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Supported distance learning: moving from broadcast to interactive media at the

Open University UK

Dr Stephen Little, Senior Lecturer,

Open University Business School,

Open University

Milton Keynes

MK7 6AA UK

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Open University First thoughts (1960s)

• “University of the Air”• second chance for mature students• small core staff• commissioned courses provided by existing

universities• delivery by broadcast, assessed through

correspondence assignments• Open University founded 1969

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Living on a Scottish island, with mail service from mainland interrupted by storms

Notional OU StudentNotional OU Student

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Original Model 1970s

Complete “course in a box” mailed to students– course guide and assignments – high quality course books– specially published text books– Broadcast programmes for each course

Television and radio early morning late evening

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Walton Hall Campus

• Central academic staff developing courses– production staff producing learning materials

• university library for staff use

• BBC providing audio, video production

• graphic design and print production

Regional offices employing tutors– academics from other universities, practitioners– monitored & mentored by centre & regions

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Distance SUPPORTED Learning

High Quality Course materials: book form and on CD-ROM

Face to Face– Students assigned to tutorial group for meetings

close to home (1:16 1:20)– Day School to introduce each course– Summer School

<1 week on existing university campus following seminars and group work

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• Founded 1983Founded 1983• 250 staff + 850 part-time tutors250 staff + 850 part-time tutors• 25,000 students in 44 nations 25,000 students in 44 nations • 7,000 of these in MBA Programme introduced 7,000 of these in MBA Programme introduced

19891989– 20% UK enrolments 20% UK enrolments

(40% of UK distance MBAs)(40% of UK distance MBAs)– 54% based outside UK54% based outside UK– 10,119 holders of MBA (Jan 2002)10,119 holders of MBA (Jan 2002)

Open University Open University Business SchoolBusiness School

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Distance Learning at OUBS

• Distributed Community of Practice– asynchronous electronic support

e-mail conferencing, web-sites

– synchronous electronic support on-line tutorials

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Open University Worldwide

• Founded 1997• The international division of the Open University

– 200,000 students world wide

• Partnerships– Whole Course User Agreements

– Presentation Partnerships

– Licensing of courses with OU Validation Service.

– Material Sales

• Partners in 2 way development and internationalisation

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Media Switch

• 1970-1995 One to Many– Broadcast media – Print– Face-2-Face tutorial, day school, residential school

• 1990-onwards Many to Many– interactive community– Print, audio cassette/CD, CD-ROM– On-line & F2F tutorial, – F2F day school, residential school

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Emerging model Move to alternative to traditional campus-based

university including high school graduates Move to partnerships

internationalisation of learning materials two way learning for staff and students

Use of on-line support– 110,000 OU students using computer conferencing – allows discussion in tutorial group and wider groups– remote access to university library– electronic monitoring of participation and assessment

KMI as development group

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KMI:Knowledge Media Institute:

Blue-sky research into teaching and learning support technologies– asynchronous

D3E

– synchronous Lyceum

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OU Library On-line information literacy support MOSAIC

– Making Sense of Information in the Connected Age

– http://www.open.ac.uk/mosaic

SAFARI– Skills in Accessing, Finding

and Reviewing Information

– http://www.open.ac.uk/safari

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Points of Presence

Moor Park Community Centre,

NE England E-governance

monitoring publictransport performance

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Computer Mediated Communication at the OU

• asynchronicity is key to OU distance learning• but there’s also a role for intensive, real-time

discussions– cf. phone conferencing

• especially. where visual representations are discussed/annotated – cf. tutorial flipcharts/OHPs etc

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OU asynchronous media• Email• FirstClass

– large scale text conferencing

• ETMA – electronic assignment submission and marking

• D3E– document-centered discussions over the Web– http://d3e.open.ac.uk

• Working web sites– “Virtual Journey” storytelling on the web– http:///www.geocities.com/knowledge_links

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Document to be discussed

Commentary and

discussion

D3E: Interactive document discussion interface generated from an HTML file

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OU synchronous media

• Lyceum: internet voice groupware– Complementary to asynchronous media

• Voice: allows tutors and students to discuss issues in real time

• Groupware: Digital whiteboard, flipchart, concept mapping… (What You See Is What I See)

– Standard: PCs ISPs Internet

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Features of Lyceum

• Lyceum can be distributed via the web to any location• It can function on moderate speed (28-32Kbaud) links• A community of users share the following:

– Voice connection– Back-up/supplementary text chat– Instant creation of break-out “rooms” for sub-groups– Shared whiteboards and concept maps– Screen-grabber for pre-existing images– Off-line working for pre-assembly of materials– On-line placement of materials for asynchronous viewing

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Social versus Technical Learning

• Academics’ role moving from passive monitoring of on-line conferences to more interactive facilitation: e-moderating– Salmon, G., (2000). E-moderating: the key to teaching

and learning online. London, Kogan Page.

• 5 stages to on-line Mentoring

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Access & Motivation

Online socialisation

Development

Knowledge Construction

Information giving & receiving

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welcome, motivate, direct to help

build bridges

support task

facilitate

enable

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Access Motivation

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Setting up & accessing systems

Sending& receiving messages,

familiarisingfinding like minded others

Introducing outside resources, supporting

new comers

Conferencing

Online discussions &development

of course materials

Setting up, testing, offlinepractice with screen tools

Online meetingspostings & saving images & diagrams

Personalising, undertaking group tasks

Online creation of new learning materials

by group

Online meetings &discussions beyond

initial group

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Synergy between OUe-learning support tools

Resources Group Interaction

Asynch-ronous

Synch-ronous

Lyceum

FirstClass

“VirtualJourney”

Chat

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Developing a “Course Memory”

• FirstClass – capture of knowledge resources from students,

ALs and Course Team suggested in conferences &on-line SCR

• Lyceum– synchronous discussion & knowledge creation

• Web pages– Live links from student conferences– “Virtual journey” illustrates key issues

• richness of images to reveal implicit dimensions

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URLs for Open University Sites

• Main Open University site http://www.open.ac.uk• Open University Business School site http://oubs.open.ac.uk• Open University Worldwide site http://www.uow.co.uk Lyceum presentation http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/sbs/talks/Lyceum-CMC-18iv00/ Web Sites and Virtual Journeys http://www.geocities.com/knowledge_links