EDEN Research Workshop #9: Oldenburg, Germany
Yes, another conference! I attended the EDEN Research Workshop mainly in my capacity as an Executive Member of EDEN, which is not to underplay the significance or relevance of the event to my work.
And yes, Oldenburg is lovely.
Day One
The opening keynotes from Inge de Waard, Olaf Zawacki-Richter and Som Naidu were followed by a welcome from Otto Peters (yes, THE Otto Peters - one of the theorists who shaped my understanding of distance education at the foundational level).
Inge spoke from her research into lifelong learning and student-centredness. Her keynote "Self-determined Learning: Lifelong Learning in an Open Range or Fenced Land?" referred somewhat to some of her earlier work. Inge emphasised the importance of academics finding their voice; one key question she raised was, "Do all citizens, from birth, have the agency to self-determine their lifelong learning?"
Olaf and Som presented based on their recent paper, "Mapping research trends from 35 years of publications in Distance Education", their presentation entitled ""Exploring 35 years of Research into Distance Education". Their presentation was the first to be livestreamed, and so can be reviewed. Their text-mining with Leximancer provided an intriguing insight into how research as represented in one prominent journal has changed over the last 35 years. The paper itself (linked above) is the best summary of their insight. Som also highlighted the need for more work in this area, and mentioned some of the limitations to a sample of a single journal with its own modus operandi.
At the end of the first plenary session Otto Peters provided an address by video. It was fitting for the plenary to be completed by someone whose work has so shaped distance education; I still cite Peters's work - particularly his insight into industrialisation - today.
A parallel session of particular interest to me was that of how Oxford University is moving one of its programmes (an MSc) into a fully online distance mode. Jill Fresen spoke on "Towards designing an Oxford experience in an online programme". The challenges were similar to most that more seasoned online practitioners face: an incumbent tutorial system; academic freedom; traditional teaching methods, coupled with resistance to change; no central control of LMS (VLE) course sites; typical use of the LMS tends to be administrative, and as a content repository. The first module is now live as of October. Recorded lectures, synchronous Webex sessions and a one-week 'Oxford experience' will replace the ore traditional Oxford format. With twenty students its easy to see how such a model - though expensive - will likely have good results. Whether the same model might be rolled out at scale is another challenge again!
Finally, it was good to catch up again with some long-standing contacts - some of whom I first met at a FLANZ conference three years ago, others from almost two decades. Also, as usual, a fantastic conference dinner (and congratulations to Antonia Bralic & Blazenka Divjak on their receipt of the 2016 EDEN Best Research Paper Award).
First day: excellent.
And yes, Oldenburg is lovely.Day One
The opening keynotes from Inge de Waard, Olaf Zawacki-Richter and Som Naidu were followed by a welcome from Otto Peters (yes, THE Otto Peters - one of the theorists who shaped my understanding of distance education at the foundational level).
Inge spoke from her research into lifelong learning and student-centredness. Her keynote "Self-determined Learning: Lifelong Learning in an Open Range or Fenced Land?" referred somewhat to some of her earlier work. Inge emphasised the importance of academics finding their voice; one key question she raised was, "Do all citizens, from birth, have the agency to self-determine their lifelong learning?"
Olaf and Som presented based on their recent paper, "Mapping research trends from 35 years of publications in Distance Education", their presentation entitled ""Exploring 35 years of Research into Distance Education". Their presentation was the first to be livestreamed, and so can be reviewed. Their text-mining with Leximancer provided an intriguing insight into how research as represented in one prominent journal has changed over the last 35 years. The paper itself (linked above) is the best summary of their insight. Som also highlighted the need for more work in this area, and mentioned some of the limitations to a sample of a single journal with its own modus operandi.
At the end of the first plenary session Otto Peters provided an address by video. It was fitting for the plenary to be completed by someone whose work has so shaped distance education; I still cite Peters's work - particularly his insight into industrialisation - today. A parallel session of particular interest to me was that of how Oxford University is moving one of its programmes (an MSc) into a fully online distance mode. Jill Fresen spoke on "Towards designing an Oxford experience in an online programme". The challenges were similar to most that more seasoned online practitioners face: an incumbent tutorial system; academic freedom; traditional teaching methods, coupled with resistance to change; no central control of LMS (VLE) course sites; typical use of the LMS tends to be administrative, and as a content repository. The first module is now live as of October. Recorded lectures, synchronous Webex sessions and a one-week 'Oxford experience' will replace the ore traditional Oxford format. With twenty students its easy to see how such a model - though expensive - will likely have good results. Whether the same model might be rolled out at scale is another challenge again!
Finally, it was good to catch up again with some long-standing contacts - some of whom I first met at a FLANZ conference three years ago, others from almost two decades. Also, as usual, a fantastic conference dinner (and congratulations to Antonia Bralic & Blazenka Divjak on their receipt of the 2016 EDEN Best Research Paper Award).
First day: excellent.
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