The New Media Consortium’s report identified to long-term trends in education:
- flexible, innovative learning environments, and
- increased collaboration between higher education institutions (2015, p.1).
In my personal experience, I can attest to the increasing collaboration amongst higher education institutions. As a frequent attendee of the Educational Technology User’s Group (ETUG) which is funded by BC Ministry of Advanced Education and supported by BCcampus, I have noticed people are making connections. This collaboration is occurring organically, without any formal agenda or mandates. I think when it comes down to it, people really do like to share and cooperate. I can appreciate the value of “adopting a human-centric approach to education” (New Media Consortium, 2015, p.9), and I’ve heard that discourse within the ETUG community.
As far as flexible, innovative learning environments, this is proving to be more challenging. I think there is only so much flexibility within the constraints of an LMS, and privacy concerns, and the need to track student data. Personally, in the courses I have worked on, I have not seen any personalized learning, other than questions an instructor, or facilitator may pose, or if they are brining in current “real world” examples. Again, this is primarily instructor driven, not embedded into the course design. I think there is great opportunities to develop personalized learning. I am “wowed” by the idea of personalized learning because I think that is one way to making learning more engaging and meaningful for students. I watched an interview with Dr. John Medina, the author of Brain Rules, who said that children (and adults) learn best when they are interested in a subject. I love the idea of students being able to select a topic to explore and personalize their learning experiences in that way as well.
The NMC Horizon Report 2015: Higher ed edition., refers to the print industry’s successful transition in the “in the past decade from print to digital to keep pace with the rapidly changing technology landscape” (2015,p.8). One concern I have with that transition, is that many publishers are now in the business of creating companion educational resources, and companion educational sites, which are basically online courses, in to which institutions can “plug -in” their instructors, and students. (See Jones & Bartlett Navigate 2. ) These training resources, while not open like MOOCs are (for the most part) as there is a cost associated with access, still have some similar issues when it comes to learning which requires critical thought. Another similarity is due to the “importance of instructor presence for successful for-credit online learning (Bates, 2104). In the publisher created courses, the instructor presence is very structured, and sometimes may require the use of an LMS to increase and improve the opportunities for instructors to interact with students. And when it comes right down to it, my biggest concern with MOOCs and publisher resources, is the risk of them facilitating the “diploma mills” concept.
Click on image to see an example of an Edx Honour Code Certificate which can be displayed in LinkedIn.
I have registered in several MOOCs and I h ave completed only one. I am impressed with the “free” access to knowledge. Of course, as pointed out by Bates (2014) there is still some room for improving the digital divide, and other practical concerns in order to truly democratized education. As Bates mentions, MOOCs are still relatively new, but I do think as the world becomes globalized, MOOC’s will play a role. If not in through educational credits (immediately) , then at least in a way to increase work opportunities for individuals. For example LinkedIn, not only allows users to display certificates of completion through Lynda.com, but ones for Edx courses as well. Students who complete and Edx course do not have to purchase a certificate, in order to display the certificate in LinkedIn. I think this is a great way for individuals to engage and demonstrate engagement in life-long learning and well as blending the trend of formal and informal learning (New Media Consortium, 2015, p.22).
References
Bates, T. (2014). MOOCs. In Teaching in digital age. Retrieved from: http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/chapter-7-moocs/ (Chapter 5)
New Media Consortium. (2015). NMC Horizon Report 2015: Higher ed edition. Retrieved from: http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-HE-EN.pdf