MOOCs and beyond
A special issue of the online journal eLearning Papers has been released entitled MOOCs and beyond. Editors Yishay Mor and Tapio Koshkinen say the issue brings together in-depth research and examples from the field to generate debate within this emerging research area.
They continue: “Many of us seem to believe that MOOCs are finally delivering some of the technology-enabled change in education that we have been waiting nearly two decades for.
This issue aims to shed light on the way MOOCs affect education institutions and learners. Which teaching and learning strategies can be used to improve the MOOC learning experience? How do MOOCs fit into today’s pedagogical landscape; and could they provide a viable model for developing countries?
We must also look closely at their potential impact on education structures. With the expansion of xMOOC platforms connected to different university networks—like Coursera, Udacity, edX, or the newly launched European Futurelearn—a central question is: what is their role in the education system and especially in higher education?”
The cost of austerity and privatisation
There is growing concern over the consequences of the English (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have different policies) government’s cutbacks and privatisation of careers guidance for young people. The International Centre for Guidance Studies reports on a discussion paper called ‘Cost to the Economy of Government Policy on Career Guidance: A Business Case for Funding and Strengthening Career Guidance in Schools‘ from Lizzie Taylor who is an Careers England Affiliate Member. “The report claims that the economic consequence of current government policy on career education is an escalating annual cost to young people in reduced and lost earnings, reaching £676m p.a. in 2018 before dropping back slightly to £665 m p.a.2022. The total cost in reduced and lost earnings to young people in the period 2013 to 2022 is estimated as £3.2bn.”
Open Education 2030
The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) –part of the Joint Research Center of the European commission – is calling upon experts and practitioners to come up with visionary papers and imaginative scenarios on how Open Education in 2030 in Europe might look with a major focus on Open Educational Resources and Practices, in different education sectors.
The foresight scenarios submitted can be normative or descriptive, idealistic or provocative, critical or imaginary, reflective or polemic, imaginative or concrete, comprehensive or selective, general or specific. They should be both inspiring and scientifically sound.
Submissions are free to choose any angle, subject, approach, but they say the future vision and/or scenario should address the key question of how Open Education in 2030 in Europe might look, and include the role of OER.
More details from the EU Europa website.
PLE Conference Update
I wasn’t overoptimistic about the Personal Learning Environments Conference this year. Discussions about PLEs have been subsumed in the hype over MOOCs. And most conferences are struggling with the ongoing recession. But I am delighted that we have received 59 submissions including a number of great proposals for interactive workshops.
The PLE Conference takes place on 10 and 12 July in Berlin.
“No shit, Sherlock!” – as some of the younger members of my family would say.
Jordanhill College in Scotland did a load of research on this back in the 80′s as far as I remember. It was the era when ‘barriers to access’ was the thing we were all supposed to be addressing and overcoming. We had socially excluded groups, marginalised groups, disadvantaged groups, disenfranchised groups – courses for single parents, for women returners, for black and minority ethnic groups, for those threatened with redundancy, people with disabilities and learning difficulties, the long term unemployed etc etc etc.
It was only Jordanhill who spelled it out. The biggest barrier to accessing higher education is social class. I think they showed that if you took into account gender, age, parental status, ethnicity and all the other factors above and added them together, their collective impact is still hugely overshadowed by the impact of class. I cannot remember the exact figures but it was something like if you were a member of socio-economic classes A and B, you were 11 times more likely to go to university than if you were class C1, C2, D or E.
This always seemed to me to make a mockery of the huge amounts of funding which went into various initiatives to create a socially inclusive education system when it represented a drop in the ocean compared with the effect of social stratification.
The Jordanhill report was not popular, to say the least. It managed to upset groups of every persuasion along the political perspective. The government hated it (predictably!) and the academics felt wounded that their worthy efforts were being somehow discounted. Political correctness was all – but class was the barrier that no one ever dared mention.
Plus ca change! Class is still the elephant in the educational kitchen.