealand and its international services in seven countries, in areas of education administration, project management, academic/ professional development, on-line and distance education, and information & communications technology services.
Ron left the teaching profession during the 1970's to pursue a corporate career as Managing Director of international service companies in New Zealand and Australia. He has been a Chairman and Director of private sector companies and has served on a variety of government working parties and committees in New Zealand to oversee or advise on public sector reforms.
As higher education has moved to become more of a global enterprise, one of the most important effects of globalization is the intensifying competition and cross border activity that is becoming more evident in international higher education. The mainstreaming and the use of information technologies have transformed the way we have always done things in academia. Today's higher education institutions are becoming more entrepreneurial as students even in the poorest countries are being enticed to enroll in foreign distance & e-learning programs. We are witnessing a flurry of specialized programs delivered in to these economies by foreign providers and many of them with an emphasis on fields of study such as business, law, accounting, English language, and computer sciences.
When western on-line/e-learning providers in the industrialized countries choose to deliver their programs across borders in to developing countries, either independently or through a local partner, there have been deep rooted negative reactions from local regulators and providers about the suitability and relevance of content / courseware developed in the west, based around western global theory but lacking in relevance to local context. (Africa, India, East Asia . . . are typical sources of discontent).
Right across the developing world, higher studies and graduate education are not necessarily about modeling curriculum and delivery around what only happens in the developed world. In developing markets they have traditional sectors, small medium enterprise and young entrepreneurs that make up over 90% of local economies and are the future of these countries. These small firms and individuals can be a valuable resource for local universities and the work they can do - or potentially do in basic and applied research, customizing intellectual property to meet the needs of local markets. Small firms with technological capabilities and individuals with entrepreneurial flare, and even some collective groups owned by farmers, can be useful partners and resources to assist in the advancement and the dissemination of new technologies into traditional markets in developing countries in conjunction with local institutions of higher learning. This can include such things as business initiatives that foster environmental and nature friendly products on the land - or even preserving local seashore industries and their environments, that major corporations in most cases ignore or dismiss as unprofitable.
Traditional (local) sectors can many cases be the innovative leaders for advancement in small services and manufacturing, agri-business, environmental and ecological reform - hungry for the dissemination of mainstream knowledge that can be customized to these local markets. They take entrepreneurial risk because in many cases they have no other choice. They believe in and own their future livelihoods. Many - if not most of these SME's and individuals have no stake in the past in terms of business development - but they do have a great stake in the future in terms of cultural and ethnic values that they want to preserve. It is these values that need to be accommodated in curriculum planning and in higher education delivery - where the sensitivities of local context are important.
My Question for Forum Colleagues:
Globalization of higher education programs can challenge national and cultural identity, but it will never replace it. I will be interested to hear from Forum members who are delivering programs in to developing countries - about how they assure quality and relevance of their courses in terms of content and delivery - and how they overcome the growing local perception of how foreign programs can be well packaged but are often based around less relevant social or cultural assumptions. What development and delivery strategies do providers use to ensure that course content, delivery and assessment - identifies with the social and cultural sensitivities that can often be embedded in local culture and traditions - traditions that can determine or impact on the way local markets and their traditional sectors operate successfully?
Ottersurf Laboratories
Clark is passionate about thinking and learning, and fascinated with the potential for technology to facilitate them. With a particular focus on learning systems, he has designed and developed innovative solutions for community agencies, schools, industry, and government. Clark has a special interest in making interactions engaging, leading to award-winning online content, educational computer games, and more. Previously he led research and development as Director of Cognitive Systems for Knowledge Universe Interactive Studio, and held executive positions at Open Net and Access CMC, two Australian initiatives in Internet-based multimedia and education. Clark is a recognized scholar with an extensive publication and presentation record and has held positions at the University of New South Wales, the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center, and San Diego State University's Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education. Clark earned a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of California, San Diego, after working for DesignWare, an early educational game software company. Clark currently works through OtterSurf Laboratories.
This is a framework based upon the 'action-breakdown-repair-reflection' model from hermeneutic philosophy that accounts for how people act in the world. The framework shows how to integrate elearning, performance support, and knowledge management (and technology support) into a coherent whole. It helps point out where each of the areas sits, and falls short. It has implications for the roles of units within organizations that address the areas of KM, training, and IT, as well as for technology and learning design. This is suitable for a 10-minute presentation, as has already been demonstrated at the eLearning Forum. A brief (and slightly dated) treatment can be seen at: http://www.ottersurf.com/InformalLearning/
The above model also shows that our instructional design models don't accommodate this new vision of the way learning occurs. New models of learning need to consider long-term development of individuals over many small interactions spread across the activities in their lives. Recognizing the increasing ubiquity of mobile devices, advances in context awareness, and learning object standard evolution, our design models need to anticipate the availability of detailed task, learner, and content models that can be used to address context-specific learning opportunities. This is suitable for a panel session, for example on directions for research. Some component thoughts can be seen in the Mobile Learning Objects white paper I did for a client: http://www.ottersurf.com/MLO-WP.pdf
University of Colorado
Tamara Sumner is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado , with a joint appointment between the Department of Computer Science and the Institute of Cognitive Science . Prior to joining the University of Colorado , Dr. Sumner served as a Lecturer with the Knowledge Media Institute at The Open University in the UK . Her research interests include human-computer interaction, design, educational technology, digital libraries, and interactive scholarly publishing. Over the past few years, she has combined these interests in several ongoing projects: the Journal of Interactive Media in Education ( http://www-jime.open.ac.uk ) and the Digital Library for Earth System Education ( http://www.dlese.org ). Her newest project, Strand Maps as an Interactive Interface to National Science Digital Library Resources, is investigating how conceptual searching and browsing interfaces can help K-12 teachers and students to locate and comprehend digital educational resources.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Dr. Shirley Waterhouse, is the Director of Educational Technology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), a worldwide institution with over 130 teaching centers located around the world. In this capacity, she oversees all elearning initiatives and faculty technology development programs. Dr. Waterhouse is also an international elearning consultant and has conducted numerous faculty workshops on elearning pedagogy as well as workshops on elearning strategic planning for administrators.
She has over 30 years of teaching and administrative experience and currently teaches an online graduate course on elearning pedagogy. When teaching full-time in the ERAU Computer Science Department, she won the outstanding professor award nine out of eleven semesters, an award voted on by graduating seniors. She has just authored her sixth book, Attaining the Power of Elearning, The Essential Guide for Teaching in the Digital Age , scheduled for release by Allyn & Bacon Publishers in August, 2004. Dr. Waterhouse is also a member of the Blackboard Product Advisory Board.
Do faculty complain about their workloads increasing due to having to respond to more student emails and online discussions? Do faculty complain that students continue to ask questions about basic course information even when it is clearly posted in the coursesite? Is there evidence that students are inappropriately using copyrighted materials obtained online? Do faculty know whether or not they own the intellectual property rights to the elearning course materials they create? All of these issues must be clearly addressed in elearning policies. All faculty and administrators working to promote the effective use of elearning must develop an understanding of the importance of elearning policies. This brief presentation will focus on elearning policies and provide examples from the presenter's new book, Attaining the Power of Elearning, The Essential Guide to Teaching in the Digital Age , due for release in August, 2004, by Allyn & Bacon Publishers.
University of Technology, Sydney
Shirley Alexander is Professor of Learning Technologies at the University of Technology, Sydney where she is Director of the Institute for Interactive Media and Learning. One of her major roles is university-wide responsibility for e-Learning developments, and she has recently conducted a major evaluation of e-Learning across the campus.
She has over 15 years experience in the use of information and communication technologies in education. Her research and development activities are underpinned by research in student learning and focus on the appropriate use of new media technologies in higher education.
She is a member of the Australian Universities Teaching Committee.
Dynix
Mr. Blount has more than 27 years experience in the computer industry and over 20 years senior management experience including the roles of Chairman, President, CEO, COO, and CTO. He has a successful track record of assembling powerful teams of professionals, and successfully leading companies to accomplish rapid growth and solid profits.
Blount has been an executive in several public companies such as Novell, Borland, Raindance Communications, TeleComputing, J.D.Edwards, and IBM. He has experience in all aspects of the technology arena including: Internet, telephony, data networking, wireless networking, software and hardware. In addition to his technical acumen, Blount has had responsibility for sales, marketing and operations for both national and international products and services where he has continually produced dramatic growth in revenues and profits.
As a well-known industry expert and a frequent speaker at industry conferences around the world, including COMDEX, Windows World, PC Expo, NetWorld, CeBIT, CTIA Wireless Apps and Asian Telecoms, Blount continues to provide vision and leadership to the industry.
Blount graduated from Southern Methodist University with a degree in Math and Computer Science with graduate MBA studies at IBM's Watson Institute and SMU.
Current e-learning systems can support timed and licensed delivery, in electronic and bound form, but cannot support custom annotations on top of the existing content. A college professor or instructor uses a book or e-book as base material and then provides notes and additional information such as hands on labs, live presentations, pictures, etc.
The linked information or metadata needs to be managed in a similar fashion as the core e-book. A system that would allow the notes and other explanatory information such as videos, pictures, diagrams, presentations to be bound into an arbitrary layered virtual book, with the correct ordering and licenses for all the parts, would be a very useful tool for both e-learning and real class rooms.
This has several advantages:
Associate Director ITS Griffith University
Bruce has spent some 24 years in the IT industry, in both the private and government sectors. A graduate of the Royal Military College Duntroon, he spent some 14 years as an Army Officer in various IT related jobs. This was followed by a number of years as an IT Manager in large local government authorities and further years as a business unit manager with AWA Computers. At present he is the Associate Director ITS for Griffith University, a position he has held for some five years. During this period Bruce has managed the Corporate Information Systems for Griffith. This includes extensive business systems based around the PeopleSoft ERP systems and teaching and Learning systems based around Blackboard.
Previous Presentations
Educause 2001 - Australia (650+ attendees)
Educause 2003 - Australia (750+ attendees)
Presented at various Executive PeopleSoft Group meetings in Australia
No previous presentations at PeopleSoft conferences
We are starting to realise that one of the principles assisting the success of implementation of an e-learning or e-knowledge service within an organisation, be it a higher education institution or a major enterprise, is the application architecture that underpins the delivery of the service, and the support model that then support the clients in the use of the service. What is not unusual is that we may focus on only one aspect at a time of this architecture and support. This is acceptable if we also have a comprehensive vision of long-term direction and a full understanding of the technologies required, the desired level of integration and the user interface. What are the component functions of such an architecture? Is it possible to start small and scale up? What factors affect the architectural design and product choices?
United Parcel Service Inc.
Rick Carter is a 27-year UPS employee currently serving as the department manager of the Organizational & Training Development group in the Corporate Learning & Development Department. His career with UPS began as a delivery driver from which he was promoted into operations management, and then went on to other responsibilities in Industrial Engineering, Security, Communications, and Human Resources.
He is currently responsible for much of the employee training that touches virtually all of UPS's approximate 370,000 employees worldwide. This training ranges from health and safety to package operations' job methods to government regulations and much in between. Rick has more than 12 years experience in training and development at UPS, and holds a BS degree in English, Secondary Education from the University of Wisconsin.
He serves on the Advisory Board for the Metro Employers of Atlanta, which assists high school students with their educational goals, and as a participant on the board of the National Coalition for Cooperative Education, which assists college-level students in the achievement of their educational and career goals. He is a member of the Corporate Executive Board's Learning & Development Roundtable, Elliott Masie's e-learning Consortium, and holds a Senior Professional in Human Resources Certification with the Society for Human Resources Management.
With regards to learning, and the inertia incumbent within a large organization, utilizing technology that has a rapid pace of change to improve the learning environment runs head on against a human desire to slow the pace down.
The primary issue facing UPS, which has a decentralized learning infrastructure, is implementing a learning strategy that is focused on the business needs, integrated with human capital development, is easy to access and use, has accountability, and can be sustained both economically and technically.
Helping build a coalition to create understanding of how the primary components of learning management, content management, and knowledge management can accomplish this is staggering. The pace of change in the technology world has leapt beyond the seeming capacity of organizations to appraise, digest, and implement such a strategy.
Visionary Technology in Library Solutions (VTLS)
Vinod Chachra, Chair and CEO of VTLS Inc., is an internationally recognized lecturer and consultant in the field of information system planning. His career represents a productive mix of academic and business pursuits.
After earning his Ph.D. in industrial engineering and operations research at Virginia Tech, Dr. Chachra served that university in many capacities, most recently as the vice president for computing and information systems. His responsibilities as Vice-President included the supervision of computers, communications, libraries, learning resources and the printing enterprise at Virginia Tech.
Chachra has been active in the library profession for more than 20 years. He represented Virginia in the White House Conference on Library and Information Sciences, and is a former member of the White House Conference on Library and Information Services Task Force.
Beginning in 1975, he designed the original Virginia Tech Library System (now called VTLS) and in 1985 founded VTLS Inc., which provides state-of-the-art library automation systems to more than 900 libraries worldwide. VTLS Inc. is based in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA, and has offices in six countries and does business in 35 countries. VTLS Inc. was the anchor tenant of the very successful Corporate Research Center at Virginia Tech and in 2003 received the honor of "High Tech Company of the Year."
During his career, Dr. Chachra has received many honors, including the Distinguished Information Sciences Award from the Data Processing Management Association and the CAUSE Award for Exemplary Leadership. Dr. Chachra has served on the Board of Directors of many organizations, including NISO, CAUSE and EDD. In 2003, he was named the "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Ernst and Young.
Chachra has written two books, and numerous journal articles.
Michigan State University
Christine Geith is director of the Global Institute at Michigan State University. She is a founder of the Horticulture Gardening Institute, managing director of the Global Community Security Institute, and responsible for new product development and creating new lines of business through MSU Global. Prior to joining MSU, Chris was executive director of E-Learning at Rochester Institute of Technology. At RIT, Chris built one of the largest online learning programs in the U.S. independently rated as one of the top three in enrollment of a single institution in the late 90's. Chris was also instrumental in launching one of the first online degree programs in the country in 1991 at RIT. She has conducted studies on the cost effectiveness of distance learning for the TLT Group, Sloan Consortia, and Mellon Foundation. An Arena Award recipient from the Center for Digital Education, she serves on the advisory board of the National University Telecommunications Network and co-leads its Corporate University and Military Resources Group. She has served as assessment editor for the Technology Source journal, board member of the New York State Center for Technology Skills Development, board member of the for-profit Global University Alliance, and founding board member of the Higher Education Knowledge and Technology Exchange. Chris is a doctoral candidate at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln studying the cost-effectiveness of structured engagement and has an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology.
The most popular model for elearning in U.S. higher education uses asynchronous group discussion facilitated by an instructor. While reported to be effective, this model also leads to increased faculty time beyond the traditional classroom-based environment. The workload issue has been cited as a barrier to faculty adoption of web-based courses and also a barrier to cost-efficiency due to the small class sizes needed to support a high degree of faculty and student interaction. The question is: are there more cost-effective ways to implement this model?
One way to reduce faculty workload is to structure online dialog using standard threaded discussion tools and activities such as jigsaws and peer feedback roles. Another, lesser known, way is to use software designed to support the specific activity workflow. Examples include CSILE and ThinkAboutIt. These kinds of tools are not yet widely known or available. Further research is needed to identify potentially cost-effective alternatives to labor-intensive approaches to web-based interaction.
President, Hezel Associates
Dr. Richard T. Hezel is president, founder, and owner of Hezel Associates. He built his company in 1987 on the needs of educational organizations to harness the promise of telecommunications and technology for learning.
Since 1987 Dr. Hezel has been a national expert, writing and speaking on distance learning policy, management, and research. His company has published Educational Telecommunications and Distance Learning: The State-By-State Analysis , providing a national perspective on the latest developments in educational telecommunications in the United States. Dr. Hezel frequently speaks at conventions and industry meetings throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Dr. Hezel is a member many boards and organizations, including NUTN and the United States Distance Learning Association.
Prior to establishing his company, Dr. Hezel was a professor of communications at Syracuse University and at the University of Houston. Hezel began his career in broadcasting as a producer and director of public television programs at WCNY-TV in Syracuse, NY, and later at the University of Akron and its station, WNEO-TV.
A native of Buffalo, NY, Dr. Hezel earned a doctoral degree in mass communication from Indiana University, a master's degree in television and radio from Syracuse University, and a bachelor's degree in history from Fordham University.
Originally a solution to the inaccessibility of education, e-learning has been driven more recently by financial concerns: raising new revenue or increasing profitability of the institution. Despite widespread discussion of quality in e-learning, few organizations have established sound criteria for quality or implemented systematic methods of determining the effectiveness of e-learning services. For that matter, systems for evaluating the quality of education, generally, have been generally poor, but e-learning cannot hide behind the shield of that excuse. Academicians, even administrators of e-learning, have not led the thrust toward accountability. Innovative as it is, e-learning should shine the light on new levels of rigor in testing quality and demonstrating accountability.
Two indicators are particularly important in accountability: learning outcomes and cost-effectiveness. They are linked, of course. Learning effectiveness and cost are the two counter-balanced elements in the cost effectiveness equation. Finding better measures of learning impact, especially within a causal model through which learning, test achievement, and skill performance can be adequately tested and appropriately attributed to an e-learning program offers a first challenge. The robust acquisition of cost, profitability, and return on investment data-and the analysis and use of the data for decision making-represent a second challenge. Finally, using the analysis for decisions about the strategic management and improvement of the e-learning initiative and program portfolio are critical.
WCET
Dr Johnstone is the executive director of the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET) at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE). In that role she is a resource for state governing boards, legislators, governors, as well as college and university leaders on higher education technology issues. She has worked with over a dozen U.S. states as well as governments and organizations in Brazil , Hong Kong , Mauritius , Mexico , Scotland , England , Canada , and New Zealand .
The WCET is a membership organization with staff located in Boulder , Colorado . Its 245 members are located in 45 U.S. states and eight countries. WCET members are primarily public colleges and universities but also include private institutions, government agencies, and corporations. The WCET staff develop research projects focusing on the integration of technology into the teaching and learning processes, consult with higher education institutions, hold professional development institutes for practitioners, publish timely reports, and generally support their members in the planning for and implementation of e-learning.
Johnstone writes a bi-monthly column for Syllabus magazine on distance learning, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Open Learning, and a Contributing Editor of Change Magazine. She has served on the Boards of American Association of Higher Education and the U.S. Open University. She has authored about 20 articles, four book chapters and five books/major reports on distance and distributed learning. She also leads workshops and gives about a dozen invited addresses each year to higher education organizations. She earned her Ph. D. in experimental psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill .
There is a proliferation of courses being put onto the web without adequate support systems for e-learning students and faculty. At traditional higher education and training organizations this results in over taxed faculty and unhappy students.
At most colleges and universities distance learning programs began as small experimental activities involving a few interested faculty members and, frequently, a special campus organization to administer the courses. As these programs became popular with students, the people in the special campus organization had to figure out a way to accommodate the growing enrollments. All too often this was done by hiring qualified individuals who could teach an extra section of the course when enrollments reach whatever magic number was determined to be the "maximum class size." These "qualified individuals" might be called adjunct or part-time faculty members, graduate teaching assistants, tutors, or any number of different titles. However, their numbers have soared and the ways they are compensated and supported by most of the campuses for which they work have not evolved to fit current realities.
Here is what seems to be a fairly typical scenario. The part-time instructor agrees to teach a section of a course that has been developed by someone else. In most cases the development involved a single person using a standard course management software package with little, if any, instructional design support from the campus. Rarely does anyone else review these course materials before they are used in a course. The course materials may, or may not, be well designed and integrated. Regardless of the quality of the course materials, the part-time instructor inherits them.
In entry level courses, which are frequently the most popular and likely to need extra sections, the students are quite heterogeneous. Some are taking their first college class. Others already have graduate degrees. Many are taking their first on-line course. Our instructor is likely to spend anywhere from 10 to 18 hours a week monitoring discussions, answering student emails, grading tests, and correcting problems with the course materials.
Our instructor is expected to have his or her own computer and internet service provider (ISP). If he or she uses a high-speed connection service, this can cost anywhere from $40 to $60 a month. I do know of a few cases where campuses actually offer a subsidy to the instructor to help with those costs, but this seems to be an exceptional practice, not the usual one.
Based on a survey of on-line instructor pay done by some colleagues two years ago, the average rate was $480 per credit hour. Thus teaching a three credit hour course would generate a salary of $1,440 for a 15 week term. If we consider the ISP fees (ignoring the cost of the computer), that means we are compensating these instructors at a rate of $8.60 per hour (in a best case scenario) or $4.70 an hour (in a busy week). Unless these individuals are getting some other rewards from their campuses (exceptionally good staff support, recognition for service, etc.), it is easy to see why the best ones will shop for the best deals leaving many campuses to scramble to find well-qualified instructors to meet the needs of their distance learning students.
It may well be time to re-think this model. After all, it is a model that is based on a simple exportation of the classroom. A fixed number of students working with a subject-matter-qualified instructor on what is basically a textbook-type set of materials coupled with on-line discussions, multiple choice on-line quizzes, and some essay questions on the final exam. We need to re-allocate the resource pool to ensure the quality of the course materials and student activities, offer greater support to the on-line instructors to enable them to accommodate greater numbers of students, and recognize these individuals as real members of our campus communities.
Delta Airlines Inc.
Bill has over 25 years of business experience in human resources management and training and development. He began his business career with the International Training & Education Company in 1980, where he worked on training projects in the Middle East. As a consultant with Sandy Corporation, he consulted on quality and training programs for General Motors, Ford and the Budd Company.
Bill created the first corporate university in GE in 1988, called Appliance Park University, designed and delivered the GE Work-Out process and established global human resource systems for Asian and European regions for GE Appliances. As the Senior HR Manager for the Engineering division at GE Aircraft Engines, he led the Six Sigma Engineering leadership program and facilitated engineering best practice initiatives.
Bill joined Delta Air Lines in 1999, as Vice President and Chief Learning Officer where he built a world class learning organization. He established HR processes and tools including performance management, succession planning, leadership 360, an e-Learning LMS platform and a business-wide project management system and change management model.
Bill received a BS in Education from Temple University and graduated with a MA in Adult Education from the University of Connecticut.
A key issue that will continue to impact multi-media technology delivery will be the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) of HR systems and training. Enterprise service providers (IBM, SAP, Accenture, etc.) are moving toward an integrated service delivery model for HR and training systems. The current e-Learning content houses and LMS/LCMS providers have remained focused on the training community, with a lack of focus on integration or alignment with HR systems. But, recently, enterprise service providers are impacting hardware and software decisions for learning as evidenced by Cigna's contract with IBM which included outsourcing its Learning function. This movement will continue to impact the training and e-Learning world as the industry consolidates and moves toward standardization. Several factors from a business perspective will drive BPO:
Several questions, among many, arise out of the current BPO movement:
What is the governance model for BPO learning content and security?
Where does the thought leadership reside for BPO learning content and delivery?
Where does the learning professional fit in the BPO model?
What happens to the multi-media, workbench and tool vendors/developers?
What is the individual and organizational learning impact via a BPO model?
How effective and efficient is the BPO service model for learning?
Coalition for Networked Information
Joan K. Lippincott is the Associate Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), a joint project of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and EDUCAUSE. Joan previously held positions in the libraries of Cornell, Georgetown, George Washington University, and SUNY at Brockport as well as the Research and Policy Analysis Division of the American Council on Education and the National Center for Postsecondary Governance and Finance. She has written articles and made presentations on such topics as networked information, collaboration among professional groups, assessment, and teaching and learning in the networked environment. She is on the board of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD), secretary/treasurer of the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage and a member of the editorial board of C&RL News. Joan received her Ph.D. in higher education policy, planning, and administration from the University of Maryland, her M.L.S. from SUNY Geneseo, and an A.B. from Vassar College.
Many discussions about using technology in teaching and learning focus on using technology as a tool for pedagogy. Another dimension of the teaching, learning, and technology landscape is the perspective of teaching students about the use of information and technology in their discipline(s) and in the information society context. Typically, libraries and computing centers in higher education institutions in the US offer informal and formal education and training sessions that incorporate such topics as use of particular software packages or searching databases of journal articles. Some institutions offer presentations on ethical and social issues such as plaigarism and netiquette in their freshman orientation programs.
Two important resources, a report by the National Research Council "Being Fluent with Information Technology," and the American Library Association's Association of College and Research Libraries' "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education", provide frameworks for describing the kinds of knowledge students should gain in order to be informed creators and users of information and technology in the information society. However, until faculty recognize the importance of information literacy and technology and fluency as critical to their students' future success, whether in academe or the business world, such skills will continue to get short shrift in the curriculum. What are some new ways of thinking about the incorporation of information literacy and technology fluency into the curriculum?
Ohio State University
Susan E. Metros is Deputy Chief Information Officer and Executive Director for e-Learning at The Ohio State University. She also holds the faculty appointment of Professor of Design Technology. As Deputy CIO, she is responsible for leading the academic community in appropriately using technology-enhanced teaching and learning, both on campus and at a distance. In her role as educator and designer, she teaches within the visual communication curriculum and has served as principal designer on several international award winning interactive multimedia and Web-based projects. She is also active on numerous international and national committees and task forces and has published and presented widely on the role of eLearning in transforming education to be sharable, engaging, interactive and learner-centered.
Learner engagement is a key issue that is impacting e-learning. Technology affords educators with new ways to present course content that is no longer text only, paper constrained, linearly organized and visually flat. Engaged learning can borrow from the interactive and community-based activities prevalent on the Internet. The use of gaming, role-playing, blogging, instant messaging and chat coupled with multimedia modalities that address multiple learning styles has the capacity to stimulate today's technology savvy learners. By employing these familiar methodologies to learning, educators can better meet the needs of a new student demographic that has grown up with computers, is predominantly visually oriented, watches rather than listens to music on MTV, uses Google as a key reference tool, shops online and accesses news through 24/7 online streaming feeds. These students expect to take part in experiential and authentic learning in unconventional and engaging ways. However, new ways of learning require new teaching methodologies. The traditional forms of teaching do not transition well to the online environment. In order to engage today's learners, faculty must understand interaction from cognitive, semiotic, psychological, artistic and pedagogical perspectives and use this knowledge to build unique learning environments
I believe this would be a meaningful addition to a panel discussion because it is an issue that is often overlooked.
Bibliography
Frand, J. "The Information Mindset: Changes in Students and Implications for Higher Education," EDUCAUSE Review, 35 (5), ( Denver , CO : Educause), September/October 2000), pp. 15-24.
Metros, S. "Visually Engaging Online Learners," LlinE: Lifelong Learning in Europe , Vol. VI, No. 2, pp.85-95, (KVS Foundation and Finnish Adult Education Society: Helsinki , Finland , June 2001).
VP, North American Operations, Sentient Ltd
BA (Hons) Information Systems and Business Administration 1999
Joe graduated from Northampton University in 1999 aged 21 with BA (Hons) Information Systems and Business Administration and went on to join Synopsis/ACT Financial Systems as a Graduate Programmer /Analyst.
In 2000 Joe joined Sentient, a Software company base in Liverpool to set up a business unit focused on Educational Software and Services.
Joe is the founder of Sentient Discover, an application which integrates course management systems with various library systems, improving access to learning resources and enriching the learning environment for Faculty and students. Joe was responsible for product strategy for three years providing much of the initial vision for Sentient Discover. Sentient Learning successfully launched their flagship product, Sentient Discover in January 2003. Within 12 months Sentient Discover has established a significant customer base in the UK and North America, and is generating worldwide interest.
Joe has relocated in Philadelphia where he is now responsible for North American Operations.
For countries in the vanguard of the world economy, the balance between knowledge and resources has shifted so far towards the former that knowledge has become perhaps the most important factor determining the standard of living - more than land, than tools, than labour. Today's most technologically advanced economies are truly knowledge-based. World Development Report, 1999
There is an abundance of knowledge at educational institutions which has enormous intangible value. The value of this knowledge far outweighs the tangible values of institutions physical assets, such as buildings, equipment, systems and even learning resources.
What is the value of a Learning Resource in the Knowledge Economy?
There is inherent value in a learning resource as it is designed to capture and share knowledge. In the current learning environment, however, the value of a learning resource diminishes significantly due to lack of access, associated knowledge dissemination and personalisation for the learner.
The convergence of technologies supported by open standards will ultimately improve resource discovery and access for learner. To achieve real pedagogical value, however, learners require personalized dynamic environments which facilitate the sharing of knowledge pertaining to learning resources and their relationships with other learning resources. A personalised knowledge sharing environment would enable Faculty to become true facilitators creating a Pedagogical Synergy accelerating collective and personal development.
Capturing and disseminating knowledge in a way that enriches sharing of thought and encourages innovation would provide significant benefits to educational institutions and commercial organisations, and should therefore be a mission critical activity.
Senior Education Specialist, International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group.
Ron Perkinson is a New Zealander who has held positions at Chief Executive and Director level in large multinational service industries in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, spanning more than 20 years.
Ron was seconded to the International Finance Corporation in Yr 2000 to the role of Senior Education Specialist, to assist with the establishment of the Global Health & Education Group focusing on private education projects in developing economies. Ron is an educationalist who brings an international education business perspective to the IFC in a role that provides technical advice and assistance for private sector education projects involving K-12 schools; technical and vocational training; universities and higher education; ICT / education technology companies; plus distance education and e-learning projects in developing countries.
In 1989 and prior to joining the IFC Ron was appointed as Chief Executive of Multi Serve Education Trust in New Zealand. Multi Serve was the privatised outcome of government education services after the sweeping education reforms in New Zealand throughout the late 1980's. Ron was responsible for the pioneering the successful development of Multi Serve in New Zealand and its international services in seven countries, in areas of education administration, project management, academic/ professional development, on-line and distance education, and information & communications technology services.
Ron left the teaching profession during the 1970's to pursue a corporate career as Managing Director of international service companies in New Zealand and Australia. He has been a Chairman and Director of private sector companies and has served on a variety of government working parties and committees in New Zealand to oversee or advise on public sector reforms.
As higher education has moved to become more of a global enterprise, one of the most important effects of globalization is the intensifying competition and cross border activity that is becoming more evident in international higher education. The mainstreaming and the use of information technologies have transformed the way we have always done things in academia. Today's higher education institutions are becoming more entrepreneurial as students even in the poorest countries are being enticed to enroll in foreign distance & e-learning programs. We are witnessing a flurry of specialized programs delivered in to these economies by foreign providers and many of them with an emphasis on fields of study such as business, law, accounting, English language, and computer sciences.
When western on-line/e-learning providers in the industrialized countries choose to deliver their programs across borders in to developing countries, either independently or through a local partner, there have been deep rooted negative reactions from local regulators and providers about the suitability and relevance of content / courseware developed in the west, based around western global theory but lacking in relevance to local context. (Africa, India, East Asia . . . are typical sources of discontent).
Right across the developing world, higher studies and graduate education are not necessarily about modeling curriculum and delivery around what only happens in the developed world. In developing markets they have traditional sectors, small medium enterprise and young entrepreneurs that make up over 90% of local economies and are the future of these countries. These small firms and individuals can be a valuable resource for local universities and the work they can do - or potentially do in basic and applied research, customizing intellectual property to meet the needs of local markets. Small firms with technological capabilities and individuals with entrepreneurial flare, and even some collective groups owned by farmers, can be useful partners and resources to assist in the advancement and the dissemination of new technologies into traditional markets in developing countries in conjunction with local institutions of higher learning. This can include such things as business initiatives that foster environmental and nature friendly products on the land - or even preserving local seashore industries and their environments, that major corporations in most cases ignore or dismiss as unprofitable.
Traditional (local) sectors can many cases be the innovative leaders for advancement in small services and manufacturing, agri-business, environmental and ecological reform - hungry for the dissemination of mainstream knowledge that can be customized to these local markets. They take entrepreneurial risk because in many cases they have no other choice. They believe in and own their future livelihoods. Many - if not most of these SME's and individuals have no stake in the past in terms of business development - but they do have a great stake in the future in terms of cultural and ethnic values that they want to preserve. It is these values that need to be accommodated in curriculum planning and in higher education delivery - where the sensitivities of local context are important.
My Question for Forum Colleagues:
Globalization of higher education programs can challenge national and cultural identity, but it will never replace it. I will be interested to hear from Forum members who are delivering programs in to developing countries - about how they assure quality and relevance of their courses in terms of content and delivery - and how they overcome the growing local perception of how foreign programs can be well packaged but are often based around less relevant social or cultural assumptions. What development and delivery strategies do providers use to ensure that course content, delivery and assessment - identifies with the social and cultural sensitivities that can often be embedded in local culture and traditions - traditions that can determine or impact on the way local markets and their traditional sectors operate successfully?
Ottersurf Laboratories
Clark is passionate about thinking and learning, and fascinated with the potential for technology to facilitate them. With a particular focus on learning systems, he has designed and developed innovative solutions for community agencies, schools, industry, and government. Clark has a special interest in making interactions engaging, leading to award-winning online content, educational computer games, and more. Previously he led research and development as Director of Cognitive Systems for Knowledge Universe Interactive Studio, and held executive positions at Open Net and Access CMC, two Australian initiatives in Internet-based multimedia and education. Clark is a recognized scholar with an extensive publication and presentation record and has held positions at the University of New South Wales, the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center, and San Diego State University's Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education. Clark earned a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of California, San Diego, after working for DesignWare, an early educational game software company. Clark currently works through OtterSurf Laboratories.
This is a framework based upon the 'action-breakdown-repair-reflection' model from hermeneutic philosophy that accounts for how people act in the world. The framework shows how to integrate elearning, performance support, and knowledge management (and technology support) into a coherent whole. It helps point out where each of the areas sits, and falls short. It has implications for the roles of units within organizations that address the areas of KM, training, and IT, as well as for technology and learning design. This is suitable for a 10-minute presentation, as has already been demonstrated at the eLearning Forum. A brief (and slightly dated) treatment can be seen at: http://www.ottersurf.com/InformalLearning/
The above model also shows that our instructional design models don't accommodate this new vision of the way learning occurs. New models of learning need to consider long-term development of individuals over many small interactions spread across the activities in their lives. Recognizing the increasing ubiquity of mobile devices, advances in context awareness, and learning object standard evolution, our design models need to anticipate the availability of detailed task, learner, and content models that can be used to address context-specific learning opportunities. This is suitable for a panel session, for example on directions for research. Some component thoughts can be seen in the Mobile Learning Objects white paper I did for a client: http://www.ottersurf.com/MLO-WP.pdf
University of Colorado
Tamara Sumner is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado , with a joint appointment between the Department of Computer Science and the Institute of Cognitive Science . Prior to joining the University of Colorado , Dr. Sumner served as a Lecturer with the Knowledge Media Institute at The Open University in the UK . Her research interests include human-computer interaction, design, educational technology, digital libraries, and interactive scholarly publishing. Over the past few years, she has combined these interests in several ongoing projects: the Journal of Interactive Media in Education ( http://www-jime.open.ac.uk ) and the Digital Library for Earth System Education ( http://www.dlese.org ). Her newest project, Strand Maps as an Interactive Interface to National Science Digital Library Resources, is investigating how conceptual searching and browsing interfaces can help K-12 teachers and students to locate and comprehend digital educational resources.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Dr. Shirley Waterhouse, is the Director of Educational Technology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), a worldwide institution with over 130 teaching centers located around the world. In this capacity, she oversees all elearning initiatives and faculty technology development programs. Dr. Waterhouse is also an international elearning consultant and has conducted numerous faculty workshops on elearning pedagogy as well as workshops on elearning strategic planning for administrators.
She has over 30 years of teaching and administrative experience and currently teaches an online graduate course on elearning pedagogy. When teaching full-time in the ERAU Computer Science Department, she won the outstanding professor award nine out of eleven semesters, an award voted on by graduating seniors. She has just authored her sixth book, Attaining the Power of Elearning, The Essential Guide for Teaching in the Digital Age , scheduled for release by Allyn & Bacon Publishers in August, 2004. Dr. Waterhouse is also a member of the Blackboard Product Advisory Board.
Do faculty complain about their workloads increasing due to having to respond to more student emails and online discussions? Do faculty complain that students continue to ask questions about basic course information even when it is clearly posted in the coursesite? Is there evidence that students are inappropriately using copyrighted materials obtained online? Do faculty know whether or not they own the intellectual property rights to the elearning course materials they create? All of these issues must be clearly addressed in elearning policies. All faculty and administrators working to promote the effective use of elearning must develop an understanding of the importance of elearning policies. This brief presentation will focus on elearning policies and provide examples from the presenter's new book, Attaining the Power of Elearning, The Essential Guide to Teaching in the Digital Age , due for release in August, 2004, by Allyn & Bacon Publishers.
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