A New Paradigm
for Open Universities
Professor Asha Kanwar, President & CEO
Dr Sanjaya Mishra, Education Specialist, eLearning
Commonwealth of Learning
CHOGM 1987, Vancouver, Canada
The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) was established as an
intergovernmental organisation by the Commonwealth Heads of
Government
The Commonwealth
Map Published by the Communications and Public Affairs Division, Commonwealth Secretariat, 2010.
The Commonwealth comprises 53 developed and developing
nations around the world.
What is it for?
To help Commonwealth
governments and
institutions use various
technologies to improve
and expand education,
and learning in support
of development.
Plan
Paradigm shift
The Fifth Decade of ODL
Rise of OER
The MOOC Phenomenon
New Paradigm for OUs
Paradigm Shift
Nalanda University
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Faculty student ratio of
almost 1:5
Rich library resources
Liberal education
Disseminated knowledge
through physical presence
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Nalanda University
University of Bologna
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Oldest university in operation since 1088
Student-centred administrative structure
Only degree offered was ‘doctorate’
Mostly taught civil laws
Oxford & Cambridge
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University of Oxford (1096-1167)
University of Cambridge (1209)
Constituent colleges
Entry barriers
Tutorial-based teaching
Research and scholarship
University of London: The People’s
University
“
reaching the
shoemaker in
his garret…”
University of South Africa
• Distance education 1946
• Model for the OU UK
• First DE institution in
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the world
Mega-university
C20 Models
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Open Universities
Virtual Universities
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Consortium model
Online courses in traditional universities
Online in distance teaching institutions
Cyber universities
Corporate universities
Cross-border providers
Being a University in the C21
Knowledge-for-itself
(a) ivory tower
(b) the ‘professionalised
university’
OXBRIDGE TYPE
DISCIPLINE BASED
UNIVERSITY
Knowledgein-itself
(c) the ‘entrepreneurial
university’
(d) the ‘developmental
university’
PRIVATE/ CORPORATE
UNIVERSITIES
OPEN UNIVERSITIES/
VIRTUAL UNIVERSITIES
Knowledge-for-the-world
Source: Barnett, R. (2011). Being a university, London: Routledge
Knowledgein-the-world
How paradigms shift
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1 Fuller,
Until 1900 human knowledge doubled every
century1.
From External Degrees to Distance Education
took 100 years
OER took root in ten years
MOOC became significant in just 5 years (form
2012 to 2015).
R.B.(1981). Critical Path, New York: St Martin's Press
http://newsfan.typepad.co.uk/does_human_knowledge_doub/2007/05/league_tables_a.html#more
The Fifth
Decade of ODL
Huge demand
Public universities
9,000 out of 40,000
University of Dhaka
10,000 of 80,000
800 universities by 2020
The Rise of Open Universities
2015
Team Approach & Quality
• Course Teams for
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content
development
First in student
satisfaction
Allama Iqbal Open University
China Central Radio and TV University
- Open University of China
Photo credit: Wikipedia, IGNOU
Consortium Model
11 Public and
private
universities
Industrial Model
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Division of labour
Mass production
Planning and organisation
Otto Peters, 1967
The Rise of OER
Open Education Resources
What are Open Education Resources
(OERs)?
Materials that are
• Free and openly available
• Suitable for all levels
• Reusable
• Foster awareness and use
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of OER
Encourage the
development and
adaptation of OER in a
variety of languages and
cultural contexts
Encourage the open
licensing of educational
materials produced with
public funds.
The 2012 Paris OER
Declaration drafting
group at UNESCO
Headquarters, Paris,
France
Photo: CC-BY Davide Storti
Paris Declaration on OER
Rise of OER
Source: https://stateof.creativecommons.org/report
OER Survey, Asia, 2011
(WOU, IDRC)
Teachers:
difficult to locate, adapt,
and re-purpose OER
material relevant to
their work.
Learners:
OER should be more open
and
multi-modal.
Technical Support:
Management:
lack of standard practices in
the packaging and re-use of
OER.
concerns regarding intellectual
property; copyright issues and
competition.
OER Impact on Teachers
93.8%
88.6%
of K12 teachers agree or
strongly agree that they used
a broader range of
teaching and learning
methods due to use of OER
agree or strongly agree
that they reflect more on
the way that they teach.
Source: De Los Arcos, B. (2014). ‘Flipped Learning and OER: Survey Results’
89.7%
agree or strongly agree
that they make use of
a wider range of
multimedia
Impact of OER on Teaching
Source: OER Hub
Impact on Students
Source: OER Hub
Impact on Learning
Students who used open textbooks scored
.65 points higher
on end-of-year state standardized science tests
than students using traditional textbooks.
Source: (Robinson et al, 2014)
Cost Savings: OER Textbooks
31% students in the US
don’t register for a course due to
textbook costs.
Utah Open Textbooks project:
$5 per printed and zero for
online content
Source: Thanos & Wiley, 2014
The MOOC Phenomenon
MOOCs
OER
Source: Google Trends
Massive Open Online Courses
“…a MOOC is a type of online course aimed at
large scale participation...MOOCs are a recent
development in the area of distance education…”
Massive Open Online Courses
Features of MOOCs
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Massive enrolments
(Over 25 million since 2012)
Open to anyone without restrictions
Online without face-to-face contact
Courses offered by top institutions
and professors
MOOC Participants
Most MOOC
learners are
having a first
degree
(about 70%)
Gender
participation
rate is a
function of the
subject matter
of the MOOC
MOOC learners
are serial
MOOC takers
Source: Mcleaod et al, TechTrends, 59 (1), Jan/Feb 2015
Prominent MOOC initiatives:
Asia
Chinese MOOCs
(www.chinesemooc.org)
华文慕课
JMOOC
(www.jmooc.jp/en/)
Malaysia MOOC
(www.openlearning.com
/malaysiamoocs)
• Provider: Peking University, Alibaba
• User: University students, high school students and
Public.
• Provider: NTT Docomo, NTT Knowledge Square,
NetLearning, and the Open University of Japan
• User: student, homemaker, senior citizens
• Provider: Universities supported by Ministry of
Higher Education
• User: University students, high school students
and Public.
Impact on Learners
Source: Koller, D., Eriksson, N., & Zhenghao, C. (2015). Learner Outcomes in Open Online Courses, 2015
Impact on Learners
Source: Koller, D., Eriksson, N., & Zhenghao, C. (2015). Learner Outcomes in Open Online Courses, 2015
Impact on Teachers
In 2012,
Duke University
began using
MOOCs to promote
innovation in
teaching and
learning within the
campus community.
30 instructors
developed
31 MOOCs, attracting
2.8 million
enrollments and
issuing more than
72,000 certificates.
Instructors reported
improvements in
classroom materials
and activities, crafting
better measures of
student learning, and
experimenting with
new pedagogies.
Source: http://er.educause.edu/articles/2015/8/on-campus-impacts-of-moocs-at-duke-university
Cost Of MOOCs
New Paradigm
for OUs
ODL in the age of OER and MOOCs
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ODL institutions played a minimum role in
innovation and became followers
ODL institutions yet to adopt, appropriate and
domesticate OER & MOOCs
OER as Disruption in ODL
practices
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Free availability of quality content
Faculty time can now focus on learner support
course development
New Paradigm
Then
Now
Industrial model
of operation
Connected model
of operation
Institutional
Teams
Global Teams of
course developers
Student as
consumer
Student as
producer
MOOCs as Disruption in
Higher Education
• Flexibility
• Affordability
• Fast-track
New Paradigm
Then
Now
National or
provincial
jurisdiction
Global offering of
courses
Limited interaction
at study centres
Increased use of
Peer2Peer learning
and social media
Print+ (audio, video,
online)
Online+ (increased
use of learning
analytics)
1. Revisit the Philosophy of ‘Open-ness’
Open as to people
Open as to places
Open as to methods
Open as to ideas
Lord Crowther
Embrace Openness
Adopt openness in a systematic manner. This would
include adopting and adapting OER as well as MOOC
platforms for sharing and collaborating on research
2. Review Practices
MOOCs promote
• Higher learner
autonomy
• More structured
course content
• Increased peer to
peer dialogue and
interaction
Review Practices
Do we need
smaller
segments
of content?
Do we need
smaller
segments
of content?
What
technology
options do
learners
prefer?
Do we need
smaller
segments
of content?
3. Collaboration not Competition
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Sharing
Collaboration
Reinventing wheels?
Beyond Universities
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Private Industry-Academia partnership
VUSSC: win-win
P2PU: Community platform
The new paradigm: OUs will
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Offer OER-based courses/programmes
Re-design learner support spaces
Deliver Personalisation through ICTs
Prepare learners for employment,
entrepreneurship and global citizenship
Thank You
www.col.org