MOOCS in Tourism Education:FUture or FANTASY?

1. MOOCS IN TOURISM
EDUCATION:
FUTURE OR FANTASY?
Pauline J. Sheldon, PhD
University of Hawaii, USA
ENTER CONFERENCE
2014, DUBLIN, IRELAND

2. Questions
• Are MOOCS interesting or just a fashion?
• If Yes is there space for them in the tourism domain?
• If Yes, what could be done to further explore and start a
project?

3. The Changing Academic Landscape
• Changed Focus:
• Research and assessment/metrics
• Teaching outsourced
• Neo-liberalism
• Dissolution of boundaries
• Space
• Discipline
• Time

4. “It's quite fashionable to say that the education
system is broken — it's not broken, it's
wonderfully constructed….
It's just that we don't need it anymore.
It's outdated.” Sugata Mitra

5. Paradigm Shift in Learning
• Cartesian View of
• Social View of
• Knowledge as substance
• “We participate therefore we
• Pedagogy as knowledge
• Understanding is socially
Learning
transfer
• Knowledge stocks
Learning
are”
constructed
• Knowledge processes

6. Ways of Learning:
• ‘Knowing’ is obsolete;
• ‘How to learn’ is important (Negraponte)
• Lessons from the Hole in the Wall: Sugata Mitra
• SOLE Self-organizing learning environments
• Broadband connectivity, collaboration and encouragement

7. Technology and Co-creating Knowledge
• Students learn differently:
• The Millenials
• Search Technologies
• Open access to knowledge
• Students are self-organizing e.g. ClassroomAlive.

8. MOOCS in TOURISM DOMAIN?
• Challenges of Tourism Education
• Complex, multi-discipline multi-sectored industry
• Where do we belong on campuses?
• Status - Quality Students - top campuses?
• YES…there is space if we:
• Can use them to teach critical thinking
• Balance them with experiential learning
• Encourage Inter-disciplinary learning
 Start answering the key social, ethical and spiritual questions
confronting society and how tourism can contribute to a better
world
 Collaborate and partner with other institutions, associations, social
change movements etc.

9. www.tourismeducationfutures.org
• VISION
• To ….inspire, inform and support tourism educators and students to
passionately and courageously transform the world for the better.
• Is tourism education addressing the needs of the future?
• Shouldn’t educational institutions be leading the societal and tourism
industry shifts?
• What does it take to create responsible leaders for the future?

10. FIVE AREAS of FOCUS for TEFI
Advocacy for
tourism
Re-shaping
tourism
scholarship
Forum for
Futuristic
Debate
•As a field of study
•As a source of
employment
Metrics
•Impact of future
socio-economic
trends
•Meaning
•Annual conference
•Relevance
Facilitating
Improved
Learning
experiences
Social
Entrepreneurship
•Innovative
•Walking conferences
•Values-based
•Opportunities for
faculty to broaden
their perspective
•Technology driven
•Opportunities for
field trips

11. Future Pathways for Tourism Education:
Can MOOCS help?
YES….IF….
Part of a broader integration of new learning
technologies: resources and talent
Balance technology and service/experiential learning
Develop more collaborative learning networks
We develop tourism education for the social good

12. THANK YOU
PSHELDON@HAWAII.EDU

13. Future Issues in Education
Ways of
Learning
Technology
Learning Spaces
Collaboration
Education for
the Social Good

14. Technology Based Learning
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Open Learning Initiative
• 4 feedback loops (student, faculty, course design, learning process)
• Stanford University
• Appoints Vice-Provost for Online Learning
• online.stanford.edu
• GIGU The University Community Next Generation
Innovation Project
• 40 US universities with very high speed networks linking university
and community.
• Developing innovations to address critical needs in the community

15. Learning Spaces

16. Collaboration:
New Knowledge Sharing
• Crowdsourcing
• ‘The Wisdom of Crowds’: James Surowiecki
• ‘We is Better than Me’: Libert and Spector
• User-generated content
• Citizen Science
• Non-scientists use mobile technologies to collect data
• Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINS):
• Based on trust and self-organization
• Operate in internal honesty and transparency (Gloor, 2005)
• Distributed and cloud computing

17. Learning Beyond Walls
“The desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world “ John le Carre
• Education through travel:
• European Master in Tourism Management
• George Washington University
• ITHAS
• Finland
• More….
• Experiential Learning
• “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I
learn.” Benjamin Franklin

18. E-Campuses
• .

19. Students are Self-Organizing: IT is critical
• ClassroomAlive
• 6 month walking across Europe
• Students bring individual questions
• Research on the road with IT
• IDEAS for US
• https://www.facebook.com/IDEASforUs
IDEAS FOR US
• a youth-led movement advancing sustainability and environmental
awareness
• EMERGE Conference: Said Business School, Oxford
University

20. Walking and Learning
• FIRST TEFI WALKING WORKSHOP
• SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND
TOURISM
• NEPAL May 2-11, 2014
• FORMAT:
Walking Up - The Quest;
The Query: Walking papers
The Peak - Camp - Rest – reflection;
Awareness-raising workshops on
social entrepreneurship and tourism;
observation in the villages
Walking Down - Waking Up; Stepping
Up, Commitment, Action.

21. Tourism Education for Social Good
 Beyond Knowledge economy towards the knowledge society
 Start answering the key social, ethical and spiritual questions
confronting society and how tourism can contribute to a better
world
 Partner with social change movements e.g. NGO’s, International
agencies, change agencies
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Vision: To advance an Everyone a Changemaker
world, where anyone can apply the skills of changemaking to solve complex social problems
173 projects in tourism