1. The Next Evolutionary
Step in Online Learning
Fabio Chacon, Ph D
Chacon Ph.D.

2. Recent Evolution of Distance Education
1910-
1910-2010
Technology Dominant systems
1. Correspondence studies Postal system
Photocopy machines
2. Prerecorded media Recording systems for audio and video
3. Two-way audio & graphics Computer network, software
Television classroom
4. One-way video Broadcasting (cable, satellite)
Telephone /Satellite TV array Telecommunication
array,
5. Two-way audio & video network (leased telephone lines, ISDN, fiber optics,
microwave)
6. Desktop/laptop communications Multimedia computer (camera, microphone), TCP-IP,
high-speed network. World-wide access t resources
hi h d t k W ld id to

3. Which of these media prevailed
in DE?

4. General principles
G l i i l
 Technology has been the motor of change in
distance education (DE)
 Prior to d ti by DE, technologies h
P i t adoption b DE t h l i where
widely accepted in society
 Many technologies were b i fl adopted and
M t h l i briefly d t d d
later discarded
 “Survival” f technologies is determined b
“S i l” of t h l i i d t i d by
ecological laws

5. Which are some of these laws?
(Shaw and Chacon, 2010)
 Reduction of transactional distance
 Equivalence
 Industrialization
 Convergence
 Requisite variety (multimodality vs. single
modality)

6. More recent technologies
Technology Medium
9. E-Book Digitized book, approaching to multimedia
Requires special reader
Allows hypertext and search
Increased use by e-learning programs
10. Mobile, hand-held devices Worldwide extended use
Text, image and voice messaging
Use of push technologies
Capabilities near personal computer
Mobile learning (on the go)

7. Emerging technology: immersive
environments or virtual reality
i t it l lit

8. Persona = Avatar
P A t
Plus
 Gesture communication
 Enhanced social presence
p
 Skills learning (incipient)
Minus
 Longer learning curve
 Technical requirements
 Communicational “noise”
 Financial aspects

9. Virtual training environment

10. Ecological b i
E l i l barriers
= 101 / 10
= 101 / 10 pins
= 101 / 2

11. Ecological b i
E l i l barriers
= noise/signal
= asynchronous world
y
= mouse + keystrokes
= mouse + keystrokes

12. ¿What is then an instructional
medium?
di ?
 Device(s) able to transport and manipulate
information in different formats
 Enables user to perform operations with
information (read, edit, store, create, etc.)
 Physical form adapted to preferred use
 Capabilities and standards converge across
media
 Physical differences become marginal to
users

13. Human dimension (Palloff & Pratt):
Virtual Learning Community (VCL)
C
Community = social group th t can b
it i l that be
distinguished from a category or conglomerate
 Traditional concept = group with a territory base
 Modern concept= group with diffuse limits,
distributed in
di t ib t d i a geographic space and with
hi d ith
capability for interaction

14. What is a virtual community?
Wh t i it l it ?
 Still a social group, with a sort of territory
group
 The territory is electronic/virtual so all
intervening objects, processes and people are
digitally represented
 Virtual communities support and strengthen
knowledge acquisition (Palloff and Pratt)
 Three integrative forces: goals, interaction and
common language
g g

15. Communities in online courses
C iti i li
 Wheel-type interaction  Networked interaction
 Low cohesion  High h i
Hi h cohesion
 Focus medium to high  High focus
 Social learning p
g prevails
 Cognitive l
C iti learning
i  Frequent affective
prevails elements
 Occasional affective  Engagement,
Engagement joy
elements  Lingers on after the
 Disappears with the course
course
Functionality Solidarity
F. Chacón

16. Principles
Pi i l
 Learning community is difficult to achieve in a
distance course
 However,
However it is one key factor of success
 In the formation of the virtual community
there are factors of:
 Course organization
 Instructor
 Students
 Learning Management System
F. Chacon

17. WEB 2.0
How media contribute to the
emergence of learning
g g
communities?

18. p
podcasting
g

19. wikis
iki

20. social
networking
t ki

21. social bookmarking
g

22. blogging

23. Criteria f S l ti
C it i for Selecting Tools
T l
 Effectiveness
 Availability
 Cost
 Convenience
 Comfort
 Learning/communication styles
g y
 “Culture” of the institution/locale

24. The digital divide

25. Congo - 2010
C
Classroom for 125 students and one teacher

26. The great forces of change in
DE at the beginning of the
decade of the 2010
d d f h 2010s
 Technology
 Virtual communities
Virt al comm nities
 The new pedagogies
Let us examine them, briefly
y

27. Future Technology
gy
 The bandwidth is unlimited
 The
Th processing power is unlimited
i i li it d
 Computers will become more specialized
 Personal media will be (more) embedded in
everyday life
 Converging: Operating systems, CMS / LMS,
libraries, student information systems, etc.
 Keywords: simplicity, integration and
modularity
 Learning systems are tailored to the user and
not vice versa.

28. Future Communities
 The community technologies around us are
creating a new culture of learners
g
 Today students prefer to work in teams in peer-
to-peer situations within a structured
environment that affords a fair amount of
flexibility
 We are getting closer to a new apprenticeship
era fostered by virtual communities
 Universities and colleges must b ready f
U i iti d ll t be d for
“edgeless design”, recognizing that students
belong to various communities of practice

29. An Example
A E l
Queensland University of Technology (Australia)

30. To what extent does
technology and virtual
t h l d it l
communities change the
nature of learning?

31. Inquiry-based
How might technology Construction
support active learning? Conceptual understanding
C t l d t di
Taking tests
Inquiry-based education Problem-solving
Constructivism Narrative
Literacy
Mediated learning Game authoring
Discovery learning
y g Techno computing skill-learning
Techno-computing skill learning
Learning as conversation Fieldwork
Problem-based learning Communication
Reflective practice Collaboration
Learning identities
Meta-cognition Conceptual networks
Experiential learning Manipulation skills
Learner-oriented approach Informal interests
Social constructivism Self-worth
Situated learning
g Modelling
Scenarios
Evaluating evidence

32. Is there a change in the nature
of learning?
• what it takes to learn’ will not change
• what is learned is changing
• how it is learned is changing
• technology makes more feasible the idea of
learning as an active, interactive, adaptive,
personalized, situated, collaborative process
•Collaborative learning is social learning: modeling,
vicarious reinforcement, enactive learning, self-
efficay, self-regulation

33. WHAT INTERNATIONAL TRENDS
ARE SHAPING DISTANCE
EDUCATION?

34. Source:
http://www.studymentor.com/

35. The
Th trends
d
 Large-scale
Large scale programs
 More than 100,000 students
 Decentralized systems
 Large investments in technology
 Industrialized model predominant
 There seems no growth limit

36. Source:
http://www.ambientinsight.com/Reports/eLearn
ing.aspx

37. Example
E l
2009: Top U.S. Higher Education Online Institutions by Enrollment Totals
Institution 2009 Online Enrollment Online Enrollment
Totals Growth from 2008 to
2009
University of Phoenix Online 310,400 22%
Kaplan University 68,200 47%
DeVry 56,300 26%
Strayer University 54,300 25%
American Public Education 53,600 49%
Bridgepoint Education 45,500 101%
Walden University 40,500 17%
UMassOnline 40,000 18%
Liberty University 36,200 15%
Education Management 34,800 54%
Capella Education 33,900 26%
Grand Canyon Education 32,600 53%
University of Maryland University 30,400
30 400 17%
College
Source: The Worldwide Market for Self-paced eLearning Products and Services: 2009-
2014 Forecast and Analysis , Ambient Insight, February 2010.

38. The trends
 System Integration
 Convergence between CMS / LMS, student
information system and library support systems
 There are still many gaps that indicate areas of
Th till th t i di t f
possible development
 Rapid changes in technology and software make
it difficult to integrate – e.g. mobile learning blues
 The greater the integration, the lower the cost
g g ,

39. The Trends
 The standardization of courseware and
learning objects
 Goal: Integration of courses and free resources
platform
l tf
 Achievement: Large repositories of learning
objects (MERLOT MIT Open Courseware
(MERLOT, Courseware,
Ariadne, etc.).
 SCORM standard emerges as more finished
g

40. The trends
 The market trend
 Book publishers have great influence on how
resources are used in distance courses
 Competence makes the systems try to be
more efficient (improved effectiveness/cost)
 Large-scale operations force institutions to
think the course as a product in all aspects
 CMS/LMS are highly competitive and use
tactics to "hook" the user

41. The trends
 Mobile learning
 Is becoming the new generation of distance
education
 Based on an enormous capacity for cellular and
satellite networks spread across the world
lli k d h ld
 Communication devices and personal
organization have become more sophisticated
and replace the computer
 This revolution is accompanied by new ways of
delivering old media: e-book, pod cast, web cast,
d l ld d b k d b
text messaging and picture mail
 Accelerated convergence has solved some
technical problems

42. The trends
 Globalization
 Harmonization of degree levels is spreading
g p g
across the world
 Several countries have become educational
centers for the world: USA Canada, Australia,
USA, Canada Australia
India, South Africa ...
 A small group of CMS/LMS has catapulted itself
g p / p
to the great majority of countries
 Two major operating systems dominate the
personal computer market with the possibility of
a third (Linux)
 English has become the lingua franca of global
g g g
education, followed by Spanish (Chinese is the
most spoken)

43. Today's News: The College of 2020
 It will certainly be a hybrid model
 Offer of educational program is governed
by the principle of convenience
 Universities that have resisted eLearning
will have to mutate or be minimized
 Students expect to have access to
content and activities through personal
mobile devices
 Colleges and universities must be ready
to offer all possible options
http://research.chronicle.com/reports.html

44. Today’s News: The third p
y phase of
eLearning
 Near monopoly of Blackboard Inc has
caused a resurgence of open source
d f
software
 Enrollment i online programs i growing
E ll in li is i
faster than HE in general (17% in the US in
2009)
 The student-teacher interaction and
student student
student-student interaction in virtual
environments are getting closer to real time
 Sophisticated measurement tools enable a
360 º assessment of the student

45. The
Th next evolutionary step
t l ti t
 The technology
 Ubiquitous computing
 Two or three devices supported instead of one
 Seamless integration between devices
 Asynchronous communication dominates
 Convergence of three macro-systems: LMS, SIS
and the Library
 Integration with Web 2 technologies (more open)
 C oud computing
Cloud co pu g will e a ce co abo a o
enhance collaboration

46. New Network Map
Jonathan Mott (2010)

47. Networked services
Jonathan Mott (2010)

48. The
Th next evolutionary step
t l ti t
 The course
 A branched structure rather than a sequence
 Collaborative and experiential
 Social-cognitive learning models prevail
 Engagement and student retention is the key
 Multiple resources available in multiple digital
formats
 Downloadable courses preferred to only web-
based
 Agents keep track of students and facilitate
communications

49. The
Th next evolutionary step
t l ti t
 The program/institution
p g
 Provisions to counteract the digital divide
 Small footprint, large extension
 Many tasks are outsourced
 Tight interaction with publishers and open
repositories
 Multi-language programs and staff (prevalence of
English,
English Spanish and Chinese)
 Student retention and graduation strategies in place
 Catering multiple needs of students: connections to
students’ lives, jobs, and communities

50. THE END