OER based capacity building to overcome staff equity and access issues in higher education

Open educational resources (OER) have already impacted educational systems around the world. In higher education more specifically, it has benefited learners, and has influenced institutional strategic plans and policies. Additionally, the benefits of OER also extend to staff in higher education, such as academic staff. For this group, OER can provide opportunities for collaboration, promote curriculum innovation and student led content development, as well as contribute to university teachers' much needed continuing professional development. In this paper, we examine the potential of OER to build capacity of academic staff in higher education, in particular to overcome some equity and access issues that they may face. It also examines some existing activities and strategies for professional development in higher educational institutions and provides some recommendations for academics, academic developers, institutions, and the sector in general

Community tracking in a cMOOC and nomadic learner behavior identification on a connectivist rhizomatic learning network

This article contributes to the literature on connectivism, connectivist MOOCs (cMOOCs) and rhizomatic learning by examining participant interactions, community formation and nomadic learner behavior in a particular cMOOC, #rhizo15, facilitated for 6 weeks by Dave Cormier. It further focuses on what we can learn by observing Twitter interactions particularly. As an explanatory mixed research design, Social Network Analysis and content analysis were employed for the purposes of the research. SNA is used at the macro, meso and micro levels, and content analysis of one week of the MOOC was conducted using the Community of Inquiry framework. The macro level analysis demonstrates that communities in a rhizomatic connectivist networks have chaotic relationships with other communities in different dimensions (clarified by use of hashtags of concurrent, past and future events). A key finding at the meso level was that as #rhizo15 progressed and number of active participants decreased, interaction increased in overall network. The micro level analysis further reveals that, though completely online, the nature of open online ecosystems are very convenient to facilitate the formation of community. The content analysis of week 3 tweets demonstrated that cognitive presence was the most frequently observed, while teaching presence (teaching behaviors of both facilitator and participants) was the lowest. This research recognizes the limitations of looking only at Twitter when #rhizo15 conversations occurred over multiple platforms frequented by overlapping but not identical groups of people. However, it provides a valuable partial perspective at the macro meso and micro levels that contribute to our understanding of community-building in cMOOCs

Ubiquitous learning architecture to enable learning path design across the cumulative learning continuum

The past twelve years have seen ubiquitous learning (u-learning) emerging as a new learning paradigm based on ubiquitous technology. By integrating a high level of mobility into the learning environment, u-learning enables learning not only through formal but also through informal and social learning modalities. This makes it suitable for lifelong learners that want to explore, identify and seize such learning opportunities, and to fully build upon these experiences. This paper presents a theoretical framework for designing personalized learning paths for lifelong learners, which supports contemporary pedagogical approaches that can promote the idea of a cumulative learning continuum from pedagogy through andragogy to heutagogy where lifelong learners progress in maturity and autonomy. The framework design builds on existing conceptual and process models for pedagogy-driven design of learning ecosystems. Based on this framework, we propose a system architecture that aims to provide personalized learning pathways using selected pedagogical strategies, and to integrate formal, informal and social training offerings using two well-known learning and development reference models; the 70:20:10 framework and the 3–33 model

Connecting teachers and students with science and scientists: The science learning hub

National and international data is raising concerns about levels of student interest and engagement in science in school and student retention into tertiary study. For today’s students the Internet plays an important role as a source of information and means for communication with peers. This paper reports on a Ministry of Research Technology and Science funded initiative, managed through The University of Waikato, that aims to make New Zealand science research more accessible to New Zealand teachers and students. The New Zealand Science Learning Hub [SLH] illustrates how effective collaboration between research organisations, industries, science educators and teachers has enabled the development of a resource which is dynamic, up-to-date and relevant and that can be used to inform the teaching of science in New Zealand schools. The Science Learning Hub provides teachers with information about current research, which is related to concepts currently taught in year 5-10 classes (8-14 year olds). The site has content arranged in contexts for example, Icy ecosystems, Hidden taonga, Nanoscience, You me and UV, Future fuels, and The see through body. Each context includes text and images describing NZ research, video material such as interviews with scientists and sequences depicting scientists at work, teaching and learning materials, and links to science education literature. A feature is a “connections tool” which allows teachers and students to trace their journey through each context. Initial research indicates that teachers appreciate that this range of information is accessible in one place and has been quality assured. Students are keen to engage with an actively explore the range of media within the SLH contexts

A European research agenda for lifelong learning

It is a generally accepted truth that without a proper educational system no country will prosper, nor will its inhabitants. With the arrival of the post-industrial society, in Europe and elsewhere, it has become increasingly clear that people should continue learning over their entire life-spans lest they or their society suffer the dire consequences. But what does this future lifelong learning society exactly look like? And how then should education prepare for it? What should people learn and how should they do so? How can we afford to pay for all this, what are the socio-economic constraints of the move towards a lifelong-learning society? And, of course, what role can and should the educational establishment of schools and universities play? This are questions that demand serious research efforts, which is what this paper argues for

Quality in MOOCs: Surveying the Terrain

The purpose of this review is to identify quality measures and to highlight some of the tensions surrounding notions of quality, as well as the need for new ways of thinking about and approaching quality in MOOCs. It draws on the literature on both MOOCs and quality in education more generally in order to provide a framework for thinking about quality and the different variables and questions that must be considered when conceptualising quality in MOOCs. The review adopts a relativist approach, positioning quality as a measure for a specific purpose. The review draws upon Biggs’s (1993) 3P model to explore notions and dimensions of quality in relation to MOOCs — presage, process and product variables — which correspond to an input–environment–output model. The review brings together literature examining how quality should be interpreted and assessed in MOOCs at a more general and theoretical level, as well as empirical research studies that explore how these ideas about quality can be operationalised, including the measures and instruments that can be employed. What emerges from the literature are the complexities involved in interpreting and measuring quality in MOOCs and the importance of both context and perspective to discussions of quality

The Year of Living Dangerously

We consider the issue N. 46 particularly significant because it comes at the end of 2020, a year that marked the recent history of humanity. On one side, the pandemic reminded us how fragile mankind is and that it can succumb to a small and invisible enemy; on the other side, the Covid-19 challenged and stimulated the potential of our intelligence and creativity that, when driven by collaboration and solidarity, can be very high. The effects of the pandemic inevitably put under stress all learning ecosystems of the world that had to switch suddenly to the on-line modality and remained confined to this virtual dimension for a long time. It was a leap into the shadow, if not into darkness, the consequences of which are still to be fully understood; at present they are still, and will remain for a long time, under investigation

Supporting Student Learning Toward Twenty-First-Century Skills Through Digital Storytelling

Peer reviewe

The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic seen through the lens of the Italian university teachers and the comparison with school teachers’ perspective

In this paper, we report one of the first investigations conducted at the National level with university teachers, with the aim to capture their perceptions about the capability of the learning ecosystems to react to the lockdown imposed by the pandemic and the recourse to on-line learning. The study, conducted about two months after the beginning of the lock-down, shows that: a) learning ecosystems reacted promptly and in a satisfactory manner to assure the didactic continuity at both the systemic and individual level; b) the teaching activity were mainly confined to transmissive ex-cathedra lectures in the attempt to reproduce standard university dynamics; c) the working load increased with respect to face-to-face activities; d) the intention to use on-line learning in the future is driven by preconceptions rather than experiences and by the capability to manage one’s own time. The comparison with the outcomes of a similar study conducted with school teachers shows that the latter adopt a broader spectrum of didactic activities (although they still tend to remain in their comfort zone), experienced a heavier increase of the working load, and were more influenced by the situation they experienced. Although both teachers categories recognized the relevance of digital pedagogy, in the case of school teachers - as shown by the causal structure of the variable considered in our studies - it should be considered a must to be included in the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) curricula, while in the case of the university teachers it appears to be a possible route to support integration of on-line activities standard face-to-face ones

Artificial Intelligence And Big Data Technologies To Close The Achievement Gap.

We observe achievement gaps even in rich western countries, such as the UK, which in principle have the resources as well as the social and technical infrastructure to provide a better deal for all learners. The reasons for such gaps are complex and include the social and material poverty of some learners with their resulting other deficits, as well as failure by government to allocate sufficient resources to remedy the situation. On the supply side of the equation, a single teacher or university lecturer, even helped by a classroom assistant or tutorial assistant, cannot give each learner the kind of one-to-one attention that would really help to boost both their motivation and their attainment in ways that might mitigate the achievement gap. In this chapter Benedict du Boulay, Alexandra Poulovassilis, Wayne Holmes, and Manolis Mavrikis argue that we now have the technologies to assist both educators and learners, most commonly in science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects (STEM), at least some of the time. We present case studies from the fields of Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) and Big Data. We look at how they can be used to provide personalised support for students and demonstrate that they are not designed to replace the teacher. In addition, we also describe tools for teachers to increase their awareness and, ultimately, free up time for them to provide nuanced, individualised support even in large cohorts