I’ve been recently
introduced to the concept of open learning thanks to Rick Schwier
(@schwier). Via Rick, I was made
aware of an article (“The Single Biggest Change In Education Since The Printing Press" by Rebecca J. Rosen as published in The Atlantic) posted on
Twitter by his Regina counterpart Alec Couros (@courosa) that gave some
insights as to what is currently going on in online education and open
learning. It seems that it is
catching on – and big name influential players are making huge efforts to make
education available for everyone. Take a look at this article and make a point
of watching the clip that accompanies the article.
As a huge fan of music, I
appreciated the fact that the author makes light of how education is facing
reform much like the music industry has been going through in the last 13 years
thanks to rampant illegal file sharing. With the advent of the MP3, music was easily accessible,
easily shared, and inexpensive since digital files involve no manufacturing of
hardware. Things certainly have
changed. Record labels folded,
executives were out of jobs, and some of the major labels merged into giant
super labels. Now, years on, there
appears to be an attitude of “if you can’t beat them, join them” with labels
directly posting music videos to YouTube or other similar networks as a means
of promotion. Many bands give out
music for free as promotional tools.
Is this what is happening
with education? What is the “MP3
of learning”? Open learning seems to be to education what digital audio is to music. Various institutions
are making programs accessible to anybody - and on a giant scale. MIT (Massachussets Institute of
Technology) and Harvard University in the United States are spending millions
of dollars to make their prestigious institutions available to all learners on
a global scale. MIT has a lofty
goal of having 1 billion learners registered in 10 years. This video
featuring Cecilia d'Oliveira, MIT OpenCourseWare's
Executive Director and Shigeru Miyagawa, explains what their program is
all about:
The problem with open access
seems to be traditional practices revolving around policies. Stuart Shieber, James O. Welch, Jr. and Virginia B. Welch
from Harvard explain in their video some initiatives they have around open
access and explain proposals for new policies that will enable their university
make courses open to anybody.
It’s an
exciting time in education, and other universities already have similar
programs on the go. This project, however, is huge and it will be interesting
to see if they meet their enrolment projections!
I Billion students. I just want to know who will do the marking! :-) Really, I do think we are seeing a radical shift in the business model of education, and particularly higher education. The publicly funded, government granted, and local tuition supported approach is under strain, and we are definitely seeing a shift to high enrolment (tuition) models, with corporate support for privately funded research, and a much greater emphasis on competition, growth, and accountability. I've seen huge changes in the relatively short duration of my own career in the expectations placed on the professoriate--not to produce better research and teach better--but to produce more research dollars and teach more students.
ReplyDeleteAnd at the same time we have the estuary of an increased hunger for learning and knowledge, and an increased capacity for making learning environments and resources available at low or no cost to the consumer.
It's a neat dilemma. I'm not one of those doom and gloom types who think this signals the death of universities. Of the 70 institutions still in existence that were alive at the time of the reformation, 66 of them are universities (our President mentioned this in his inauguration speech 13 years ago). So universities are like cockroaches. We seem kind of slow and ugly at times, but we're actually very tough and resilient. And that's kind of beautiful when you think of it.
So bring on open learning and let's help teach 1 billion, then 2 billion. Universities will survive, and maybe in the process we can help this world get a little smarter and better.
You are absolutely right. Digital audio didn't ruin the music industry - it just changed it but the change was so swift those in charge weren't prepared. It's ironic that it was a university student who spearheaded that revolution. It's refreshing to see universities being proactive and taking the lead on open learning.
ReplyDeleteThey state that not all of their courses will be university credits, but, people have motivation to learn especially given the opportunity. Take a look at the popularity of TedTalks as a small example. If something of great quality is on offer, people will take it! You mention the shift to high enrollment models to generate tuition: is there any evidence of the classic "bait and switch" scenario in Open Education? I guess what I mean is, get a learner hooked, and then charge say, a "maintenance fee" or something similar later on? This happens in big business all the time but I'm curious if there has been any evidence of this occurring in the academic world.