This document summarizes discussions from the Flexible Futures 2015 conference on institutional responses to changes in higher education brought about by digital technologies. Key questions that were raised include how to address issues of inequality in strategic planning, what understandings of digital technologies are held, how to manage change at research universities, and how to build digital literacies for all students. Ensuring online education enhances contact higher education and serves South Africa's social and economic needs was emphasized.

1. THE BIG QUESTIONS
Responses to Flexible Futures 2015
Laura Czerniewicz
Laura.czerniewicz@uct.ac.za/ @czernie
27 January 2015

2. The focus of the talks has been on
institutional responses to a HE
education landscape where “the
digital is everything” (Siemens)

3. WHO ARE WE?

4. WHO ARE WE?
o Teachers, learning and teaching
specialists, advocates for learning
o Advocates for learning for all with
potential to succeed in Higher
Education in South Africa
o Educators in a research-intensive
public university

5. o Inputs from international guests
• Both familiar and different
• Similar institutional types
• Local differences
o Cheryl de la Rey: Change always mediated by a
range of contextual factors
o Gini coefficients
• Scotland 31, Australia 30.5, South Africa 63.1

6. HOW DO WE INSERT ISSUES OF INEQUALITY
INTO ALL STRATEGIC PLANS AND
DISCUSSIONS?

7. HE TRENDS IN SOUTH AFRICA
o Gross enrolment rate (no of students at particular level)
• 16%, Low internationally, Low considering 700 000
matriculants officially qualifying for HE
o Low participation high attrition system
o Throughput & success critical concerns
o Serious divides continue
• Participation rates over 50% for white students,
13% for African students
• White students twice as likely to graduate in 5 years
• Only 5% of African youth succeed in any form of
higher education
o 1st year attrition
• 40% of 1st year students leave HE
Fisher & Scott 2011, Letseka & Maile 2008.

8. WHAT IS OUR UNDERSTANDING OF
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES?

9. Very simply, there are two prevailing social imaginaries about
digital technologies ..both of which involve a deep commitment
to the idea that these technologies provide opportunities for
building ‘good’ or just and equitable societies.
The prevailing dominant imaginary in today’s information
societies is market-led. In contrast, alternative imaginaries
are best described as ‘open’ or commons-led.
…. It is this conflict that leads to major problems for
stakeholders in deciding which policies and strategies, or mix
of policies and strategies, is most likely to facilitate
progress towards more just and equitable information societies.
Mansell, R 2013

10. HOW TO GRAPPLE WITH THESE
IMAGINARIES?
o Market- led George Siemens
o What is the institutional response to the
new stakeholders?
• In online education
• In all aspects in the teaching and learning
cycle

11. o Commons “imaginary”
• Open Education (Catherine Ngugi, Wayne
Mackintosh, UP Vet Panel)
• Institutional implications (policy,
changing practices, support)

12. HOW DO WE ENABLE AND MANAGE
CHANGE IN RESEARCH-INTENSIVE
UNIVERSITIES?

13. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF OUR
INSTITUTIONAL CULTURE?
Policy definition:
Tight
Policy definition:
Loose
Control of
implementation:
Loose
Control of
implementation:
Tight
Collegium
Enterprise Corporation
Bureaucracy
McNay, I. 1995.

14. o Managing change (Cheryl de la Rey)
o Changing the power dynamics (Sue Rigby)
o Sharing experimentation (Wendy Kilfoil)
o Centralisation vs devolution (Sherman Young)
o Role of champions (Max Braun)

15. HOW DO WE NEGOTIATE THE FIERCE
CONTESTATIONS ABOUT ONLINE CONTENT
THAT ARE RAGING?

16. o Online content
• Ownership.
• Product or service? Access or license?
• Open or closed?
• Degrees of openness
• Visible or invisible?
• Curation
• North or south?
• Geopolitics of curriculum and knowledge

17. HOW DO WE BUILD THE LEARNING
COMMONS?

18. o Curation
o Interoperability
o New / reconstituted forms of expertise
o Librarians central
o Culture

19. HOW DO WE KEEP LEARNING AT THE
FOREFRONT?

20. http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2014/02/comparison-five-free-mooc-platforms-educators

21. ARE EXISTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
FRAMEWORKS WORKING FOR TEACHING
AND LEARNING IN A DIGITAL ERA?

22. o IP and copyright
o Rights management online
• content, performance, production etc
o User rights
o Open licensing frameworks
• Finding open, culture of attribution etc
o Institutional IP policies

23. HOW DO WE ADDRESS DIGITAL CRITICAL
LITERACIES?

24. o How do we engage with issues of
online presence, digital presence,
digital identity? (Sherman Young)
• with both their positive and negative sides?
• Privacy, surveillance
• Agency
• Openness, sharing
o Implications for critical literacies

25. DIGITAL LITERACIES
o Digital literacies for all in new online
spaces
“A consistent diagnosis is made in the literature of
a potential lack of, or poor distribution of, the
particular networking, reputational and learning
skills that MOOC environments require for successful
learning.“
o High achieving 1stY students lack
resilience & sophistication (Sue Rigby)
o Digital literacies and inequality
• uneven spread of capital
BIS 2013

26. DO WE HAVE THE CAPACITY & EXPERTISE
FOR SUCCESSFUL ONLINE EDUCATION?

27. EXPERTISE
o Instructional designers
“knowledge of pedagogical elements to design a
strong learning experience ….knowledge of
administrative models and processes … knowledge
of and access to advice about learning
technologies …”
Moritz von Vuuren
Lecturers would not have achieved their success without
the dedicated learning designer
o New forms of expertise for academics
• Teaching transferable skills (Sue Rigby)
o Other forms of expertise
Fyle et al 2012

28. o The complexity of distance learning in comparison
to face to face delivery – requiring much more
advanced planning and integration of services and
functions.
o Distance learning has a different culture to campus
provision and core to this is a student focus and
service culture.
o Different ways of teaching and ways of working
• the different way distance educators worked
compared to campus provision – in multi
professional teams where ‘all are involved in this
teaching and learning process’ not just the
academics.
Lentell H 2013

29. WHAT THEORETICAL RESOURCES CAN WE
BRING TO BEAR TO HELP US UNDERSTAND
WHAT IS GOING ON?

30. o There is nothing as practical as a good
theory
Kurt Lewin 1952

31. HOW DO WE RESEARCH THIS
“REACTIVE STABILITY”?

32. HOW DO WE MANAGE THE TENSIONS?

33. o How can the tensions be managed
between
• Inclusivity and experimentation
• Existing policy frameworks and new practices
• Existing ecosystem and a new vision
To ensure
• A coherent student experience
• Both flexibility and innovation

34. HOW DO WE TAKE THE OPPORTUNITIES?

35. CONCLUSION

36. How do we ensure that advances in
online education have a positive effect
on educational practices in contact
higher education institutions?
Thanks to Ian Scott

37. How do we identify forms of online
education that best serve the
fundamental social and economic
interests of South Africa and sub-
Saharan Africa?

38. THANK YOU

39. REFERENCES
o BIS (2013) Literature Review of Massive Open Online Courses and Other Forms of Online Distance Learning
o EdTech Magazine (2014) http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2014/02/comparison-five-free-mooc-
platforms-educators A Comparison of Five Free MOOC Platforms for Educators
o Fyle, C, Moseley A and Hayesb, N (2012) Troubled times: the role of instructional design in a modern dual
mode university? In Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 27(1)
o Fisher G and Scott (2011) ‘The Role of Higher Education in Closing the Skills Gap in South Africa’ The World
Bank, Human Development Group, Africa Region, October 2011, Background paper for the World Bank project
'Closing the Skills and Technology Gap in South Africa
o Lentell, H (2013) Accounts About The Convergence Of Odel And Traditional Face-To-Face Universities Are
Somewhat Premature, paper presented at The UNISA Cambridge International Conference in Open Distance
and eLearning 2013, Continuity, Change and Sustainability in open, distance and eLearning, Sunday 29
September – Wednesday 2 October 2013
o Letseka, M. and Maile, S. (2008). High University drop-out rates: a threat to South Africa’s future. HSRC Policy
Brief. www.hsrc.ac.za
o Mansell, R (2013) ‘Imagining the internet: Open, closed or in between’ in Girard B & Perini, F (Eds), Enabling
Openness: The future of the information society in Latin America and the Caribbean IDRC
o McNay, I. (1995). From collegial academy to corporate enterprise: The changing cultures of universities. In T.
Schuller (Ed.), The changing university. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open
University Press.