EDEN Research Workshop #9: Day Two
The day began with a series of back-to-back keynotes; livestream here. Keynotes were all excellent and drew from their existing work:
- Paul Prinsloo's "The Increasing (Im)Possibilities of Justice and Care in Oopen, Distance Learning" drew on his and colleagues' IRRODL work Educational Triage in Open Distance Learning: Walking a Moral Tightrope and Big(ger) Data as Better Data in Open Distance Learning.
- Isa Jahnke's "Studying Learning Expeditions in Cross Action Spaces with Digital Didactical Designs" from her book Digital Didactical Designs: Teaching and Learning in CrossActionSpaces. Looks so good I bought it from Amazon...
- George Veletsianos's "A Scholarly Life Online" drew from his own web site's scholar's use of social media (also, his keynote slides here).
The first parallel session I attended was excellent, with two presentations. Kristie Naidoo from UNISA gave a presentation called "Integration of Learning Analytics in Blended Learning Course at a University of Technology", concerned with the application of various forms of learning analytics. Kristie suggested four forms of analytics (descriptive, diagnostic, prescriptive and predictive) and described how they can combine into a powerful means of identifying student misconceptions and addressing them (in part through improved course design). Kristie was followed by Ignatius Gous, also from UNISA, whose talk was called "Learning Reprioritised: Supporting the ODeL Student by Developing a Personal Information Management Systems and Strategies Program (PIMSS)". Ignatius talked about the importance of students learning how to learn, raising the spectre of neuromyths (see, for example, https://t.co/2K6vl5FFJA) and drawing attention to his web site http://www.cerebration.info. It's curious to come across this so soon after one ALT-C keynote a few weeks ago; "Education and neuroscience: issues and opportunities" (see blog entry for the ALT-C context).
The second parallel session was just as good, if not better! First presentation was Lisa Marie Blaschke talking about "Open Educational Resources (OER): Guidance for Institutional Decision Makers in Developing an OER Strategy". Lisa presented high-level findings of a case study of three institutions using OER. Each had different objectives; her conclusions were that measurements of success varied across the three, even though in each case the initiative aligned with institutional mission. OER clearly adds value to each institution, but through different means. Next was Kriszta Mihalyi talking about "Policy Review of Open Badges for Open Education: What Does It Take to Scale Up Open Digital Credentials?" There's some interesting work going on here, based with the Open Badge Network. The final of the three was "Online Learning Consortium: Alternative Credentialing in the United States: A Collection of Case Studies", presented by Jill Buban. Jill talked about the challenges of credit recognition across MOOCs, boot camps, and other forms of non-formal learning; it's a very, very complex picture, though one of her findings is that "What’s old is new again"... alternative credentialing has a long history! No wonder, then, that Jill focussed in particular on a service (CAEL credentialing for prior learning) that already exists!
The final sessions included Adnan Qayyum's "The Changing Role of Online and Distance Education in National Systems: A Macro Level Analysis", an overview of a soon-to-be released book looking at DE from a high-level across 16 countries (Australasia included, with Colin Latchem writing the chapter). Should be interesting and useful open access book. The conference concluded with a panel of journal editors and some closing remarks from Wim Van Petegem.
One thing I appreciated about the event was the opportunity to meet people. It was my first EDEN Research Workshop, and it's clear to see what Tony Bates was referring to:
The second parallel session was just as good, if not better! First presentation was Lisa Marie Blaschke talking about "Open Educational Resources (OER): Guidance for Institutional Decision Makers in Developing an OER Strategy". Lisa presented high-level findings of a case study of three institutions using OER. Each had different objectives; her conclusions were that measurements of success varied across the three, even though in each case the initiative aligned with institutional mission. OER clearly adds value to each institution, but through different means. Next was Kriszta Mihalyi talking about "Policy Review of Open Badges for Open Education: What Does It Take to Scale Up Open Digital Credentials?" There's some interesting work going on here, based with the Open Badge Network. The final of the three was "Online Learning Consortium: Alternative Credentialing in the United States: A Collection of Case Studies", presented by Jill Buban. Jill talked about the challenges of credit recognition across MOOCs, boot camps, and other forms of non-formal learning; it's a very, very complex picture, though one of her findings is that "What’s old is new again"... alternative credentialing has a long history! No wonder, then, that Jill focussed in particular on a service (CAEL credentialing for prior learning) that already exists!
The final sessions included Adnan Qayyum's "The Changing Role of Online and Distance Education in National Systems: A Macro Level Analysis", an overview of a soon-to-be released book looking at DE from a high-level across 16 countries (Australasia included, with Colin Latchem writing the chapter). Should be interesting and useful open access book. The conference concluded with a panel of journal editors and some closing remarks from Wim Van Petegem.
One thing I appreciated about the event was the opportunity to meet people. It was my first EDEN Research Workshop, and it's clear to see what Tony Bates was referring to:
EDEN Research Workshops are one of my favourite professional development activities. They bring together online learning researchers from all over Europe, and it is a remarkably efficient way to keep up to date not only with the latest research but also the technology trends in open and distance education that are getting serious attention. The conference is usually small (about 100-200 participants) and very well focused on practical aspects of research and practice in online learning and distance education.I'd have to agree.
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