Dr Jeff Haywood Director, Media & Learning Technology Service (MALTS) Director, Scottish Centre for Research in On-L

Dr Jeff Haywood Director, Media & Learning Technology Service (MALTS) Director, Scottish Centre for Research in On-Line Learning & Assessment (SCROLLA) Department of Higher & Community Education University of Edinburgh www.malts.ed.ac.uk / www.scrolla.ac.uk j.haywood@ed.ac.uk 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Borderless education “access to the educational provision of any country by learners in any country” • limited here to higher education but the definition above could apply to all levels (school, college, university, lifelong learning) • “education” here includes training 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

What features of higher education are needed for this to work in Europe? What has/is being done to facilitate borderless education in Europe? What challenges still face us? 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

For ~1000 years ‘higher education’ in Europe has been borderless. The long history of European borderless education 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

The long history of European borderless education To take advantage of this, the wanderstudent of the Middle Ages needed… - appetite for knowledge - finance (travel + lodgings + ‘fees’) - language skills - learning-to-learn skills - transferable ‘qualifications’ 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

At the start of 21st century we see borderless education as being based increasingly on eLearning and the scholar/student needs….. - appetite for knowledge - finance (ICT + fees) - language & ICT skills - learning-to-learn skills - transferable ‘qualifications’ 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Let’s take the European Union as a case study in the development of eLearning & borderless education, for it exemplifies many of the issues 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

We can examine three levels • European Union/Commission • National governments • Higher education institutions 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Level: European Union/Commission • eEurope 2002 priorities Stockholm March 2001 • eLearning objectives to 2010 • Memorandum on Lifelong Learning • Bologna Declaration 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Bologna Declaration - convergence of qualifications - credit transfer system - European HE area 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Some key issues emerge from the EC documents and consultations • enabling greater access to education • promoting lifelong learning • greater mobility / virtual mobility • maintaining cultural diversity & language 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

In pursuit of these objectives, the European Commission supports programmes and actions which have focussed for ~10 years on eLearning (previously ODL) 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Level: national governments In pursuit of their own and the European agendas, governments have invested in eLearning programmes, seeking to promote change and keep abreast of external competition examples: UK- the Teaching & Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) France - through Centre National d’ Enseignement Distance (CNED) 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

These actions now include development of virtual or e-universities… 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Level: universities European universities, like those elsewhere in the world, now have to face these challenges… 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Motorola University edu-tainment video ‘star’ lecturers student-centric corporate universities Foresight - HE in 2025 digital degree mills e-business just-in-time, just-for-me niche markets overseas competitors distance education clicks & mortar death of the campus intellectual property rights globalisation University for Industry traditional values virtual universities National Grid for Learning Universitas 21 virtual learning environment 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

and we can see their responses… • greatly increased use by all of eLearning on-campus • introduction of by some of distance education courses & programmes • formation of new global alliances for strength 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Those are some of the pressures, the drivers & our responses So what are the major challenges we still have to overcome? And how shall we overcome them? 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Moving to greater use of eLearning, especially for off-campus purposes, raises challenges to us in four areas… = technology = human resources = pedagogy = organisation/management 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Technology: move from ‘project/enthusiast’ to ‘norm, average faculty’ VLE – on-line assessment – forums – campus-wide and standardised – hybrid library – reliable off-campus access for all staff & students – VC teaching rooms - resilience - ~24x7 shift of funds to centre from faculties/depts – increased per annum spend on technology – end of old activities in favour of new ‘digital glue’ to hold all this together – portal - links up Registry, Finance, VLEs, departments, library….. 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Human resources: existing staff to change – new staff to be different not just faculty – secretarial – admin – support – manual need to define skill-sets for roles – now and for 5+ years ahead training & re-training– elective training still possible? rewards for change, for innovation, for excellence in all areas, esp teaching & learning – redefine ‘scholarship’ 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Pedagogical learning & teaching must change – flexible, on-off-campus accessible, distance and F2F new teaching styles and new learning styles – learning-to-learn as valued and tested skill student-centric vs staff/institution-centric reduction in didactic in favour of task-oriented, active, teamwork, asynchronous, varied assessments multi-skilled team designed & delivered optimal use of ICT 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Managerial/organisational The really tough one for traditional universities!!! To balance… creative, entrepreneurial, distributed near-anarchy central, cost-effective & efficient, management with explicit strategies 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Ingredients vision formulation of clear strategies understanding of role of technology in education of future (hype vs reality etc) investment in excellent central services readiness to collaborate as well as compete review of appointments & rewards system nerves of steel!!! 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

So how do we solve these challenges? What approaches will work best for universities? • research • collaboration & sharing experiences open-source networks have served us well in research, everyone contributes, everyone gains, anyone can commercialise for profit 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Some examples IAUP Best Practice cases Nineveh project www.nineveh.polito.it SPOT+ www.spotplus.odl.org SEUSISS www.intermedia.uib.no/seusiss ECDL www.ecdl.org HECTIC www.coimbra-group.be 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Endnote I consider that it will take at least 5 more years before we become comfortable/competent with eLearning, esp in fully off-campus mode Thus we need to take care not to over-raise learners’ hopes, or take unreasonable risks with their education To all benefit from eLearning, we need to find better ways to collaborate on development & to share our experiences 25th June 2002 eEurope & eLearning IAUP Sydney

Dr Jeff Haywood Director, Media & Learning Technology Service (MALTS) Director, Scottish Centre for Research in On-L