Integrating Online Learning Research into the University Research Culture

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Integrating Online Learning Research into the
University Research Culture
Dawn Howard-Rose
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THE VISION

• Online Learning Research

• Traditional University Research Culture

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Overview

• TRENDS IN HIGHER EDUCATION that will help make
  this vision a reality
• CHALLENGES to be overcome
• THE GOOD NEWS Evidence of change
• EXAMPLES of how and where this evolution is
  beginning to occur.

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TREND 1 E-LEARNING IN UNIVERSITIES

• Traditional teaching and learning models
• face-to-face
• place-based
• teacher-centred
• mainly lecture
• knowledge is imparted by experts to novices

• Teaching and Learning with technologies
• online, e-learning
• distributed and distance learning
• learner-centred
• interactive
• collaborative

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TREND 2 TOWARD A SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING AND
LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

• Teaching as
• secondary to and interfering with basic research
• private, isolated
• personal
• depends on professors special expertise

• Teaching as
• focus of inquiry
• problem-based and systematic
• grounded in theory
• public, peer-reviewed
• replicable, resulting in principles of best
  practice

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A SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING CREATES

• Perception and reality of teaching and learning
  as collaborative
• Community of practice among faculty
  researchers/teachers
• Common purpose that of learning
• Collaboration between faculty and students and
  among students
• Potential for involvement of students in faculty
  research

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THE MERGING OF THESE 2 TRENDS

• Institutions are beginning to embrace learning
  technologies
• Faculty now are experimenting
• Many faculty joining scholarship of teaching
  communities of practice

• Increasing interest by faculty in traditional
  disciplines in
• How students learn
• How to facilitate learning
• How other faculty do so
• Pedagogy of teaching through technology

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CHALLENGES TO BE OVERCOME

• Many still question the value of distance and
  learning
• Scholarship of teaching in the disciplines still
  remains mostly a labour of love
• Faculty often resist change
• Putting their teaching practice under scrutiny
  theirs and their peers
• Giving over power to students

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THE GOOD NEWS EVIDENCE OF CHANGE

• Institutions are seeing the need and benefits of
  making the shifts
• E-learning increases access
• Economy needs and demands that access, so
  workforce can upgrade without career interruption
• Universities and colleges are competing for their
  share of the market
• Need for more research faculty as many retire
• 
  .. more

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EVIDENCE OF CHANGE Contd

• Online technologies also support research
  training through
• Research collaboration among geographically
  diverse faculty
• Participation in these projects by graduate
  students and junior faculty
• . more

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EVIDENCE OF CHANGE Contd

• Institutional collaboration is seen as
  cost-saving and logical
• Ed. Tech resources are maximized when shared
• Duplication of effort is reduced
• Draws on expertise, such as content knowledge,
  available at other institutions
• Better access and service for students who want
  to take courses from several institutions

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SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING IS CATCHING ON

• Teaching effectiveness is increasingly valued in
  reward system
• More research and development funds for faculty
  to experiment with new technologies for learning
  and teaching
• Other issues of technology in academe, such as
  moving toward online journals, promotes ideas and
  mechanisms for peer review

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EXAMPLES OF HOW THE VISION IS BECOMING REALITY

• Collaboration and partnerships
• Research on university teaching
• Facilitating development of communities of
  teaching practice within the disciplines
• Enhancing the value and recognition of the
  scholarship of teaching

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COHERE Collaboration for Online Higher Education
Research

• PURPOSE collaboration to plan online courses
  programsshare faculty development research
  evaluate
• CHALLENGES shared values and culture... latent
  curriculum
• INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS
• Alberta
• Calgary
• Dalhousie
• Guelph
• Saskatchewan
• Simon Fraser
• Waterloo
• York

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COHERE Canadian Studies Program Initiative

• Six COHERE partner institutions have signed an
  MOU
• Will collaborate and co-develop an online
  Canadian Studies program
• Will represent the first signature COHERE
  course/program offerings

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COHERE SignaturesA common philosophy of
learning reflected in instructional features of
our courses

• Inquiry based learning
• Critical reflection
• Exploring new knowledge

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COHERE Canadian Studies Program Partners

• Simon Fraser University
• University of Saskatchewan
• University of Waterloo
• University of Guelph
• York University
• Dalhousie University

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SSHRC Initiative on the New Economy

• SSHRC - Social Sciences and Humanities Research
  Council
• 100M over 5 years, 1st call in Fall 2001
• Emphasis on management, education and lifelong
  learning research
• Major programs for
• Collaborative Research Initiatives 1M/ann.
• Research Alliances 300K/ann.
• 30K development to short-listed proposals

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WorkplaceONE

• enhancing the impacts integration of online
  education in the workplace

• Activities
• design methodology to assess workplace impacts
• research impacts of existing programs
• develop flexible partnerships (in-kind and
  contributions?)
• open possibility of future Network of Centres of
  Excellence

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Impacts of Distributed Learning Programs for
Management

• Programs
• Farm Business Management certificate Sask -
  hybrid
• Management of Technology masters degree UW -
  online
• Diploma in Leadership Guelph - online
• Leadership Development for Federal Employees
  CCMD - mixed
• Financial Management Course Canadian Securities
  Institute - online
• MBA in Financial Industry Dal - distributed

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Impacts of Distributed Learning Programs for
Management

• Research questions in progress
• impacts on students work, colleagues workplace
• impacts on students careers lifelong learning
• Methods Quantitative and Qualitative
• Prototype Cases to develop methods and initial
  baseline data
• Longitudinal data, case studies involving
  qualitative and quantitative methods
• Interviews, questionnaires, analysis of online
  discussion and web sites, job shadowing

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Prototype Case Studies

• PROTOTYPE CASE 1
• Diverse Workplace Settings
• PROTOTYPE CASE 2
• Singular Workplace Setting

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Timeline Overview
design pilot methodology in prototype cases
Year 1
continue longitudinal study of prototype cases,
design complement cases
Year 2
adapt programs
more study
Year 3
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Partnerships for Learning, Innovation and
Technology PLIANT

• Learning Technology Faculty Institutes
• Collaboration to link faculty experts in selected
  disciplines involved in e-learning product
  development and implementation
• Collaborative Graduate Classes
• Linking small enrollment graduate classes to
  capitalize on faculty expertise

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Common to both PLIANT Components

• Use of broadband technology to link faculty and
  grad students with audio, video and application
  sharing
• Facilitating development of communities of
  learners and e-learning developers

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Co-Operative Learning Object Exchange CLOE

• Partner within Merlot Consortium
• Learning object repository to facilitate re-use
• Collaboration on learning object development
• Moving toward quality assurance through triage
  process and evaluation of learning impacts
• Developing a peer-review process

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CONCLUSION

• A vision for the integration of e-learning
  research into the mainstream research culture of
  universities
• Challenges to making these a reality
• Why and how these challenges are being overcome
• Some illustrative examples of the realization of
  this vision