1. Issues in Online and
Distance Education
Professor Mike Keppell
Executive Director
Australian Digital Futures Institute
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2. Overview
‣ The context of online
education
‣ Do students have the
discipline and skills to
succeed in online
education?
‣ How do we assist
students to manage the
transition into digital
student life?
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3. The Context of Online
Education
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4. 10 Years of Tracking Online
Education in the United States
‣ 2800 colleges and universities
‣ Academic leaders were
unconvinced that MOOCs were
a sustainable method for
offering online courses
‣ MOOCS were an important
means for institutions to learn
about online pedagogy
‣ 70% institutions believe online
learning is critical to their
long-term strategy
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5. 10 Years of Tracking Online
Education in the United States
‣ 32% of students take at least
one online course
‣ 77% academic leaders rated
outcomes superior to face-to-
face
‣ 88.8% considered students
needed more discipline as a
barrier to widespread adoption
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6. Disrupting Innovation
‣ New innovation redefines
quality
‣ Technology enabler
‣ Online learning appears to be a
technology enabler for higher
education
‣ Disrupting higher education
‣ Enables learning in a variety of
contexts, locations and times
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7. Do students have the discipline
and skills to succeed in online
education?
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8. 10 Years of Tracking Online
Education in the United States
‣ May not be appropriate for all
students
‣ Students need more discipline
to succeed in online courses
‣ 90% academic leaders have
concerns about student
discipline
‣ 73.5% academic leaders
believe that lower retention
rates are a barrier to growth of
online instruction
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9. How do we assist students to
manage the transition into
digital student life?
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10. Trends
‣ People expect to be able to work, learn, and
study whenever and wherever they want.
‣ The abundance of resources and
relationships will challenge our educational
identity.
‣ Students want to use their own technology
for learning.
‣ Shift across all sectors to online learning,
blended learning and collaborative models.
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11. Challenges
n Seamless learning – people expect to be
able to work, learn, and study whenever and
wherever they want.
n Digital literacies – capabilities which fit an
individual for living, learning and working in a
digital society (JISC)
n Personalisation - our learning, teaching,
place of learning, technologies will be
individualised
n Mobility is here!
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12. Horizon Reports
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13. Enablers
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14. Enablers
n Digital literacies
n Personalised learning
n User-generated content
n Mobility
n Seamless learning
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15. Digital literacies
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16. Digital Literacies
n Literacy
is no longer the ability
to read and write but now the
ability to understand
information however
presented.
n Can'tassume students have
skills to interact in a digital age
n Literacies
will allow us to teach
more effectively in a digital age
(JISC, 2012)
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17. Developing Literacies
n Employable graduates need to be digitally
literate
n Digital literacies are often related to discipline
area
n Learners
need to be supported by staff to
develop academic digital literacies
n Professional development is vital in developing
digital literacies
n Professional
associations are supporting their
members to improve digital literacies
n Engaging
students supports digital literacy
development i.e. students as change agents (JISC,
2012)
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18. Context
of
Digital
Literacies
(JISC)

19. Personalised learning
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20. Personal Learning Spaces
‣ Personal Learning Environments (PLE)
integrate formal and informal learning
spaces
‣ Customised by the individual to suit their
needs and allow them to create their own
identities.
‣ A PLE recognises ongoing learning and the
need for tools to support life-long and life-
wide learning (Attwell, 2007).
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21. Connectivism
‣ PLE may also require new ways of
learning as knowledge has changed to
networks and ecologies (Siemens,
2006).
‣ The implications of this change is that
improved lines of communication need to
occur.
‣ Connectivism is the assertion that learning is
primarily a network-forming process (p.
15).
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22. Personal Learning Environments
Interactions
Spaces Tools
People
Interactions
Interactions
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24. User Generated Content
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25. Interactions
" Interactive learning (learner-to-content
interactions)
" Networked learning (learner-to-learner;
learner-to-teacher interactions)
" Student-generated content (learner-as-
designers; assessment-as-learning
interactions) .
" Connected students (knowledge is in the
network)
" Learning-oriented assessment
(assessment-as-learning)
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27. Learning-oriented Assessment
Assessment tasks Forward-looking
as learning tasks feedback
Student
involvement in
assessment
processes

28. Questions?
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