Increasing Flexible Access: Better Understanding the Value of Higher Education

A cutting-edge digital learning strategy
Increasing Flexible Access:
Better Understanding the Value of Higher Education
Professor Mark Brown
Director, National Institute for Digital Learning
Ed Tech Conference
30th May 2014
Dublin

Background…
• Previous Director of Distance Education and Learning
Futures Alliance (DELFA)
• Past President New Zealand Association for Open, Flexible
and Distance Learning
• Current Treasurer of the Australasian Society for Computers
in Learning in Tertiary Education (ascilite)
• Leadership role implementing New Zealand’s first enterprise
wide university-based MOOC initiative
• Director of the new National Institute for Digital
Learning at Dublin City University
• Previously Director of the National Centre for
Teaching and Learning, Massey University, New
Zealand

1. Why this focus?
2. What are the basic assumptions?
3. How can we better calculate the value?
- private
- public
Outline…

• Flexible (digital) is the
new normal
1. Why this focus…

new normal
• Wider participation
agenda

new normal
agenda
• Response to major
societal changes

new normal
agenda
• Response to major
societal changes
• Increasing emphasis
on life-long learning

• Increasing concerns about student success

• Increasing questions about return on investment

• Significant gap in the policy and funding context

95% of
mature
university
level
students
are part-
time

“As many part-time courses and all open and
distance learning courses are not recognised and
are not eligible for funding purposes, colleges must
operate flexible learning programmes on a largely
self-funded basis” (HEA, 2009, p.7).

The National Strategy for Higher Education
recommends that if Ireland is to raise levels of lifelong
learning and higher education attainment, more is
needed in terms of increased flexibility and
innovation, broader routes of access and a model of
funding that supports all students equally, regardless
of mode or duration of study (HEA, 2012, p.6).

“By 2016, full equality of provision and support will
have been achieved in higher education for all
students, regardless of time, place or pace of
study. A range of indicators will be developed to
measure achievement of this goal, with a review of
progress before the end of 2014” (HEA, 2012, p.33).

• Major blockage in truly harnessing benefits of digital
learning

“Review funding models to remove barriers to
flexibility for students in how they want to
learn” (p.11).

• Matters for individuals - private
• Matters for regions and countries - public
• Contributes to economic development
• Provides significant wider societal benefits
• Flexible learning is a subset of these benefits
Higher Education….

“Society, as a whole, benefits from increased tax
revenues, a decreased demand for welfare support,
an increase in civic participation, a lower demand
for health services, and higher wages” (2006, p.2).

£1.3b

- April, 2012

New Zealand
Ireland

Smoking Rates Among Individuals Ages 25 and Older,
by Education Level, 1940–2008

http://trends.collegeboard.org/education_pays

“The evidence is overwhelming that higher education
improves people’s lives, makes our economy more efficient,
and contributes to a more equitable society. The existing
gaps in participation and success are detrimental not only to
individual lives, but also to society as a whole.

“The evidence is overwhelming that higher education
improves people’s lives, makes our economy more efficient,
and contributes to a more equitable society. The existing
gaps in participation and success are detrimental not only to
individual lives, but also to society as a whole.
Different paths are appropriate for different individuals, and
our challenge is to make the most promising paths readily
available to students from all backgrounds. We will all be better
off if we continue to make progress in this direction”
(Education Pays, 2010, p.9).

“Distance Education…
…has made me the person I am today, a productive
working woman in her late forties contributing to
society. I was in my early to middle thirties when I
found distance education and… it was a godsend to
enable me to make my life and my son’s life a much
better one in the long term. I wanted to better myself
by studying while on a benefit and not being able to
afford childcare, distance education was the best
way of making my life better.

I am now employed by a government department in a
role helping victims in the community. I am now in a
position that I am not reliant on a benefit and not
likely to need one in the future. Where would I be if
distance education was not available to me? Still in
the same place as I was 12 years ago, stuck on a
benefit with no future to speak of. Now I am… proof
that it’s possible to change your life for the better by
utilizing distance education”
Sharon (18th Jan, 2011)
http://exmss.org/presidentsblog/2011/01/18/treat-distance-students-with-respect

Of those earning $100K+, 85% were distance students
Graduate Destination Survey (2012)…

“Groups with similar characteristics to distance learners,
such as part-time and older students, generally use
student loans at lower rates and leave school with lower
levels of indebtedness.”
(2011)

• In 2010, distance programmes offered by Massey
University contributed a total of $470.9 million to
the regional economies of New Zealand.
• After taking into account the direct, indirect and
induced expenditure impacts of the University’s
extramural students, a further $232.9 million
worth of output was added to regional economies
across New Zealand.
(Professor Christoph R. Schumacher, 2011)

Three case studies…
Big Data!

0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
1 2 3 4 5
Annualearnings($NZ)
Years after graduation
Median earnings by age: Bachelor's degree
graduates
Young Bachelors
Young - 34 Bachelors
35 - 44 Bachelors
45 + Bachelors

“Closing the gap between
labour market participation
rates and unemployment
rates for people with and
without disabilities by one-
third would result in a
cumulative $43 billion
increase in Australia’s GDP
over the next decade in real
dollar terms.”
2009 2010 2011
Auckland
University of
Technology
9 EFTS 18 EFTS 22 EFTS
Lincoln
University
0 EFTS 0.5 EFTS 4.3 EFTS
Massey
University
University of
Auckland
University of
Canterbury
University of
Otago
University of
Waikato
Victoria
University of
Wellington

Benefits beyond paid work…
50+

• The contribution of sport and recreation to GDP
(including volunteered services) in 2008/09 was
more than $5.2 billion, or 2.8%.
• This is as large as a recent estimate of the
contribution made to GDP by the dairy sector.

“It will not be possible to satisfy the rising
demand for Higher Education, especially in
developing countries, by relying on traditional
approaches”
Sir John Daniel
Past President, Commonwealth of Learning
Vancouver
Conclusion

“A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.”
Francis Bacon
http://www.slideshare.net/mbrownz
Questions…

Contact details…
Professor Mark Brown
Director, National Institute for Digital Learning
mark.brown@dcu.ie
@mbrownz
http://www.slideshare.net/mbrownz

Increasing Flexible Access: Better Understanding the Value of Higher Education

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Increasing Flexible Access: Better Understanding the Value of Higher Education