1. Dr. George Veletsianos discusses the opportunities and challenges facing learners, educators, researchers, and institutions with the rise of open and connected learning models like MOOCs. 2. He argues that while technologies like MOOCs are often discussed with techno-enthusiasm, the realities of open online learning experiences for students are more complex, with students taking different pathways through courses from completing to disengaging. 3. Veletsianos advocates for considering student experiences and voices when discussing new models of education, and using multiple research methods to gain a holistic understanding of how open online learning impacts learners.

1. Dr. George Veletsianos
Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning & Technology
Associate Professor
School of Education and Technology
Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC
eLearn Center– Open University of Catalonia, September 30, 2013
The significant opportunities and
challenges that learners,
educators, researchers, and learning
institutions are facing in the
age of "open" and "connected"

2. Gràcies per la seva hospitalitat i per la
invitació a passar temps amb eLearn
Center

3. School of Education and Technology
http://tinyurl.com/RRUMALAT

4. The MOOC phenomenon
• MOOCs & rise of “edtech”
– A symptom or a solution?

5. Contemporary universities are facing
numerous powerful forces that may
shape their future.

6. a worldwide
economic downturn
globalization and
competition
changing
demographics
curtailment of public
funding
pressures for
accountability
impact of emerging
technologies
(Morrison, 2003; Schwier, 2012; Siemens & Matheos, 2010; Spanier, 2010).

7. a worldwide
economic downturn
globalization and
competition
changing
demographics
curtailment of public
funding
pressures for
accountability
impact of emerging
technologies
(Morrison, 2003; Schwier, 2012; Siemens & Matheos, 2010; Spanier, 2010).
An increasing
desire by faculty
members,
educators, &
designers to “do
better” to “do
more”

8. What is our opportunity?
• To be involved in the design of future
educational systems.
How?
– Advocacy
– Partnerships
– Design & Development
– Research

9. Higher Education in 2012-2013:
Sense of urgency. And tension.

11. Techno-enthusiasm & techno-
determinism* dominate
e.g., Technology will ____________
Narratives of disruption & revolution
(*skeptics != naysayers)

12. Disaggregation & Unbundling

13. “Whether the practice is called
outsourcing, contracting out, or
privatizing, the impact is the
same. Food services, health
care, the bookstore…endless
array of activities that
universities used to manage…”
Kirp,
.L
(2003).
Shakespeare,
Einstein,
and
the
Bo3om
Line:
The
Marke9ng
of
Higher
Educa9on.
Cambridge,
MA:
Harvard
University
Press

15. “Online program management services”

16. The role of the faculty member
The roles of instructional designers,
tutors, instructors

17. “academic freedom,
shared governance,
a livable wage,
greater job security
for non-tenure-track
faculty
teaching and
scholarship cannot be
fully unbundled…”
Academic Advisor,
Mentor, Coach
Instructor/Instructional
Technologist
Professor/Instructional
Designer
Course assistants
Teaching assistants

18. What is our opportunity?
• To prepare learning designers for a
new era of educational technology

19. Efficiency. Automation. And robots.

24. Open Practices
Open Education  Open Scholarship

25. Networked Participatory Scholarship:
“scholars’ use of participatory technologies and online social
networks to share, reflect upon, critique, improve, validate, and
further their scholarship” (Veletsianos& Kimmons, 2012)
Open courses &
Open teaching

26. Veletsianos (2013); Veletsianos & Kimmons 2012, 2013
Announcements
Draft papers
Open textbooks
Syllabi + Activities
Live streaming
Live-Blogging
Collaborative authoring
Debates + commentary
Open teaching
Public P&T materials
The doctoral journey (e.g.,
#PhDChat)
Crowdsourcing
What do they share?

27. Why do they share?
• Faculty use blogs to:
– Explore scholarly ideas (Kirkup, 2010)
– Re-envision their identities as public
intellectuals (Kirkup, 2010)
– Share knowledge (Kjellberg, 2010)
– Connect with other researchers (Kjellberg,
2010)
– Reach multiple audiences (Kjellberg, 2010;
Martindale & Wiley, 2005)

28. Open Sharing

30. The
open
web
is
a
monstrous
place
The
open
web
is
a
wondrous
place

31. Identity & Participation
“I made it [Facebook] this hybrid space ... and sometimes it's
really annoying. … I keep thinking I should be writing or
looking at data, and I'm doing this! … I created the
conundrum that I live in now.”
“My position [as a professor] is building a community of
teachers that I talk to ... where you can share, and so
[participation in these spaces] makes total sense.”
“All the [expletive] is not really worth it. … I think that it's okay
for students to not know everything about their professor. …
[These practices] add to the complexity of those who
struggle with the home-work balance and the ... technology
pull. … I don't have time for you. “
Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2013

32. Designing for Learner Experiences

33. What is it like to participate in open online learning?
Veletsianos, G. (2013). Learner Experiences with MOOCs and Open Online Learning. Hybrid Pedagogy. Retrieved on Sept
29, 2013 from http://learnerexperiences.hybridpedagogy.com.

34. Key takeaways
• We should be asking students to do a discipline, not just
read about it.
• In the frenzy surrounding the rise of “edtech” and MOOCs,
it seems that student voices and experiences are rarely
considered.
• To gain a holistic understanding of learner experiences
researchers need to use multiple methodologies.
• Macro (Kizilcec, Piech, Schneider, 2013)
• Learners were: “Auditing, Completing. Disengaging,
Sampling”
• Micro
• “[I was] left with a partial sense of accomplishment
and feelings of hollowness and incompleteness.”

35. Key takeaways
The realities of open online learning are different from the
hopes of open online learning.
We only have small pieces of an incomplete mosaic of
students’ learning experiences with open online learning.

36. What do we want learner experiences
to look like?

37. Thank you!
www.veletsianos.com
@veletsianos on Twitter
veletsianos@gmail.com