It's a Joy to Flex

Here are some thoughts from William H. Graves' article on Distance Ed:

"Let's drop 'distance' as the defining characteristic. Distance is somewhat of a factor, but the defining characteristic, from a student perspective, should instead be convenience... These students are looking for 'flex' course, program, and service delivery models designed primarily to eliminate or significantly reduce regularly scheduled synchronous interactions in favor of 24/7 online self-service."

Bravo. The whole notion of Flex learning makes me tingle as it talks about a human need rather than a location difficulty.

Back to school: Community College vs Online U

It is funny to see that the biggest growing market in higher education is Community Colleges. And the interesting part is that they are "more interested in completing 60 credits of academic work than in getting a two year's associate degree." (http://institutionalperformance.typepad.com/)
Basically, what this might prove is the want for adult education. It means that we want to study, that we need to update ourselves. And that the only place that is doing it right is the traditional community college. An online university signs you up for more responsibility than you might want.

For an adult to go back to school is a disruption, it is sometimes an activity that they might not have done in a long time. Here is where online classes can excell. There is an easier digestion on the social aspect as no one needs to be the 'cool kid in class' and you can focus on learning at your own pace and time.

How can an Online U position itself as a more flexible community college?

DOOM: Exploring the 'Student for Life' model

How might universities keep their students active in a learning process for their whole lives?

First of all, the notion of a 'degree' might need to shift. The great idea behind a 'degree' is the sense of accomplishment that it brings when one finishes it, but this might only happen once every two, three, four years or in the case of online students, even more. And then, after a degree, the student might want to keep studying but might feel that signing up for another long period of time is too much of a big commitment.

The analogous example of 'DOOM' the videogame might help us understand a possible model. Make small levels with many gates, make a feast every time that I open a new level, let me fail and make it feel like part of the game and not a remorse sentiment or loss of money, let me go back & forth between the levels as I open more of them. Here's more detail of what I mean:

1.The smaller levels might help the whole feeling of adherence kick into the students. And the best part is that there can be hundreds of levels and you might be able to decide where to go next based on your interests. What are your short term interests? What are your long time goals?

2.Give merit in bite sizes, it's more of a boyscout badge system than a degree. How many badges can you collect? Which do you want people to see? Help them celebrate these little accomplishments. It does not need to be a school party but merely a nudge of acceptance.

3.Failing is part of the learning process, especially in such a new environment. If anything goes wrong the student is to blame and it feels like a big responsibility because, well, the student is paying for it. What if you had three tries to pass the class? What if the deadlines for assignments were based on something other than the teacher's schedule? How can we reduce the guilt of failing? It is merely my theory but this might be one of the biggest issues for students leaving an online program. The student is there because she wants to learn. Don't make her feel bad!

4.Going back and forth between different levels. Ahh, what a nice compilation of what I have learned. Imagine that you have all of your notes easily accessible and organized as a resourse for you to refresh your memory at any time, anywhere. A just-in-time education system that grows as you unlock levels. What a blessing it would be.

Why this extra studying?

Most of the people who study online might have very busy schedules, might have a job, and might even have a degree or two behind them. So why are we interested in doing this whole extra studying? Here's some reasons:

1. we enjoy learning and want to be guided by an entity that we trust
2. we see that everyone has a degree and we need to differentiate
4. we find the subject matter interesting and want to better our knowledge base & skills
5. we find the need to grow and we need to apply our learning as soon as possible
6. we want to be students for life but with our rules and schedules, not the school's

The gap in expectations

"Over the last ten years, I have found that most training organizations have failed to achieve the expected returns on investment. I have seen department-level personnel waiting for their executives to provide vision and goals, while their executives, who have no practical experience with training, expect the trainers to develop a business plan to modernize the organization's training. This gap in expectations is fertile ground for vendors to dictate solutions, tactics, and strategies, which tend to benefit the product providers much more than their customers."

- Anita Rosen, e-Learning 2.0

This quote struck me in part because it is funny to see how much it is forgotten from part of the visionaries in a university to really set a productive, implementable path to follow and to make sure that they are establishing the values and standards to follow. What a nice place for product providers. What a mess for students.

The classroom paradigm shift

Distance education caters to a specific type of learner (at least for now) which is defined by a person with the discipline skill to sit down all alone in front of a computer and study without a real schedule to keep. All alone in their computers without any peers around to help or talk to, she immerses herself in learning.

Because of this "lonely study" situation most students might perceive the course is a one-to-one class, the teacher is there for her and only her. The student might see a teacher more in a tutor or coach role. "But, in reality the teacher might have up to fifty students in one class and be teaching a variety of courses," Tom Matano responds to the subject.

In an utopic world, every class would be 1 to 1 for a student's complete attention. And that is what students think is happening right now. Something has got to give, either there is more time spent with students or the experience is designed to feel more like a normal class with peer interaction and a teacher instead of a tutor. What is the right solution?

Retention as measurement for success

Surely, one of the biggest problems in the online university business is retention of students. This really is a heavy problem. It literally means that your customers are not coming back to use your products. In a normal business this would be fatal but somehow many universities focus on enrolling new students rather than keeping them in. As a case, we have both IIT and the University of Phoenix which spend heavily in advertising and have seen their enrollment grow 5x or even more in the last years, however, their level of retentions stay at around 30%.

So what is the real problem? Is it that the courses are not good? Is the technology not there? Or really, is it that distance learning is different for people from normal learning and the Universities just have not gotten it?

Shift to the core essence of why we learn

After reading some very interesting websites (elearningtech, elearninglearning) that talk about eLearning, I still have yet to find some meaty information about why everyone is shifting. Mostly, there is a divide between eLearning 1.0, 1.3 and 2.0 and as interesting as it is, this mostly talks about technologies and tools. How the internet works is of little relevance to the users of today. We want it all: we want to be jazzed, entertained, connected and pushed. We expect you to take us there.

So how is this relevant to Higher Education? We know all methods are possible and if it's not possible we expect you to create it for us but the real question is why am I learning this? What is the benefit? and mostly, how is it compelling to my life?

Equalizers of life

"I have always truly believed that the Internet and education are the two great equalizers in life."

-John Chambers, President and CEO of Cisco Systems

What a great setting to start this story of eLearning, both forces working together. Imagine the potential.

Believe in eLearning?

Here's how the book eLearning 2.0 by Anita Rosen starts:

"For more than a decade, e-learning has been touted as the next best thing in training. Yet most organizations are still trying to figure out how to make it work. Perhaps part of the problem is that e-learning is a type of training or learning in which instructors and students interact very differently."

Here's what Tom says:

"Most people are hard to convince. They don't believe in it, they are skeptical. I was skeptical just two years ago, but as possibilities are opening, I see that in two years eLearning is going to be the norm."

What a great place to be in. Are you a skeptic or a leader?

Interview with Tom Matano: Teaching Creativity Online

Last night I spoke with Tom Matano, an old friend and professor of mine to jumpstart the whole eLearning conversation. He is the Executive Director of the School of Industrial Design at the Academy of Art University and has been involved in eLearning for about 5 years.

There is much to digest from this dialogue but the main thought to share right now is his point of view in standards for eLearning. Tom doesn't have it easy, he teaches very complex, tangible subject matters that require detailed critique and methodologies: He teaches how to design cars online, from drawing them to conceptualizing them to modeling them. As you can imagine, this is no easy fit for the virtual world but as he put it:

"Online has to keep to par with normal classes no matter what it takes. You have to build the right methods and the right tools depending on the subject matter. What is the core essence that you are trying to teach? What are the skills that you want your students to keep? How do you exemplify it so that your students get it?"

More thoughts from this interview coming later so stay tuned.

Your thoughts will make this worth the while

Help! I need some real experienced people in the field. If this is a subject that interests you or that you know plenty about, please keep in touch. I will try to add thoughts as much as I can and hope that you may help guide me over what's next in this cool world of eLearning, web 2.0 and beyond.

Welcome to a little experiment

Hello and welcome to what I will try to make an ongoing set of thoughts to help me create something inspiring for Universities to ponder on. Please add your comments and suggestions to make it a richer experience.