Podcast - Tony Bates on Future of online learning and higher education - post covid-19

Listened to the podcast from Mark Nichols podcast series - Leaders and Legends in online learning with Tony Bates. Tony spoke about the future of online learning and higher education. 

Tony has summarised key points in his blog.

Covered many points relevant to NZ, especially given the formation of NZIST (the NZ Institute for Skills and Technology tasked with providing vocational education) but much of the chat grounded in the Canadian and North American higher education context.

Firstly, he emphasise that leadership is required in strategising and making decision with regards to the future of learning. How much should online learning be supported and promoted requires planned approach rather than happen due to having to respond to 'forced change'.

To deal with the rapidly evvolving needs of work, learners need to learn the transversal or 'transferable' skills  required to cope with changes wrought by technological, social and economic changes. In NZ, the emphasis on graduate profile outcomes assist with this process but still needs to be supported and promoted more deeply within the sector. Critical thinking was identified as something all employers desire of graduates. Yet, critical thinking is difficult to pin down as it is a mixture of skills, application of knowledge and specific attributes and therefore difficult to be taught and measure. Online learning has a role to play

Thirdly, there is a need for better stucture to ensure lecturers have the skills to teach (f2f and online) and keep up to date as technology and pedagogy progress. 

Then, the role of instructional designers need to be scaled up, not only having one on one relationships with lecturers/faculty but creating templates and working on courses/programmes with wider reach. Has implications for NZIST.

Warned about the need to take care in how online education is promoted as campus based/high costs programmes might become only attainable by the rich and online becomes the option for thoses unable to afford tertiary education. 

NZIST - work stream report summary - education services and online learning

The report, out of 7 workstreams. most relevant to my current situation, is the one providing recommendations on 'educational services and online learning'. This report combines two of the workstreams into one report and is of relevance to the day to day teaching and learning activities for NZIST.

The report takes a future focused view. In particular, the impacts of the future of work on vocational education. There is an emphasis on both ensuring outcomes for learners, especially Maori and Pacific; and meeting the current and future skill needs of employers and industries.

Therefore, there is the provision of learner support at NZIST envisioned as 24/7 learner support services and the formation of a learner digital home. The employer interface is more inter-relational in the form of an employer digital support service and the connection to a network of applied research that can be drawn on to support industry innovation.

On the teaching and learning front, there will be the formation of a distributed (but with centralised oversight?) network for Learning design and development. This will be underpinned by the learning library or repository of learning objects/resources. Teaching staff and academic leaders/management will be supported by a network-wide staff training and development service.

In the technology front, there will be an amalgation of all the usual services supporting education including student management and learning management systems including learning analytics.

Overall, the plan makes sense. The scale of integration and the complexities cannot be taken for granted as each of the current 16 subsideries (i.e. existing ITPs) have been independent entities since their inception. As such, it is often not so much the mechanics and strategic solutions which are the barrier, but the 'hearts and minds' of the people who will be operationalising the many proposed items.

Common 'ways of doing' need to be tempered by the flexibility to encourage and maintain innovation and 'thinking out of the box' solutions. As NZIST is essentially a monopoly, there will also need to be care taken to ensure that complacency does not set in, muting forward thinking and progressive developments to meet the challenges posed by the future of work.

The pandemic has shown the way forward for teams to work in a distributed network. This sets up good learnings going forward. There are many advantages in having common curriculum, shared resources, 'master qualifications', standardised processes and academic regulations and collaboration across the sector to support teaching and learning, curriculum development and research. The challenge will be the size of the undertaking. Smaller institutions will perhaps be most likely to feel their individuality is lost us various practices are subsumed into the standards of the large entity. It is important to not wrap processes into to many layers of red tape. All this does is stifle inventive and timely responses to local learner needs.

We now watch with interest how the recommendation encapsulated through the various working stream reports are intepretated. Submissions are invited and close on 15th June. The final strategic documents for NZIST will then be formulated. From experience, much of what is in the current reports will go forward unless there is a large volume of feedback to shift the direction and intent. On the whole, the direction makes sense. However, they do recommend centralised 'top-down' approaches. Management and leadership are essential to ensure the NZIST formation runs well. There will be challenges, especially given the current global and national impacts wrought by the pandemic. So, it will be a 'watch this space' scenario as the NZIST establishes governance, systems and management to meet the vocational education needs of NZ.

NZIST - publication of work stream reports

The reports from the workstreams set up to inform the establishment of the NZ Institute of Skills and Technology (NZIST) are now available.

A very short timeframe is provided for feedback by 15th of June.

The reports are from the 7 workstreams which include:
- the learner journey mapping
- a model to engage with employers and communities
- education services and online learning (2 workstreams into 1 report) of most relevance to my current work as it proposes centralisation of much of of the work of my current section - programme and curriculum design and online delivery
- work-based learning centred around the merger of Industry Training Organisations (ITOs) and the polytechnics (ITPs) and how Workforce Development Councils will work.
- new academic architecture - setting out the academic board/committees structure and reporting lines.
- international education.

Feedback is invited for the direction of the various proposed models, frameworks and structures including agreement/non-agreement, gaps and issues.

Will digest the relevant reports over the weekend and do a summary next week.

Hyflex - hybrid-flexible learning - elearning for the covid-19 age?

NZ has now moved to Level 2 whereby small groups (up to 10 people) are able to congregate. At the moment, Ara's courses will still be offered mainly through distance. However, if covid-19 case numbers remain low and community transmission a lessened threat, there will be a staged return to face to face (f2f) teaching.

Our challenge, as learning designers and educational developers at Ara is to maximise the gains from moving in to distance learning, achieved through much hard work, and the transfer back into the 'tried and true' of f2f  vocational education.

I encountered hyflex - hybrid-flexible learning - some years ago. It is a relatively new model developed as a sub-set of blended learning. At that time, I thought the effort to put into developing and offering both a f2f and a distance learning course, concurrently, with the same cohort of students, to be too big a challenge. However, the events of the last few months, has caused the hyflex model to be a consideration.

The advantage of hyflex for learners are many. It allows for students' mired in a complex work/learning/job availability scenario, to perhaps begin a course f2f, move to distance when they take up a job offer and perhaps move back to f2f should the job not work out. Similarly, for insitutions, enrolments are retained despite the challenges of a fluid job market whereby students may have to accept work if and when available, given the coming economic recession wrought by the pandemic.

The hyflex model is now being considered by many institutions as one way to support their students, to maintain fiscal viability and to ensure positive outcomes. However, there is a need to ensure the way in which courses are 'converted' to hyflex is planned. In particular, how courses have synergistic connections between the f2f and the distance learning delivery aspects. F2f classes may be videoed for distance learners. Resources prepared for distance learners may be useful as 'flipped learning' resources for f2f learners. Therefore, it is important to map out, learning outcomes and learning activities and identify which resources are may usefully deployed in each delivery mode or would be 'shared' between the two modes.

All making for another lot of work going forward. Hyflex will require resourcing to ensure it is effective but provides a degree of resiliency for institutions. Going forward, should the need be to move between f2f and distances delivery as the covid-19 situation evolves, then having two 'versions' of a course - distance and f2f - may be the norm.

Writing and the need for persistence

Last week's blog provided the link to the book 'Writing for publication', an excellent resource for those starting off on the academic writing journey with many suggestions also of relevance of experienced writers.

The book provided a insider's viewpoint of the writing and publishing process enshrined in academia. One item perhaps missing, was the need for aspiring and current authors to establish the mindsets necessary to presevere with the writing process.

Whatever the genre, the skills of writing can be learnt. What sets apart dabblers and people who make a living from writing, is the need to continually hone their skill and to keep at it. Academic writing is no different. It is perhaps even more important in academia, to develop good routines and habits, to continue with scholarly reading and writing. Most people writing for academic publication, so this on top of teaching and research. To fit in the volume of reading, research project work and writing, requires good time management and planning!

The need to work from home as a result of the covid-19 pandemic has caused my routine to be changed. Instead of cycling to work each morning, using the time to reflect on and plan, and then do some writing; I have used the time to prepare for the workday, now filled with development and facilitaion of professional development workshops for our lecturers, moving rapidly into distance teaching. However, after 6 weeks, NZ is about to move into a more relaxed phase, allowing for us to move back to work on campus in a few weeks time.

The pause in writing has provided a time to take stock and to think through possible direction for writing and projects into the future. It will still be important to get back into the routine to keep up the writing habit. Without keeping to a routine and to some objective, it will be easy to loose momentum and find it difficult to get started up again! So here is looking forward to a return to 'normal routines' and a refreshed writing routine.

Writing for publication - free download until July 2020

Via Springer's facebook page, an announcement for the free download of the book - Writing for Publication - from no until end of July. The book was written by Mary Renck Jalongo and Olivia N. Saracho in 2016. Provides a good overview, with recommended web resources, to support the process of academic writing for publication.

There are thirteen chapters, across 3 parts: Professional roles and publishable writing; conference proposals and article types; and writing as professional development. Each provides tips and recommendations for moving into the world of academic publication.

The book is written in assessible language. There is good advise for beginners and even experienced writers will gain some insights.