5,377 research outputs found
Redressing disadvantage and ensuring social cohesion: the role of distance education and elearning policies in the European Union 1957-2007
This paper analyses the development and implementation of the European Union's policies in distance higher education and elearning since the 1957 Treaty of Rome. Distance education emerged in the 1960s and 70s as an instrument at national level to redress disadvantage, and to provide flexible, high-quality and cost-effective access to higher education to adults who were unable, for geographical, employment or personal reasons, to attend on-campus. Analysis of EU policy documents and interviews with key individuals indicates that the support of influential policy entrepreneurs and networks brought distance education to the centre stage in EU education and training policy for a brief period in the early 1990s, culminating in the Maastricht Treaty on European Union (1992), which committed the EU to ‘encouraging the development of distance education’. Since then, distance learning has been superceded by elearning, and is linked in EU rhetoric to social cohesion in the context of making Europe the most competitive economy in the world. Yet, despite the great potential of elearning, this paper outlines the challenges to its wider adoption. These include the persistence of the digital divide in Europe; student resistance to elearning approaches; and the problem of achieving cost-effectiveness in elearning. Much remains to be done to ensure the flexibility in terms of time, place, pace, and indeed accessibility, which would enable adult students to participate in lifelong learning on a truly democratic basis
E-Learning for Teachers and Trainers : Innovative Practices, Skills and Competences
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.Final Published versio
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Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences
Universities across the globe have, for some time, been exploring the possibilities for achieving public benefit and generating business and visibility through releasing and sharing open educational resources (OER). Many have written about the need to develop sustainable and profitable business models around the production and release of OER. Downes (2006), for example, has questioned the financial sustainability of OER production at scale. Many of the proposed business models focus on OER’s value in generating revenue and detractors of OER have questioned whether they are in competition with formal education.
This paper reports on a study intended to broaden the conversation about OER business models to consider the motivations and experiences of OER users as the basis for making a better informed decision about whether OER and formal learning are competitive or complementary with each other. The study focused on OpenLearn - the Open University’s (OU) web-based platform for OER, which hosts hundreds of online courses and videos and is accessed by over 3,000,000 users a year. A large scale survey and follow-up interviews with OpenLearn users worldwide revealed that university provided OER can offer learners a bridge to formal education, allowing them to try out a subject before registering on a formal course and to build confidence in their abilities as learners. In addition, it was found that using OER during formal paid-for study can improve learners’ performance and self-reliance, leading to increased retention and satisfaction with the learning experience
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Open educational resources for all? Comparing user motivations and characteristics across The Open University’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform.
With the rise in access to mobile multimedia devices, educational institutions have exploited the iTunes U platform as an additional channel to provide free educational resources with the aim of profile-raising and breaking down barriers to education. For those prepared to invest in content preparation, it is possible to produce interactive, portable material that can be made available globally. Commentators have questioned both the financial implications for platform-specific content production, and the availability of devices for learners to access it (Osborne, 2012).
The Open University (OU) makes its free educational resources available on iTunes U and via its web-based open educational resources (OER) platform, OpenLearn. The OU’s OER on iTunes U reached the 60 million download mark in 2013; its OpenLearn platform boasts 27 million unique visitors since 2006. This paper reports the results of a large-scale study of users of the OU’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform. A survey of several thousand users revealed key differences in demographics between those accessing OER via the web and via iTunes U. In addition, the data allowed comparison between three groups: formal learners, informal learners and educators.
The study raises questions about whether university-provided OER meet the needs of users and makes recommendations for how content can be modified to suit their needs. As the publishing of OER becomes core to business, we reflect on reasons why understanding users’ motivations and demographics is vital, allowing for needs-led resource provision and content that is adapted to best achieve learner satisfaction, and to deliver institutions’ social mission
Rapid eLearning : its impact on instructional design in the corporate world
Rapid eLearning is a present and growing phenomenon in the world of corporate training that is challenging traditional instructional design ideas. The concept of Rapid eLearning represents a class of easy-to-use eLearning development tools, methods designed to shorten course development timelines, and techniques intended to enhance learner understanding and retention. Companies are adopting Rapid eLearning as a way to reduce costs and shorten the time it takes to disseminate new information and concepts to employees in geographically diverse locations. New software tools and instructional design methods are being developed to address the goals of Rapid eLearning.
To gain a broad perspective of the issues, articles and other materials published in both educational journals and business sources, as well as presentations made at educational and corporate training conferences were reviewed. This literature review supports the finding that Rapid eLearning is a growing influence within the field of Instructional Design, impacting all aspects of corporate training, and that while much is being written about this relatively new phenomenon, sound research is still lacking to validate its effectiveness
Competition In The eLearning Industry: A Case Study
This paper highlights the structural attributes of the eLearning Industry. The case presents details regarding the evolution of the eLearning market and provides the opportunity for students of strategic management to build critical industry analytical skills by applying a variety of techniques highlighted in the accompanying case teaching note. To obtain a copy of the teaching note, contact the corresponding author by email. The analytical techniques applied include the identification of the chief economic characteristics of the industry, Porter’s five force model of competition, the impact of driving forces on industry structure, and the identification of necessary competitive capabilities (success factors) for success in the eLearning industry
The UNFOLD Project. Understanding and using Learning Design
A booklet with 131 pages about the UNFOLD Project and IMS Learning DesignThe UNFOLD project was born in January 2004, to support the adoption of open eLearning standards catering for multiple learners and flexible pedagogies, our focus being IMS Learning Design (IMS LD).
We have provided access to resources through the site http://www.unfold-project.net, where you can find news, documents, information about events, links, ... while http://moodle.learningnetworks.org is the site for Learning Network for Learning Design-LN4LD (OUNL, 2004) housing more structured materials with (learning) activities and forums.UNFOLD Project. www.unfold-project.ne
Degree of Scaffolding: Learning Objective Metadata: A Prototype Leaning System Design for Integrating GIS into a Civil Engineering Curriculum
Digital media and networking offer great potential as tools for enhancing classroom learning environments, both local and distant. One concept and related technological tool that can facilitate the effective application and distribution of digital educational resources is learning objects in combination with the SCORM (sharable content objects reference model) compliance framework. Progressive scaffolding is a learning design approach for educational systems that provides flexible guidance to students. We are in the process of utilizing this approach within a SCORM framework in the form of a multi-level instructional design. The associated metadata required by SCORM will describe the degree of scaffolding. This paper will discuss progressive scaffolding as it relates to SCORM compliant learning objects, within the context of the design of an application for integrating Geographic Information Systems (GIS) into the civil engineering curriculum at the University of Missouri - Rolla
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