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Virtual Canuck

Everything (almost) you wanted to know about Athabasca University, but were Afraid to ask

Written by terrya

My friend Jennifer Maddrell (of EdTechTalk fame) has completed a systems analysis of Athabasca University.  She posted the report to Scribd and it can be downloaded or read, but I think you have to join scribd (which is likely a useful activity in any case). I assume the report was done as coursework in her Old Dominion University PhD program in Instructional Design and Technology

The report gives a detailed overview of Athabasca – mostly derived from the web site and official reports. It is an outsider’s view, quite comprehensive and well written. It will be useful for distance educators as a comparison model  and for potential students or employees to garner an overview of the business of  Canada’s Open University.

Thanks Jennifer for both doing the work and publically posting it.

Distance Education, My Work

African Association for Distance Education Keynote

Written by terrya
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I thought I would take a moment to link to the slides and the paper I wrote for this morning’s keynote at the ACDE’s 2nd  Congress being held in Lagos and hosted by the National Open University of Nigeria. This talk has forced me out of my comfort zone, as I’ve had to do more thinking about contexts without a prevasive Net. In researching for the paper I discovered that Nigeria has the highest percentage of Net users in Africa (according to 2008 Internet World Stats) at 10.0%. This compares to a world average of 21.1% or 71% in North America. But the rate of Net use has been increasing very rapidly and part of my presentation focused on challenging distance educators to use Net tools in the operation of their own organizations, as a means to train and educate themselves, in advance of use of the Net for wide-scale deployment of net based learning opportunities. I was also forced to get back to my roots and realize that there is a long history of effective use of pre-net media (notably text) to support effective distance education.

Besides access to the Net, of course access to formal education is also problematic – the Nigerian Miister of Education yesterday admitted that there was only post secondary training available for 10% of those eligible.  I also learned of the near absence of technical postsecondary education in Africa , such as delivered by community colleges and technical institutes in Canada – How many lawyers does a developing country need?

I also noticed considerable interest in Open Educational Resources and was very encouraged by the work of oerafrica.org and peoples-uni.org in introducing and supporting the produsage of shared resources in Africa.

The trip, the discussions with many African and other regional distance educators and of course the warm hospitality of West Africans have been very enjoyable, though I can’t help reflecting on the wealth (or lack thereof) in this teeming country.

Distance Education, My Work

Another Issue of IRRODL and Impact Factors

Written by terrya
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Volume 9, No. 2 of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (www.irrodl.org) is now online.

I like this issue for a number of reasons:

I managed to twist the arm of a colleague, Jon Baggaley, to guest edit the issue, as I am still officially on sabbatical. Jon, with the usual able assistance of the Managing Editor, Paula Smith, did an excellent job of gathering and reviewing 8 full articles, 1 research notes article, 2 Technical Reviews and 2 book reviews – all of which are available in PDF and Mp3 format.

Second the articles reflect international perspectives with articles from Brazil, Greece, Sri Lanka, Canada and the US, and reviews of distance education developments in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. I won’t describe the articles as Jon has done this in his editorial.

Read More

Distance Education, IRRODL, My Work

Pan-Canadian Research Agenda

Written by terrya
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A couple of years ago Tim Buell and I wrote a paper entitled Towards a Pan -Canadian E-Learning Research Agenda.

This literature review was designed to answer  two foundational questions:

1.    What constitutes a “research agenda, generally;” and

2.    What is the current state of the literature surrounding research agendas in e-learning generally, and in Canada, specifically.

We had hoped to move to a next phase of surveying and meeting researchers, teachers , administrators, industry reps and policy makers to actually create this agenda. I had attempted to build partnership with Canada Council on Learning to undertake this task, but didn’t get anywhere.

In discussion with George Siemens we thought that the process should be revived. Canada continues with a complete lack of a national agenda to develop, research and exploite the power of e-learning. Many countries recognize that lifelong learning afforded by e-learning provides an empowering tool to address a wide variety of social, economic and individual needs. Our absence of planning, much less action, remains a national shame and huge opportunity lost.

Distance Education, My Work

Athabasca's Technology Enhanced Learning Research Institute

Written by terrya

We are FINALLY recruiting for a director for the about to be launched TELRI . The Institute is designed to fund chairs, postdocs, research assistants and of course major research programs at Athabasca. TELRI has selected three initial research themes:

  • mobile learning
  • socially enhanced distance learning
  • adaptivity and personalization

We have been creating research agendas for each theme in prepation for a expert think tank to be held after the CNIE conference in May.

I hope readers of this blog with interest and expertise in this area and especially those qualified for the Director’s position will be in touch.

Terry

Distance Education, My Work